Arsenal

[dom9]

I tend to agree but would the comparison hold for other entrainment industries such as cinema (where I would assume the stars are paid more than those who direct them)?

A fair point.

That said, the shear amount of responsibility most football managers have (recruitment & staffing, budgets & financials, training, tactics, development & strategy, general staff management & motivation, PR) not to mention the precariousnous of their jobs, I would argue that they should be an exception to that rule.

To be a succesful football manager, you really do need to be highly adept with a comprehensive set of pretty diverse skills. Which is probably why so many fail to be a long term success at it. And probably why so many former pros baulk at it and go into media work.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

One of the main issues with Arsenal is. It's all well and good selling your best players and finishing Top 4 still. But the problem Wenger and the owners have now is that they charge their supporters an absolute fortune to watch a game at the Emirates. Everything there is a rip-off. On top of that they have sold players they bought for peanuts for some huge sums of money and put nothing back into the team. Didn't they sell Highbury for a fair whack?

To be honest it just appears to most that they are ripping off the fans, lining their own pockets. They must have paid off their stadium by now surely. You aren't going to get anywhere by selling your top stars. If it wasn't for RVP, they would have missed out on Top 4 last season. Their model is flawed. And when you look at the wage that Wenger takes now, their fans will question it. He gets paid more than some of their players. It's shoddy

I read somewhere that he's on something like £130,000 a week and a share holder, so he'll be benefiting from them turning huge profits by not investing. It does make you wonder.

At first it seemed he was determined to win the league his way, with young players playing attractive football. But now! They're not close to challenging and have arguably fell behind Spurs, so that theory doesn't really check out.

They got a sponsorship from Fly Emirites for the stadium, sold Highbury and charge fans £96 for games like last night. Add to that they've been selling players like Henry, Toure, Cole, Clichy, Nasri, Fabregas and Van Persie.

[Chazza]

Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke to offer manager Arsène Wenger his full support despite defeat by Bayern Munich

Arsène Wenger will receive the personal support of Stan Kroenke, the Arsenal owner, when the club’s directors digest the resounding Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich at their monthly board meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday’s 3-1 loss has intensified the debate that surrounds Wenger’s future but he retains the unequivocal backing of the club’s board and that will be reflected when the Frenchman attends the meeting.

Kroenke was also at the Emirates on Tuesday night, as was fellow billionaire shareholder Alisher Usmanov, and he remains sympathetic to the wider context of Arsenal’s current difficulties. Barring a miracle in Munich next month, this will be the club’s eighth straight season without a trophy.

Kroenke, though, has owned leading sports teams for almost 20 years and accepts that Arsenal are in a period of transition after the break-up of the team spearheaded by Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie. He also regards Wenger’s wider achievement of 16 consecutive top four finishes as hugely significant and does not accept that the seasons which have followed the move from Highbury to the Emirates can simply be dismissed as failure.
Wenger’s contract expires at the end of next season and there is no plan to make a change this summer, regardless of whether the club do now overhaul Tottenham in the race for a top four finish. How Wenger himself might react to a first failure to qualify for the Champions League, however, remains an unknown and he has always said that he would consider his own position if he felt that he was underachieving.

His stock remains very high across Europe and, should Jose Mourinho leave Real Madrid, he would be one of the leading targets of the Madrid board. Wenger is still confident that Arsenal will secure a top four finish and, with a transfer budget of £70 million this summer, believes that he will be able to add the extra quality this summer to challenge for the Premier League next season.

His budget, particularly in terms of players wages, would be more restricted if the club did fail to qualify for the Champions League and would probably mean that he could make one less major signing.

Arsenal, though, will be financially stronger this summer than ever before due to the front-loaded Emirates shirt sponsorship deal and a new kit deal that is current being negotiated. The impact of these deals on Arsenal’s finances will, according to chief executive Ivan Gazidis, be as transformative for their commercial earnings as the move from Highbury to the Emirates was in terms of match day revenues.

