well all I can say after yesterday's result is roll on next season lolz!

I'm already looking forward to next season. We're so close to overtaking Liverpool that I can practically taste it.

United vs Le Arse on Saturday.

My predictions: 1-0 till the 92nd minute, until Eboue scores an own-goal to win us the league ;D

Yeah some reports today & yesterday, I think it has alot to do with the 13 Million transfer fund he's going to be given!

can people not see that they haven't replaced Viera?

One for the NL4E's out there:

EVEN SIMON COWELL COULD WORK OUT THAT ARSENAL HAVE TALENT

Martin Samuel, Daily Mail, 20th May 2009

Rodney Dangerfield, the American comedian, built an entire career on lack of respect. It was his catchphrase. 'I get no respect,' he would say. 'The bartender asked what I was having. I said, "Surprise me". He showed me a naked picture of my wife.'

Dangerfield's stage persona was comic genius. He played the archetypal schmuck who, deadpan and world-weary, would lead the audience through a litany of humiliations and self-deprecations.

'I was an ugly kid. I worked in a pet store. People kept asking me how big I'd get.'

'I was making love to this girl and she started crying. I said, "Are you going to hate yourself in the morning?" She said, "No, I hate myself now".'

'I asked a cabbie to take me to where the action is. He took me to my house.'

Respect is also a well-worn concept in football, usually when applied to referees. Managers are worthy of it, too, particularly the very good ones.

The fissure in the relationship between Arsenal and Arsene Wenger is about respect. Wenger feels he is getting little from the board of directors and supporters and his mild encouragement to Real Madrid, now withdrawn, was his shot across the bows. Carry on like this and see what happens.

Wenger does not want to leave, he wants to carry his latest project to fruition and has an almost evangelical faith in its success. Key to this mission, however, is honesty. He needs his employers publicly to make clear Arsenal's financial capabilities in the transfer market and that way the supporters will understand why he works as he does and will be sympathetic. It is not much to ask.

We live in unique times. The rich diet of reality television and the internet has turned every aspect of modern life into a vox pop. Vote her in, vote him out, post a response, have your say. This is the age of entitlement, with everybody staking a claim to all aspects of public life, and even death.

So we vote for a teenage break dancer or create the star of a West End show, then move on to judging the parents of vanished children or the cancer-stricken. Piers Morgan lists his footballers of the year and Dr Fox tells us who has got talent.

We cannot call an election over expenses fraud or force an investigation into the Iraq War, but feel overweeningly empowered on random factors and trivia.

This is why, on Saturday, when Carlos Tevez was substituted by Sir Alex Ferguson for Manchester United against Arsenal, the decision was loudly booed.
Think about that. A man closing in on his 11th title and one win away from becoming the first to retain the European Cup in its modern format, and some people still do not trust him to know what his team should be. Simon Cowell has a lot to answer for.

Ferguson deserved better than to have one of his greatest seasons reduced to a row over a player who has been, in essence, an impact substitute, and Wenger deserves more than to be decried and undermined inside a stadium that was as good as built on his wit and intelligence.

A deal was struck between Wenger and the board long ago. The directors delayed the construction of the Emirates Stadium throughout the time Manchester United were turning Old Trafford into one of the greatest arenas in Europe. This meant Wenger could invest in his team, which was very successful.

When the work began, however, it was clear that there would be some years of austerity for the Arsenal manager, which he accepted, without complaint. The arrangement spoiled in the refusal of the board to acknowledge publicly phase two of the schedule: the part where the football suffers.

Whenever a prominent Arsenal director is asked about transfer resources, he trots out the same line. If the manager wants a £30million player, he says, we will find the money for him.

This is not the same as saying the manager has £30m to spend. Finding the money could mean anything, including the sale of one asset, such as Emmanuel Adebayor, to finance the acquisition of another.

That is no substitute for the club pulling out £30m in funds to bolster a squad that is, by popular consent, two or three experienced players away from challenging for the Premier League title. All it does is make Wenger look like a miser; or a madman.

Dissatisfaction stems from this confusion, because it is perceived Wenger has money to spend but is unconcerned, digging in his heels and preferring to rely on callow youth and an ethos of beautiful football, as fragile as a butterfly's wings.

The picture is painted of a radical man increasingly entrenched in his theories, determined to prove the world wrong. The supporters see this as selfish and egotistical and are increasingly frustrated. After all, why would a manager with £30m in the bank leave it to sit while his team tumble backwards?

Had Aston Villa not imploded, Arsenal would have failed to qualify for the Champions League. As it is, they will be the only English team needing to pre-qualify and were Premier League also-rans from early on. The acquisition of the brilliant Andrey Arshavin is a positive step, but even he is already making noises about the need for team improvement.

The image of Wenger as unshakable maverick, sacrificing the club on the altar of his principles, is overstated.

Wenger is frequently advised by friends and allies to make the board come clean about the financial constraints, and, when the subject came up in conversation recently, he is said to have told the company with some certainty: 'They will not talk like that again.' It would appear words have been had.

There is nothing to be gained from a fall-out by either side. Given the financial restrictions, another manager might have struggled to keep Arsenal in the top four. If Wenger were to leave now, he could be joined on the way out by a generation of talented young players, not least Cesc Fabregas, who is coveted throughout Spain.

It would be a calamitous event for Arsenal, one that could deposit the club in the wilderness for several years as a new coach tried to regroup without the funds necessary to compete in the elite.

Arsenal are maintained only by a history of Champions League riches and the skill of Wenger in consistently producing virtuoso players on a budget.

