Former Players Views

[Olivier's xmas twist]

We cant afford £30m on one player? Wtf? Whats the point of moving to the new stadium then?

The former left-back, who won the Double under Wenger in 1998, said: “I was with Arsene three or four weeks ago doing a Q&A at Arsenal and he was asked about buying a £30m player.
“He was saying ‘We can’t afford to do that’. That surprised me a little bit.
“He was saying ‘£30m in transfer fees, with wages you’re probably looking at another £25-30m. We could not compete on that level’.”
But Winterburn, who played 584 Arsenal games between 1987 and 2000, is convinced no top players want to join now anyway.
He said: “If you are talking about a £30m player — Manchester City would also be going for him, maybe Manchester United and maybe Chelsea.
“Right now he’s not coming to Arsenal.”

makes sense. This no money thing seems to be coming out all of a sudden.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

State of the art training facility?! Wow, just wow!

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

George Graham, the man who had us playing the most absymal football known to mankind (he even makes Tony Pulis seem like a facilitator of total football) and whose ambition was to try and rip off the club by receiving bungs to give us recommendations to buy rubbish like Pal Lydersen.....Wenger may be misguided but at least he's not a crook.
Content to finish 4th for 15/16 years?....funny i thought we'd won three league titles, four fa cups and reached two european finals in that time......don't get me wrong i think the point he is making is sound i think we have been content to finish 4th since moving to the Emirates but that wasn't 15/16 years ago.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

George Graham, the man who had us playing the most absymal football known to mankind (he even makes Tony Pulis seem like a facilitator of total football) and whose ambition was to try and rip off the club by receiving bungs to give us recommendations to buy rubbish like Pal Lydersen.....Wenger may be misguided but at least he's not a crook.
Content to finish 4th for 15/16 years?....funny i thought we'd won three league titles, four fa cups and reached two european finals in that time......don't get me wrong i think the point he is making is sound i think we have been content to finish 4th since moving to the Emirates but that wasn't 15/16 years ago.

[Xhaka Can’t]

GG was a great manager in his time but whose time passed in the mid 90s. Signings like Wright and Seaman became signings like Selley and Kiwomya.

[Özim]

George Graham, the man who had us playing the most absymal football known to mankind (he even makes Tony Pulis seem like a facilitator of total football) and whose ambition was to try and rip off the club by receiving bungs to give us recommendations to buy rubbish like Pal Lydersen.....Wenger may be misguided but at least he's not a crook.
Content to finish 4th for 15/16 years?....funny i thought we'd won three league titles, four fa cups and reached two european finals in that time......don't get me wrong i think the point he is making is sound i think we have been content to finish 4th since moving to the Emirates but that wasn't 15/16 years ago.

Sorry but that's a load of nonsense, the guy gave us some great times, brought some brilliant players in and his team was the backbone of AW's first championship team, in addition when we won the title and in particular the 2nd title under him we were very exciting to watch.

Perhaps the football wasn't great after that, but he still delivered some unbelievable results and trophies against the odds.

He's right about the club though (and this includes the manager) top 4 is all they're interested in, so we have a big new stadium now, big f*cking deal would you rather watch a top team in a small stadium or an average one in a large new stadium?

As for the money, if we got rid of the dead wood taking up our resources (the crocks and rubbish) we'd have more funds available, trouble is the manager wastes money on these guys and then we can't get rid.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

liverpool, spurs, city, united, chelsea all have the same problem with players that are not good enough clogging up their wage bill...it's not a problem singular to Arsenal....it's a problem endemic of sickeningly high wages that has eked it's way into the game. Don't get me wrong Wenger has a ridiculous wage policy and often rewards undeserving players, but do we know how responsible he is for these contract negotiations I know what we are meant to believe is that he pretty much single-handed runs the club as the ultimate Autocrat but honestly?....you think there are that many hours in a day.

Load of nonsense?...so Graham wasn't a crook then, he wasn't guilty of receiving bungs....I know it's an ad hominem attack but i think he's the last man who should be lecturing anyone. Yes he achieved some brilliant things at the club, but the legacy he left was a club floundering in mid-table with a squad with a drinking culture.....we know that even in his time the board were reluctant to release transfer and wage funds...don't remember him walking as a matter of principle.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I don't understand the need to pit one manager against another or seek to revise history and rubbish one manager's record to support an agenda of supporting the other.

Both GG and AW were great managers and provided us with some incredible 'Highbury Highs'*. However both their time have passed, I respect them both and am grateful for all the great times both brought to our Club.

* I blame Roger Daltry - we never had another high after that dirge.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

i agree to an extent, but as i say i don't have a great deal of time or respect for George Graham as a man......I never forgave him for trying to cheat the club to line his own pockets....where as Wenger despite the fact that he is a has been is a man of much more honor and integrity that George Graham would ever be capable of.

[Özim]

I don't think those clubs have got the problem to the same extent as we have (in addition City and Chelsea can afford it), if you look at the rubbish we have, I mean the likes of Chamakh, Squillaci, Denilson, Bendtner, Gervinho, Ramsey, Fabianski, Djourou, Santos, Park (some are on loan but still on our wage bill) and add to that the crocks in the form of Gibbs, Diaby, Rosicky that's an awful lot of players and an awful lot of money wasted, none of the other clubs mentioned have anywhere near as many as us...and this is crippling for us.

You can add to that the error prone Koscielny, the cavalier Vermaelen who's defending is naive at best (do we throw Frimpong into this?) and you can start to see the problem.

The salaries are also all based around Wengers idea that everyone should be on similar amounts to avoid an squad discontent, which neither works nor has proved a wise move.

He was guilty of the bung yes, but people make mistakes and as long as they learn from them they deserve a 2nd chance (some would argue someone who has been there and learnt from his mistakes is the perfect person to give advice on the subject). Perhaps his time was up when it all ended, but look at his achievements, much of the time we were unfancied for success and upset the odds, the drinking culture was not one of Graham's flaws but an issue which was deeply ingrained in English culture (and to some extent remains to be today outside sport). In those days we never really seemed to have money and the money certainly wasn't in the game to the same extent, we accepted we couldn't spend but at least we showed signs of heart and desire on the pitch from time to time, no passioneless, soul less football with no real direction.