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A Night In The Pub With Aston Villa...
Villa are the latest team to get the pub treatment, while the morning mailbox also includes missives on Tony Pulis leaving Stoke and Chelsea's future under Jose Mourinho...
Mourinho Isn't Short-Term, Football Is
There's more in the afternoon Mailbox about Jose Mourinho and his potential return to Chelsea, while there's also a link to some pictures of eagles that look like Arsene Wenger...
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David Moyes? Oh The Irony
I understand the way Arsenal fans are feeling with Wenger but as always with footy fans, emotions are over-ruling logic. So, Gooners are feeling tired and frustrated with a manager with a great reputation, specifically well regarded for over performing with relatively limited resources but undermined by his inability to win a trophy in a billion years. Surely then he should be replaced by a manager revered for over-achieving on a relatively limited budget but whose only trophy is the second division title with Preston North End 12 years ago? Oh wait.
Personally I'm still undecided whether getting rid of Wenger is the right thing or not, but I'm not a gooner so I guess my opinion on that doesn't really matter. Given the available budgets Wenger can't be expected to finish above Utd, City or Chelsea, and up until this year he has never finished behind Spurs, or any club with a lower budget or even finished outside the top four. I'm inclined to think the problem is with the club not the manager, but then again he certainly has some frustrating personality traits that rub off on his team.
From reading the mailbox this morning it seems the majority of Arsenal fans have decided he needs to go, but still there doesn't seem to be a common opinion on who should replace him. How about moving the discussion on from the endless should he/shouldn't he argument to the more interesting and less repetitive argument of who should replace him. Perhaps the result of that could help clarify the first, as there is no point sacking a manager and replacing him with someone worse, as Liverpool fans wll testify. Come on the mailbox, who's next? David Moyes? Really? Laudrup? Guardiola is already taken and I think most would agree Mourinho is not a good fit. One way or the other it's going to be a gamble...
Simon (obviously this is all forgotten for another couple of weeks if Arsenal get a good result against Bayern) London
Yes, Moyes...
I'll start off by saying I'm a Manchester United fan. I've read a lot of the mails this morning. Arsenal fans moaning about the prices they pay and for what they watch. I feel for them, I truly do. For me, coming up against Chelsea and City the last few years hasn't really been as good as coming up against Arsenal when they were the greatest challengers to United.
Why? Well Chelsea and City have had heap loads of cash dumped into them and they've kind of been acting like the school bully who's nicked all the lunch money and is now buying all the sweets. Okay, they have lots of money and they've thrown it about, won trophies and I won't begrudge them that. But if Chelsea and City are the new school bullies, then Arsenal (and Liverpool to some extent I have to admit) are our school mates. They play good attractive football, and the battles for the titles, the cups, pizza slices etc were the best years of the Premier League.
We can all have a good cheer at beating the school bully. But what I'm sure we all enjoy more is competing and beating our mates. The Premier League needs a strong Arsenal (and Liverpool) challenging for honours. None of this 'fourth place is a trophy' crap. I accept United won't win the league all the time. I just ask that come the last week of the season, I'd hope that every year we're still in a position we could and might well still win it. I'm sure an awful lot of Arsenal (and I'll say Liverpool) fans will say the same, the chance to, should all the chips/luck/ref decisions (delete as appropriate) fall your way, glory could be yours.
With that sentiment, and with Ming Kiat Tan asking who could possibly come in I'll give you my answer. We can rule out Jose, there is just no way a stable club would want to wish that on themselves. So I will rule out United, Liverpool or Arsenal ever offering 'The Special One' a job (unless they're desperate).
Jurgen Klopp, yeah he'd be a good one. Ideal in fact. He'd bring something new and the way he has transformed Dortmund into a force both in Germany and Europe has been impressive. So that'll be him off to Munich as soon as Pep has decided that the stress of a couple of years at the Allianz Arena is too much and he needs another year in NYC. Klopp himself says he's going nowhere. I believe he thinks he's got more to prove and more he wants to do where he is. So that's a no go.