That money will all be available for squad strengthening. The gap to clubs like Bayern is clearly now considerable and it would be very difficult to imagine either Wenger or Arsenal wanting to prolong their partnership beyond 2014 if the downward momentum of recent seasons cannot be reversed over the next 12 months. For now, the focus is on finishing the season strongly and Wenger’s long-term future will not be discussed at board level before the final game.

“You hear clubs being criticised for sacking their manager too quickly,” said Peter Hill-Wood, the Arsenal chairman. “Now there are people out there calling for us to sack a manager who has been a huge success for 15 years. He is very diplomatic and calm but deep down he feels very strongly and he is as upset as anyone. It’s not just me who is backing Arsene. Stan Kroenke is very supportive too.”

Wenger does also remain popular with his players and it is clear that he has the support of Arsenal’s dressing-room. “We’ve got the best man in the job to get our heads back to where they should be,” said striker Theo Walcott.
Thomas Vermaelen, the captain, said that he was shocked to hear people questioning whether Wenger was the right man to take the club forward.

“Everyone in football looks too short-term,” he said. “They don’t look at the long term, and he’s done a lot for this club. It doesn’t mean that because it’s not going well at the moment we don’t stand behind him. You have to look at the long term. He is the right man for this club and we are all behind him.
“He still does a lot of hard work with us. He is the right man for the job. We have to show it on the pitch as well. At the moment the results are not good. But we will work hard with him to get the results back.

“We have to look at ourselves and stick together in difficult times. Don’t look at each other, don’t blame each other, work hard everyday to get the results back.”

There was also a message for the supporters, whose frustration has been manifested with booing at the end of the past two home matches.
“They must not forget we need them,” said Vermaelen. “They belong to the club. We have to stand behind each other. We have to stick together. We need each other.”

Lukas Podolski, who scored Arsenal’s only goal against Bayern, was critical of the team’s defending. “I am very upset about the result,” he said. “We conceded stupid and easy goals, that shouldn’t happen to us.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9884327/Arsenal-owner-Stan-Kroenke-to-offer-manager-Arsene-Wenger-his-full-support-despite-defeat-by-Bayern-Munich.html

[BobTheCharmer]

****ing loving arsenal ****ing up, cunts and frauds.

[Shaggy]

An embarrassing open letter from Henry Winter to Stan Kroenke...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9884271/Arsenal-majority-shareholder-Stan-Kroenke-must-get-tough-with-manager-Arsene-Wenger-following-latest-loss.html

Dear Stan

It sounds like you’re going to give Arsène Wenger your full support at Thursday’s board meeting. Well, if you genuinely care for the Arsenal, or at the very least care for your substantial investment, please attach conditions.

You must either persuade the manager to change his ways or face the inevitable prospect of changing the manager for another. And please tell Ivan Gazidis to stop being so darn deferential towards Wenger. No employee is bigger than the Arsenal.

Those familiar with your business modus operandi say it’s your style to appoint individuals (including inherited ones), give them a budget to work with and leave them to get on with it. Not now. Not with Arsenal’s season in this kind of meltdown. You need to be more hands-on. It’s time to challenge the manager and the culture. We know you hate the nickname ‘Silent Stan’. So don’t be.

Arsène looks exhausted, being crotchety with the press and opposing managers, traits that transmit a negative message to a dressing-room increasingly riddled with doubt. He needs help, Stan, a proper sounding board that he respects, a director to stop him faffing about in the transfer market. Arsène dithered over Juan Mata and Gary Cahill and Chelsea said thank you very much. He then rushed into buying Per Mertesacker, a giraffe in a sport of gazelles. You were there on Tuesday. You saw Mertesacker labour. Seriously.

