Wenger – Top Four finish more important than trophies for Arsenal
Arsene Wenger came within a whisker of winning the Carling Cup last season, but he has now re-iterated that it is far more important for Arsenal to finish in the Top Four of the Premiership every season rather than win one of the domestic Cups.
Wenger said: “You want your fans to be proud of trophies, but also to consider the achievement.”
“Everybody is entitled to view it differently, but you can’t compare winning the Carling Cup to every year coming out of the group stage and every year qualifying for the Champions League.
“If we had been out of top European quality for 10 years and win one or two cups it would be different, but I do not try to defend the fact that we did not win trophies.
“It has always looked like ‘ah, you have not won a trophy so you have been nowhere for five years’ – but in the same five years we have been in the semi-finals of the Champions League and final of the Champions League.
“One day you will realise that it is not as easy as it looks – and this year we are again one of the two English teams who qualified for the last 16.”
“I look forward for the next game, for the next win. That is the life of a top-level player. A top-level player wants to play at the top. He wants to win medals, yes, but there is a difference between playing in the Champions League and playing at a lower level.”
“It is very important for us to win against Leeds on Monday night, but the basis of our life at the top level is dictated by the championship. If we can add on top of that the FA Cup, it is fantastic.”
Well we all know that the board’s only target for Wenger is to be in the Champions League every year, and until then they will never ever say a bad word against him. I wonder what would happen if Arsenal do finish out of the top four?
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Target 1. Increase dividends for Shareholders
Target 2. Spend Less than Top 10 clubs in Premier League
Target 3. CL Qualification despite selling stars
Target 4. Raise Season tickets above inflation each year
Target 5. Every Transfer window, claim returning injured
player is like a new signings to avoid buying
anyone
Target 6. See Target 1,2,3,4 & 5
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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All I ask is to win ONE Cup to shut up Tottenham Fans.
Then carry on the way things are going. Don’t even have to sign top players. Just sign players in spaces that don’t leave us short. Such as the Fullbacks this season.
Happily finish Top 4 and above Tottenham every year. And Eventually we will win the league. As we are the most stable. Man U and Liverpool look as though they are coming into problems.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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So it is an achievement to play in the CL just to make the money.
But it’s not an achievement to win the oldest cup in the football world just because it will earn you less money.
It pretty much tells the story that we are no longer a football club but a business and that the manager and board have no ambition or belief in the squad.
So here is the message from our manager and board gooners.
- Come to the games
- Fill the ground
- Buy the merchandise
- We will skin you alive with increased ticket prices.
- And remember we don’t need trophies only a top 4 finish.
What else can we say other than pathetic.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Correct red total horse shit manger is a tosser and so is the board nothing will change untill they are kicked out what Wenger said is very negative so we don’t play to win trophies WTF
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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i just wonder what would happen if we did fall outside the top 4 . . . this season has been the closest to call in terms of who will make the top 4 in a long time and with spuds flukey run continuing u have to wonder that maybe coming 5th could b good 4 us in a way. dnt get me wrong i love wenger and cl football but if kroenke & gazidis arnt going then maybe it would change the way we go about things 4 next season. a spare 50mill from ther pocket to wenger to invest in signings wouldnt be hard for them…
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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I say winning a few domestic trophies and finishing in top 4 aren’t incompatible! After all, we are arsenal and should be able to carry on more than one task at time!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Well first it was great football with prices,than it became ,great football without prices but still top 4 ,now it is without great and without prices(yet),but still top 4 ,next it will be proly without great football without prices and not even top 4 ,and maybe without wenger ,well become like leeds?shit i dont hope so
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I hate myself for saying this & pray it doesn’t happen to my beloved cup –
But to teach this idiot AW & the Board a lesson, I guess this year it wouldn’t be bad to not come within the Top 4… then all the AW lickers would also understand the vanity of AW – What a rascal he is to say such things….
Our club’s ambitions has gone down the drain….
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Pathetic comment Professor ….. we trust and respect you…
if it would have been made by manager of rival top club …i would have been laughing all day…. this is what you have brought our club to…. i will wake up tonight to watch my club play against Leeds… and sleep for 3 hours before i leave for work …. and you say… FA cup isn’t important publicly …. Disgrace Sir…. total disgrace…. 6 years without trophy … Missed Highbury…. Miss everything i had grown up to love this club and it’s football…. still i hope…just hope… that those days and glory will be back… but when the person representing the club make’s such a lame statement… no comments…
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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it is what you think dear arsene. but most important is, above all, is what do fans wanted…!! “arsene wenger talk rubbish again and again…”
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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tha man is correct for god sake… how many of you would like to support portsmouth or other club like that (who could survive)… win FA cup but do not finish in even top 10.. we haven’t won anything in years.. still we are considered to be a top club.. just because we finish in top 4 every year… he has a logic.. what’s wrong in it? there is actually nothing comparable to the BPL title and the champions league.. they have to be the top priority…
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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To be fair, qualifying for the cl brings more than just money u know! Our ability to consistantly compete in the competition is probably the only reason we are still considered to be a big club so wenger does a point! Look at birmingham last season. They won the league cup but got relegated! Would any of u want 2 trade places with them?? That’s the point wenger is making. I don’t agree with every thing he says and does but in this circumstance he has a point! Plus its not like he’s saying that getting into the top for is more important than winning the league or the cl!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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come on we are Arsenal! not tottenham! our target should be to win trophies, win premiership and UCL!! how can he say things like this?
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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@rohit we both basicly wrote the same comment at the same time. Its so true!
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He has a point …. ??…. fighting for a trophy is what it is all about… have you ever played …. do you play for 4th position or to put all to win… i will never want our club to accept, absolve and digest mediocrity for GOD”S SAKE!!!!…yes the money is buying football these days… there is a apparent competition even to keep 4th spot… but we are Arsenal People… we have money…history …players …the setup…everything…then why not trophies… ??….
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@arurijit
Yea but he’s not saying that he isn’t bothered about not winning the league or champions league!! He’s just saying that winning the league or fa cup isn’t as important as staying in the champions league! And let’s face is, if we had to settle for watching our team on channel 5 next season, it wud be a small consolation if we won the league this season! Of course it wud be ideal if we had both but if we had 2 choose surly we wud choose the champions league!? How do u expect to tempt the type of players that evry1 has been calling for on these blogs to come to arsenal if we’re not in the champions league!?
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Meant to say won the league cup this season not league
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Pathetic Wenger. Already making excuses.
Finishing in the top four and winning trophies is not mutually exclusive. The problem is that AW has made it is mission to be able to qualify for CL on the smallest budget possible.
Semi final of the CL? So what? You enter a competition just for the sake of being in it to make money and have no real passion to win it. No one cares who reached the semi finals. Only in your deluded mind would that be an achievement.
Wenger is a joke. Once he stood tall and proud. Now he has stooped to the quotes above to justify his failures.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Meant to say win the league cup not win the league in my previous comment
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we can slate wenger and the board till the cows come home but when are the players gonna take some responsability for no trophies and a lack of ambition? this is a fantastic club with wonderfull attributes and players are given everything they need to succeed at arsenal, but either players walk away without giving everything(nasri) or dont progress enough quickly enough when needed, or simply just loose intrest(arsharvin).
yes wenger makes mistakes all managers do but when the players respond and do there job mistakes are foegotten and managers become heroes(ferguson).
this club through out its 7 year barron spell has the whole time had the players and facilities to win trophies, so maybe just maybe somebody should ask the players who have been here through that time why we havent won anything. to many world class players have treated this club as a holiday resort in the last decade and thats my opinon on the matter, then left for pastures new claiming a lack of winning mentality and quality that they themselves are responsible for not delivering!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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H – you are bang on right about AW and AFC view on targets. As a matter of fact they should consider removing the ‘F’ from afc as the actual emphasis on football seems to matter less to AW and the ejeets running(?) the business, sorry club.
sack em all.
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Can understand some of you moaning but this season this season it is more important for us to fin in that top 4 than win anything, if we do win something the hell yeahhh but thats just a bonus and it should not be are main thing this season, why you say well let me put it like this,,,,,,,, say we win CL but finish 5 or 6 in the league that would hurt like hell,,that like finding the love of ya life and she dies the same day you marry her.. We must fight hard in everything where in but fight harder to fin in that top four…
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tell me everyone here who are saying so many words about wenger do u wish if u r a businessman to be the best of a small company or one of the best of a large company?and trust me if we finish out of top 4 we ll go into a state where liverpool is today?someone want that?
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3 times in the last 7 years we have looked good for the epl, and the season gallas had his meltdown we looked dead certs! everytime its the team that folds and its got sweet fa to do with wenger. if players past and present had shown even a scrap of what wenger has given to this club we would have titles galore. he gives every players at arsenal a chance to become world class and they all throw it back in his face.
nasri looks an absolute shadow of the player he was for us, why ? because nasri hadnt finished developing and managers like mancini only manage they dont teach or develop. nasri had so much more to learn and without a manager like wenger he will never learn it. the boss always does his job, you wanna blame someone blame the wan@~rs like nasri. arrogant little sh~t! who mark my words will be back in france with his tail between his legs this time next year!they are the ones who let the club down wenger has never let this club down and never will. ATLEAST WENGER IS COMMITED WHY CANT THE PLAYERS BE?????
