Arsene Wenger spoke for 12 minutes at the AGM yesterday after Ivan Gazidis, Stan Kroenke and Peter Hill-Wood had done their talking.
Wenger stood up to a stirring round of applause and his first words were:
‘Thank you for the welcome and I enjoy the opportunity to talk to you directly.’
There is no need to say that Arsenal started the season in one of the most dreadful fashions, which in turn was their worst start in decades. This included the 8-2 mauling at Old Trafford and the 4-3 throw-away at Blackburn.
On May 3rd 2011, it was announced that the ticket prices would go up by 6.5%, since this there has been a lot of discomfort amongst the fans. Many policies of the board and Wenger have been questioned more than ever before, especially considering the fact the way in which the club ended the previous season & the start to the current one.
Wenger has been saying for a long time that ‘bottomless moneybags’ have always been a huge threat to Arsenal. Wenger even went on to argue that the only way to compete with them is to stick together.
‘I believe that the values we defend are highly defendable because we want to do things with class. We want of course to be very ambitious. We want to be very brave. I believe that this club has always been very brave in its decisions. The courage is a quality I admire because it is a highly needed quality in the modern world.’
The manager himself has been facing a barrage of criticism over a period where the club has let go of two of their star players and haven’t replaced them with the same quality. Le Boss was quick to thank the fans and the board for having the confidence in him for such a long time. He always says that he understands the frustrations of the fans that have seen a six-year trophy drought and recently felt victimized because of a 6.5% price rise in tickets.
‘I can see a lot of fear and discontent among you and I can understand that because we live in a world where we fight with people who have extremely high resources. That’s why I can understand that you feel punished by that, but it is not a decision that we made for that, it is just a decision that gives us a chance to keep our players and unfortunately it is the real situation we face at the moment.’
again wenger speaks the truth, it all ok fans calling for mega big signing,but why should we buy over priced over rated players like hazard(who continues to fail to attract a top european club)
already this season we seen some very good talent come through in frimpong,chamberlain,jenkinson,miguel,to go along with ramsey ,swyzyeny(still can’t spell or say his name dispite polish people trying to teach me)song,wilshere,gibbs. the team is being forced to rebuild,again because off greedy money grabbing players like nasri, adeybour, helb,flamini,and off caurse the biggest traitor fabrigas all going in search off glory,else where, lol(nothing to do with the big signing on fees,or the doubled wages they all got)if some off these players stayed at arsenal instead of fleeing for bigger money and believe me nomatter what they said it all comes down to money. arsenal could been winning trophies by now, but they go and every time a player leaves ,we have to re start our team building,building a winning team is not easy , took us 18 years to build a league champions team, its taking liverpool over 20 years and still counting,to build thie team.
time and patience is all you can do,you’ll always get players who will go soon they get to big for thier boots and think a club owes them.
the only bad thing to come out off this agm,is kronke and hill wood?
kronke still don’t talk like he wants success and is willing to spend money,and hill wood though a great servant to arsenal over the years like his father was, but he’s in his 80s and really needs to step down, we need a younger chairman with more modern ideas , i like most fans want to see Dein as chairman, and though i still don’t know much about him i think it time usmanov was put on the board,it time for this stupid boardroom war to finish, its time kronke and usmanov put down thier weapons and got round the table and work out what is best for arsenal.
if that happens then you know they care about arsenal, if not then its purley just financal
People are getting angry at the club because of a perceived inability to change. I would argue that we’re doing as well as any team can when put against teams with limitless resources. We shouldn’t be pissed with Arsenal or the board, we should be angry at the FA for letting these fantasy football teams buy whoever they want, tap-up players and inflate the market and make it almost impossible to compete. I’m sure every Arsenal fan wants us to play for the top titles, but when the odds are so stacked against us, why get angry when all Wenger and co are trying to do is remain competitive and retain our integrity. For what it’s worth, I’m proud to be a Gooner – we’re the only ones with a real chance to win silverware who haven’t sold our souls in the process.