FTK Rant: Don’t cry for me plastic Gooners, the truth is I’m happy

I happen to agree with you. Even if we do not win the league, Wenger was just trying to give us more chance of doing so and he is right. All you have to do is take one look at the amount of injuries we have in the squad, why risk injuries and fatigue?

Surely the run of tricky fixtures coming up is the priority.

I have a feeling that many Gooners are not going to agree with you and will be after your head

WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO! WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO!
WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO!
OH ARSENA, WE LOVE YOU

Bunch of crap. Fuck off and support Spurs. Arsenal don’t need fans like you. You are a supporter that doesn’t even want to win trophies, has no ambition. Six years and counting, no doubt you will be happy in another 10 years when Wenger is 70 and still bunging the FA Cup and winning nothing. Then we will be where Spurs are now, no ambition! I applaud Arsenal fans who push for more, more trophies, more success – that’s how the manager should be, never satisfied. That’s what you need to be successfull, not losers like you.

Can we ban this knobber? Again. And it’s one ‘l’ in sucessful :zzz

good article. we have a chance to win one (or both) of the big 2 tournaments and any distraction for the first team isn’t worth it. saying that i wouldn’t mind still being in the cup as long as none of the 1st team players were playing. i wouldn’t have played cesc but he was forced into it due to other injuries. for example a good run in the carling cup isn’t a bad thing because none of our top players play and it keeps the fringe and young players happy.

Wenger has thrown the FA Cup for at least the past 3 years to concentrate on winning other ‘more important’ trophies.

He put a poor team out against United in 07/08, and we were trounced. We won nothing.

He dropped Arshavin and played Fabianski and Silvestre for the Semi final last year and we got turned over and went on to win nothing.

This year he fields a complete reserve team and yet risks injury our captain and star player by playing him alongside abject colleagues. Who says we’re going to win anything this year?

The club has won nothing for nigh on five years. For Arsene to throw the FA Cup in the hope that it will enable us to win the CL or league is arrogant in the extreme.

Are you telling me that if we’d gone on to win the FA cup this year and nothing else, you wouldn’t celebrate this and use it as yet another reason to back AW?

You talk of needing to ensure that the team are fit for the up coming league fixtures, yet with the money at his disposal could Wenger have not pre-empted this scenario and actually acquired a big enough squad in the summer to cope with having to compete in ALL competitions, rather than having to throw one in the hope we MAY win another?

It stinks and you’re completely misguided in my opinion.

Another sheep bleeting along to Arsene’s hypocritical mantra.

PS. I’m not saying ‘Sack Wenger’ but the man has to live by his decisions and at the end of the season we’ll see whether he was right to chuck a decent chance of winning the FA cup.

James oh James

Yee of little faith. I ams ure all Gooners wanted to win teh FA Cup but with our extensive injury list and a set of crunch games, Wenger had little choice. We alomost nicked it.

Unfortunately , you don’t get the big picture about what is happening at Arsenal and the sure footing the club is on and that we are set up for long term success. Nothing is guaranteed in life but if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. wenger’s plan has been in place for years now and is almost at fruition. If you cannot see that then it is you that should support Spurs.

I have to disagree with both the article and the responses. Wenger rested players, which was the right decision – no doubt! The team he put out was capable of beating Stoke but you are neglecting the fact that Stoke were awesome on Sunday.

They dominated Arsenal, played on our weaknesses (Coqulien) and pace on the counter when Sol and the liability Silvestre were tired. And to be honest, I was not expecting a Stoke performance as committed as that and they were deserved winners. Another game, we could’ve won that with the same team. But the way Stoke played, I think they were capable of beating our strongest team available – the lack of strength in midfield was apparent that day! Denilson is not up to scratch – he should be stopping that 2nd goal, he seems uninterested when chasing mibido down.

As for Wenger leaving, anyone that says that clearly doesn’t watch Arsenal play, they just read the tabloids and skysports too much.

James – do you really think Wenger put out a side he thought would lose? Everyone is ignoring the fact that Stoke got their tactics spot on and outplayed us from start to finish. It wasn’t pretty like Arsenal and I hated watching it but it was damn effective!

Did you doubters read what Arsene said ? Clichy, Sagna and Vermaelen could not play both games so he had to choose, this match or Villa. The plan was clearly to win both as Stoke was the easier fixture but the risk back-fired. Still, it was the right choice. Better this way than through to the next round of a cup that might come to nothing and effectively out of the title race. I stand to win 6,000 quid at 11/1 if we win the league so that my cloud my judgment a little but as a fan i still agree with what the great man has done.

