Enough is enough now! This week has been disgusting and embarrassing to be an Arsenal fan! In the game against AC Milan we just looked like we never wanted it and yesterday we crashed out of the FA Cup, meaning it is now SEVEN years since our last trophy. The Arsenal board has once again let the fans down. They pushed up ticket prices 6.5% this season and we are having our worse one ever on our 125th anniversary! Yesterday we suffered three more injuries and we cannot afford to lose anyone else – at this rate we are going to struggle to field a side!
So who is to blame for this? Does the buck stop with Arsene Wenger? In my opinion, no. Getting rid of Wenger will not resolve the problems because he is powerless under the current Arsenal Board of directors, who seem more interested in putting money into their OWN pockets rather than investing in the club’s future.
At the heart of the board we have ‘Silent Stan’ a.ka. Stan Kroenke. The fact he is known as ‘Silent Stan’ says it all really. We don’t want a SILENT board of directors, we want a board of directors who are passionate about the club they invest in. We don’t want 6.5% ticket price increases unless it means 100% more investment going into the squad.
There is no point in having this kind of price increase if the quality of the team continues to slide. You have seen it this season, seats are continuing to get lighter and lighter, less people are going to games and the Arsenal board have only got themselves to blame.
Wenger stated before yesterday’s game:
‘We had a team [in 2002] that could go and win everywhere and when you can do that you get into the finals. Sometimes you lose the finals but most of the time we won finals. We had the potential to do it.
‘Disappointments are a part of the game but we had previously always found the resources to get up again when it was down. That is what’s at stake tomorrow.’
Well Mr. Wenger this time I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, we are going to be lower than you have ever seen us before and with a tough run of games coming up my assumption could prove accurate. Arsenal put on a wicked package to go to the game yesterday which was a £5 return trip for the game, under any other circumstances is amazing. However, after seeing the performance yesterday, I’d be asking for my money back!
Those of you who follow Gunnersphere will perhaps understand just how frustrated I am right now, and I have snapped because I’ve seen a team play twice this week with no passion or desire to win. That is not the Arsenal I love and have supported for nearly 32 years! The board have lost touch with what it means to be an Arsenal fan and that is inexcusable. They have become more concerned with lining their OWN pockets than anything else.
A group of workers at Dial Square armaments factory in Woolwich decided to form a football team, each giving a sixpence – two and a half pence in today’s money – for the purchase of a football.
That’s what formed Arsenal passion! From a fans perspective we’ve lost that! This season was supposed to be about going ‘Forward’, that was our biggest mistake. In looking so far forward we lost who we are as a club. The 6.5% ticket price increase during a recession meant Arsenal fans are finding it harder to attend, money is not being put into the squad, and we are in real danger of losing fantastic legends.
Everything that Arsenal players have put on that shirt for the past 125 years is in real danger of meaning nothing if we don’t realise WHO we are and WHERE we came from.
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wenger was reported only 2 weeks ago saying that the club needs to balance itself financially so no spending unless from selling or from profits made from football operations which is not enough to say the least.
you have players like diaby/denilson/rosicky/bentner and many other crap players on our payroll. then you have newly bought cheap average players.
i hope usmanov takes over, sacks half the team literally and sign some top names. wenger can be sacked only if usmanov can come in as top players can most of the times make up from having top management but im sure usmanov will give wenger an ultimatum either deliver or leave once he makes serious funds available to him.
the only way the likes of kroenke will feel it if Arsenal fans stop going to games and more importantly stop renewing the tickets. i think protests are a backward tactic but hitting the pockets is what counts!
110% agree the board are to blame. PHW is totally P Dead-Wood who lives off the club’s profit without doing anything apart delegating his workload to Wenger. Wenger needs to go back to being just a football manager and the only that will happen is by the return of David Dein (no trophies since he left). Stan’s objective of arsenal is to make a profit for his us sports clubs i.e arsenal’s profit does not back into the club. All of stan’s clubs seem to fail so I don’t see how all this can be Wenger’s fault. In fact by finishing in the top 4 and competing for the premier league (up to feb/march) for the last few year should be lauded as a miracle. Arsenal are lucky to have Wenger (still wanted by top european clubs such as Madrid) but unlucky to have stan, PHW, the rest of the board and perhaps the fickle fans who cannot see what are real roots of the arsenal’s problems.
