This. And I understand the likes Saka and ESR and other academy lads wanting to high five his giant photo because he was probably like a God to them. But most of the team now are from outside. And if Arteta continues to get this sort of investment and keeps bringing in players to replace the older ones like Laca, Xhaka, Auba etc, in line with what we're now told is his new 'young' policy, then pretty soon there won't be many players in the team who even knew Wenger.
Exactly. People simply aren't getting it. I remember listening to a podcast about United. The podcaster claimed when United were interested in signing Bellingham, the club sent out Ryan Giggs and Fergie to Birmingham to try and convince the young boy to come. He ended up signing for Dortmund a month later. Now to us we know how much of a big deal those two were but by the time Fergie retired Bellingham was 9 years old. How relevant would Fergie and Giggs be to a 9 year old who grew up in different times?
The Athletic is a good publication, no question. It is just that they are more neutral and objective than most other sport publications and point out both positive and negative. Given A-M's views on Arteta that simply isn't going to fall into fertile soil.
Yeah, I agree. I haven't been to the ground since 2018 mainly due to Covid but also due to the way Arsène was treated. Before that I went quite a lot. Looking at the demograph of fans filing into the stadium there were a high proportion of older supporters, possibly because of the price of season tickets, but also because Arsène had made the club very much a cool attraction for older middle class people attracted to his professor vibes. And due to his heyday of the early noughties.
I still think their articles on Arteta are biased. They're big on stats and Arteta's stats are poor even though he's riding his luck in the league table. I like the fact he's now decided to ditch the old guard like Willian, Luiz etc and go for youth. There are positive signs, but he needs to improve the way we play before I get on board his train.
I'm not sure what role Wenger could have on a daily basis where he just gives the youngsters 'some pointers'. He's Chief of Global Football Development at FIFA. He's not going to leave that to kick about the Emirates.
Didn't mean social media rants literally, it's more an ode and reference to @Makingtrax's infamous rants which some spotted.
When the articles hit, they really do hit. Think it's the trade off for all the drivel they spew through most of the year and in my opinion, the bad press is deserved.
Surely being a paid figure head would be a fulfilling role for a man of such intelligence, class and integrity who virtually ran the club for over a decade; maybe he could also put the gunnersaurus suit on during match day if he needs something else to fill in his time.
We’ve got rid of all his scouts etc. There are people who were scouting for 25 years for Wenger and we ditched them. We have new systems in place.
The planes, social media rants and protests were extremely public and must have hit the players and Wenger hard. Managing a team in the prem is tough enough without that sh!t.
