Have Arsenal fans given up? by DN
Arsenal’s hopes of even making the Top Three are now going down the plug-hole at an alarming rate. Two local derby draws have destroyed our chances of catching Leicester (or Tottenham by the looks of things) and we now have to fight Man City for the automatic Champions League spot.
But it seems the fans have already given up on this season, and there were thousands of empty seats at the Emirates yesterday and the ones that came were looking bored and uninterested. The Gunners failed to have one shot on target in the first half hour against a lowly Crystal Palace side, and there was very little action to get the loyal fans (that actually came to the game) singing and chanting.
The ex-Arsenal striker Alan Smith was watching the game with Sky, and even he was unimpressed with the atmosphere. “The season is dribbling sadly to a close, there is an air of apathy around the club.” Smiffy said.
“That’s the impression you get. There should be questions at the end of the season but whether there will be – who knows.
“These aren’t new problems. You would hope there would be some kind of post-mortem at the end of the season and problems would be rectified.”
After Palace equalised even more fans left the stadium, and that was probably only so they could boo and jeer the players after the game. There has been much talk lately about protests against Kroenke and Wenger after yet another Groundhog Day season, but have the empty seats shown that the fans are starting to let their feelings be known? Or have they just lost interest in this underperforming Arsenal side?
Darren
What do people expect? of course the fans wont show we have had enough..we really need to boycott the board, manager and players at this rate!
The board realise more funds, Usmanov take control
Manager: BUY!!!
Players: Play with conviction and heart and bloody take shots
Bonus to Usmanov taking over would be that he appears to have kept a good relationship with Dein, Dein was the god of making transfers happen and having him back would make a massive difference.
The petition that Id like to sign is one to get D Dein back, or to get someone today that is considered very like the man. I would like to see people outside the board members homes yelling or maybe just holding signs saying how they should have left and he should have stayed. Does anyone in the board room even love the club. It is obvious that Arsene has too much on his plate, he was instrumental in the building of the stadium. The same with our youth development, I’m sure he’s involved with allot of the planning when it should be left solely to the coaches and upper management. Problem is Arsene is what seems solely the upper management. Events, side projects, Arsene will be a voice in all of this. Whereas, he should have only one focus. It is difficult to keep focus in a title race, only one team manages it. We need to do what allot of other teams do these days, get people in to take care of everything while the manager concentrates solely on tactics and his players. If you look around, you will see just about every other manager has a head of development or a chief of matters. All except our club. So if you are starting a petition or organising a rally to bring back D Dein, let me know as I will be most interested.
Silent Stan out.
Dein comes back to Arsenal or as you say, another guy who could do the Dein magic.
Wenger becomes director of football.
New manager.
If I could wave a wand and make the changes I wanted to then that is what I would wish for.
Otherwise it is the order of protest I would be willing to join.
The sad truth is that:
1. We all love Arsenal.
2. We are discontent with the performance of the club.
3. It hurts to boo your own club.
4. It’s hard to turn against your own club (what ever the reason).
5. There’s so much we can do without dampening the spirits of the players for the final crucial games.
6. As long as the RIGHT CHANGES are not effected in Arsenal, It’s downhill from here.
It’s a massive catch 22. Fans have every right to be upset, boycott games etc after another disappointing season that SHOULD have been ours to win, but then those that do so (especially after we win a game or two) get roasted for not supporting the team? There should be a common goal between the fans, players, manager and board of directors and this is ultimately where the problem lies, because our motives are different. We want success in terms of trophies, where as the board and Kroenke only need to balance the books – anything more than that is a bonus.
We are in a dire situation gooners, because Kroenke has a tight grip on our club and I feel another owner more passionate about Arsenal and REAL football in general would be making it his priority to ensure we challenge for not just domestic trophies, but CL. Arsenal are nowhere near this level and it saddens me to think that this season and even last season was the perfect opportunity for us to capitalize on our newfound financial muscle and also the shift in power in the BPL (Man United, City, Chelsea all going through changes).
Wenger also needs to shoulder some of the blame, as his experience alone on top of the above should have garnered a BPL title by now. He had ample opportunity to bring in the type of players we really needed to push for the title and get past round 16 in the CL. I have really tried to support our manager and after winning back to back F.A cups I thought it is just a matter of time before we win the BPL, but this season I believe was his last true chance, as next season, City, Chelsea, United are all coming back with a vengeance, never mind Leicester and Spurs fighting for top spot. We will not get rid of Kroenke anytime soon, but we can start with a new manager as I don’t believe Arsene is the beginning and end of this club. He had his chance, let us give the job to someone more passionate and not as complacent.
