Re: Official WOB thread.

[MJ]

None of this is happening before the summer anyway, especially not Wenger leaving let alone convincing any of these managers to leave mid-season. Even then, no matter where we finish, I'm not sure Wenger would leave before his three years are up.

[urbaNRoots]

True, our board don't have the balls to sack him and it would be a shame if it came to that but Wenger should see the situation and decide for himself to step aside and give someone else the chance to take us forward. To be fair, if I was on £7.5m/year I wouldn't either so yeah we're stuck with him for 2 and half more years. Until then maybe Pep gets tired of winning BL every year and decides to take a harder job than Bayern/Barcelona.

[VendettaRed07]

Give me Big Sam

[MJ]

WOB put a big bullet in AKB's guns by booing Arsene Wenger in his face post-Stoke loss.

They also shouted at Joel Campbell to leave the club for his own good.

What a load of disgraceful clowns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQeZ14D6Vw

[izzy]

WOB put a big bullet in AKB's guns by booing Arsene Wenger in his face post-Stoke loss.

They also shouted at Joel Campbell to leave the club for his own good.

What a load of disgraceful clowns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQeZ14D6Vw

Well.............................,

They have a point in regards to Joel Campbell.

The Wenger stuff, I've heard A LOT worse.

[Raptorgunner]

WOB put a big bullet in AKB's guns by booing Arsene Wenger in his face post-Stoke loss.

They also shouted at Joel Campbell to leave the club for his own good.

What a load of disgraceful clowns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQeZ14D6Vw

 

You guys know where I stand with Wenger, but this was just embarrassing to watch.

I do agree with Joel leaving the club though.

[6unner]

WOB put a big bullet in AKB's guns by booing Arsene Wenger in his face post-Stoke loss.

They also shouted at Joel Campbell to leave the club for his own good.

What a load of disgraceful clowns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQeZ14D6Vw

Is that more or less disgraceful than going into the season short of quality and depth. With what seems like a flawed tactical plan?

As for Joel, Can you really blame any of them. If you are not one of the chosen Wenger few you have no chance. You will get no consistent time on the pitch and you will not build the rapport you need to have with the team to help make a difference when you do get called upon. Leading to the speculation by some supporters on what quality you may or may not have. Like Carlos Vela, Joel and some of the others players on the team should think long and hard about their future and if it exists where they are now under the current setup at Arsenal.

Bullets, don't be silly I am sure that those were just more harmless blanks. Like the current team and tactics not sure they can really hurt much. They will just make a big noise with nothing behind it.

[MJ]

You serious? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but shouting and booing the man who gave this club so much is just classless. I know plenty who think his time is up but will always afford him the respect he deserves.

And it's pathetic, they're talking to Joel like he's some victim. You should encourage players, especially after a loss. I don't see the point in shouting that kind of stuff at him.

And no, this is actually a good thing for Wenger in a way, people are going to feel bad for him and start to hesitate with how strongly they feel about wanting him out. There's no defending something like this even if you want the man gone. We're better than that.

[izzy]

Encourage Joel to do what? He's not playing.
When Giroud was injured, it was only Welshit playing (Podolski would get the odd 5 mins every 3 games or so) while Joel was doing nothing on the bench.

He might as well look to leave in January, he's wasting his time.

As for the fans, I've heard way worse stuff slung at Wenger. No one feels sympathy for him in regards to this, people just feel the fans went over the top.

But the real issue is, why has it come to this?
Arsenal have the highest ticket prices in the COUNTRY and year in and year out the product the fans see on the pitch in regards to their team is mediocre at best. It's been a decade+ of this nonsense. Yet they STILL fill that stadium.

The fans have had to see their team go from competing with Man Utd and Chelsea, to competing with Spurs and Everton.

They've been promised improvement, investment in the squad, more accountability to be shown...... none have happened.

Yet they fill the stands week in week out, have sell outs in the away section every game for X amount of years for this?

Look at the goddamn transfers in the past couple years?

Enough is enough. A bigger statement would be if the Emirates was half packed for the next home game.

[MJ]

Encourage him to do anything lol, how is any of this going to make anything better at the club?

I know all of his shortcomings, idk why you think listing them all is bringing anything new to mind, you're in the Arsenal section after all, we're all well aware of the state of things.

But that is completely classless. This is Arsenal and we're a classy club. Doing that to a club legend, even if he's going the way of Brian Clough, is never acceptable.

[Jay29]

I think some season ticket holders feel like they have to go every week to justify the amount of money they spent just to get a season ticket in the first place. And our fanbase is probably too large for there to be ever be a half full stadium for a game that isn't a cup game against a lower league side.

A bigger issue is that the fanbase is split almost 50-50 on Wenger. That's why we have this stupid WOB/AKB distinction. Our own fans are fighting each other over this after games, be it at home or away. With such a divide, any protest is pretty much impossible.

[izzy]

Encourage him to do anything lol, how is any of this going to make anything better at the club?

I know all of his shortcomings, idk why you think listing them all is bringing anything new to mind, you're in the Arsenal section after all, we're all well aware of the state of things.

But that is completely classless. This is Arsenal and we're a classy club. Doing that to a club legend, even if he's going the way of Brian Clough, is never acceptable.

Do anything? He's not playing. Even with injuries and players out of favor....... he's still not playing. What was the point of keeping him in the summer? To ride the bench? Might as well go in Jan.

The things I stated are just SOME of the reasons why those fans acted like that. I've heard worse, a lot worse.

Also, there's really no such thing as a classy club. That's a just a moniker fans give their teams as some sort of "pride" title.

[MJ]

This is beside the point, they're not clowns because they want Joel to leave for what they consider to be his own good, they're clowns for leveling abuse at the man who made us what we are today.

And sure there are, there are classy clubs that run themselves a certain way and the way their supporters treat the players and managers is a reflection of that as well. Doesn't mean a small pocket represents the entire fanbase either way but that's exactly why I (and basically everyone I've heard comment on this, Arsenal fan or not) don't expect or want to see Wenger treated this way.

[izzy]

I wouldn't put too much STOCK into that term "classy". Every club has a dirtiness about them. It might not get shown often, but it's there, inside the organization, the players, the fans etc. It's there.

They may not expect it, but I doubt they are surprised to see it. There have been worse done recently:
The chanting during the WBA game.
The chanting during the Man Utd game.
The chanting during the Stoke game.

These are all in the last weeks. I've talked to some friends who go to these games. The Anti-Wenger chants are always the most sung AND the "lyrics" are vulgar.

It's the way it is. These fans feel aggrieved about the club they support. There should be more surprise that it has taken THIS long for some of the fans to go this far.

[MJ]

Like I said, a small fraction of fans never represents the club as a whole but you do get a sense of which clubs carry themselves with a degree of class and which don't.

There's a difference between chanting from afar, holding banners, and things like that and sneering and screaming at the man as he goes to get on a train.

Don't be silly, they're not comparable. You're getting in his face and booing him. He doesn't deserve that kind of abuse, no matter what. Maybe you've missed it but I've said it a few times, there are plenty of fans who want him out but still respect what he's done for the club.

[izzy]

Well, that's the thing. Who said these fans don't respect what he's done for club? Did they say that? Or are you just assuming that?

Come on now. He's a grown man.
These guys getting in his face here isn't really a big deal. It's just that it was recorded. I can bet big money that when him and the players were leaving the Emirates after the United game, they got similar things shouted at them. Team bus, personal cars etc.

The banners and the chants are probably even more offensive seeing as it is higher collection of fans holding those banners and singing those songs and you know he hears it.

He most likely brushed these guys off as some angry dudes. The guys at the stadium are probably having a WAY bigger impact on him.

[MJ]

Nah, it doesn't matter if it's happened before, that just makes it even worse and makes me even more ashamed. Not sure you're getting it because you seem to think it centers around his feelings getting hurt. He has tough skin and has been under pressure over the last ten years, that's not the point.

lmao did you really just ask if they respect him? nvm, i'll leave that one.

Would a new manager deserve this kind of vile abuse if he'd brought the same results Wenger had, if he'd been appointed in the summer?

This is the club's most successful manager ever, frustrations be damned, if this is how the 'support' treats someone of legendary status then what good are we, really? Can't make it much simpler than that.

[izzy]

Why the hell do you need to feel ashamed? You just it's a small fanbase that doesn't represent the enitierty of the fans...... so why should it matter?
I've seen stuff like this happen to plenty of Managers, maybe that's why I don't get this whole outrage......

So you think they don't respect what he's done for club? You don't think they care about what he's done? If that's true, there's no reason for them to act the way they did.

Deserve the abuse? That's up to you as a fan. Others don't see it the same way you do so expect different reactions....... this is one of them. Another is the reaction of the dude TY on Arsenal fan TV.

Well, no. Frustrations not be damned. This is how some of them feel. Expect to see more of this.

[MJ]

I'm ashamed that anyone would call themselves an Arsenal fan and do that, I never said I was ashamed of every single fan.

They clearly don't have any respect for him at all to boo and shout vile things at him to his face as he boards a train to go home. During the game from the stands is entirely different. He's off the pitch, he's going home and you're going to scream in his face? I don't see the respect for anything at all

And frustrations be damned if that's the only means of expressing them. You're totally off, the spectrum doesn't have those screaming thugs on one end and Ty on the other, dunno why you want to paint it that way but maybe that's why you're not getting it.

You can be totally and completely against Wenger staying and that's fine, but the man deserves respect at the very least for what he's done for the club.

[Twoism]

MJ is right, everything should stay on the pitch. The man has done more than enough to go home in peace.

[urbaNRoots]

Shouting abuse at an old man on the streets, I'm embarrassed for those people. These are the lowest of the lowest scum. If there was no police, they might have attacked him physically.

[1991]

Don't want Wenger to be shouted at, don't want banners in the ground, don't want the team to be booed etc....so what do you undercover AKBS want the fans to do? A minute of polite applause followed by a specially commissioned opera?

Yes the video is a bit cringe worthy, but maybe if there were more fans who had expressed their displeasure with the direction of the club instead of being docile fans like yourself we just might not be in this position now.

[Hapless_Hans]

In what position are you in exactly?
I fail to understand why most of you seem to believe you are entitled, or predisposed, to do so much better.
Is your team better than the top 3 of PL? No.
Have you spent nearly as much money in the last decade as the top 3 of PL? No.

You can be frustrated about certain things, obviously, but I don't see with what justification this total sense of outrage exists.

[MJ]

Don't want Wenger to be shouted at, don't want banners in the ground, don't want the team to be booed etc....so what do you undercover AKBS want the fans to do? A minute of polite applause followed by a specially commissioned opera?

Yes the video is a bit cringe worthy, but maybe if there were more fans who had expressed their displeasure with the direction of the club instead of being docile fans like yourself we just might not be in this position now.

is there a category for most holier-than-thou and condescending post of the year in GL? this would make top 4 at least imo.

[MJ]

In what position are you in exactly?
I fail to understand why most of you seem to believe you are entitled, or predisposed, to do so much better.
Is your team better than the top 3 of PL? No.
Have you spent nearly as much money in the last decade as the top 3 of PL? No.

You can be frustrated about certain things, obviously, but I don't see with what justification this total sense of outrage exists.

Should we be improving after an encouraging season last year with considerably more money than we have had in recent years and with gaps in the squad? Yes. It's as simple as that. We have the money and we have gaps. We shouldn't.

[Hapless_Hans]

In what position are you in exactly?
I fail to understand why most of you seem to believe you are entitled, or predisposed, to do so much better.
Is your team better than the top 3 of PL? No.
Have you spent nearly as much money in the last decade as the top 3 of PL? No.

You can be frustrated about certain things, obviously, but I don't see with what justification this total sense of outrage exists.

Should we be improving after an encouraging season last year with considerably more money than we have had in recent years and with gaps in the squad? Yes. It's as simple as that. We have the money and we have gaps. We shouldn't.

I know. But then you can't DEMAND things like that.
"After 8 years of financing debt with player sales, we've now spent 2 years and we MUST be top 3 after 15 games played".

Noone is denying you didn't have a good start.

As for the gaps.
Wasn't it always like that? Wenger is quite simply far less a transfer muppet than fans. Fans don't like Flamini or Monreal, not without reason, but Wenger brought them in.
He clearly doesn't think they are as rubbish as most of you think.

That's probably a weakness of his, trusting his players too much.
But then he's always been like this, I'd classify this summer transfer window as actually surprisingly active tbh.

You can't separate the good from the bad. Wenger has his strengths and weaknesses, funny thing is that after so many years people take his strengths for granted, but seemingly can't get used to his weaknesses.

[Sponsored content]