Alexis Sanchez – The plan….since the summer

 

Alan Shearer can say and think what he wants – it doesn’t bother me if he thinks Alexis is world class or not and I really doubt it bothers Alexis.

All three goals were just out of this world at the London Stadium against West ham. The third may have had an element of luck with the potential marginal offside decision going our way but what a finish. Faking once in such a tight space and dinking the ball over the keeper was wonderful to watch.

The second goal was a great hit in the only place the keeper couldn’t get too – Alexis was enjoying himself.

The first goal, however, was my favourite goal – the ball was actually with Alexis in the box but ended up going back to Mustafi. The centre back then played the ball forward which Alexis expertly controlled, on the half turn, went past his man, held him at bay and even took an extra touch to get half a yard to get the shot away; which he did and it was a mighty finish.

The Alexis situation has really got me thinking about the summer and what was the plan for him and more about the Jamie Vardy failed bid.

We know that Arsenal went in for Jamie Vardy and we all know that the decision seemed to take about a year to come through but for whatever reason, Jamie Vardy didn’t sign for Arsenal. That gave encouragement to those who enjoy slating Arsenal (rival fans or even our own) to moan and spin the ‘truth’ (I say ‘truth’ because in reality, no one really knew what the trust was) and start the ‘Arsenal can’t even attract Vardy’ stories.

This is my belief what happened – we heard whispers that Vardy wasn’t guaranteed a first team slot like the way he is at Leicester and this was a big reason for him rejecting the move. Looking at it now, it makes total sense.

We also hear whispers that Arsene Wenger had decided at the end of last season that Alexis Sanchez is going to be his striker – he has been searching for ‘that’ striker since losing out on Suarez a few years ago but until now hasn’t managed to find him. What’s even more interesting is that when Brendon Rodgers was on goals on Sunday last season and he admitted that Liverpool had targeted and identified Alexis Sanchez as the closest to Luis Suarez in terms of work rate and the potential to score the goals Suarez did without having to change the style completely.

We also know that Arsene Wenger had a conversation with Theo Walcott which resulted in them agreeing Theo best role is on the right wing and that’s where he will be playing when picked the majority of the time; so conversations were going on!

It seems as if Alexis Sanchez playing centre forward was decided early on and therefore Jamie Vardy was being bought to cover, play wide at times and generally be a player who can complement rather than being ‘the man’.  In the end, Vardy decided he probably wanted to be one of the first names on a team sheet and therefore stayed at Leicester and we got Lucas Perez instead.

The question is why it has taken two seasons for this to happen and in truth, Alexis, prior to this season, was never given a proper chance up front for a run of games but perhaps the search for a striker just wasn’t happening so we looked closer to home.

Regardless of it being a master stroke or had some element of luck, it is working wonders right now and long may it continue – we just need to keep him fit and sign a new contract!

Come on Alexis, make our dreams come true, sign a new deal, win the league and finally shut Alan Shearer up!

Up the Arsenal

#Wenger20 - My Tribute

 

Just a mention of Arsene Wenger’s name, be it at the Emirates or in the away end when Arsenal travel on the road, can you get you into a heated debate – perhaps even a punch up. The split in the fanbase that has grown over the years with regards to the Arsenal manager has become an increasingly ugly one.

 

As I work in communications, I spend a lot of my time looking at the material the club release through their various media channels and find myself analysing many of the campaigns they carry out. With this being the week 20 years ago that the enigmatic Frenchman first arrived in north London, I imagine that talk of how to mark the occasion has been debated several times within the Arsenal media team. How would the divided fanbase react to a week of praising a man many of them want out, especially if the season had started particularly badly? What if there was a protest arranged to coincide with the occasion? What effect could it have on the club’s fledgling campaign?

 

A look at the fixtures when they first were released and seeing Chelsea’s name written down on this week of all weeks would have many fans fearing the worst, let alone the public relations team, considering that the bitter rivals from across the city had inflicted defeats on Wenger’s side on both his 500th and 1000th games in charge of the Gunners – with the latter infamously ending in a humiliating 6-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in March 2014. However, despite these concerns, Arsene Wenger actually got an anniversary gift better than he could have dreamed, and the man he has to thank for that one Jose Mourinho.

 

Mourinho might not have known it at the time but sending texts to Rob Beasley with details about how he’d like to break Wenger’s face were he ever to meet him on the street, details which were released by Beasley this past week, has ending up doing his nemesis a huge favour. As much as some fans hold great distaste for their long-serving manager, there is no greater unifier amongst Arsenal fans that a shared hatred of the Portuguese, and a news story about him speaking with such vitriol about Wenger has done more for bringing Gunners together around the world than a string of great results could do.

 

Of course, beating Mourinho’s former club in the most emphatic of 3-0 victories sure helps, but his words certainly did a lot to remind fans why Wenger is still beloved by so many. As much as fans like to criticise their own managers, when they have as great an affinity with their team as Arsene Wenger does with Arsenal, when an external force comes at one of your own you’re far more likely to band together with your brothers in arms and defend the man who represents you and your club. If I was hired to consult the club’s PR team – and, if they’re reading, I’m available at a competitive yet fair rate – I would be sure to play up to this tribalism to get the fans onside, if only for the time being.

 

I sent out a tweet last week which, in truth, I expected plenty of adverse comments about. I asked fans to forget, for this week at least, what they think of Arsene Wenger as Arsenal’s manager in 2016, and instead take a minute to reflect on what he’s given to this club over the past two decades. To my surprise, little abuse came my way and it was rather well received. Whilst in the dark days of hammerings on the road and defeats away at Stoke sure make it seem like Wenger is hated by many, anniversaries such as these (coupled with some positive results) reveal the great deal of affection that still resides in north London for the man from Strasbourg. With all the tributes flooding in of late, I too have decided to look back on Wenger’s tenure and will do so below by speaking about in a number of time periods across his 20 years in charge.

 

1996-98: Revolution

 

The start of a glorious period for the club came with a league and FA Cup double in the 1997/98 season, Arsene Wenger’s first full season in charge. Wenger’s first great team really did have everything – pace, power, ingenuity, a rock-solid defence, a World Cup-winning backbone and an electric attack. This campaign remains one of my best ever, with us beating would-be rivals Manchester United both home and away as we stormed to our first league title since 1991. We had signed Dennis Bergkamp just before Wenger arrived and he soon established himself as the best player in the country by winning the PFA Player of the Year award.

 

Arsene Wenger really did change everything at the club upon his arrival. The stories often repeated from the likes of Lee Dixon, Ian Wright and Ray Parlour give you an insight into how quickly the culture at the club changed once Wenger got his shoes under the manager’s table. There was a degree of nervousness amongst the playing squad at how many of their freedoms (namely their ability to drink and eat what they liked) would be affected, but rather than alienate them, Wenger got the majority of them onside. Lots of players were worried that their time at the club might be coming to an end in the latter stage of their careers, but the decision from Wenger to try and keep a number of them on-board and to help extend their careers though increasing fitness and improving their nutrition was a masterstroke.

 

Arsene Wenger’s assault on liquid lunches, Mars Bars and chips proved to be hugely effective, and the influence he had over the years extended far beyond the Arsenal training ground. On an episode of Goals on Sunday recently, former Bolton Wanderers men Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies noted that Highbury was the first ground at which players could no longer buy alcohol in the players’ lounge after games. Others soon followed, but Arsenal were the first. He also changed training methods, with the introduction of proper warm ups and warm downs, as well as stretching in hotels during the morning before games, first coming in under his reign. Funnily enough, this last policy he did renege on after Tony Adams spoke on behalf of the team to express their dislike for this routine – it might well have been so he could “give something back” to his team, but it’s clear that despite overhauling so much at Arsenal, Wenger was always willing to work with his players to achieve results.

 

Ian Wright has consistently gone on record to describe how Wenger’s approach helped save his career and similar sentiments have been echoed by the likes of Adams too. He might once have had to deal with chants of “we want our Mars Bars back” from the players after his changes were first implemented, but there’s no doubt that many of that 1997/98 double-winning squad are indebted to the man for how he managed to prolong their respective playing careers.