Nice sensible logical view. Finally…….
Roll on clear disclosure when usmanov gets his shares.
Going to be interesting reading one way or another
We need to circulate this to every gooner and the press in general otherwise the ‘wenger is to blame for everything’ brigade will carry on and then a change of management will not make a difference (unless PHW stan and the board go)!
We need david dein back
Ironically david dein is DD yet gazidis and kroenke are bigger tits
Like i have always said,nothing new will happen under the present management unless they shift grounds and must bring in mature,established and world class players to really be in the league of the achievers. Besides,wenga has his flaws but no coach will out-class wenga given this same set of players.the problem is principally with the club.
it has nothing to do with age or experience..maybe slightly but would you want to have an 18 year old messi at your club or a 30 year old arshavin, rosicky or even a very average arteta?? i know who i want..
the club needs to pay top money for top players whether the player is 19 or 28..then there needs to be pressure on the manager to show results..
then the manager has to know tactics…has to be able to motivate his players…
it starts from top to bottom…
kroenke was the wrong choice it seems…
Wenger is here serving the club he loves despite being offered easier and more glamourous jobs elsewhere, and for that we should be grateful.
What would it be like having a board that wont spend decent money with a new manager who can’t unearth cheap gems?
IMO the club has slepwalked the last few years relying on Wenger turning cheap nobodies into world class players (which no one can do all the time.) It should be providing him with more funds by getting more from overseas and commercial deals (at which we do appallingly compared to other clubs.)
BLAME THE BOARD NOT WENGER!
I don’t think people take into consideration the inner workings of a business such as Arsenal. We have to operate at a profit which the club has done or go into debt and have to leverage the club to stay afloat. Look around-how many clubs will be able to sustain their present business model of millions in salary and not breaking even.That being said,the state of the club on the field rest solely on Wenger.He is a trusted manager and whatever he asks for,he receives. He bought all these cheap,lower level players,not the board. If he had asked for a 35 million pound striker or defender,they would have given him the money based on the trust they have in his decision making. That is why he is always quick to defends their on the field performance because he is not just talking to the fans,but the board and Owner.
BTW. Trying to Remove an Owner who has invested millions into a profitable business is a waste of time unless you’re willing to put up the millions to buy him out.The Russian must be on board with this philosophy because I have yet to hear him speak out against it.
Actually you’re wrong there. Under Dein all Wenger had to do is identify a player he wanted and Dein did the rest. Now he identifies a player and arsenal seem to miss out as the deal takes too long and other teams sign the player i.e juan mata. Also Wenger identified Pepe Renia, Alonso amongst others in the past but arsenal would not break the wage structure. There was even a time when Wenger wanted anelka back before he went to chelsea but PHW said no. So Wenger doesn’t always receive what he wants, especially with quality players, unlike in the Dein era, so what else can Wenger other than resort to second rate players. This is the direction the board wants but not wenger. Remember Kroenke came to help force the sale of Nasri only days after Wenger said he wanted to keep him. Profit for individuals come first now arsenal and that is Wenger’s fault.
Wenger’s fault?
The question has been asked how the board and Kroenke are making money out of this.
It’s simple the value of the shares.
The value of the shares before the stadium build was started was about £6k a share when they sold to Kroenke he paid about £10.5k. They are now being sold for £16k a share.
In effect the club was worth about £400m before the build, £650m after it was built and about £1000m now.
In the past this extra value would have been reinvested in the club so that it was more competitive, or had better facilities. This would have allowed the share price to rise but a lot slower.
So what have the board earned, well between the shareholders an extra £250m when selling to Kroenke. Kroenke if he sells will earn £350m.
Also to clarify the debt that enabled these shares to grow so quickly has been paid by the revenues coming into the club. The tickets, shirts and TV all paid for by the fans.
Well said-at the end of the day it is a business that exists to make a profit.The best sports teams in the world make a profit and still win.Sooo,what do we have to do to win? Better players and tactics would be a start and IMHO ,that would be the coach/manager.
Dude. You make assumptions that wenger would get money if he asked for it. Yet the post above gives an alternative scenario where the teams performance actually contradicts the increased value if the club.
You could be right but wengers history indicates otherwise.
Also wenger to my knowledge has never publicly criticised his employers and has actually spoken out against rebellious players who demand transfers. He apparently refused to sign de boer as he went in strike many years ago.
