Rob Holding

“Wenger has no clue what fans are asking for”

Same fans who threw a fit when Asano signing was announced, and now wish that he was available?

If you think Wenger was mocking the fans in anyway then that’s just inaccurate. His comments were an attack on media sensationalism over transfers, and their neglect of the positive performance of a promising young English talent - who footballer journalists should be praising/

Arsenal fans couldn’t give a toss if Holding is English, the mention of his nationality shows Wenger was talking in direction of the press.

Wenger knows the Arsenal fans better than they know themselves imo

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I don’t know anything about that. though i can understand questioning the logic of buying a striker you can’t use immediately when you’re in immediate need of a striker.

At the end of the day, can you blame the fans for being so sceptical of Wenger when last season we needed the same, we had the money and didn’t spend it? when it was left so late in this window?

Wenger has a long history of not getting players who were within his means of getting, who would have strengthen the team-but didn’t. this is nothing new.

Wenger had a dig at the media, , but it was also a veiled dig at the fans because in his mind the fans are only pissed because of media hype.his comments after the Liverpoool loss and draw to Leicester coupled with previous comments, and comments from the back end of last season prove this.

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I have no idea what this is even meant to mean, it sounds nonsensical. Though you’re clearly a smart guy so I’m sure if you elaborate it’ll make sense to me (edit: might sound patronising? But that sentence is meant genuinely)

“The fans are highly influenced by the media and that’s part of the process today.” - from the same interview jus before the 55m quote, which illustrates the contempt he can sometimes display for fans. I’ll defer to arseblog’s reaction to that quote:

"But to say people who want the team to improve, to be more competitive, to be better, are only doing so because the media run stories about Arsenal spending money is ridiculous.

I can only speak for myself, but my opinion on the team is based entirely on what I see happen on the pitch. When I see a team that has needed a striker look toothless and impotent in attack, I’m highly influenced by that. When I see a team that needs the centre of its defence strengthened concede four goals at home on the opening day, I’m highly influenced by that. When I see a league table that shows us with one point from six; when I see the Arsenal accounts that leave us in no doubt there is a lot of money to invest in the team; when I see a title challenge fall apart in a season we should have won the league; I’m highly influenced by that.

I don’t need newspapers, pundits, commentators or anybody else to tell me what needs to be done at Arsenal. All I want is for the team to be as good as it can be, for the club to show a genuine ambition and desire to win, and for the resources we’ve worked hard for and sacrificed so much to generate to be used to that end. If we fall short at that point, I’d be a lot more understanding.

It’s when we procrastinate, when we go into a season underprepared and drop points, when we don’t address key issues that we know must be addressed, and then afterwards make excuses or try and deflect from the fact we’ve been basically hapless throughout the summer of 2016 that frustrates so much. You might even say I’m highly influenced by that. And not in a positive way."

http://arseblog.com/2016/08/leicester-0-0-arsenal-centre-halve-shine-post-match-wenger-frustrates/ if you want to read the full post.

I’ll concede that the 55m quote was probably more aimed towards the media, my mistake mate. It’s still a bullshit strawman though. I’ve not seen a single person saying Arsenal should be spending £55m on a centre back, it’s ludicrous for Wenger to act like anyone had, and is just a pathetic response to him getting pissed off at criticism levelled at him. What people wanted was established players who would get straight into our side and represent a significant improvement. Holding looks good but is eighteen and has only ever played in the Championship, he doesn’t represent what I described above. Mustafi however does, and if Wenger’s bullshit strawman response had any grounding in fact people would be criticising him for not spending more on a centre back. But of course no-one is, and the general reaction to it seems to me to have been “I didn’t think Wenger would ever spend that much on a defender, fair play, even if it could have been done sooner.”

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Why on earth would Wenger being taking veiled digs at Arsenal supporters? The man is not some disconnected idiot. He understands fans get frustrated when there aren’t any transfers, but their anger and impatience will never influence Wenger’s approach and nor should it. There’s a reason why they sit in the stands and not dugout

He also emphasized that fans are hugely influenced by the media which is very correct. Heck a few weeks ago “Arsenal twitter” started the Kroenkeout hashtag on the basis of an old headline from the standard that wasn’t even a direct quote ffs. It never fails to surprise me how often people buy into false spins and blatant clickbait

I have never even considered that wenger holds the fans in contempt tbh, I think it’ a load of BS

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You misunderstand me. I’m completely aghast at our transfer policy.

But I fucking despise football journalists, and I like it when they are given a slap or two.

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Edit, Jakey said it better than i could have.

It wasnt a direct quote but it didn’t exactly distort the truth of the matter. Kroenke evidently isn’t in it to win trophies, he doesn’t give a shit about football and the club is merely an investment vehicle for him. Just like all his other “franchises” are. He’s never put any of his own money into the club, instead he takes 3m from the club a year in some strange and sneaky backdoor version of a dividend. Sorry, “strategic and advisory fees”.

Which he is perfectly entitled to do, he owns the club and within bounds can run it as he sees fit. But people can hardly be surprised when fans are unhappy and accuse him of not caring about winning trophies with Arsenal. Has he ever even been to a match?

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He is a disconnected idiot…and apparently you are as well. He’s a disgrace when it comes to the fans. He thinks we should be bowing at his multi-million pound alter and should feel the same ridiculous sense of hopelessness because of “oil clubs” and “madness”…only to praise him when he does the exact things he rails against time and again.

I assume you’re not referring to me?

No not you, sevwanko. :theo:

Thought so. just wanted to make sure :wenger2:

@g4e did you get a notification because your post was quoted within a quote? Curious how that works because on vbulletin it didn’t display quotes within quotes. I’m quite enjoying noticing small little differences between the old and new.

Indeed i did Jakey. morris was obviously quoting Shevenko, but i also got the notification which caused a bit of confusion.

I’ve been thinking of making a topic for people to list what they’ve noticed, and what they like about the new site. feel free to make it yourself if you like :slight_smile:

Btw, been getting quite a few 500 internal error messages when trying to like a post, or post a reply.

[quote=“g4e, post:114, topic:383, full:true”]

+1 on that :santi:

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What’s wrong morris? Have I offended you in any way? I don’t understand the need of these unnecessary personal attacks

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I apologize…my bad went too far there.

That headline was an obvious spin and the it was based on a short selective quote that was designed to provoke rage from unsuspecting plebs who will always eat it up.

The headline did distort the truth because it disregarded the immediate context of Kroenke’s statement. Just look at the full quote, that type of selective quoting it look down upon hence why you got obscure clickbait sites like hitc or Joe and crap like the Daily Star running with the story.

“For me, being an individual owner, I have to have some sort of reality involved. If you want to win championships then you would never get involved. I think the best owners in sports are the guys that sort of watch both sides a bit. If you don’t have a good business then you can’t really afford to go out and get the best players unless you just want to rely on other sources of income.

This is a perfectly reasonable view from a majority share holder of self sustaining club. He’s correct too, in modern football financial performance off the pitch goes hand in hand with performances on the pitch they have a symbiotic relationship.

Explain this what you mean by this. Where is the evidence that the club has ever been used as leverage or in an other capacity with Kroenke other holdings?

[quote=“JakeyBoy, post:108, topic:383”]
He’s never put any of his own money into the club[/quote]

Is this a bad thing?

Officially, Kroenke has never taken any dividend. ‘Back door’ dividends are illegal under English company law. It’s impossible for a club like Arsenal to get away with any back door dividends. A regular dividend paid out to shareholders and a company using it’s retained earnings for a service is subject to different tax procedures. So a company paying for a service where a shareholder has a vested interest in or actual shares can lead to accusations of tax avoidance if no or little service is being provided in return for the money paid.

So that £3M is definitely being used for the benefit of the club, the club is definitely getting something in return. Who knows we might be getting the service under market value compared to other providers.

Been over this before, only reason why the spotlight is even on Kroenke at all is because it’s being perceived as we’re not doing enough to win things. We’re not consistently challenging because of the manager - it’s that simple imo, he’s 100% culpable and we’ll see if he stays on past this season.

If we were consistent winners over the last few years people would be praising Kroenke’s hands off ownership and wouldn’t give two figs whether he cares or if he’s attending matches or not (He does btw)

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It looks like Arsene values Holding getting relegated from the Championship with Bolton more than Chambers having spent two years training with the first team.

I, like many, think Holding’s presence means Chambers is going to be sold (or loaned into oblivion).

If people think the Callum Chambers situation is bad - just look at Joel Campbell. 5th year on loan. His future here is done.