Getty images

 

1998-2001: Building

No significant silverware might’ve been won during this period, but for all the success that was to come, much of the groundwork was laid here. Wenger’s methods were in place and everyone brought into the club knew that they had to do things in a certain way to make it at Arsenal, such was the respect the manager’s reputation demanded. This few-year spell saw players like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Sol Campbell all arrive at Highbury. Club legends such as Nigel Winterburn and Ian Wright might have moved on by now, but they were be replaced with an exciting crop of players containing some of the best talent from around the world.

 

One of the biggest challenges facing Wenger during this period was replacing these big personalities but his desire to scour foreign countries for talent – something that he was doing far more than his domestic rivals – allowed him to pool together a squad full of winning mentalities. He knew that his sturdy and reliable English defence were well into their thirties and approaching their last legs, so he went about replacing them and did so in a superb manner. By this point, the training ground was paid for and constructed (with the money raised from selling Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid) and talks of financing a new stadium were well underway. If the stadium move were to go ahead, Wenger knew that the costs of the move would have a huge impact on how he could operate at the club, and as a result the next few years prior to any move were crucial. It’s safe to say he made the most of them.

 

2001-06: Glory

 

In this five-year span, everything Arsene Wenger did seemed to pay off. Arsenal were competing consistently at the top of the English game as the first long term challengers to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United during the Premier League era, and whilst true success in Europe eluded them, they were making themselves known on the continent more and more with each passing year. In this period, Arsenal ended up with two more league titles, three FA Cups and a place in the final of the European Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

 

More than just the number of finals and trophies was the style of football Wenger’s Arsenal teams employed. It was beautiful, sublime and elegant, utterly ruthless and a joy to watch. For many, it was the best brand of football they’d ever seen on these shores. For some that remains a fact. It was fluid, quick and purposeful, and with talents such as Bergkamp, Henry and Pires working in unison with one another, Arsenal’s offensive game rivalled any other’s in world football. Sol Campbell, Gilberto Silva, Jens Lehmann and many others all arrived in the year following the turn of the century and Wenger quickly established himself as the shrewdest operator going when it came to the transfer market. There were, of course, the odd Inamoto, Jeffers or Stepanovs, but for every dud there was a world beater.

 

Arsene Wenger took his players to places such as Turin, Milan and Madrid and came away with famous victories. This was the time that Arsenal were feared, with the pace and finishing ability of the likes of Henry and Pires just as imposing and terrifying as the sizable frame of Patrick Vieira. It has often been said that during this period, games were won for Arsenal in the tunnel before kick-off – with so much talent on show, opposition sides couldn’t help but fear what they had in store for them. Teams were afraid of what Arsenal could do to them.

 

In this spell Arsene Wenger even got some of his boldest predictions correct – he was mocked for saying that he thought his side could go an entire league season unbeaten in 2002, but within two seasons he had proved the hordes of doubters wrong. The Invincibles season in 2003/04 even ended with the title being won at White Hart Lane – it really would the most magical end to the most

magical of eras at one of the country’s greatest clubs, and the man could do no wrong.

  

2006-2012: Transitioning

 

These were the tough years.

 

Arsenal said goodbye to Highbury and moved to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, and the cost of the new 60,000-seater stadium meant the purse strings became significantly tightened. The club lost their best players, and what felt like a constant stream of silverware suddenly felt like a dried up riverbed. ompared to his first decade in charge, some see these eight years as a total failure in comparison, although I see things a bit differently. I believe that in the decades to come these turbulent years will be remembered as some of the most significant in the club’s history, such was the importance of remaining competitive and qualifying for the Champions League whilst also managing to keep the balance sheet in check.

 

I respect the fact that this club should always be aiming for titles, but in this period there were not the priority. The priority was to remain competitive and get the club in a healthy position. Despite it being highly frustrating at the time, we got through the period. We experienced some low points during this period, but we made it through. Mistakes were made, there were players we could have bought that we didn’t, and we sold our best players to rivals. There were reasons behind these decisions but I think even Wenger himself would admit to these mistakes.

 

I recently (about three years) spoke to him at the club’s AGM about the Champions League final and despite being sure that taking Pires off was not a mistake, he admitted that perhaps taking Fabregas off for Flamini meant we went too defensive which allowed Barcelona to pressure us more. This is a man that thinks about every decision and is obsessed by the game he dedicates his life too.

