By Sir Hardly Anyone
I’m certainly not going to turn Untold into a political forum, but if you can spare me one minute I’d like to show you what to me is an interesting parallel. So if you don’t have a minute to spare, and can’t bare to read anything other than football for the next minute, look away now.
Otherwise, try this comparison, which comes back to Arsenal in just a moment. It’s about Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Arsenal’s part of London, a supporter of the club, and leader of the opposition Labour Party in the UK.
29 November 2015: The headline is published “Corbyn leadership and Labour’s long history of rebellion and betrayal.” It is typical of those of the day.
26 June 2016: Another headline, “How the coup against Jeremy Corbyn gathered pace.”
26 June 2016: Another headline on the same day, “Labour party revolts against leader Jeremy Corbyn… a meltdown is taking place.”
But apparently the meltdown didn’t happen because six months later we get
28 January 2017: …more of the same with “Grassroots Labour supporters revolt against Jeremy Corbyn”
12 May 2017: With the snap election looming, “Labour MPs reject Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto”
8 June 2017: Against virtually every prediction (most of which gave the Conservatives a large majority), the Conservative party lost its majority. Labour didn’t have a majority either, but had gained where it was expected to lose, and in the interim had created the largest political party (in terms of paid up members) in Europe, and had a group within the party that supported the leader (Momentum) whose membership alone was greater than the Conservative Party’s membership in total. The result is most typically described as an earthquake.
I thought of this while watching the bloggettas and their newspaper owners go through the hoops of trying to bring down the current Arsenal regime as they tried and failed to bring down Corbyn.
But then, having used up every simile and metaphor to describe the hopelessness of the situation as they perceived it, they were struggling to find new words when the Arsenal Supporters Trust showed once more what allies they are of the billionaire newspaper owners in voting something to the effect that they wanted Mr Wenger to leave.
Which when you come to think of it is pretty naff as the sum total of a policy given that it doesn’t suggest who should come in, instead – or come to that who would want to take on a club which had the AST as alleged “supporters”.
So the Corbyn style battering of Mr Wenger goes on… up to a point, because it is so uni-dimensional and so tedious and so much without an outcome that ultimately in sheer boredom even the most fanatical anti-Wengerian bloggettas have had to come up with something else.
And in this regard I must award the UNTOLD LAUGH OF THE WEEK to Football London which has come up with the headline
‘Embarrassing’, ‘atrocious’, ‘already sick of him!’
And shock, horror, this is not unrepentant Labour MPs talking about Corbyn as leader, nor anyone talking about Mr Wenger but Manchester United supporters supposedly talking about Alexis Sanchez. You don’t imagine that Mr Wenger knew how Alexis was getting, and deliberately offered him a contract that he would turn down, but which would make Man C and Man U think he was worth having. Surely we didn’t have the last laugh on that one did we?
So we are back to the mainstream of replacing the manager, replacing the team, and buying everyone who moves, irrespective of whether he would come to a club with the AST purporting to be supporters. Here is the last list of managers that we had on offer:
- Julian Nagelsmann of Hoffenheim.
- Brendan Rogers: you might recall him – he was at Liverpool and his results there were interesting. Now at Celtic.
- Leonardo Jardim of Monaco
- Joachim Low the Germany manager
- Mikel Arteta our old chum now at Manchester City and oft seen with a clipboard.
Now today we have added
1: Tony Adams. “I’d rather stick with Wenger,” Football London
2: Diego Simeone. He is on offer from Just Arsenal News who say, “The guy is the complete opposite of Wenger.” He certainly has done a few things like won the Europa League, reached 2 champions league finals and won the La Liga. But as the blog says with a sudden touch of realism, “It’s hard to see why he’d come here.”
4: Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League three times and that seems to be prime requirement, but if he believe what the AST tell him about the state of the club, again why on earth would he bother to come here. But Gunnersphere list him as a contender.
5: Rafa Benitez is the outsider being mentioned by HITC. Which gives us a nice round set of ten names.
Now the Incoming Players list…
1: Yacine Adli
Paris Saint-Germain’s academy player, Yacine Adli is apparently being followed around and about by Manchester City, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus. So once again, why would he come to Arsenal if the club is in such a bad state as AST so publicly proclaim? He’s just 17 years old and if any club can entice him away it will mean paying just £250,000. But as we still have no idea what the immigration rules are going to be once we leave the EU, and with the FA pushing the government for maximum restrictions on incoming players, the whole speculative thing might be well, speculation.
But anyway Talk Sport says the deal is on.
And this might be exactly the deal that we need since the Daily Mirror says that Arsenal have only limited funds available to rebuild the squad this summer after spending £56m on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January. Which if true would raise the question, what manager would take on the club if there is only enough of a transfer budget left to bring in kiddies?
2: Max Meyer
Schalke have apparently confirmed that Max Meyer (also wanted by Liverpool) is ‘exploring’ options. And he could be cheap because the 22-year-old midfielder is out of contract at the end of this season.
Gunnersphere says that Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will battle it out to get him.
3: Abulkadir Omur
Turkish Football suggests that you can hardly move at Trabzonspor for clubs looking at this 18-year-old who is the new Messi. Apparently Mesut Ozil has recommended him to Arsenal.
4: Jonny Evans again
The Daily Mirror proclaims that we’re looking to sign a new goalkeeper, centre-back and defensive midfielder and Sven Mislintat fancies West Brom defender Jonny Evans as the key man.
5: Leander Dendoncker
He is 22 and versatile primarily as a defensive midfielder or centre back or creative midfielder or … Well anything it seems. He plays in Belgium for champions Dendoncker and is now in the Belgian national team. All this from Fourth Official
5: Emre Can
Is the anchor man for Liverpool, so why would he give up and come to see the bile and hatred pouring out of people who claim to be Arsenal supporters? But apparently Liverpool won’t give him an extension to his contract and what with Arsenal rolling in money he should come our way.
Actually that doesn’t make sense. But blame the Fourth Official.
6: Joao Mario
He is an Inter Milan midfielder who is currently on loan with West Ham United. He can play anywhere in midfield and is said to like London. The notion of him moving comes again from the Fourth Official
A lot of managers there with plenty of top level experience..
Keep bloody politics out of it.
All this garbage the fans keep coming out with about Arsene Wenger tarnishing his legacy is laughable.Did Brian Clough tarnish his legacy after taking Nottm Forest down.The Wenger out brigade need to man up.I have never met such a bunch of cry babies as these folk who get all violent against the Wenger Ins just because we’re not so easily carried along by this emotional roller coaster ride the media so love..
Just watched Arsene’s press conference. As usual he gives a proper analysis (wasted of course on the hyenas of the press). He sees the factors, including the effect on morale of a cup final in the middle of the season when you lose it. Including the three games on the trot we have just had to play and the physical and mental effect of that.
Particularly that while analysing games for errors, you also have to somehow build up a positive attitude because without that you can do nothing. That’s where the players need the support of the fans. Taking it out on the players because you are going to get more ribbing from various people is not very mature.
Good luck Arsene!
@Sir Hardly,
I honestly can’t understand the media love fest with Jonny Evans. They are aware he is no longer a United player right? Why would Arsenal purchase a player who is approaching the end of his career?
@Andrew Crawshaw, your yesterday’s observation comment on my erroneously inclusion of Aubameyang in my provisional early Arsenal 3-5-2 starts for our AC Milan ELC match at San Siro is in place. I’ve forgotten Aubu’ is not eligible for the match due to Uefa’s rule that prohibited him. But I think this rule should be reviewed to allow any player who has previously played for a club in a different League in one of their 2 competitions should be eligible to play for another club where he has transfered to, in another League where the player hasn’t play before in the competition. Had it been Aubu who was playing at BVB before and having played for them in the ELC got transferred to another Germany Club in the same Bundesliga where BVB are, then, his indelibility can be tenable but still arguable IMOW. But having transferred to the Premier League that is different from the Bundesliga should not render him ineligible to play for Arsenal in the Europa League Cup in which he has played for BVB this season before transferring to Arsenal
And I even think this rule should be abrogated altogether because since if a player got transferred to another club in the same League across Europe during a transfer window, he’s allowed to play for his new club who is in the same league with the club he transferred from. Why is it then that when it comes to Uefa’s 2 competitions, a player who transferred from one club to another club in the same League or not in the same League in a one season transfer two windows is not eligiblie to play for his new club in the same completion he has played in before his transfer?