Pep, okay he is off to Munich. But let's just say that Wenger stays until the end of his contract next year. That Pep doesn't get on to well at the Germans, gets sacked or decides to leave. He's certainly been mentioned in the past with Arsenal. Would he ever go there? I'm not sure. But he's off to Germany and if he's out within a year of being there...well would you want him then? Possibly, but you really need to sort this manager out this summer. Attendances on the decline, no trophies in sight. So Pep is out.
So who are we left with? Rafa Benitez is available in the summer. He's won a European cup...heheheheh...no sorry I can't keep a straight face saying that one. Someone already sold that to Roman and it's only really funny the first time you pull that joke off.
No we need Arsenal fired up and challenging. Okay, so we need a guy who is good on the budget when it comes to getting players in. We need a guy who gets as much as he can out of the players at his disposal. Arsenal might not make the Champions League places this year, but this isn't a player we're looking for. It's a manager. So although Champions League experience is preferable, I don't think it's 100% neccasary. Eight years without a trophy now, if ever there is a time for a risk now would be it. You could get in a load of managers that would last a year or so maybe who would come in on vast wages and demand the biggest of signings and it not make a jot of difference.
There is another guy who is becoming available in the summer you know. Yup...David Moyes. As good as Everton are, we all know this is as good as they are probably going to get. We all know they have hit a ceiling where only money is going to change it. And we all know, they haven't got it. Arsenal do though. They try to be very careful with it, but they do have it. Can you think of anyone else who deserves a chance to have a crack at it? Who won't p*** it away on the latest fads?
He'll get you playing good football too. Might get a bit more passion out of the jaded, fleeced fans?
I really don't get why he's not been linked in the papers already this week. We all know he's out of contract in the summer. Could it happen? I think it'd be a good appointment.
John (I hated school if I'm honest) Goy, Pembrokeshire
Some Still Support Wenger...
Dear Mr Mailman. Firstly, commiserations on your demotion from 'Top Gun' co-pilot to filter of the inner ramblings of the average armchair manager such as myself. I have just read on your lovable rogue website that it is rumoured Arsene Wenger is to be offered a new two-year extension and a 70 million war chest. I am hoping to get this little trinket in to the mailbox to rebut the short-sighted Gunners that are likely to be calling for his head this very day.
They will most likely argue vehemently that 70 million in the hands of AW makes little odds in the transfer market because he doesn't know how to spend it. My response to this would be that 70m makes no odds when (1) you can't offer the same wages as the big boys and (2) you are not as attractive a proposition when it comes to winning trophies as those same clubs. Is this really Arsene's fault?? Is it not glaringly obvious that Arsenal's actual problem is not Arsene Wenger himself, it is Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City. They are higher-paying clubs with bigger transfer kitties and are more likely to win trophies as a result.
When was the last time Arsenal won anything they will say. When? When? When? Let me pinpoint it for you. It was about the same day that a little Russian billionaire moved to town and bought Chelsea Football Club and with it, the cream of the transfer market. Arsenal were able to compete when it was only a two-horse race for the top with Utd. The transfer market had value and much less competition for that value (see Bergkamp, Overmars, Pires and co). Arsenal simply couldn't sustain that challenge when a third pony joined the paddock. But we are worse now they will say. We are worse, worse, worse!!! I hear you I truly do. What seismic event could have happened to have caused such a thing. Look there in the horizon...is it a bird? Is it a plane?? No, it's a Sheik with a couple of billion pounds in his back pocket. Enter Man City and Arsenal moving from third in a three-horse race to you guessed it, fourth. Is this not as clear as Evian to everyone?? Am I taking crazy pills here?? Do people actually think the money clubs make no difference to Arsenal's current predicament?