 

In 100 years, I’m convinced people will look at this period and think it was a very significant period in the club’s history which laid the basis for the decades that follow it because without it, I’m not sure we would be seeing players like Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez at our football club today. We had to grit our teeth at times but, in retrospect, it’s been worth it.

 

                                         Banner that has been made by @geezypeas and co

2012-present: Revival

 

This is the period where the cloud of debt incurred by the stadium move began to dissipate. We no have to sell our best players as soon as a richer club come knocking, and the big money signings of the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Granit Xhaka and Shkrodan Mustafi have signified a new and financially-prosperous era at Arsenal Football Club. Perhaps the club have under achieved slightly in this period and should have added another league title during this time, but Arsene has built a very good squad and whatever happens to him in the next few months and years, I hope this proves the springboard for Arsenal to win major trophies again.

 

For 20 years, Arsene Wenger has been the one consistent figure at Arsenal, all whilst players, staff and shareholders have come and gone. The club has changed massively and so has the game of football. I understand the frustration and I am ready for change if the club decide to go down that route, but one thing is clear – my respect for Arsene Wenger has never been stronger. The man has given us so many memories and great moments that will never be forgotten. I think his personality has made him a beloved figure with many people around the world. His sense of humour, his humility and even his clumsiness – from getting stuck in nets to struggling with his coat zipper – have helped make him a hugely endearing figure.

 

 

                                               Credited to Stuart MacFarlane

 

I’ve been lucky enough to meet Arsene Wenger on a number of times and the thing you notice straight away is his openness, and he always seems happy to talk. I remember that at another AGM, a shareholder and his son approached Arsenal to ask him a question and after answering it, Arsene started asking the son what he was doing in education and took a proper interest. I once asked him about signing a potential centre back – he had said in a press conference a week earlier that it was unlikely and I pressed him on that. His answer was “don’t believe everything I say” but, a week later, a new centre back turned up!

 

I once got him to sign a copy of a photo that I had taken with him previous and I asked him if he wanted a copy – he replied ‘I have many’ – quickly thinking about what he said, he changed his tune and said “I mean I have plenty of photos with me in them, not you!”. Every interaction I’ve been lucky enough to have with him has been an overwhelmingly pleasant one.

 

Some of the one liners he has delivered in press conferences have been different class and his replies to some parts of the media and responses about other managers have often been comedy gold. I appreciate many would like him to go but on his 20 year anniversary,  but it’s time to pay a tribute to the great man. I hope I’ve been able to do that.

 

Here’s to you, Arsene. Thank you for everything.

Arsene Wenger best quotes

 

Image taken by Stuart MacFarlane

•  "Everybody has a different opinion in this league and nobody is a prophet, we live a society where everybody knows everything and it looks like it is a shame to say I don’t know.”

• "I personally don’t know who will win the league. I have managed 1,600 games so if Nani knows he must be 1,600 times more intelligent than I am.”

•  "If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all."
   

•  "Nobody has enough talent to live on talent alone. Even when you have talent, a life without work goes nowhere."

•  "I did not see the incident."
   

•  “Is the title over or not? I don't believe so. If everyone is right about the championship, then let's stop, give them the trophy and then start again.”

 

•  [Upon being asked what he does with his spare time] "I watch football."

 

• "We do not buy superstars. We make them."

 

• "I am in a job where you always look in front of you. Unfortunately, the older you get, the less distance there is in front of you."

 

• "If I go into a season and I say, 'For f***'s sake, if we don't win anything, they will all leave,' I have already lost. The problem of the media is always to imagine the worst. The problem of the manager is always to imagine the best."

 

•  [After the Arsenal fans booed a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough in November 1998] "If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages."

 

• [Upon being asked if he had received the apology that Sir Alex had announced he had sent to Wenger] "No. Perhaps he sent it by horse."

 

• [On losing the lead of the league in November 2004] "It's like a child who is used to having ice cream whenever he wants. When it doesn't come when he asks he tends to get confused and nervous."

 

• [On Arsenal's recruitment policy] "If I give you a good wine, you will see how it tastes and after you ask where it comes from."