A new team manager appointment for Arsenal? When? I think except if something extraordinarily bad happened in the on the field Arsenal results this in all competition before this season ends, I can’t see Arsene Wenger getting the sack this season or at the end if it
Mark us, if the on the field Arsenal results improved considerably up to the end of the season that saw Arsenal won 8 of their remaining 9 PL games this season and drew only one game or even win the whole 9. Then win the Europa League Cup. Le Boss will definitely be on the Arsenal senior team manager’s seat next season overseeing the affairs of the team for the club. And if per adventure he happens to win the EPL Title or the UCL Title or both next season after revamping his senior team squad with 2 to 3 top quality signings during the 2 windows of the season for enhanced campaign. He’ll have his contract extended by 2 – 3 years by the Arsenal board. But save, if he doesn’t want it.
@ Jerry, Arsenal made a bid for Evans in the January transfer window but WBA rejected the bid as it didn’t meet their valuation. WBA might get relegated this season and they might sell Evans, hence why the constant speculation.
How dare the AST misrepresent Arsenal fans! Just who do they think they are? Bunch of self appointed numpties! Makes my blood boil!
Let’s take a closer look shall we:
The Trust was founded in 2003 and is registered as an Industrial and Provident Society, which means the Trust is owned equally by all of its members. So what? Well, it appears to reflect the original plural ownership model of Arsenal.
It is officially recognised by Arsenal and has regular dialogue with IG in particular. To that end, it was gifted the ‘orphan share’ by Arsenal in recognition. It holds a further two shares. Damn not so ‘self appointed’ as I thought!
The recent vote AST Survey shows 88% of responders want AW out! Ouch! And they get to present their findings/ feelings to none other than IG this Sunday! How very dare they!
So it would appear that unlike every wannabe blogger and bloggette, the AST are formally recognised by our beloved Club. So I guess that means if we love everything about the Club without question, then who are we to slag them off. In fact, in doing so (slagging), we mirror those nasty bloggers who slag off our beloved AW!
I guess that’s what they mean when they say ‘wake up and smell the coffee’.
At AFC1974,
I love how AST said 88% of those that responded said Wenger should leave but they never say how many people actually. Could be just 10 people, could be a 100. That’s a very small sample compared to the millions of global followers Arsenal has worldwide
Join them Jerry. Make your vote count.
If one cares to look, the AST publish not only content, but past surveys and participation. So let’s wait until they publish Jerry. Remember the ‘coffee’.
The penultimate survey had 943 responses! Hardly 10 eh Jerry? We can all bury our heads if we choose.
@Polo @ Jerry
Further? If WBA are relegated– there is a clause in Evans’ contract that he will be available to anyone offering £3M. Arsenal offered £12M in January IIRC.
jw1
@Sir Hardly
It is going to be Mikel Arteta BTW. 🙂
jw1
@AFC 1974
Just a clarification please?
“The penultimate survey had 943 responses!”
Was this the survey in question (WO/88%)– or another survey whose results were the largest published?
Thanks.
jw1
jw1 As I said, they will publish the WO/88%, but the one before had 943 responses.
I think Jerry is trying to find holes, but judging by previous surveys, participation is high. When published, It will be empirical.
This isn’t some sort of ‘fly by night’ outfit. They are fully acknowledged by Arsenal. They have the ear of IG. What more do we want?
Are we AW first? or are we AFC first? I think some of us have lost sight of this.
Was a simple question AFC 1974.
No inference intended.
AW is the manager of AFC. I support both. One fan. One opinion.
Until the club I support decide otherwise? I support the manager.
Then I continue to support the club. And continue to respect AW.
I think some of us…
jw1
jw1 Spurs eh? Lol! (While we can). Miight be a different story tomorrow!