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@wenger is a joke of all that posted comment i luve you the most. You are the only 1 that understood that fool. I dont know what is so special in reaching champions league semi final why others were winning trophies. What that wenger dont understand is this when others were counting the trophies they won we count champions leageu semis.
I dont even know why do we xpecting trophy with such caliber players. If we win anything with that squard we called other coaches that buy fools.
I’ve said it. leave that man, board and club let them contineue that way. making profit is their priority their just hidden under the fifa rule that are yet to be implemented not even sure is goin to be. Arsenal is not the only club that will obey the rule they are liars and pretenders let them go on.
You see the remaining fans that are solidly behind them you are yet to wake up by the time you will arsenal might have relegated then all in the name of making profit but hidden under the fifa financial rule. If not, why not wait untill they implement the rule? And i kow that there will be a way out b’cos there is always 1!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Winning the league or Champions league will bring I̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̅ more money than J̲̥̅̊u̶̲̥̅̊s̶̲̥̅̊t̲̥̅̊ participating or finishing I̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̅ the top four. If Wenger and the afc board are so desperate for the money, they’ll target to win these competitions. Wenger and the board should be commended, not spoken of as not having substance to offer our great club going forward.
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Oh well this just proves that
Arsenal FC is now Arsenal PLC where we raise huge amounts of profits for our shareholders
Kroenke must loving owning arsenal cause he doesnt invest beans in this club and gains a huge financial return
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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It is hard to put my point across on this one without upsetting devoted fans so lets try
First I am a huge and rate myself as one of the most committed Wenger supporter but must say that is a real terrible statement to make; what was he thinking to come out and say that. God this is a great massive club with huge fan base lol. As for those that somehow see why he might be right on this, The Arsenal is not Portsmouth nor is it Birmingham City no offence to them clubs but come on we are the Arsenal. There is a very good reason these clubs go down. We should be comfortably qualifying year in year out for top 4 and should be winning trophies. Portsmouth n Birmingham do not make the kind of money we do. All we are saying is invest what you make to at least give us a fighting chance
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real blow to me to hear this from the man who lead us thru our golden yrs… is this were arsenal standards ly know? just make it to 4th?
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Getting your excuses in early I see Mr.Wenger. If we the fans aren’t convinced, your players definitely won’t be.
Knock knock… whos there? Man City… Man City Who? Man City also in the Champions league (don’t worry we finished above 4th so you can go on holiday instead of qualifying), winning plenty of trophies and paying twice your salary, interested?
Replace Man City with United, Chelsea, Barca, Real, Inter and thats pretty much whats going to happen in the summer if we don’t win something.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Wenger has become laughing stock of epl,the man is so deluded he forgot whats winning trophy means to us fans,selfish arrogant fool he is.its time we rise against him.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Yup and this is why we cannot win anything and supporting my argument that Arsene is a poor motivator. Managers better than him (yes there’s a few) want to win everything. Better managers don’t say one competition is better than the other. Guardiola and Barca have won everything in club football yet they don’t get complacent and they give everything for every competition – even the absolute crap Club World Cup. This is why we drop points against clubs lower than us because Wenger doesn’t instill the will of a winner in the players. He instills a belief that the team should only show up for big games but forget that there’s over a dozen other clubs in the league.
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@toby
well said fella, its our ex greedy b@stard players that have let our club down so badly. how many players have we brought through, brought them to the brink of world class only for them to jump ship at the smell of a few extra quid. wenger has faults, we all know that. but like has been said earlier, he is committed. and with a bit more loyalty from the players he has nurtured over the years we would not be trophy less. if arsene was to leave us at the end of the season i for 1 will be worried about how our team will react. will it dismantle? will it prospour? i have no idea, as do none of us. we cant say because we have all grown so used to the wenger way. has it really been that bad gooners? under wenger we have had some magnificent times and i believe under wenger we can get those days back
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Hi guys be realistic, can’t u see how far we are from winning trophies? I am worrying abou the coming ten years not the past six years, we are following Liverpool’s curve.
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Yes Wengar now I can say you know what you are & what you are capable of. You can’t even think of wining something. You are not ambitious not at all you are more into selling football, trade football make money out of that & make happy Arsenal shareholders. Don’t call yourself a football manager & football lover, you business man.
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is there any more proof needed that we are just a business model now and not a challenging-for-trophies club!.
This attitude from wenger and the board is cold and calculating…supporters everywhere all live in hope that next season there will be a new challenge, some improvement, some trophy. We are stagnant…a club that just wants champions league entry every season. Winning cups isnt important to the management and thats the core reason why so many fans despise wenger and that money-obsessed bunch of dicks on the board.Football is about winning not just a calculating business plan. I hear we are now in for kalou!..A GOOD PLAYER BUT LETS FACE IT ANOTHER REJECT FROM CHELSEA. mind you at 3million it supports the BUY LOW SELL HIGH wenger motto!
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Arsene Wenger and the board should be getting the same treatment every home game that Steve Kean and the Blackburn owners get! To make them realise that the SUPPORTERS are the most important people at a football club!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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who would believe that were called the INVINCIBLES is now just hoping to come in the top 4………..our reputation decreased every year since the retirement of DB10……we are arsenal and winning just one trophy could change the reputation of the team and all our quality players would gain more confidence and arsenal onde again will have ego to win trophies
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I’m realy woried 4 my belovd arsenal how can AW make such pathetic coments. It clearly shows that he is not concernd with this baren period. I can’t understnd why others stil bak him, this is a big club & we shuld never tolerate 7yrs baren period.
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I think that is more important for the board not for the team…I think the most important now is to sign with Gotze and a left-back…and then to win something…a trophy…I will not be unhappy if we play next year in Europa League and win it with a team whith Persie,Wilshere and Gotze…that would be a good performance and a guarante for our future.
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“Undistinguish first half”, that is how it was seen
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i am watching the leeds game and its a pity there is no quality going foward just passing around the ball like retards!! come on make it happen gunners, arshavin is playing like crap, missed an open chance to score i wonder what wenger will say about that if the game ends scorless.
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Henry scores…!!!! Chammak u watching..!??
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Feels sooooo gooood. Oh! titi.
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Henry already has a better scoring record than Chamcrap. Hope morrocco go all the way to the final and then take extended breaks.
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Gota love henry what a legend you are and what a finish that was reminds me of the glory days we once had henry we saluate you
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The King is back!!!!henry does his thing again scores 227th goal for Arsenal,,true legend and inspiration to likes of arshavin
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All hail the King, Henry!!!! that goal was priceless!!! brought a tear to my eye
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Welcome bak our king pliz don’t go bak to USA
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Oh what a night, Thierry comes on with 15mins to go and scores the winner, in the FA Cup, when the team was mis-firing. No, this is not a fantasy story, it really happened on Monday 9th January 2012 at the Emirates Stadium. If you were there, it will be something you’ll be able to dine out on, for years to come. Our greatest player ever, comes home and we love him.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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shite i thought i was dreamin. He may be old but did you see the passion on his eyes when he came on and how he celebrated when he scored.
Sorry to have a go at wengs but do you see the difference in player mentality and winning mentality.
Shove fourth place up your Arsen-D. bunch of losers.
Bring on usmanov and henry for management.
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The legen only needed a 1/4 hour to show what a great & experienced player can do for the squad!
WTF was Nasri doing in the stands? Regretting his decision!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Henry legend forever. Papered over the crack’s for tonight at least!
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the ox way better than walcott
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AW should leave AFC ASAP.
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Yo no debt no cup which champion have no debt what are we a company we are a football who remember a team who is forever in cl then one who won the cup will u remember barca better or villareal who in the cl but lost all the game WE WANT A CUP
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Long live TH12
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Players were going through the motions, pass pass pass, nothing. Enter TH to rapturous applause. Walcott a lesser version of the Ox takes his place and does nothing, Chamakh leaves pitch after poor performance but also with shocking service. Approaching final 10 mins TH takes up his usual wide left position, Song finds a neat pass splits the Leeds defence, TH killer first touch, opens body, sweeping side foot into bottom corner, leading to Mount Etna eruptions. Glad to see TH salute the boss. Sheer Class.
Enjoy the moment….Let’s leave the club slagging for a day at least. This was fairytale stuff.
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Just a thought.. If Arsenal had won the Carling Cup last year but finished out of the top four then would the fans have been happy? I doubt it….
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With the way wenger has been behavin and talkin lately, I doubt if he was actually the brain behind those early trophy fruitful years of his. I swear DAVID DEIN was cos U can clearly see the impact the absence of DEIN has made……Wenger now thinks like a MEDIOCRE. Just imagine him saying a top four finish is more important than winning trophies, its like entering for a competition with the mindset that U ain’t gonna make the grade
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Dear Wenger,
Please get informed that you are not talking to Arsenal fans who are stupid.With your Board we would request you to be consistent.The other time, the Board told us that it wasnt important to play in CL. Now you are going contrary to their to the Board.which one is which please.
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First off – Thank god for Henry, hopefully he can teach some of our current players what it means to play for this club
Secondly – Wenger is not saying that he doesn’t want to win trophies, he is just saying that he prioritises the league and champions league which I think we all agree are more important competitions than the cups. If we were to win the FA cup this year but finish 5th in the league, I don’t think any of us would view it as a great season.
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