 

• "If you have a child who is a good musician, what is your first reaction? It is to put [them] into a good music school, not in an average one. So why should that not happen in football?" - September 2009, in response to Uefa president Michel Platini and Fifa president Sepp Blatter's respective claims that the top clubs' pursuit of young players was akin to "child slavery" and "child trafficking".

 

• "A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful."

 

• [In response to Sir Alex Ferguson's claim that he possessed the best team in the league despite Arsenal winning the title in 2002] "Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home."

 

• [After Jose Reyes announced he wanted to leave Arsenal] "It's like you wanting to marry Miss World and she doesn't want you. I can try to help you but if she does not want to marry you what can I do?"

 

• [On Emmanuel Adebayor's stamp on Robin van Persie] "I watched it when I got home and it looked very bad. You ask 100 people, 99 will say it's very bad and the hundredth will be Mark Hughes."

 

• [On Jose Mourinho after the then Chelsea boss accused him of being a voyeur] "He's out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent."

 

• "I tried to watch the Tottenham match on television in my hotel yesterday, but I fell asleep."

 

• [In 2003] "It's not impossible. I know it will be difficult for us to go through the season unbeaten. But if we keep the right attitude it's possible we can do it."

 

• "I am not scared to spend money. If you go out with me one night, you will understand that."

 

• "Sometimes I see it (a foul by an Arsenal player), but I say that I didn't see it to protect the players and because I could not find any rational explanation for what they did."

 

• "I cannot classify the moments of happiness and of sadness, but every defeat is a scar in your heart that you never forget."

 

•  "It is a big surprise to me because he cancelled his contract to go abroad. Have you sold Portsmouth to a foreign country?

 

• “No, no, I want to lose it and I want to lose the game tomorrow so you can all be happy”

 

• “I have been accused of not taking the FA Cup seriously on Saturday. I have won the FA Cup four times. Who has won it more? Give me one name.”

 

 

Why Always Us?

Have you ever spent weeks and weeks getting excited for something, only for it to turn out to be utter shit? Well, for millions of Arsenal fans yesterday afternoon, that was exactly what we got as our team found themselves 4-1 down to Liverpool an hour into the new Premier League season.

And to think I even made the mistake of saying we actually looked comfortably for the first 45 minutes. We were dealing with long balls comfortably and were pressing well to win the ball when Liverpool played on the ground. Then, out of what seemed like nowhere, we were 4-1 down. It can only happen at Arsenal.

How on earth we allowed Alberto Moreno the chance to stay on the pitch by not testing him at all in the second half is beyond me. In the first half he looked utterly lost in the left-back position, giving away a penalty and going for a walk for Walcott's opener - why oh why did we not attack him more?

The Wenger debate goes on

I was asked last week if I was "In" or "Out" as part of the biggest debate capable of matching the recent EU referendum. Funnily enough, I'd never actually been asked this outright before - most people tend to assume that I'm part of the "Arsene Knows Best" crew because I don't spend much of my time talking negatively about our manager. The actual truth is that as much as I want Mr. Wenger to succeed - just as I would want any Arsenal manager to do - I'm very much open to change, despite my enormous respect for him.

After 20 years, change should be embraced and not resisted and can bring on a number of positive benefits, but in the short term, I'm always going to want to see my club win football matches. What does that make me? An Arsenal fan! I doubt my match day routine would change whatsoever if the manager changed - it'd continue to consist of a trip to the cafe, the pub, the game, and back to the pub, with a whole lot of chanting going on throughout as well. In truth, my experience as an Arsenal fan stretches far beyond discussions over whether or not the manager should be given the sack or not, and I find that it often serves to be a way to start arguments over Twitter and online. I'd rather be left out of the debate.

Signing the elusive centre-back

The way we have gone about trying to sign a centre-back has confused me - we seem to have identified one we like the look of, but we still seem far away from actually signing him. In a recent episode of the Gooner Ramble podcast I hosted, we had a journalist on who explained the inner workings of these transfer deals and what things have to happen before they're finalised, and how clubs would often use third parties to first establish the viability of any potential deal. If positive vibes came their way they would then seek to make things official, and by-and-large the Football Manager-style of placing a bid and only then offering a contract to the player isn't that true to reality.