My point is even if the board were tying wengers hands he would never go public. That’s why we need usmanov to access the books and share the truth
Eventually there are some non blinkered arsenal fans who can see the wood from the trees!!! Wenger does not control transfers, he identifies targets and it is then left up to Ivan the terrible and co to broker the deal! If the board have the money that they supposedly keep saying that they do why did we lose out on Cahill, mata, Phil jones, etc…. Wenger never said ‘no sorry son I’m not paying those wages for you!’ and if he did what exactly is Ivan the terribles role at the club?!?
The arsenal board have wenger over a barrel..,the man loves the club as I love my boy, he’s changed the whole ethos of arsenal fc and he’s too committed to put two fingers up to the fellas in the suits and say enoughs enough, you’ve hung me out to dry for too long!!
I’m sick and tired of hearing ‘fans’ bleat on about Wenger not spending any cash…pre David dean departure he brought in players such as Campbell, Henry, pires, Freddie, edu, petit, vieira, overmars, anelka, (even the likes of francis Jeffers and Richard wright!) my point is when the board truly backed him he spent money!
Does anyone remember one loan signing in the david dean era? Didn’t happen!!! Arsene is curtailed by the powers that be. People argue that we brought in the summer…arteta was two years too late, big per is a cheaper option to Cahill, and park….well if you can’t see that he was brought in by the board to sell a few more shirts in Korea then you really are blinkered!
Sad times at this great club…sad times that will not be rectified until there is a change of board members!
Have a search for red socks fan letters to silent stan! Replace red socks with arsenal…believe me it’s very easy to do…
Well said.
I can see why some fans are frustrated as I am guessing they aren’t old enough or don’t remember the pre 2005 era.
Go get some DVDs. The invincibles? Watch a game a week instead of this team. It will be like getting the team you all want.
Then judge wenger
This is the man who was slated for losing viera. His response was an unknown called fabregas
Anelka to real Madrid for 25 mil? Thierry Henry anyone?
And by the way Henry cost 11 mill in 1999. That was a load of cash. Wenger has spent in past. That is a documented fact
Lol
That was long ago now, sack the fool wenger and the board can go too. They’re all well past it.
I don’t think I’ve read so many posts from ignorant people on a single website before.
How can the board be sacked? Kroenke owns 2/3 of the shares. If he doesn’t want to sell there is nothing anyone can do.
Hill-Wood and the other directors don’t own any shares so they don’t make any money from dividends or from sale of shares.
Okay fair point. I would prefer to see kroenke bought out. And with the current valuation He would. Those are big ifs.
However Peter hill wood gets paid in some form right.
By definition a director is paid by the company either as a split of profits or salary or both. Otherwise why is he doing it?
I’m guessing performance related payouts. And not team performance but business performance. Who pays him? Kroenke. And I think the general opinion is the board are doing nicely irrespective of the team.
Bit like bankers. We are paying them to do what we consider is a poor job
The current board (excluding Gazidis) all had shares and profited when they sold to Kroenke. As part of the sale agreement they have to be kept in place until April this year.
Oh and the board members get a payment of £25000 per year. Except for Gazidis who got paid £1.9m or so.
Oh and we can’t sack Kroenke but we can apply pressure to help convince him to sell up.
Actually PHW holds 0.1% of equity
“the current Arsenal Board of directors, who seem more interested in putting money into their OWN pockets rather than investing in the club’s future.”HOW CAN BUILDING A STADIUM BE PUTTING MONEY IN YOUR OWN POCKET. Follow Leeds if you want to see want investment in the team with borrowed money does .
Because a bigger stadium means more tickets sold means more turnover which can increase profit which is more money
Arsenal board regularly go on about sustainability. Wenger stated 15 to 20 mill profit.
Not saying to borrow money only to reinvest profit. Where does that 15 to 20 mill go?
It is profit after all
Like I said before this is all conjecture till accounts are made available.
Until then we all agree something is wrong. Let’s not turn this into a debate about semantics. Something’s gotta change but ultimately we don’t have enough information to know what. We have our theories but that is all they are
We are all on the same side aren’t we
After they sacked Dein the arsenal board financed the repayments for the stadium with a long term nike and emirates deal which for gaining very little over a very long time. Poor business by the pathetic board with no vision.