I’m sick to death of this “won nothing” mantra. Portsmouth won an FA Cup, Spurs won a league cup, would any of you swap either of those for continuous qualification in the CL. I’ve said time and again on these sites, qualification for the CL league comes after winning it or the PL but before any other cup, and Wenger has given that to you EVERY year.

[quote name=TopCat]had you never heard of him pre 2004[/quote]
maybe i misunderstand the comment but wenger’s been at arsenal since 1996/97 season?
what do you mean by this?

Hi DB10.

Sorry, let me clarify. I have supported Arsenal for near on 20 years. So I know the club pre Wenger.

However, there are a lot of “plastic sheep” that have only really been an Arsenal fan since Wenger took over.

These are usually the same people who call anyone who quaestions Wenger “not a real fan”!

My question is simple. Lets pretend that none of us had heard of Arsene Wenger.

He joins Arsenal in 2005. Wins an FA Cup and since then has not won a thing.

How many so called fans would still be defending him so vigourously?

Question 2 – why when I call for investment in the team, do these fans claim “we don’t buy stars, we make them”. – Right – so we are unable to compete on 3 fronts, and have near on 40m in the bank, yet because he is willing to give Denilson 4 seasons to get to the average level he is at now, that makes Wenger a superb manager?

All I am saying is that I judge Wenger on now, not 6 seasons ago!

I believe he is the right man to lead us to glory, but he needs to stop being so stubborn, spend some money, ditch the deadwood and stop looking for a bargin all the time.

Wiltord 13m, Henry 11.5m, Arshavin 15m, Vermaelen 10m. These are the calibre of players we need.

Instead we sign 16 abd 17 year olds and expect to be able to compete?

Pathetic.

id love to hear you explain why you’d take playing in the champions league year in year out, instead of winning the fa cup or league cup, im not being funny but it shouldnt be one or the other… for a club like arsenal, we should be able to win a cup and get into the champions league at a canter, last year we were never gona win the league, and the year before, so why not go all out and try and win a cup to save some sort of resembelance* of pride for the season??? and lets be honest here, since we made it to the final of the champions league we have gona backwards in the competition, and what is the point in playing in a competition knowing you cant win it??? liverpool managed to get to two finals and won one of them with a worse team than we had, utd and chelseas perform better in the champions league than we do and we are supposesdly just as good as they are… anyway all this nonsense about youd rather this or that, than winning the fa cup or carling cup means you’re too thick to realise how much our players and our club needs to experience winning something together, as the experience and benefit this would bring the club would be invaluable!!!

However, there is a real debate to be had about continuing to deprioritize the domestic cups.

Is it too much to ask this young, developing team that is not used to winning anything to go after only the two top trophies every season, bypassing the two smaller cup trophies that could teach them what it means to win a competition?

I think that’s a legitimate debate to be had.

Until now I’ve gone along with AW’s policy of deprioritizing the CC and FA cups but now I’m starting to question it. Both Utd and Chelsea used their wins in the CC to start building momentum for winning trophies during lean periods in recent years.

We have a team of young, callow, developing players who still lack the edge to win trophies. Season after season they go up against players who are far more experienced in winning trophies, and are humiliated by them. Season after season they are told to view the domestic cups as less important than the big prizes.

I think it’s fair to ask if Wenger is not asking too much of these kids. He may be skipping a big step in their development by not allowing them the opportunity to seriously compete in the domestic cups–and only giving them the experience of defeat in those competitions every year.

I can’t see this team beating Chelsea to the league, they still lack that winning edge. They’re getting there, but they’re not there yet. They need more time. And I worry that we’ll lose our best players before they’re allowed to get to the level where they’re capable of winning trophies.

Wise up kid, you say anyone who dares disagree with your porrly written poorly thought up piece is plastic. Right. So a season ticket holder and fan for almost 30 years is plastic because he thinks that:

(a) the FA cup was winnable and as Mave points out was chucked when I spent my hard earned warching Chelsea beat us at Wembley? Do you think the current squad is strong enough to mount a serious challenge on the EPL or CL? Football is about winning trophies in case you hadn’t noticed and the FA cup was winnable. If it means nothing to you then I suggest you aren’t a real fan. Surely everyone wants to win every game especially when you spend over a hundred quid to get to Stoke and see a performance like that.

(b) You talk about injuries – how many seasons have we been derailed by injuries yet Wenger refuses to strengthen dispite having close to £40 million in the bank. If you want to dispute the figures go do a bit of reading on the club accounts.

(c) There’s no one out there better / signing XYZ will kill Denilson. Ever heard of competition, blending youth with experience. It is criminal that we don’t have a world class keeper FFS Given was available for £5million. This is the worst squad I have seen under Wenger, players like Silvestre, Denilson, Almunia are not fit to wear the shirt. Give me a Parlour and a Keown any day.

(d)Shouting we ate top of the league (yes I was there) is great when you are top at the end of May

You are frankly a disgrace to suggest anyone who won’t tow your line and that’s capable of free thinking is plastic. More like you are a sheep who won’t challenge anything.

I strongly disagree with this article FTK.

I can totally understand why Wenger had to rotate the team in order to keep the players fresh for our forthcoming Premiership games against Villa, Man United, Chelski and Liverpool, however the team had built up great momentum leading up to the FA Cup game and with the loss to Stoke, this may affect the player’s mentality into their approach to the big games coming up.

Look what happened last season when we crashed out of the FA Cup (we lost to Man United twice in the Champions league semi-final, drew 4-4 with Liverpool and then lost 4-1 at home to Chelski in the Premiership).

You are right in saying that no one remembers who come second in the Premiership (or in any other competition for that matter), however wouldn’t you like the press and our rivals to remember that we were the team that won the FA Cup in 2010?

To say that it’s a relief to be out of the FA Cup IMO is absolutely disgraceful. I bet you weren’t saying this last season when we got knocked out of the FA Cup semi-final against Chelski?

If we would’ve beaten Stoke, four more games would’ve been needed in order to secure the FA Cup, which is a lot more achievable than having to play sixteen more games in order to win the Premiership.

“So my fellow true and plastic Gooners”

Which one is it, you uneducated fool.
They can’t be your ‘fellow’ true and plastic its one or the other… dumb yank!

Fed up with club always haggling to sign a player! Could have done with Chamakh in last few matches if only the club had paid the asking price….who knows might still have been in FA Cup.

Still haggling over Chris Smalling while Manure are about to snatch him under Arsene nose by paying the asking price.

& the last I heard is that the private jet lined up to collect Song, is still on the run way while Gazidis haggles over who pays for the in flight meal!

This has always been the Arsenal Way, we have never been a big spending club, and it won’t change. Wenger has not only changed our football but for the whole of the country. Yes, he is stubborn and that’s coz he’s passionate about the club and the way football should be played.
If I have a gripe it’s the relationship between the fans and the players and having been to 8 away games this season I would like more recognition from the players for our fantastic support at every away game!
If you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen and go and support another team.
Arsenal fan since 1968……….

I may be alone in thinking this, but for me winning and loosing are all part of the game, sure I want to see Arsenal on top of the world, but not at any cost, we watch the game for 90 minutes and feel the highs and lows, at the end of the game we are either elated or deflated, these feelings don’t last long either way. The great pleasure I get from the game is the game itself, and who plays better football than Arsenal.
I live and work in stoke, how much fun do you think I had on Monday. But that was the seasons highlight so far for stoke.
To the people say that a club like Arsenal should be challenging on all fronts.
What makes you think that we have a god given right to do this. History is just that
Whether you have supported Arsenal for one or 30 yrs. doesn’t make you right or wrong. But if anyone has been paying attention over the last few years, you may have noticed that a couple of things have changed, I.E Money in the game.
If you think that we could or should try to compete with the money bag clubs then I can only assume that your interests are selfish, for me the only sustainable way of
Bringing and maintaining any kind of success to the club, is to operate in the way that we do. You can moan and complain until the cows come home. But first you should ask “whose interests you really have at heart, the clubs? Or your own?. I know what Arsene would say.
Feel free to shoot me down at your leisure.

remember there was a time when wenger did not rotate with kids to win the fa cup he played a full strength team and we won it 4 times. we went for the cup AND won titles and european cup so what changed? his dumb philosophy on kids thats wot.

and dont tell me they are cheap. was walcott and nasri?
if arsenal win the league then I will hold my hands up. but i fear we will collapse as usual because once a few big players get injured there is no back up. all wenger does is blame injuries. he should have spent some fucking money and given us a squad that can compete on every level not hide behind injuries.

kids get injured. no shit. cos they’re not ready physically.

JiN, well said.

I have to say, however, that unlike FTK, I am NOT “happy” to be out of the FA cup. I can’t be “happy” ever to see Arsenal eliminated from any competition.

“Look at the quality on the pitch, look at the potential”

I see players with quality – they are called Cesc and Arshavin. They’ll soon be off if we keep waiting for… the potential. Potential, potential.. how long do we have to wait for this potential to come to fruition?

Do you think the quality players are going to hang around to wait for Denilson or Theo or whoever to actually come good? Of course they’re not!

All the top players eventually get fed up with Wenger’s experiment and seek pastures new…
Vieira, Henry, Hleb, Flamini, The bywhore, Diarra.

Cesc and Arshavin will soon follow. If Vermaelen continues to impress, he’ll soon be having his head turned by the big European teams too.

A footballers career is short. Why should they hang around for ‘youngsters’ who have no guarantee of success to develop into these world class players?

How many of these youngsters have actually amounted to anything? Cesc and Cashley. That’s it. The rest of them end up getting sold off to Brum for a couple of million. Really worth us going through years of trophy starvation for that!

I thought we moved the Grove to compete with the big clubs of Europe..? We’re still waiting.

The way I see it under this current set up is:

1) The best players get fed up and leave.

2) The mediocre players are happy to hang around on bumper wages and a guarantee of playing in the champions league under no real pressure to their position in the team or to deliver a trophy.

3) Young players hang around waiting for their opportunity to shine, yet see their genuine opportunities in the 1st team (i’m talking PL and CL matches here not carling cup) hindered by dross like denilson, diaby, silvestre, eboue, etc. Arsene’s favourite Frenchmen who get a buy into the team.

[quote name=Mave]Wenger has thrown the FA Cup for at least the past 3 years to concentrate on winning other ‘more important’ trophies.

He put a poor team out against United in 07/08, and we were trounced. We won nothing.

He dropped Arshavin and played Fabianski and Silvestre for the Semi final last year and we got turned over and went on to win nothing.

This year he fields a complete reserve team and yet risks injury our captain and star player by playing him alongside abject colleagues. Who says we’re going to win anything this year?

The club has won nothing for nigh on five years. For Arsene to throw the FA Cup in the hope that it will enable us to win the CL or league is arrogant in the extreme.

Are you telling me that if we’d gone on to win the FA cup this year and nothing else, you wouldn’t celebrate this and use it as yet another reason to back AW?

You talk of needing to ensure that the team are fit for the up coming league fixtures, yet with the money at his disposal could Wenger have not pre-empted this scenario and actually acquired a big enough squad in the summer to cope with having to compete in ALL competitions, rather than having to throw one in the hope we MAY win another?

It stinks and you’re completely misguided in my opinion.

Another sheep bleeting along to Arsene’s hypocritical mantra.

PS. I’m not saying ‘Sack Wenger’ but the man has to live by his decisions and at the end of the season we’ll see whether he was right to chuck a decent chance of winning the FA cup.[/quot Exactly what I thought,well said Mave!!!. I don think FTK has no balls to come out and accept this.If there is no money then you can forgive this, not with 50 million in hand

John why the hell do you presume someone can’t be behind the team whilst still not agreeing with policy. Fiscally we are well run, infrastructure is great etc I’m not saying that neither am I asking him to go.

I am asking for change because his current policy has won us fuck all.

And yes I remember the ’80 but we are not in the ’80 now and every time we are on the cusp of domination we sell and don’t buy.

Being a fan doesn’t mean you have to lose your sense of perspective and objectivity.

No one is above criticism and the facts are there in black and white.

Is this team as good or any where neat the Invincibles or for that matter ANY other squad Arsene has had?

When I see players performing like they don’t give a fuck about the shirt it pisses me off. Wenger said he needed to ‘motivate’ Nasri a new expensive signing who has won fuck all – that says it all i’m afraid.

I suppose you are going to neglect the fact we don’t coach defending or attaching corners, that Martin Keown did more fr the defence in one season than Pat Rice has done in 10 years. Martin is not a yes man hence Martin is no longer at Arsenal.

No one challenges Wenger.

Remember absolute power corrupts – stick your experiments up your Arsene.

agree jin all us older folks realize where we could be might be but for the leadership which the club has had. both from AW but also others. “the arsenal way” really means something. it is not short term it takes the long view.

I like everyone would love to be part of that march-out on or about May 15 at wembley but it is such a roll of the dice. stoke was rewarded with an away tie with mancity. arsenal would have been on their 3rd premiership opponent in the cup– away. sometimes its not meant to be.
I would have loved to see the “young ones” outperform stoke. but in the longer view the fact they didn’t the experience they got, the fact the next tie went against them anyway it all makes me feel AW did the right thing. and tomorrow’s match and sundays will see how good a decision it was. I’m not saying we will win, i certainly hope we do but I think AW has given us the best chance to win these matches.

Glenn Helder…lol

I have my opinion and frankly those supporters who want to see the back of Wenger after what he has achieved and continues to achieve in this unfair financial environment is a trophy hunter.

Now to my mind if all you are interested in is a piece of silverware like the Carling Cup or the FA cup then you sir are a trophy hunter.

I agree with you analysis of the players that we need i have said as much in my blogs. But lets face we aint gonna sign three players in the next four days, so we have to, whether we like it or not, trust in Arsene.

Are you a plastic?

Even if you have supported Arsenal for 20 or 30 years, if the only priority for you is the FA cup and the Carling cup, then you are a trophy hunter.

The leading characteristic of plastics is that they chase success and invariably success is associated with trophies.

So yes YOU ARE A SENIOR PLASTIC if the most important thing to you is a trophy at the moment…

I stand corrected, with my poor grammar

So my true and plastic Gooners respectively…

That Ok?

Well said MAGICDENNIS!

Are you an Arsenal fan? :-*

Do you support Tootenham??? :sigh:

And the same tired old glory hunters,who want Arsene out,will be back on sites like this,bigging it up,when we do lift the major trophy,we undoubtably will.
Hypocrites!!!
If the biggest ambition you have as true Gooners is to win the fa cup,at any cost,please go away and support a club like Spurs.

oops forget the ‘about’ b4 arsene

James

You idiot.
F*ck the cups.

Oh Mave and Glen you need to know your facts instead
Of listening to media anti-arsenal propoganda! Young
Players Clichy, Cole, Gibbs, Cesc, Viera when he came, Anelka
Song, Nasri, Ramsey, Toure, Adebuyhors need I go on…
Last three buys Vermaelan, Arshavin, Nasri or should we
Spend £30M on players like Berbatov and Robinho!
As for players who were fed up read Viera’s book
He didn’t know about his transfer ’til hw came back
From holiday, Henry sold then unbelievable season
Until Eduardo incident at Birmingham. Flamini,Hleb
One season wonders where are they now!!
What is surprising is that one top class keeper
Has come through our academy in 12 years….since
Bob Wilson left as gk coach for first team our
Keepers have all looked shaky.
Arsenal through and through……!

portsmouth won the fa cup more recently than arsenal and look at them.

Nice. Well reasoned name calling. I have a coupel of choice ones for you byt why stoop to your level.

You seem confused and slightly slow so i’ll spell it out.

I support Arsenal, I am proud of the infrastructure, stadium move and our history. I am not asking for Wenger to go but to change his attitude.

Only a sheep doesn’t question decisions or shuns independent thought but I guess if Wenger asked you to lie down in front of a bus you’d probably do that. No one is disputing what he has achieved or how he has performed but we have come close in the last 5 years without achieving anything and yes I do mean trophies. Don’t tell me you go to games (if you’ve ever been to one in your life) and expect beautiful football. No you expect us to win that’s what we all want and the end result of that is trophies. Are you trying to tell me fans across the country aren’t interested in silverware?

Just because you prioritise the CL and EPL why can’t I say the FA cup is important. It is to me and I would love us to win it.

What’s the point in saying lets face ut we won’t sign anyone. We could bring in CHEAP cover or loans. Why does everyone equatre spending to spending big. I’m only asking for Sagna size buys not fucking £30 million pound players – can youtell me you don’t find it galling that a club who spends so much on scouting can’t find anyone better than Denilson or Almunia. Will siging a peoper centre back ‘kill’ Sylvestre. If so the bring it on because he is shit as aluded to by the fan at the AGM who got shouted down.

Where the fuck did I say that the CC and FA Cups were priority, we should have a squad strong enough to challenge on all fronts – your arguements are riduculous because you make up what you want me to say so you can pour out the same clap trap.

So plastics want to win games and trophies do they? Right. So I guess I am a plastic and you are a ‘real’ fan.

So True I wish that we can win tonight and go back top of the EPL again and I hope that we will stay there