Absolutely spot on. Your post shows you can make good and argumentative comments, touch on specific and interesting subjects without insults, profanities or ”WENGER OUT”.
I guess the last 8 last lines meant “Wenger out” but just in another language
@big gun
excellent stuff
“He had ample opportunity to bring in the type of players we really needed to push for the title ”
I think you got to push that blame onto Gazidis, Wenger didn’t buy Welbeck and Wenger has openly said that Welbeck wouldn’t be an Arsenal player if he stayed at home, instead he was at the WC talking Alexis into joining us over liverpool…
I think we all can agree that Giroud hasn’t been doing the job.
Theo goes missing too often…
What was Wenger to do apart from give Welbeck a try?
Wenger is at fault for tactics and team selection along with motivating the players.
Silent Stan is responsable for keeping Wenger and giving him pay rises… why would he do that if Wenger wasn’t achieving the targets set for him?
What manager do you think Silent Stan will get next time round? I doubt it would be a manager as good as Pep…
I wonder what manager would like to manage us now…
Would a manager who wants to win titles want to manage a team where the owner isn’t after titles?
I’ll try to post another comment but I doubt that admin will allow it.
Am I wrong for thinking that spending some time outside of the Champions League might do us good on a long run. For instance, if we spend let’s say five years out of the UCL, for sure the price of the club’s shares would drop, making it easier for rich Arsenal fan to buy out the horrible creature that is Satan K.
Enough is ENOUGH! I have started a petition against Arsene because I just cannot take this any more. If you feel the same you can sign this and we can try and make a change!
https://www.change.org/p/the-arsenal-fans-if-we-make-our-voices-strong-enough-so-that-the-board-finally-hears-sack-arsene-wenger
Who do you think will want to manage Arsenal next?
Do you think Pep would cancel his City agreement and jump at the chance of managing Arsenal, a team where the owner doesn’t care about winning things?
Would Simone want to join us considering how well AM are doing compared to us recently? They are challenging Barca and Real while we fail at challenging Leicester…
How about Moyes? I heard he will be happy managing a team without any prospects and can keep the books in order…
I sense that 60% of Arsenal
fans are comfortable with top 4.
30% want change but are
too scared to say anything.
10% try to protest but get no where so give up.
The voice of protest has been silenced so
the fans are all fatalistic “it’s just the way it is”.
Arsene and the board are untouchable because
no one within the organisation, including players
dare complain for fear of losing their lively hood.
Queen Elizabeth is 90 in 3 days time so I
suppose Wenger is just a sapling 🙂
Long to rain over us.
God save our team 🙁
I sense that Arsenal fans who can think for themselves have taken notice at the differences that happened many years ago and are not ignorant enough to blame the manager before the owner, they potentially fear a manager that will come in and his specialty will be balancing the books and we will be here in 12 months time moaning about the same things but about a different manager.
The AOB are just idiots who can’t think more than 1 step ahead, they want rid of Wenger and next year they will want rid of ‘insert new manager here’ and then we will be in the same situation.
While the fan base is split then we have less power as a group to try and force a change and I bet 60% are not happy with 4th but sick of us fans being split because some the minority are too stupid to think for themselves.
It’s not the first time to happen at the Emirates. Google ‘Arsenal empty seats’ and you will see.
It will only get worse if the board and owner change or they some how recognise that only being successful of the pitch will not work as a business strategy.
Thing is, will they ever do enough. We may get a marquee signing over the summer to placate the mass of fans but it will only be that, a tool to temporarily quieten the rise of discontentment.
We need a board that wants to win on the playing field and is willing to act to ensure we give ourselves the best possibility to do so. That is by, getting a top footballing coach and man motivator in and by investing in building a team and force to be reckoned with.
Wenger is and hasn’t been that man for years and neither of any of his teams.
The whole atmosphere at AFC is one of mediocrity, apathy and stagnation and is permeated down from Kroenke through Wenger into the players and lastly into the fans.
It is a circus at AFC and not a very entertaining one at that!
sorry I meant bring back dein vieira and bergkamp
WENGER,AKB(e.g. admin),BOARD OUT! OUT!! OUT!!!
those are the people that spoil arsenal football club
am expecting admin’s reply
The reply you want?
You are an idiot and are simply trying to get banned. OLABANS OUT OUT OUT
If you insult me again you will be…..
Even JustArsenal is suffering under Kroenke.
Stan caused a power outage to the JustArsenal servers on Saturday which meant the site went down all day, just so he could feed a newly installed refrigeration unit for his horses at his ranch..
Dire times indeed.