My last point on the matter is this: If Arsenal lose Wenger then Gunners fans can kiss goodbye to the Champions League qualification they all look at with contempt anyway (hilariously enough) but may win a poxy Carling Cup or whatever it is called these days. Ten years in a row qualification for the holy grail. Harry Redknapp did it once and was quickly made a shoe-in for the England job (okay, he didn't get it but you get the furore). David Moyes the much lamented David Moyes can only dream of it having come close once in his 11-year reign. If Brendan Rodgers did it there would be a statue of him erected in the garden of every Liverpool fan in the country. To these people it is considered the mightiest of achievements. Something to hang your hat on. It makes their careers!!! Wenger has done it year after year after year in the face of a rapidly changing Premier League and his own clubs fans laugh at him for it.
The only direction Arsenal will go minus AW is backwards. I for one will feel sad for the real Gooners who feel privileged to have seen the invincibles and know how rare a thing it was to assemble such a side. The fans who know it is not your birthright to win trophies every year despite the competition from other sides. Yet, a huge part of me will smile at the looks on the faces of the moaning Michaels who chanted 'Wenger out' if he does go. They will be wiping some serious omelette from their faces in a few years if it transpires so. Luckily for Arsenal and their fans, their board seem to know what they are doing.
That is my take and I would welcome some master debating on it.
Chris Crook (Wenger In)
...We are four points behind fourth place with 12 games left.
Not a single club who has spent less then us has finished ahead of us in the last 14-15 years.
We finished third last season.
We have never gone out in the group stages of the Champions league. (If I remember right)
Again: Consider the spending of Chelsea, Man United and Man City. And now the spending of Tottenham, Villa, Liverpool and others.
We have constructed a modern stadium with double Higbury's capacity and for decades will bring us a steady income 90% of clubs in England and abroad can only dream of.
I understand teams like Portsmouth, Birmingham and other have won trophies in this barren period but they didn't have to balance their effort by getting a top-four place or qualifying from the group stages of the Champions League.
The risk here is, has Wenger started believing fourth place is good enough and that is why he isn't spending the money he supposedly has? To get this cleared and for what he has done for the club, he needs to be given a huge transfer kitty to buy at least three excellent players where we actually outbid the sugar daddy clubs. This shouldn't be Wenger's option but a decision taken by the board and forced on Wenger. Logically it's a win-win for the board, as we are really lacking the super star names required to sell shirts in SE Asia. Then if Wenger fails we can start on his statue and get in Klopp.
Aj (Moyes!! Really? Heard the trophy cabinet at Everton can't fit in any more trophies.)
...I apologise, I've not even read any of the Mailboxes from the weekend or Monday morning's.
What I have done is read four paragraphs of John Nicholson's column and already I'm annoyed.
The financial situation of Arsenal Football Club has hamstrung the club over the past eight years. I'm not using this as an excuse for a trophy drought, I'm using it as a reason to explain how we are performing at the level, if not above the level, of where we should be.
People seem to suggest that the sale of our best players year in, year out has been a conscious decision by Wenger in order to prove a point that bring through youth is the way to do it. Maybe that is his philosophy, maybe he honestly thought that becoming reliant on youth would win all the trophies under the sun. Or, as is more likely, he was informed by the board that if we didn't sell our star players when huge offers came in then the club would not make a profit during a period where long-term sponsorship deals and even longer-term debt commitments and would in fact be running at huge losses.
This stretches back to the sale of Vieira back in 2005. The guy was a talisman and led the team very well. He also would have commanded a signing-on fee and a salary which Arsenal would not have been willing to offer to a player approaching 30. No one is going to argue that players like Vieira, Henry and Pires would have had a fantastic lasting effect on a young squad if they were kept; just look at Giggs and Scholes. But would it have been possible for Arsenal to do so? Could a balance have been struck between the older players being paid astronomical sums and the requirement of paying a young team more and more? The trade-off was the much-lamented wage structure which saw players like Diaby, Denilson and Bendtner paid salaries between 40-60k per week. This, with hindsight, was a mistake. Although would players such as Adebayor or Nasri have been so quick to leave this structure had Man City not joined Chelsea in showing that money could be no obstacle for a player?
