Ivan Gazidis spoke to Arsene Wenger about becoming the club's director of football last season.

Wenger was strongly against the idea and rejected it, however. [Mail]



he's going to die before he relinquishes power

It needn't be either! One never HAS to retire...you can just to something that gives you pleasure for less money. Its one of the manager's great oddities. He is totally obsessive about football, but seems to have become so resistant to learning new things about it over the last few years. He used to always talk about the future and what was possible and how things can be better. Now his words more often drift to the past or discuss the future in abstract or at best without specificity.

Some journalist has compiled a list of our worst defeats. Kinda highlights how long the rot has been in place


https://twitter.com/samhuxley/status/968211371174387715

Did wenger not just try (and fail) to copy the greatest teams both European and national at that time.
His first team was moulder on the French team
Then Barca and Spain came along and he tried to copy that
Then Germany came along and he recruited huge numbers from the German league and national team.
When you look at what has been successful in the premier league since arsenal last won the title I can’t think of a single title winner who’s game wasn’t predominantly based on pace, power, stubborn defence and huge counter attacking efficiency. The 4 biggest things our play doesn’t have!

I love high tempo high press attacking football. This isn’t the sort of football Simeone plays but a would have him at arsenal in a heartbeat. The guy is basically the anti wenger. 11 goals conceded in 25 games in La Liga.....can you imagine that for us?! I love the thought of him in his all black attire prowling around the touchline, tearing a strip of anyone, friend or foe, who gets in his way or doesn’t do as he says. If you really want to know if our players are underperforming because of wenger then put them in a simeone team and we’d find out instantly. Fight or flight, simeone would sort all of them out one way or another.

I can't see a club owned by the Kroenke regime being able to attract Simeone, if he leaves Atletico it will be for an ambitious club, perhaps Ch£ls£a or P$G, far more likely we'll get a young manager or someone far more conservative like Low, Ancelotti is a maybe but that is mainly because he lives in London and is out of work otherwise I think even he we would struggle to convince to come here.

Remember we have to look to the Leicester model and have no money...

He's brilliant. Pulling the piss out of Guardiolo for the yellow ribbon is classic. That's what sky or bt need instead of their vast collection of paint by numbers pundits. A Dennis Pennis type interviewer if you like.

We will probably have to play Coventry home and away the next time we challenge for the EPL.

It should be easy to find out. Bould is a carer for an old man with dementia and who has little grasp on reality. What rate does the government pay carers.

You are correct. This time last year we were in the middle of another crisis. Too many of the critics and former players were too gutless to say anything. Nothing has changed other than them supporting him to get another contract and extending the misery. They are partly to blame. Remember Wenger saying there was a couple of 100 fans unhappy with his performance. It was a lot more than that. But the critics wanted to mask it as well.

I like Ian Wright on shows but you are 100% correct this time.

apparently the trip to the vets became unecessary

Yes yes yes ........ but we both know I handed you , your arse on a plate a few years back on this very subject .

Hoy's view before his current pro Wenger malaise was ..

."it was the most one sided contest since John Newcombe took out Wilhelm Bungert in the 1967 Wimbledon Tennis Final .

and you'd be most welcome John we seem to sing from the pretty much the same hymn sheet I can brush up on 'Bread of Heaven ' sprinkle Boyo into every sentence .

How is Tauranga Girl .... ?

Shame about your Dad , really old people have less capacity to change .

I used to listen to the radio 9 am Sunday morning ....." This is the BBC , here are the British Football results , League Division One Aston Villa 2 Ipswich Town 3 ... the tone of his voice told you the result before the score .
Higher it meant the second team won , lower they'd lost , nuetral it was a draw . A loss used to ruin my Sunday .

Remember the wife and I were travelling through the Ureweras [ rugged bushland ]
Wife "why are you going so fast "

.... "because I want to get to the summit of this hill there is no radio reception down here ".

Made it 3 minutes to 9 , pulled over , had a 1962 PB Vauxhall at the time , tuned in the radio ...." here are the British Football etc etc blah blah

Tottenham Hotspur 0 .... beaut at least we got a draw ....... ARSENAL 5 ...... hee ha ..... sadly now I think 'Oh whatever '

Regarding warrior's article about Ian Wright not backing Wenger, I'm not surprised. If someone were to ask who will be the first Arsenal legend that Wenger managed to 'crack' and publicly back a sacking, I'd put my money on Wright every time. Tony Adams has had issues with Wenger but I doubt Big Tone would publicly state he should be sacked. It's not him. Pires left on salty terms but he wouldn't either.

I'm sure these guys whisper among each other. "the gaffer has lost the plot". But they won't say it publicly, out of respect for Wenger and the club who did so much for them but also because they fear the fans would turn on them perhaps.

You can sense the frustration, even veiled anger at times from a variety of former Arsenal players who do a bit of punditry or in interviews. Parlour, Merson, Henry, all the way down the line.

They will critique the players for not fighting for the boss but I'm sure privately they are saying the boss has lost the dressing room.

I can't take credit for authoring that. If it was me, I would have used far more expletives.

.
Just watching the second one day cricket match Kiwis v the Poms at Mt Maunganui

..... they pan the crowd .......... there is a woman holding up a sign saying WENGER OUT .

When boasting of your arse delivery service, it would be prudent to do so with half-decent punctuation.

The thing is, Mancini as a central defender was even worse than kiwipete's punctuation. Far, far worse. By pretending Mancini was anything other than absolutely abysmal just makes someone look idiotic. Mancini actually keeps Jeff effing Blockley out of the starting eleven for my worst ever Arsenal team. That's how bad he was.

I saw the highlights of a game of cricket on telly not that long ago (might have been last year but if not it must have been 2016). Pakistan were one of the teams.. When they took a wicket, the cameras flashed to the celebrating Pakistani fans and one of them was holding up a 'Wenger out' banner.

What!!i though cricket passed you by if it wasn’t Middlesex ?

I have been known to watch the highlights of non-Middlesex games. If I know England have lost I try to watch it. Having said that I can't recall who Pakistan played that day.

You don't hear much about German cricket but I imagine they have a team you could support on anti-xenophobic grounds?

*%^@*** Wenger and his *%^@*** "turned down the whole world" bollocks again what an absolute prize cock this man is.

Sadly, as David Squires is a resident of the footballing backwater of Sydney, Australia, that isn't likely to happen any time soon. It's the Premier League's loss, but the A-League gets to have an international-class satirist take the mickey out of it on a weekly basis, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts.

It's just the most bizarre situation.

It's like the CEO of Nokia slagging off all his few remaining customers for considering Apple.

... and also!

He's also had enhanced pay rises at every contract renewal with no gap in employment where other clubs would have booted him for his management style. 21 years of successive salary without any gaps. He's made about 80- 100 million out of Arsenal

This wasn't Moses leading Israelites out of slavery. We were a football club before he arrived



..... *%^@*** hell actually is it even worth discussing this prat anymore

What have you got against England cricket ? I understand you stance on football , anti German jingoism from 1970 and all that , but Germany don’t even play cricket and ( aside from the old school tie angle ) the modern team are decent guys

Shh! Don’t tell the young AKB’s ( not that any are on here)

You know those carlsberg ads?

The ones that go “if carlsberg did “.... etc

Well I reckon ”if carlsberg did weeks “ would see Wenger sacked, May kicked out ( optional extra; Corbyn in depending on preference?) and trump impeached

Wonder what bookies odds would be on that?

Very entertaining. It would have made a good script for an episode of The Flintstones, actually.

...... as bad as you paint him , I never saw Mancini fall flat on his arse and gift Tottenham a goal .

Not getting confused here are we Arsene ... ? Thinking the your should be you're

Why don't you just admit you hardly ever saw Mancini. He was utter crap! Why are you even trying to defend him?

rave on

I saw him every game , always felt you’ve been a bit OTT on this one , he weren’t great , but - in the wider context - his experience was invaluable next to a young o Leary and it helped a struggling side stay up,over a couple of seasons,

I know it’s a long time ago, so memory is hazy but from what I recall he somehow helped get us through that period with a lot of other talented but young players , had we gone down it may be remembered different but we didn’t.

Now I know you won’t agree , and I don’t expect you to , but it’s a matter of opinions , and believe it or not yours isn’t always the definitive one

Actually the only time I saw him was on Match of the day or the big match whatever was on TV here. But I can say that without him and Young we would have gone down. He was not very good but he tried and was able to defend properly. Something that appears to allude a few of our current players. If someone like Alan Clarke lifted his elbow into Chambers Kos or Mustafi face they would still be crying during practice the next day. Mancini may not have been great but he helped keep us up and was as tough as nails.

He could probably still pop down to our training pitch and still scare half our current squad. I am assuming he is is still with us. He wore the Arsenal jersey with pride.

I think the video in this article shows how bad the journalists are at questioning Wenger.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43222872

They keep asking him if he is leaving at the end of the year which he would clearly and obviously never answer when surely the question needs to be something like ...

"Arsene you must be disappointed with how this season has gone and your consistency during the campaign would you acknowledge some of what you have seen is not up to standard "


He never gets took to task that we are a mess and this simply isn't good enough

I realise my opinions are my own and I respect yours even when I don't agree with them (I often do, especially about Wenger). But come off it about Mancini. He was worse than Ian Ure, who I know you don't like because of the Swindon final. For me he pushes Jeff bloody Blockley outside my worst ever Arsenal team. I think he was a big reason we were close to relegation in the mid-seventies, not the reason we avoided it.

It really makes me laugh when someone who's moaned about Mertesacker plenty of times, and enjoys mentioning a goal he blames on someone slipping over against Tottenham, starts supporting Mancini. I know that isn't you. But Mertesacker and Clichy were both miles, hundreds of miles, better than the useless Mancini. And today until now I haven't even mentioned fans' reactions to his only goal against Wolves, which I remember vividly.

What a load of bollocks. Mancini was a reason we nearly went down, not why we didn't. By the way, Match of the Day and The Big Match highlights gave you a completely wrong impression. Mancini and Young never played together. Terry Mancini left in 1976 and Willie Young joined in 1977. So don't try and put our avoiding relegation in the mid-seventies down to their partnership. They were never a partnership.

Young was after Mancini , they never played together , the team young played in was never in danger of going down