@AOT. Saturday was one of the most stressful days of my life. Every single post over five years (16000) were wiped off my server, and when I spoke to them they told me it was all lost and I would have to start again from scatch…
It took 18 hours in front of my PC before I managed to get it fixed.
And the thanks I get? #ADMINOUT….
You know the old saying Admin
“Every good deed deserves
to be punished”.
Another is “Casting stones…”
You certainly do a great job Mr Admin 🙂
Sounds like sabotage from the Arsenal red shirts whose sole brief is to destroy any anti-Wenger materials and to create positive propaganda.
You certainly must be a sucker for punishment listening to us lot 27/7..
Kudos!
Kudos!
It can be a harrowing and thankless job at times. But I do know that SOME readers appreciate the site, even if they don’t like me personally all the time. But some of them have absolutely no idea of the sacrifices I have to make….
Lots of young managers will be drooling at the prospect of managing Arsenal
Loew
Pochettino
Martinez
Simeone
G.Neville (kidding)
Looking at myself, for years I posted passionate arguments about what we needed to do to become competitive again. Listing the type of players we needed, arguing about tactics, speculating about what can be done about our annual injury crisis, roaming the internet each transfer window for news on players coming our way (or leaving) etc.
All this energy I spend on the club was in the hope something would change. Once we bought Ozil, I could feel a lift in the confidence and spirit of the squad and a renewed optimism with the fan base, maybe even more so when it was followed by the arrival of Sanchez. I convinced myself Wenger had been constraint by cash shortage and with that behind us he was beginning to build a championship team. Gone would be the years of buying teenagers and projects, back are the years of buying world class proven players who can contribute from day 1.
Then came along last summer and I was rudely awakened to the stark reality that we will never get out of this cycle we are in as long as Wenger is in charge. He was the only manager in the real world to not buy a single outfield player despite glaring needs. He clearly thought he could no longer improve on our squad despite having the funds to do so. This man was either out of ideas, since we all know that each squad can be improved on, or he is more interested in running a project. A project that does not put winning a major trophy as a nr 1 priority.
As a result and much to my own disappointment, I now feel little to no excitement about all the possible players we could buy with the many millions in the bank. Until the owner and Wenger (they are more or less the same to me in lack of ambition) put maximizing the chance of winning the PL as their priority, nothing will change, disregarding for the moment the argument that Wenger would not even know anymore what it takes to win the PL.
If I feel this indifference probably many other fans feel the same. If I were the club hierarchy I would worry a lot more about empty seats because the fans stop to care and are no longer interested in all your arguments about having the perfect squad and needing no improvements, than about fans not showing up out of protest.
Fans protesting still care, fans protesting still think you as the club some how take them in consideration, fans burning out after you pushed the envelope too far stopped caring. Caring fans bring money in the form of ticket sales, TV viewers (=nr of games broadcast = advertising revenue and TV revenue and deals etc), shirt sales etc. Fans that stop caring might not spend the same amount of money and time on your franchise as you would like and might not return to doing so once you announce Wenger has decided to retire and Koeman will arrive to try to steady the ship.
The board, the club, the owner are playing a dangerous game by alienating the fans. I for one don’t believe the fans reaction would have been the same this season had we bought one or two quality outfield players. It is the lack of trying by the club that has burned my ability to believe in the future of this club to the ground.
Danger is, the board who aren’t stupid will know this and will make a token marquee signing.
But unless the manager goes and wholesale changes are made this will mean nothing like has been proven from before.
Most of our fans forgot long ago to diff btw wenger and Arsenal and it’s no surprise that alot aimlessly support wenger the personality(idiot) not the manager and defenitely not the club. I have said again and again that the legendary status that this manager is purported to have at our club is always up for debate and i personally dispute it to the end. Only 3EPL titles with no CL TROPHY for 20yrs is not something extraordinary and any manager cld have achieved even better than he has….this is nothing short of glorifying mediocrity at best. Who said that we cld not have achieved anything without wenger in the first place???it’s only because we have had a tyrant for two decades that we cannot know the other side of the story. From loosing to the likes of swansea to throwing aways leads in the westham and crystal palace games especially at the last minutes(cannot handle the slightest of pressure)…it’s nowdays a familiar story that has been replicated for over a decade,am sick of the status quo in this club!!!
OMG we have been here before and not like this one and last season it was decent. I am guessing the players are now playing for Euro and Giroud he can go take a gun line each of the above mentioned players in a circle like in the movie “Wanted” shot themselves for such a miserable performance they have done till now. i am beginning to have disillusionment Admin for feeling that Arsenal can win but please lets just make ourself clear Wenger is wrong and every time he is supported by former players it hurts me bad that feels really low for us.
And next time he says nobody is dreaming about the title somebody should go and kill him!