There are not many managers which could have maintained a modest level of success, and consistently finishing in the top four is modest success, with this in the background. It is a testament to Wenger as a coach, a scout and a manager that he has done so.
I'm not going to focus on past glories, because frankly I don't see the point. What I'm going to look at is last season. We all know it was a s**t campaign right? 8-2 to Utd, 4-3 to Blackburn and suddenly the sale of Nasri and Fabregas saw us slip in to mid-table mediocrity from which we would never recover. Except we did. Two absolutely storming runs in the league saw us take third place ahead of Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, Chelsea and even Newcastle who at various points in the season really looked like challenging for it.
Wenger does have many failings. He has never been able to approach a game tactically in order to attack the opposition. His public persona which protects his players from any criticism also puts them in a bubble where criticism does not matter. And I could not think of any reason to defend the signing of Gervinho.
I believe that fresh blood in the management seat will be a good thing when it does happen. But I can't believe that now is the time to get rid of the manager who has held the club steady when things could have been very different.
Chris Bullock
...I doubt this will be published {reverse psychology} because it doesn't fit with the 'Wenger out' narrative that pervades on your website and among the wider football media at present. However, there are still a number of very sane-minded Arsenal fans who believe Arsene is still the man to lead the club. Whilst I do acknowledge that the 'Wenger out' brigade has grown markedly from a vocal minority, they are still not representative of the majority of Arsenal fans.
My question to the Stewie Griffins of the world is what exactly do you want from your football club? We have qualified for the Champions League in each and every season since he took charge...ask Spurs, it's not a feat to be scoffed at. Moreover, he has managed to achieve this despite being hamstrung by severe financial constraints. Arsenal is a study in how a football club should be run, and revisionists bleating on about Wenger having too much autonomy need only look at goings-on at Chelsea to understand why the club is run in this manner.
Yes, we should be beating the likes of Blackburn. But I would urge caution to my fellow Arsenal fans...the grass is always greener on the other side. If there's a manager out there who can deliver trophy after trophy with the same budget Arsene has been forced to work with then fantastic. I'll collect him from the airport myself. However, given the circumstances any manager is going to have to confront at Arsenal, there is no better man for the job than Wenger.
Clock End John
Football Has Changed Since 2004, Arsene
After the Arsenal result at the weekend, I thought I would avoid all the papers, because I knew what would be said, but I couldn't. Like some sick pervert who swims through a river of sh*t with their mouth open, I read it all, winding myself up. I knew what would be said:
Wenger: Insert comment about focus, about how they were robbed (one shot on goal comment), how they need to respond etc etc
Players: We need to do better, we need to show our character, we are angry etc etc.
Problem is that Wenger hasn't been able to motivate his teams for years. How many times have we been here listening to the same tired excuses or comments? How many times after we have lost to a side we should have beaten have we heard the same thing? It is made doubly worse by his crowing about character and spirit when we spawn a comeback.
And then to see in the press the stories about £70m war chests (which are never spent, history proves this without doubt!) and two-year contract situations. Are the club so out of touch with their fans that they would reward the man AGAIN for failure? Also, why would you trust this man to spend £70m when he said Gervinho was as good as Messi? It makes no sense.
I am not some reactionary 'Wenger out' fan, I am just a realist. He needs to go, the board need to go, and the club needs a revolution because football has changed since 2004, the club hasn't. This isn't me being angry because we don't win anything, it is because we have been knocked out of cup competitions we could have won by Bradford and Blackburn.
John Matrix, AFC
Ah, But FFP Gives Hope
Much as it pains me to shine any sort of light into the dark, gloomy room where Arsenal fans are currently wallowing in their self-pity, I fear that they're missing a point: within a few years FFP will really bite. UEFA have already demonstrated their willingness to ban transgressors from European competition, and it seems to be the case that there will be limited scope for City, Chelsea et al. Circumvent it by ludicrous sponsorship deals with companies owned by their owners.