Your great club had an opportunity to bring in Hugo Lloris last summer. Arsene hesitated. Why? He worried about collateral damage to Wojciech Szczesny’s confidence. Come on. Shielding somebody’s feelings is all very well but this is sport, not a cub-scout jamboree. This is about winning, about the law of the jungle. Anyway, Szczesny has hardly looked a worthy successor to Jack Kelsey, Bob Wilson or David Seaman this season. It’s a painful truth for you and the board but the club miss David Dein. He’d tell Arsène to stop prevaricating and buy.

You could have got Patrick Vieira on board. Or Brian Marwood. Please, tap into ex-players’ expertise. Don’t let your rivals reap the benefits.

Stan, when Bayern Munich were in town on Tuesday, ending your season, did you meet the people on their board? You might have bumped into Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who conquered Europe with club and country, or the World Cup-winning Uli Hoeness or Matthias Sammer, he of the 74 caps and the job description on the club website that reads: “trophies are his absolute priority at FC Bayern”. Trophies. It’s the name of the game. Keep one eye on the bottom line, Stan, but why not for once make a break for the finishing line?

When Bayern’s board makes decisions, as it did so stealthily and successfully with Pep Guardiola, it draws on decades of accumulated dressing-room wisdom. Arsenal can’t. A board full of civilians stays in awe of Wenger. I bet you stand up and salute when he walks into the room. Look, Arsène’s a fine man and a good manager but he’s not some mythical legend who cannot be questioned. Tell your chief executive to be tougher. Heaven knows, you pay Gazidis enough. Sir Alex Ferguson spoke on Wednesday of having “a million arguments” with David Gill and they’ve won trophy after trophy, built team after team.

At the Emirates on Tuesday, you may have seen that fan with the shirt bearing the words of that Wenger mission statement: “We don’t buy world-class players. We make them.” But now you sell them. Listen to the fans, Stan.

The growing fear is Jack Wilshere could be next. Jack’s a good kid, wholehearted, and definitely committed to your great club but what happens if there’s another season of losing out in 2013-2014? Jack wants to be No 1. Do the math.

Talking of which, Stan, you need to revisit your remuneration policy. You’ve the fourth largest wage bill in the EPL, pushing towards £150m a year, yet the balance is wrong. Let’s cut to the chase. Let’s call your problem under Wenger the Squillaci Factor, an average player paid way over the odds. So divide the cake more cleverly. Promote meritocracy rather than mediocrity. Be American.

Sorry to twist the knife, Stan, but take another glance at Bayern.

They’ve a good blend of home-grown darling and high-class hiring, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez. And just how many of your players would get in Bayern’s team? Just Jack. We all love Theo but he doesn’t deliver like Thomas Müller. Have a word with Arsène. Ask him where his leaders are, his real “go-to guys” beyond Jack?

Stan, in truth, you’re lucky. Arsenal fans could be picketing the ground, chaining themselves to the railings. You must understand their hurt. Supporting a “soccer” club is not an emotion switched on when crossing the stadium threshold on match-day. It lives with you, keeps you awake at night. It becomes an obsession that can wreck jobs, marriages and bank balances.

Stan, ignore the social-media uprising. On Tuesday, there was no mutiny at the Emirates. It is hard to imagine many other supporters of leading clubs being this stoic. But do not take quietness for tacit acceptance. There are stains on a famous shirt.

Tell Arsène that today.

Henry Winter

[dom9]

Winter is a bit of a loon isn't he.

[Chazza]

Is Winter an Arsenal fan?

[cream]

What a ****ing tit.

[Sarb]

That is embarassing by Henry Winter

I'm lost for words!

Modus fcuking operandi.

[Sarb]

Is Winter an Arsenal fan?

You would hope so after reading that letter

[SK]

sums up what everyone of their fans is thinking doesn't it? who is winter anyway is he a journo?

[Fivex]

That's like something from The Onion.

[RedProf]

Anyone else try reading that with Eminem's Stan going through their heads

[Tee]

You would hope so after reading that letter

He really is a pontificating cunt. Him, James Lawton and the ****face neandrathal Martin Samuels.

[Pablo]

That's embarrassing

What a smarmy, smug, condescending gob****e shake: