Arsene's views on doping

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Originally Posted by selassie

It's his opinion and it differs from the current rules set out by UEFA. Also...he wouldn't be saying any of this if he would have prepared the team properly by at least selecting his best players which would have given us a better chance of winning.

Do you honestly think he'd be bringing this up if we won that game?

I'm not looking at angles to attack Wenger, far from it, I'll call out stuff like this though because whilst Wenger is entitled to his opinion on this subject, the real problem was him throwing away the first few games by unneccessarily messing with the team!

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I honestly think he was answering a question honestly.

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Originally Posted by Özim

Wenger's got an opinion on everything but generally it's thinly veiled dig as something which affected his team in some way,

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I'd argue that every single one of us has views that are based on stuff like this. Our conscious often tries to play it off as something logical but its always something close to home that spurs us into this way of thinking. I think its unfair to single this out as a flaw with Wenger when all humans suffer it.

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Originally Posted by selassie

He brought it up, he's been banging on about it for the past few weeks, the FA have got involved too as they want him to clarify his comments.

I'm not saying he's wrong, it's his opinion albeit one that differs from the rules. So do you think he would have brought it up if we had beaten Dinamo Zagreb?

IBK nailed it, Wenger has much bigger issues to deal with internally IMO.

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thats because there has been a huge doping scandal in recent weeks involving Russia, so naturally he was asked by the press. He is right though, and he has brought it up before when we were winning. If a team has a player who dopes and takes performance enhancing drugs, then the club should be disqualified for that match. They have gained an unfair advantage because of their players has cheated.

Football is clean man.

Nothing wrong with it.

Billions invested in it, why would there by doping, fraud or any kind of criminal activity.

Wenger may be a twat when it comes to match day sometimes, but at least you knownhe's not corrupt. He genuinely cares about sport. I do wonder sometimes the reason we get comparitively so many muscular injuries compared to other clubs at the top level. Probs down to the way we train, but if you're banging steriods then you probably have less chance of an Arteta strain than we do.

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Originally Posted by Letters

Those two things are completely unrelated.
He was asked for an opinion, he gave it. It's a perfectly reasonable opinion whether it affected our results or not.

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Work out what you are saying. You pointed out that just because Wenger's doping comments might seem like an excuse this didn't mean he was wrong, and suggested that people were just looking at this for an angle to attack Wenger.

I made the point that some people are jumping on this - because reasonable or not they want him to concentrate on the more serious issues that are disadvantaging our team rather than going off on a tangent. I am debating neither whether he was asked to comment, nor whether his comment is reasonable, and I frankly couldn't care less.

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Originally Posted by Kano

I don’t see the problem myself. In fact, at least someone speaks up about what must definitely be going on in football. He mentioned it in the L’Equipe interview last month during the international break and of course the media have asked him more subsequently. I don’t see how answering a few questions distracts him from his job as a football manager in the slightest. It’s not as if he is waging a full-on campaign to change drug testing in football. He answers a few questions and returns to work.

UEFA is a fraudulent, corrupt organisation, no doubt terrified of the consequences of finding out there may be a wider problem of doping in the game so at least someone is calling them out about it. I don’t think it matters whether we won or lost the game against Dinamo in terms of Wenger speaking up or not, one thing we all know is that he is a purest and equally, he is right to complain that a team fielding a player convicted of taking performance enhancing drugs should have the result handed to their opponents. Rules maybe rules but that doesn't stop people contesting whether they are right or not. There should be absolute zero tolerance, despite whatever pointless rule is currently in place under UEFA guidance.

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I don't think it is a problem, really - just that most fans would rather the manager looked at more serious issues with his team closer to home. Bottom line is that noone else is much interested in Wenger's purist commitments - they are far more interested in winning. FWIW there is clearly doping in football. Just as clearly there is no appetite whatsoever within the game to do anything about it. Sad - but there's a hell of a lot else about the game that is deeply wrong, yet it is still, and will remain, the most lucrative money spinner there is.

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Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw

I honestly think he was answering a question honestly.

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I'm pretty sure Wenger made the statement, I don't think he was asked any question, he came out and said doping is present in Football.

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Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist

thats because there has been a huge doping scandal in recent weeks involving Russia, so naturally he was asked by the press. He is right though, and he has brought it up before when we were winning. If a team has a player who dopes and takes performance enhancing drugs, then the club should be disqualified for that match. They have gained an unfair advantage because of their players has cheated.

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Sure. It's not a matter of whether he is right or wrong because the rules clearly state that if 2 players are found guilty then a team is disqualified. They are the rules. Until many more managers join Wenger in voicing their concerns then the rules will stay as is. He's just voicing his opinion.

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Originally Posted by IBK

I don't think it is a problem, really - just that most fans would rather the manager looked at more serious issues with his team closer to home. Bottom line is that noone else is much interested in Wenger's purist commitments - they are far more interested in winning. FWIW there is clearly doping in football. Just as clearly there is no appetite whatsoever within the game to do anything about it. Sad - but there's a hell of a lot else about the game that is deeply wrong, yet it is still, and will remain, the most lucrative money spinner there is.

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I honestly don't believe that he isn't looking at the issues in the team - whether or not he is good enough or open minded enough to change them is the larger questions I think. I don't think his answering of questions on a subject is a distraction from that in the slightest as they occur during a scheduled press conference, not in the middle of this daily work routine. I for one am glad that at least one manager speaks up about it occassionally.

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Originally Posted by IBK

Work out what you are saying. You pointed out that just because Wenger's doping comments might seem like an excuse this didn't mean he was wrong, and suggested that people were just looking at this for an angle to attack Wenger.

I made the point that some people are jumping on this - because reasonable or not they want him to concentrate on the more serious issues that are disadvantaging our team rather than going off on a tangent. I am debating neither whether he was asked to comment, nor whether his comment is reasonable, and I frankly couldn't care less.

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Are you suggesting that making these comments shows a serious lack of focus?
I'm sure he goes out all the time and talks to friends about things other than how to address our injury concerns, we're surely not suggesting that he should STFU and get back to sorting out our problems.
If he was tirelessly campaigning on this issue to the detriment of managing Arsenal then I'd see the point, but offering this opinion (whether sought or not) in no way impacts his management of the club.