In this context, the commercial and stadium revenues Arsenal generate will become significantly more valuable relative to other clubs' income streams. The effects will be twofold, and compensate for two areas of weakness for Arsenal in recent times: transfer fees and wages. The first point is fairly simple. If City and Chelsea risk exclusion from the CL by overspending, they can no longer blow Arsenal out of the water when bidding for players. The second is more profound. Arsenal's biggest weakness in recent times has been their wage structure: although they pay a lot of mediocre players far too much (Rosicky, Arshavin etc.), this is a reaction to their inability to retain or attract elite talent, as City (and to a lesser extent Chelsea) exploit their financial cheat codes to lure players away for stupid money. The damage sustained exclusion from the CL would do to a major club is huge, and the threat of this should stop the annual exodus from Arsenal for wealthier shores.
Of course, given United's projected commercial revenues in the next five years (bye bye debt, bye bye City), FFP will also all-but guarantee that United win the league the majority of years. If only Gill had the balls to negotiate an individual TV deal, we'd be out of sight financially, and competing alone with Madrid and Barca.
This isn't to deny that Arsenal have major structural problems (and a board who plainly prioritise dividends over trophies), that they pay mediocre players far too much (I wonder what their median wage is - higher than United's I suspect), and that Wenger looks rather stale. But the future is bright.
Chris, MUFC
Another 'Be careful What You Wish For'
Hear, hear Daniel (Still want Rodgers out) Benvenuto. Ne'er a truer word was said. As a Newcastle fan I have also courted disaster willingly. When Bobby Robson was sacked in 2004, although I never wanted him to leave, I barely raised my voice to protest. This seems absolutley barmy when you think that Uncle Bobby was replaced with Graeme Souness, who was in the process of relegating Blackburn Rovers. I was lulled into the false sense that because G.S. talked a good game he was therefore a competent manager. He still is one of my favourite talkers of a good game, although a hopeless football manager. I yearn to go back in time, slap the rotund cheeks of Freddie Shepherd and tell him "catch yersel' on", before twisting his arm until he offered Sir Bobby (may he R.I.P) a lifelong contract.
Liverpool are now trapped in the cycle of decline that Newcastle were until relegation allowed us to shed our 'Downings, Coles and Borinis' if you will. We were also paying top wages for mediocre talent. You can't shift them out cause no-one thinks they're worth the money and they don't want to take a pay-cut. Their wages are such a handicap in the transfer market that you can't buy in what you really need.
For example, in his time at Newcastle, Michael Owen was on £120,000 a week, or £6.4million a year. That's £25million in the four seasons he was here. It's is also the combined cost of signing Cabaye, Cisse, Sissoko, Ben Arfa, Gouffran and Marveaux and still having £3,000,000 left over for a jaunt around the casinos with Wor' Dekka. And you still haven't even touched the £17million that Graeme and Freddie blew on Mickey's transfer fee. (71 out of 152 Premier League games he played in his four seasons). When you consider J.A. Boumsong and Albert Luque were also there (another £17m in transfer fees), it is a wonder we were not relegated earlier.
Although I have digressed considerably, the point remains that (although Paddy Kluivert was a bit s**t) if Bobby had not been uncerimoniously dumped out of toon, I am confident this metaphorical flushing of £50 notes down the lavvy, would not have occurred. But when FFS sacked the great man we somehow thought it was for the best at the time. I echo the thoughts of Danny Benvenuto in that although Wenger has not broken the Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea trophy monopoly recently, that he is still keeping Arsenal competitive, and that counts for a lot when the next man through the door may be the next Graeme Souness.
Aurevoir mon petits amis,
Monsieur Michel de la Chateauneuf (et aussi tres bon pour Tom Goldenballs' 'if only' e-mail)
Sticking Up For Rovers
Re: the charming Graham Simons in this morning's mailbox.
I'm afraid I must take exception to your labelling of Blackburn Rovers fans as classless. 'Those fans that turned their manager's life into a living hell' is hardly a justification for such a label. Steve Kean - who when he wasn't trying to take credit for spotting academy products signed long before his arrival, blaming fans for him being caught and, convicted of, drink driving, or promising Champions League qualification - was a blithering yes man who didn't care what damage he did to the club as long as he was collecting a fat pay cheque. Lets not forget exactly how awful his record was. Without the anger and vitriol of the supporters he might still be in charge.
Though I do note your club may require a new man in charge soon. Perhaps if you feel Mr Kean was poorly treated you might campaign for him to installed as le profferseur's successor? Kean in, eh?
Now if you'll excuse me, some of us can still daydream about winning something this season.
Adam, "...and Rhodes has scored the goal to win the cup!", Belfast
Are Suarez And Sturridge Too Greedy To Work?
The continuous theme of scouse-related football coverage in recent weeks has been about Suarez and Sturridge forming this incredible partnership. I have my doubts about this...
While undoubtedly there have been moments during their time playing together where this looks to be the case there is one massive elephant in the room which will come to the fore more and more. They create space for each other with their movement and certainly any team going from one not-so-out-and-out striker up top to two not-so-out-and-out strikers switching positions is going to cause defences more of a problem.
The elephant in the room is that these are two greedy b**tards. Look back at Suarez's goal against Swansea yesterday; Sturridge wanted the pass, it did not come, the team scored and Sturridge sulked. He did not celebrate with Suarez, he did not raise his arms or give any indication whatsoever that his team had just scored, nothing.
Sturridge has always had that attitude and Suarez is the same. The reports today that Sturridge begged Stevie Me for the second penalty (which was dreadful by the way) go some way to showing that he is all about himself, as is Suarez.
Liverpool's attacking play is more dynamic and has improved slightly since Sturridge's arrival but trust me this will not end well..
Mangore United, Belfast
Eyebrows Raised Again
Interesting comment from Robbo Robson this morning, regarding Neil Warnock's state of 'sans sourcil', as Joey Barton would say. I feel a bit guilty pointing this one out, given recent news, but I noticed many years ago that Paul Gascoigne has no eyebrows, either. I figured at the time that it was the result of a prank at the hands of his chums, but he has been brow-free on every occasion I have seen him since.
It's a really strange thing, y'know. Someone waxed an unconscious friend of mine at a party a few years back and, when he came downstairs the following morning, it took us all ages to work out what was wrong with his face. He just looked really shiny.
Graeme the Gooner in Reading
Depressed About Rogers Reaction
Amid all the FA cup action and Arsenal, I'd just like to pick up on the Rogers story that was mentioned in Sunday's mailbox. I had a quiet night on Friday, browsing a football forum to keep me entertained/stop me watching porn. I noticed a thread which was talking about said Mr Rogers coming out as homosexual. I had no idea who he was but was obviously interested, gay footballers who feel comfortable coming out in public is rare. I expected the thread to be full of people congratulating him for his courage, standing up for the world to see in the hope that attitudes will change and tolerance will improve. How wrong I was.
Don't get me wrong, about half the people there thought it was a good thing. The rest consisted of views asking why this was news, why anyone would care, insinuating it was done for attention and even homophobic comments. I was startled that people who were intelligent enough to use a computer are stupid enough to not understand the relevance of this. Being gay in football is rare because players are terrified of the reaction they will get. Neanderthal fans will spout vile abuse all because someone is different. Racism in football is seen as a major issue but homophobia is not by most. I thought the issue of sexuality in football was obvious, but clearly not to a few; the human race is really depressing sometimes.
Phil, Liverpool
Understanding Brendan
In case the Liverpool head of recruitment happens to read the mailbox, I'd just like to offer my services as translator for Brendan Rodgers; I scored 100% on the Huffington Post quiz mentioned in today's Mediawatch on my first go.
Jonny 5, (would settle for payment in lasagne - there seems to be a lot of donkey around Anfield at the moment) Bristol