This indicates that Arsenal had received those good vibes after feeling out any potential deal for Jamie Vardy, but after activating the release clause in his Leicester City contract, he likely had a U-turn that meant the deal didn't go ahead. Whilst this likely wouldn't have happened in the Vardy deal, the delay could also be because the buying club is spending too much time haggling in order to pay as little as possible. No-one wants to pay more than they have to, but in football it's not as clear cut as that - paying slightly more for a centre-back, for example, means the likelihood of getting a good result in the coming games improves if the player can have a positive impact, and with that in mind the value of doing the deal early should surely appeal.

It's also possible that the delay is caused by the selling club wanting to line up or sign a replacement before they sell their man. There's no coincidence that Swansea City were able to announce the signing of a replacement for Ashley Williams after their captain moved to Everton, meaning the deal likely wasn't totally finalised until Swansea had their man lined up too. Still, whatever the reason for the delay in Arsenal signing a centre-back - or a striker, for that matter - the club have had more than enough time to fill both positions, and just as I thought back in May, I still feel we're in desperate need of improvements in this area.

Players and their summer breaks

One thing I do worry about is when the club might bring players back into the first team too early, leading to poor performances and injuries. We saw on Sunday what can happen - Aaron Ramsey, who had played in only one game during pre-season, went down with a hamstring injury and now looks set to be out for a month. There's been a lot of debate about this topic as Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud were all absent from the Liverpool match due to their late returns to training, to the aghast of many. Cruelly enough, Wenger went for a bit of both and we suffered badly - we missed the players who were absent, but the one who did play got himself injured!

I firmly believe that it should come down to the respective individuals and their own fitness regimes, depending on their bodies and their workloads. Should a centre-back need as much rest as an attacking midfielder, perhaps? I've no idea as I'm no fitness or physiotherapy guru, but all I do know is that, if possible, I would have loved an experienced centre-back in the team and it was tough to see Koscielny watching from the stands as Calum Chambers and Rob Holding struggled to cope with Liverpool's second half onslaught.

Either way, it's clear to see that yet again we are unprepared for the start of the season, and it has already cost us three points. We still have 37 games to go but this lack of preparation could be the difference between 1st and 2nd - or 3rd, 4th or even 5th. I wouldn't go as far to say that we're in the midst of another crisis but the club need to act and act fast. With a trip to the champions Leicester City next weekend, we could still be waiting for our first points after two games. It seems almost unthinkable for us not to sign someone - although I said the same this time last August - but if we don't, then we might be at our lowest point for some time. It's tough to think about.

Back in 2013, we lost 3-1 at home to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season after a summer of inactivity and things became extremely hostile. However, we responded by beating Spurs shortly after and signing Mesut Ozil for a club record fee on deadline day, and that boost gave us the impetus to go on a winning run. We're not playing our greatest rivals just yet, but we are playing the defending champions in their own back yard, and right about now would be a good time to start winning. The excuses are wearing thin, and perhaps pressure from the fans will force the board and the manager's hand, but has it all been left too late?

Time will tell, but nonetheless I must make this plea to my beloved club - do not let things drift, or more and more fans will become disillusioned. We thought we'd moved past this toxicity after two FA Cup victories, but we're in danger of stagnating again. It doesn't have to be this way though. There's still time to get the fans back on board, to believe again, but it's running out quickly.

Up The Arsenal, as always.

Protest or No Protest - That Is The Question

In house fighting, protests, empty seats – safe to say, Arsenal football club isn’t the best place to be at the moment.

The atmosphere is quite toxic, yet I still keep going.

Being slightly controversial, the West Brom game at home was most enjoyable game I’ve been too recently – yes it had empty seats however, because of the situation, many kids had come with their parents, grasping the opportunity to watch Arsenal play. The enthusiasm shown by them was refreshing. There are probably too young to understand the politics and were funded by their parents so they just came for the Arsenal. They didn’t care if it’s Wenger out or Wenger in and probably have no idea what WOBS or AKBS are (mind you, it took me a while to understand – in game that I have been brought up to understand as something that is not black or white, yet…) and even cheered Theo Walcott! It helped that Arsenal won, and it was quite an easy evening on the pitch -  I wouldn’t go far as saying West Brom were hopeless but let’s say they were clearly saving their energy for their big game at White Hart Lane.

Don’t get me wrong, it was refreshing but I wished we were in a title race and right up there. Can you imagine the reaction with 60k packed in the ground and Arsenal chasing a title when the second Alexis goal goes in – it would have been magical.

We enter Saturday with the word ‘protest’ ringing in our ears – in fact, the word protest has been mentioned over 300k times on social media, admittedly only a small % would be Arsenal related but the word protest isn’t something Arsenal fans have come to see (much) in the last twenty years. There have been a few but this one feels different and much bigger.

It’s an interesting one – I’m a board member of the Arsenal supporters trust and despite what people think, we have a number of conversations behind the scenes, scan social media, use the results from our surveys to members, talk to members at meetings and read, listen and respond to all the emails we get in (we get quite a few) to help us with our stance. For years, I’ve been very pro Arsenal – I would say, compared to most, I still am but even I couldn’t argue against all the people who wanted to support this protest but at the same time, you have to be fair to every member, and respect the wide range of views.

I’m also a part of The Gooner Ramble which is a podcast / blog with various social media aspects – we all have differing views but as we are not a fans group and feel we do not need to get involved too much in things like this. However, every members thinks something has to change. Some won’t be at the game on Saturday so in terms of this particular protest are irrelevant but still should have an opinion.

Lastly, I’m a supporter and Fan – I go home and away and into Europe so as much as the AST position or the Gooner Ramble position is important for me, the most important thing is for me to do what I want to do.

Even if the AST were strongly supporting a protest, it does not mean I have too personally and I make that clear with my fellow board members and our members. Like in any company, if you get out voted, you get out voted (not suggesting I was outvoted here!).

The protest is one that every individual has to decide for themselves – that’s the reason (and I’ve spoken to other fan groups and people that came up with the idea) the words are quite vague; a protest about something specific can divide supporters. Protesting about Arsene Wenger would certainly divide supporters and despite what some individuals have said, it’s not a specific Arsene Wenger protest. It’s not even really a Anti Stan protest (as a few newspapers said), it’s simply a ‘something has to change’ protest, whatever that may be.

Do I think it’s time for a change? Yes, I think home ticket prices could be lower, I think TV companies changing kick off times with limited notice should be changed, I think Beer at the ground should be cheaper, I think Arsenal should have added to their squad last summer, I think the major shareholder should come out and talk to supporters more, I think there should be more initiatives to get younger fans to the Emirates (young guns section is obviously a good thing but isn’t selling out and there could be reasons for that which the club need to look into it), more football people on the board etc. I think there is plenty at the club that needs to change.  Dare I say it, Arsene Wenger will not go on forever, there must be a plan for when he does move on (whenever that will be), does he stay at the club in some capacity, does he go completely, if so, is there a project plan in place?

Will I print out the #TimeForChange stuff and display it – I honestly haven’t decided yet. On one hand, I think certain things do need to change but on the other, there is a game to win.

One of the biggest fears I have is surrounding our two key players- Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. Both have hinted they will wait till the summer before they sign a new deal and that scares me. But you know what, I don’t blame them, why would you sign right now? Arsenal fell out the title race in some fashion, have had a hopeless 2016, fans are not happy so waiting till the summer, waiting till they see what the club do, what happens with Arsene Wenger is quite natural. Arsene Wenger may have said he is confident they will sign, but I’m not so sure. I don’t think Arsene Wenger is either but saying anything otherwise would invite bids from top clubs across Europe and unsettle the two players further.  

Liverpool walked out in a game as an protest against Sunderland when they were 2-0 up and went on to draw 2-2; if something similar happens at Arsenal and points are dropped and the unthinkable happens with Arsenal falling out the top 4 then I think we can say good bye to Mesut and Alexis; I can’t get that thought out of my head.  

The AST and AISA have both said that fans need to decide for themselves and I think that is the only way – something does need to change but Arsenal need to win a few games to ensure they are in a better position to keep their best players.  

I see both sides. 

Up The Arsenal