Wenger Referendum II - And this time it's personal

[Letters]

A few years back, a poster on GW (cant remember who) posted that many Arsenal fans suffer from the battered wife syndrome, and your statement is a reflection of that perfectly. Someone beats the living daylights out of you and then offers you painkillers to soothe your pain.. rather than be unhappy about getting beat up, you thank this great 'humanitarian' because he gave you painkillers.. unbelievable!

I think it was you.
It was a pretty stupid comparison then, it's an even stupider one now if we do finish the job and retain the Cup.
Try moaning to your Spurs fan mates, if you have any (and shame on you if you do ) about how rubbish things are.
And yes yes, we should have loftier ambitions than them but fans of very few clubs would swap places with us right now.
The 'battered wife' thing is a ridiculous exaggeration of how 'bad' things are.

[Letters]

Other people who disagree with me have personally abused me

Another example from Dein-Machine

But yeah, I'm the WUM...

[Niall_Quinn]

Does anyone here have insight into what the wider fan base is feeling as we drift towards the end of another season of under-performing? Obviously 99% of GW (all 3 of us bar Letters) is fed up with it, but I get the impression on a wider scale the majority remain satisfied with Wenger and the team, particularly with Wenger.

I think many of these fans might be confusing a losing mentality with spoilt brat syndrome. Most opposition fans would laugh at us complaining about 3rd place, a cup final and qualification for Europe. Then again, most fans don't support a club with our squad and resources. We should certainly be doing better. When you look at things in terms of loyalty, history, in relation to the majority of other clubs that could explain the satisfaction among fans. In pure sporting terms though, we should be furious. The latter is where I stand. We're feeding off the scraps left behind by the genuinely top clubs and the odd entertaining game every now and then, mostly it's dire, one-paced, pointless shite though. I'm happy to take total commitment to winning and a sensible bias for entertainment over trophies. The latter can't come without the commitment anyway.

This idea of easing off, whether it's actually happening or not, seriously pisses me off. So does the negative shit Wenger has been wheeling out to steer us into the CL cash again.

[Letters]

Think about what you said in that post. My view, and I'm sure the view of most here is not formulated by what has been done over the past 10 games. It isn't even formed by our performance over the season as a whole.

My view is governed by the recurring pattern that we see year after year. Quite simply, this club has a losers mentality and a culture where it isn't just acceptable to take the foot off the gas whenever an opportunity presents itself, it is actively encouraged.

We took our foot off the gas a bit when the title was already gone, top 4 was assured and we had a Cup Final to think about (and not get injured for).
I agree about a recurring pattern but I don't think this is a valid example of it.
You see this sort of thing at every club, even Chelsea apparently who have got the flip flops out now they're champions.
And yes, there's a difference when you're the Champions but do you really care whether we finish 2nd or 3rd?
Obviously the higher than better but I'm more bothered about winning the Cup.
It would be nice to have some momentum going into the final but last year we won our last 5 games - including hammering Hull away - and still nearly made a balls up of the final.

Finish 3rd and win the Cup and overall I'll be content enough with how this season has gone. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse too.

[Niall_Quinn]

We took our foot off the gas a bit when the title was already gone, top 4 was assured and we had a Cup Final to think about (and not get injured for).
I agree about a recurring pattern but I don't think this is a valid example of it.
You see this sort of thing at every club, even Chelsea apparently who have got the flip flops out now they're champions.
And yes, there's a difference when you're the Champions but do you really care whether we finish 2nd or 3rd?
Obviously the higher than better but I'm more bothered about winning the Cup.
It would be nice to have some momentum going into the final but last year we won our last 5 games - including hammering Hull away - and still nearly made a balls up of the final.

Finish 3rd and win the Cup and overall I'll be content enough with how this season has gone. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse too.

You've already said all of that. And there are plenty of responses that highlight each and every of the points you are making as complacency. You can't afford it at the top tier of competitive sport. You'll never be first to the line if you are complacent. So what if "every club" is doing it, all the more reason why we shouldn't be. Make hay. Like the gypos are doing while we have "understandably" eased off as the finishing tape approaches. The cup is icing and it would be a lot nicer on a decent cake rather than a shit sandwich.

If this was the first time it had happened I'd be exceptionally disappointed at our end to the season. But it's not exceptional at all, is it? This is the same old message to be carried into the next season, and the next. Well I hope the gypos and chavs and Utd are as generous in 2016 as they have been this year, otherwise we aren't getting a sniff. Not with our "live with that" attitude.

[Dein-machine]

Somebody mentioned the word "momentum" earlier in either this thread or another. I think it sums of my feelings about where we are with Wenger. When he's won the title before, he has never retained it. Imagine winning the title unbeaten & then not competing the following year, that's a hell of a cock-up. Not understanding that we needed to improve even more because our competitors would do so & then making the same mistake again. The run of wins we had, many of which were pub wins by the odd goal against teams we should be turning 2-0 leads into 5-0 wins, was done through playing inconsistent, poor, unambitious football - taking a lead & trying to hang on.
There has been NO momentum when he has won things, there is NO momentum when we get an early lead in a game, the momentum of a good league run starts to drop as he gets more & more negative in his attacking play when actually attacking football is the only way this team can play. Imagine having Ozil, Sanchez, Santi & Rambo in your team but then ask them to sit back & defend - knocks the momentum out of the team & he's doing it every week.

[Letters]

You've already said all of that.

Aye. As usual we're going round and round in circles. We're not getting anywhere
I'm not sure there's any point pursuing the discussion any further, we just see things differently.

[Power n Glory]

We took our foot off the gas a bit when the title was already gone, top 4 was assured and we had a Cup Final to think about (and not get injured for).

If that were the case, why are we playing the exact same players? Why is an unfit Sanchez playing? Was he injured or unfit for the game? Cazorla may need a rest and the same goes for Giroud. If we’re thinking about the cup, we should be resting players so we don’t pick up any late injuries but the squad selection suggests the opposite. What you’re saying is speculation. How many games in a row has he played this team now?

[Letters]

A lot of what we post on here is speculation but the title had gone, top 4 was assured and we do have a Cup Final to consider.
None of that is speculation and do seem to have taken our foot off the gas.
Not neccessarily consciously, but in the circumstances it's understandable.
I agree Wenger should be rotating more in the run up to the Final btw.

[Dein-machine]

In fairness, if Wenger had rested Sanch & Santi for the Utd game & we had lost - gone on to finish 4th - we would have all been digging him out, saying he did it deliberately to finish in his favourite position. Me being one of them.
Against Sunderland, we should be able to rest Santi ( Sanchez if he is actually injured ), give Jack & Theo a start. We only need a point to guarantee 3rd, hopefully Wumger can't fuck that up against shit like Sunderland.
Get 3rd place then give players a rest for the final game