By the same token, Real Madrid - or just about any major club in Europe - would present a challenge to Wenger's working methods after his Arsenal experience.

Imagine the look on the president's face when his new coach announces he has no intention of touring lucrative markets in the Far East and will instead spend pre-season in the Austrian Alps followed by a tournament that will take the team no further than downtown Madrid.

Imagine the shock when stellar signings and instant success make way for unknown gems from the African market and noble, five-year plans.

Wenger is a long-term manager when most major clubs make kindergarten-age children look patient. Claudio Ranieri has just been dismissed by Juventus with two matches of the season remaining, because the club could see their Champions League status slipping.

What needs to be dispelled is the misconception that Wenger is an arrogant fool who would rather see his team finish fourth than compromise his principles.

If he is making mistakes in his assessments of certain players - standing by individuals who are patently not up to the job - it is probably because he knows he has no option but to keep faith and be supportive.

In reality, this is the case for followers of Arsenal, too. The board can play their part by facing up publicly to the limitations on Wenger's spending power. Only then will a clear picture of his achievements emerge. Let's face it, if a man like Wenger gets no respect, what chance the rest of the schmucks?

And another. Very appropriate I may add:


ONLY FOOLS WILL WIN IF WENGER WALKS AWAY

Patrick Collins, Mail On Sunday 17th May

'The caller was an angry man who spluttered his protests in a foam-flecked diatribe.

His target was the club manager, an arrogant fellow, apparently, who had not only 'lost the plot' but was also 'past his sell-by date'.

His transfer policy was 'a joke', likewise his communication skills. He wouldn't listen to the fans, 'the people who pay his wages'.

Neither had he won any 'silverware' for far too long. In short, said the caller, 'he's taken us as far as he can. I'm sorry, but it's time for a change'.

This kind of rant is the staple diet of the phone-in programme. The cliches are the same; only the names of the managers change. But this one caught my attention, because the manager in question was Arsene Wenger.

And, remarkably, the ranter was not alone in his impertinence. At Arsenal's annual meeting it seems that the shareholders were in truculent mood.

One or two informed Wenger that he should sell his most gifted striker, Emmanuel Adebayor. Others accused the team at large of a lack of commitment.

One gentleman, clearly as bold as he is stupid, informed Wenger that Mikael Silvestre, the 31-year-old defender, is 'geriatric'.

Wenger was coldly contemptuous. He did not lose his temper, I suspect, because he is a man who fears the consequences of his own rage.

But he defended his players with reason and vigour, pointed out a few realities and departed with an exasperated shake of the head. Now, no manager is above criticism, even from deluded shareholders and over the past couple of seasons Wenger's tenaciously held opinions have acquired a coating of stubbornness.

And yet, the evidence of achievement is all around him. We see it in the towering stadium his teams have built, in the exemplary attitudes he has inculcated and in the expectations he has aroused.

The statistics are easily produced: three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two English Cup and League doubles, an undefeated Premier League season in 2004 and a Champions League final in 2006.

But these statistics scarcely hint at the style with which they were delivered. Far better to recite the litany of talent which Wenger acquired and refined: Vieira, Pires, Henry, Van Persie, Adebayor, Fabregas, Clichy . . . ordinary managers have neither the eye nor the imagination to handle such a glittering constellation.

Yet Wenger has been bringing off the trick for almost 13 years, identifying potential, exploiting excellence and moving it on with a shrewdness of timing that the game has rarely known.

Some of us would suggest that he has done little to assist the development of young English players. Wenger would reply, with reason, that he looks at ability rather than passports and that he is employed by Arsenal rather than the Football Association.

Like his towering competitor, Sir Alex Ferguson, Wenger has shown English professional footballers how to conduct their professional life.

He preached the relevance of diet, rest and targeted preparation. He did not ostentatiously seek a cheap reputation for sagacity with a self-serving entourage of sports scientists and psychologists, in the manner of certain inferior contemporaries.

Instead, he laid down guiding principles and stood by them in good times and bad. The result has been a stream of teams which have been a pleasure - and occasionally a privilege - to watch. Yet now he is questioned by impudent fools.

And, having given so much and delivered so much, he is clearly unhappy. The ideals are intact and the vision is unimpaired, yet he thought he had educated the entire club in the ways of his project. It seems he may be wrong.

Doubts are being aired, objections are being raised and I suspect that Wenger is actively considering his options. Professionally celebrated and financially secure, he may be sufficiently offended by the witless criticism that he decides to walk away.

And that, I suggest, would represent a disaster for his club. If Wenger walks, then who could replace him? Who could preach the same philosophy, convey the same vision, assert the same standards as the man from Strasbourg?

Jose Mourinho, say some. It would be like replacing Claude Monet with Rolf Harris. For Wenger is one of the best things to happen to our game.

He has opened our eyes to its dramatic possibilities. He has set civilised standards and inspired intelligent ambition. Of all the visitors we have received in the past two decades, Arsene Wenger is perhaps the most welcome.

If he should be forced out by a combination of phone-in dullards and shareholding simpletons, then Arsenal would pay an appalling price. And so would English football.


www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sport/football/article-1183393/Only-fools-win-Wenger-walks-away.html

We will and at least we'll be in with a shout of winning something next year, unlike Arsenal

We're in the big 4, you're in the Championship

We dropped a few positions over a few years, you dropped into the Championship

YOU'RE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. All your good players are gonna fuck off now (the few that you have) and you wont win shit next year. You'll be lucky to be promoted.

Enjoy playing against Don-fucking-caster and Blackpool you plonker!

Must mean we're MILES ahead of Newcastle if we have the same amount of quality players. Paradoxical much?