You can keep blaming Wenger if you like, but a craftsman is only as good as his tools. The manager must keep to the budget handed down by the board or he gets the sack. How can we possibly blame Wenger for not spending money that he simply isn't given?

A fish rots from the head? So that's Kroenke and Gazidis not Arsene Wenger.

Wenger out? No, Kroenke out.

PV4 - the 4th captain to leave amid acrimony.

I agree the Board are largely to blame but...

Wenger fails to spend when he's publicly been told there is money.
Wenger continues to say the team is together, mentally strong etc when performances (esp defensively) suggest otherwise. Sure defend publicly but with our worst defensive season there is scant evidence of him making the necesary changes.
Wenger NEVER criticises the Board the way you see Ferguson and Mourinho do - this is part of modern day management at the top level.
Only now 16 years in the job has he changed his coaching staff.

The big issue: David Dein. I'm stuck 50/50 with this man. Without him we'd have no invincibles, that's a fact. But as people have noted, Usmanov's letter was 'too well timed'. As other people have noted, RVP probably said this on the advice of his agents. Guess who his agent is...

It is strange. He might see it as a point of dignity not to deflect the pressure and hate towards his employers.

Arsene does it because of how loyal he is. He will never come out and speak against the board and the club and would rather cop the brunt of any criticism instead of deflecting it onto someone else.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 7/7/2012 09:12:13 AM

[size=6]The man to trust at Arsenal is not RVP, Usmanov or Kroenke... it's Wenger[/size]

Arsene Wenger is not the problem at Arsenal. He never has been. He never will be. The Arsenal manager is one of the few men at the top of the game in this country who still appears to have a grasp on reality.

He is loyal to his club, even when billionaire oafs banging on the boardroom door clearly do not deserve his discretion. Wenger is loyal to his players, too, although many have let him down.

Above all he is loyal to his principles and his beliefs, ignoring the fickle whining from ungrateful fans and the tubby, executive-box clowns spluttering their chin-wobbling indignation over Robin van Persie’s departure into a glass of Chablis.

‘No! No! How can we lose him?’ they cry like giddy, teenage Justin Bieber fans. They demand ‘Wenger must answer for this — or go!’, summoning up all their ignorance and parading it on Twitter. These people are cretins. They should be ignored.

The problem at Arsenal lies all around Wenger. He is beseiged by squabbles in the boardroom, ungrateful whelps in the dressing room and idiotic comment in the chatrooms.

Right now, Van Persie is trying to pull off a very obvious con trick. The Dutchman, crowned Footballer of the Year after delivering for one season out of an injury-plagued eight, has announced Arsenal ‘do not match my ambition’.

Strange that. They certainly seemed to be sufficient for his desires when he was lying on the treatment table collecting the cash. But not any more, it seems.

‘Ambition makes you look pretty ugly, kicking squealing Gucci little piggy,’ declared Radiohead. And that is where Van Persie is now. For all his attempts to dress his exit up as some noble search for the Holy Grail he has so far been denied, it’s still pretty ugly.

He has no right to tell Wenger how to run the club. The Arsenal manager gave him his chance when Feyenoord dumped a young Van Persie on the transfer list for being a cocky pain in the backside.

The Dutchman has now repaid that debt by effectively trashing the quality of Wenger’s summer signings, Germany striker Lukas Podolski, a 27-year-old striker with more than 100 caps, and the France international and Ligue 1 top scorer, Olivier Giroud, for a combined total of £24million.

By any measure, that’s great business. And it is also worth reminding everyone at this point that these excellent acquisitions have been added to a squad that finished third in the table last season.

That’s right, poor Arsenal. They finished ‘only’ third in the most lucrative and competitive league in the world, behind a Manchester City that spent more money than Croesus to claim the title.

Van Persie can do whatever he likes with his own career. He can refuse to sign new contracts, play for whoever he chooses, earn as much as he can and good luck to him in all that.

But to pose and posture as if he is being forced out of the club by their lack of ambition is insulting hogwash at this time. Wenger has undoubtedly bought well this summer and there may be more to come but it sounds as if Van Persie made his decision to let his contract expire long before Podolski and Giroud arrived.

‘Financial terms aren’t my priority,’ claimed the Arsenal captain, however he seems to be chasing the money — we all know that — because it’s sure to offer him a better chance of winning a medal.

Just because City have more money than any club in the world, that does not make Wenger less ambitious. Maybe he is just realistic. If Wenger decided Van Persie was worth less than City (or Real Madrid, or whoever) were prepared to offer, then who’s to say he is wrong?

For argument’s sake, what if Van Persie indicated he could get £240,000 a week elsewhere — a substantial hike from his current £100,000 — and Wenger took one look at that sum and decided he could not bring himself to hand over an annual rise of £7.3m a year? Would you say he was crazy or quite sane? Personally, I’d applaud him.

But, shamefully, the club’s second-largest shareholder Alisher Usmanov jumped on the RVP bandwagon in an attempt to profit from the unrest. He seized the opportunity to stir the pot at Arsenal by hitting out at the principal owner Stan Kroenke. But, since Usmanov has not been given a place on the board despite his 30 per cent stake, we can guess what his motives might be.

The conflict behind the scenes suggests the manager may be fighting with one hand behind his back. But, in all of this, there is one man I would trust to have the best interests of the club at heart.

It is not Van Persie. It is not Kroenke. It is not Usmanov. It is Wenger.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2169935/Arsenal-trust-Arsene-Wenger-Robin-van-Persie--Des-Kelly.html

Without David Dein we also wouldn't have Stan Kroenke, and if David Dein had his way ae'd be playing at Wembley now.

Also what has RvP's agent Kees Vos got to do with anything? It's a common misconception that Darren Dein is RvP's agent, he's not. He's just RvP's commercial representative.

That's why I'm 50/50 with him, but you can't deny the positives. I thought Dein wanted Usmanov in? That's why he jumped into bed with red and white holdings. Could be mistaken, honestly I try to avoid 'ownership' issues but not it's affecting the team and I'm not happy.

'Commercial representative'? It still doesn't sound good does it.

Last season was a joke selling players like Nasri,Fabregas,Clichy and bring in only Arteta as a proven player with Oxlade as a up and coming star.

Dein originally wanted to bring Kroenke in and was the one who brought him to the club, then once he couldn't get Kroenke fully in he put all his eggs in the Usmanov basket.

As for Darren Dein, yeah it doesn't sound good, but the whole Dein thing is overplayed imo. He doesn't have that much influence in what RvP or any player does. He's not involved in any talks with the player and club.



Really, Arteta the only proven player? How about that 24 year old Ivorian winger with 38 caps that we signed. Or that 26 year old South Korean captain with 59 caps, the 27 year old German with 81 caps, the 29 year old Brazilian with 22 caps? Are they not proven players?

Oh and say what you want about Park now, but there's no arguing that when he signed he was a signing with proven experience, both at a decent level in Europe and internationally.

Will Arsene do anything this off season to solve our defensive ineptitude as he's failed to do so thus far...? Last season was the clubs worst defensively in epl history and so far he's signed giroud and podolski...

Lloris would be a start, but we need another CB (per not up to it imo), someone to challenge Sagna and another to challenge Song as DMC... both for squad depth and to challenge them both to go to the next level.

Aside from system what would you do to improve the Gunners defensively???

Rumours flying around that RVP is in a meeting with the Arsenal board over a new contract.

Is it credible. We have heard all sorts of rumors about RVP and Arsenal.

It's popped up on a dozen sites citing Reuters as the article's source.

I will lol so hard if he signs a new deal and Sydcro tries SO hard to take back everything he said :lol: