Wenger press conference

Wenger: “After a game like that, it is terribly painful. It was a special game and it hurts.”

Wenger: “We suffered physically in the second half. They have class and they punished us. We opened up and were punished”

Wenger: “I am very open to signing players if we find players who can strengthen the team. We have a lot of people working on that.

Wenger: “The players who were out today was too many. We didn’t expect to have all these players out. It is too many”

Wenger: “We are close to signing a striker at the moment but we are still looking for a midfielder and a defender”

Wenger: “No truth in the links with Arteta”

Wenger: “We have to sort out our problems and, at the moment, not speak too much”

Wenger: “We collapsed physically more than anything else”

Wenger’s press conference is now over. Full transcript to follow on Arsenal.com

Collapsed physically? If you count the whole team losing their balls, maybe.

I think that Wenger and the board need to line up and allow all the traveling fans at the game to walk by and kick them in the nutts. Since that is what they have done to us over the past few summers.

'They have class and they punished us'

on whether he has had a worst game as manager of Arsenal…
You don’t think like that after a game like this. It is terribly painful but you do not compare your pain. You have pain and that is it. I feel it was under very special circumstances. We have played three games in the Premier League and two Champions League games. It is not a time to make a balance of the whole season.

Of course it hurts, it’s humiliating, but you could see that we had not recovered physically in the second half from Wednesday night. We were short in some areas, that is for sure. They have class and they punished us. It was 3-1 at half-time and I think that was harsh against us. We missed a penalty, we had a chance to get back to 3-2. We tried desperately to get back but we opened ourselves up and were punished. Their finishing was great today.

on planning for reinforcements…
I am very open if we can find the right players. We have the money to sign players. If we find players who can strengthen our team then we will do it. But I am not the only one to work on the case, we have 20 people who are working on that. If we do not do it, it is because we don’t find them. We have plenty of players out today, too many players missing. We do not have the squad to compete when we have this many players out. At the moment, we have not found the solutions to our problems outside. When you look at today, you cannot predict how many players we have out. We did not expect to have Wilshere out, Diaby out, Gervinho out, Vermaelen out and Gibbs out.

on the wage structure at the Club…
It is difficult to find excuses after a game like that. Wages-wise, of course we are behind the other teams.

on whether he is close to bringing anyone in…
We are close to signing a striker at the moment but we are still looking for a midfielder and a defender.

on whether there is truth in links with a move with Mikel Arteta…
No.

on whether experience is needed…
Yes but it is difficult when you lose 8-2. It is better when you don’t talk as much but it hurts and it looks like you are looking for excuses. We have to sort out our problems that we have in the squad.

on criticism directed at him…
I am in a public job and I have to accept that. I try to make the right decisions for the Club and I will continue to do that. The players we have sold are players I brought to the Club. If you look at the 15 years I have been at the Club, I have brought in some good players. We have played three games in the Premier League, give me more time before saying that I have got it completely wrong. There were patches in the game where we had quality. I feel we collapsed physically more than anything else today

www.arsenal.com

Raptorgunner wrote:

on planning for reinforcements…
I am very open if we can find the right players. We have the money to sign players. If we find players who can strengthen our team then we will do it. But I am not the only one to work on the case, we have 20 people who are working on that. If we do not do it, it is because we don’t find them. We have plenty of players out today, too many players missing. We do not have the squad to compete when we have this many players out. At the moment, we have not found the solutions to our problems outside. When you look at today, you cannot predict how many players we have out. We did not expect to have Wilshere out, Diaby out, Gervinho out, Vermaelen out and Gibbs out.

This is really strange that he cannot find players in the world. I know its hard to find players now but he knew from the begining that cesc & nasri were unsure so he should've prepared from the begining.

djoe26 wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:

on planning for reinforcements…
I am very open if we can find the right players. We have the money to sign players. If we find players who can strengthen our team then we will do it. But I am not the only one to work on the case, we have 20 people who are working on that. If we do not do it, it is because we don’t find them. We have plenty of players out today, too many players missing. We do not have the squad to compete when we have this many players out. At the moment, we have not found the solutions to our problems outside. When you look at today, you cannot predict how many players we have out. We did not expect to have Wilshere out, Diaby out, Gervinho out, Vermaelen out and Gibbs out.

This is really strange that he cannot find players in the world. I know its hard to find players now but he knew from the begining that cesc & nasri were unsure so he should've prepared from the begining.

That 20 people that are working hard should get fired today. There is still time just *bleep* and we have the *bleep* money. If we dont sigin few players by the end of the window, fans should stop going to arsenal games.

He probably means players in his usual price range... if he wanted to, he splashes the cash and gets whoever he wants.

The Cesc and Nasri situation was a huge f-up, we can all agree on that. Failure of a transfer window, even if we sign 2 awesome players in 3 days.

Sushi Master wrote:He probably means players in his usual price range... if he wanted to, he splashes the cash and gets whoever he wants.

The Cesc and Nasri situation was a huge f-up, we can all agree on that. Failure of a transfer window, even if we sign 2 awesome players in 3 days.

If we can get a CB and one great midfielder we could turn the season around.

Arsenal savior?

He has 3 days or we could see this in many games no mater who we are facing.

Sushi Master wrote:He probably means players in his usual price range... if he wanted to, he splashes the cash and gets whoever he wants.

The Cesc and Nasri situation was a huge f-up, we can all agree on that. Failure of a transfer window, even if we sign 2 awesome players in 3 days.

if you couldnt realize that at the beginning of the window that both were on the way out then you just couldnt face the writing on the wall. that goes for everyone.

so wenger and the whole arsenal board/staff etc. knew that at the BEGINNING of the transfer window sh1t needed to be done, and guess what? it didnt. gervinho was on a silver platter and it took us almost a month just to complete that signing. then we went on signing youngsters that cant help us win now.


now we're left with a couple days left in the transfer window and we still dont have new defender (which we should've bought in the january transfer window ffs) and absolutely NO creativity in the midfield. dont talk to me about rosicky, ramsey, or wilshere. rosicky is not good enough, ramsey is good enough yet either to be a starter, and wilshere still needs some work as a creative player but he's better off at his box2box role.

and oh yeah, everyone's seen us get absolutely embarrassed by united. so players really want to play for us now right?

I don't think motivation matters. If we offer big paychecks they'll play for anyone and kiss the badge. We're a good enough club and play CL to attract top talent.

At least that's how this transfer window has played down...

Sushi Master wrote:I don't think motivation matters. If we offer big paychecks they'll play for anyone and kiss the badge. We're a good enough club and play CL to attract top talent.

At least that's how this transfer window has played down...

but we dont offer big paychecks. and the reason it's so crucial now that we have IMPACT signings is because we most likely WONT be playing CL football if we keep up our ways

lenear1030 wrote:

Sushi Master wrote:I don't think motivation matters. If we offer big paychecks they'll play for anyone and kiss the badge. We're a good enough club and play CL to attract top talent.

At least that's how this transfer window has played down...

but we dont offer big paychecks. and the reason it's so crucial now that we have IMPACT signings is because we most likely WONT be playing CL football if we keep up our ways

I have to agree with you, no CL and top 4 that means, big money loss, how *bleep* blind is the Arsenal board, if they spend they can make more money. this 8-2 is not just a 3 point lost, we lost so much respect that we can never get back, its in history books.

Yeah, we don't offer big paychecks. That needs to change right now. Just start slowly phasing out the useless, overpayed youth and concentrate more on quality than quantity.

The faster we change our ancient wage structure, the faster we recover. Sadly, most players are money whores nowadays and die hard Arsenal fans are less by the minute.

Long term it also makes sence, since top 4 qualification is looking bleaker and bleaker by the day. We need to stay competetive just to stay in the CL.

If we go out and sign a few more youth players I'm gonna barf.

I have to say our youth is not the same youth that saved Arsenal for many years and competed at top level. The youth we have is not promising.

The pay is a big factor to bring in players. We have the *bleep* money, and we make the *bleep* money.

Some one has to answer the fans for this loss.

You know what the easiest solution would have been... give Nasri his 135k/week and get him extended. That would have taken care of a lot of the offensive problems.

Second issue.. Arsenal has not scouting in Serie and Bundesliga. Those are huge holes. I cannot for the life of me understand why the club doesn't look at those leagues. There are solutions outside of the EPL, La Liga and Ligue 1.

Third issue.. burnt bridges are coming back to haunt Wenger. He's burnt a few in Spain and now a lot in France. You can do that if you spend like Man City. But it's a death sentence if you're cheap.

If it would have been Cesc instead of Nasri, I would have given those 135k.

135k is a lot for a half season wonder. I don't just mean for Arsenal, but for any decent club. It would also have meant he's the highest payed by far... no way he's gonna earn more than VP. I do support giving everyone good wages once their contracts run low, VP being a key one. I'd give him those 135k or whatever he asks for.

Sushi Master wrote:If it would have been Cesc instead of Nasri, I would have given those 135k.

135k is a lot for a half season wonder. I don't just mean for Arsenal, but for any decent club. It would also have meant he's the highest payed by far... no way he's gonna earn more than VP. I do support giving everyone good wages once their contracts run low, VP being a key one. I'd give him those 135k or whatever he asks for.

I am with you on that, I think the Arsenal board would have given Cesc 180k a week if ask for it. We are paying players who should not be in our club a lot of money, that money could be used towards the quality players.

Sushi Master wrote:If it would have been Cesc instead of Nasri, I would have given those 135k.

135k is a lot for a half season wonder. I don't just mean for Arsenal, but for any decent club. It would also have meant he's the highest payed by far... no way he's gonna earn more than VP. I do support giving everyone good wages once their contracts run low, VP being a key one. I'd give him those 135k or whatever he asks for.

The whole wage structure is wack at Arsenal... don't compare internally, but to the broad market. Every EPL elite club wanted him (Chelsea, Man U & City) and had no problem with the 135k. In fact, he's getting 185k now lol.

He went to City, became an instant starter and had 3 assists in his debut. He's a talent. You have to pay for talent like that, whether it's completely proven or not.

If we keep making decisions based on our internal wage structure and transfer fee structure, we're dead already.

sportsczy wrote:

Sushi Master wrote:If it would have been Cesc instead of Nasri, I would have given those 135k.

135k is a lot for a half season wonder. I don't just mean for Arsenal, but for any decent club. It would also have meant he's the highest payed by far... no way he's gonna earn more than VP. I do support giving everyone good wages once their contracts run low, VP being a key one. I'd give him those 135k or whatever he asks for.

The whole wage structure is wack at Arsenal... don't compare internally, but to the broad market. Every EPL elite club wanted him (Chelsea, Man U & City) and had no problem with the 135k. In fact, he's getting 185k now lol.

He went to City, became an instant starter and had 3 assists in his debut. He's a talent. You have to pay for talent like that, whether it's completely proven or not.

If we keep making decisions based on our internal wage structure and transfer fee structure, we're dead already.

You are completely right . people are acting like Arsenal made Nasri, when in reality Nasri was already seen as the "next Zidane" of France during his days in OM. Arsenal stole him b4 the likes of Madrid and Byren came sniffing. Nasri may be a c[_]nt, but when he is on the pitch, you cannot deny his passion for the game.

sportsczy wrote:

Sushi Master wrote:If it would have been Cesc instead of Nasri, I would have given those 135k.

135k is a lot for a half season wonder. I don't just mean for Arsenal, but for any decent club. It would also have meant he's the highest payed by far... no way he's gonna earn more than VP. I do support giving everyone good wages once their contracts run low, VP being a key one. I'd give him those 135k or whatever he asks for.

The whole wage structure is wack at Arsenal... don't compare internally, but to the broad market. Every EPL elite club wanted him (Chelsea, Man U & City) and had no problem with the 135k. In fact, he's getting 185k now lol.

He went to City, became an instant starter and had 3 assists in his debut. He's a talent. You have to pay for talent like that, whether it's completely proven or not.

If we keep making decisions based on our internal wage structure and transfer fee structure, we're dead already.

i agree with you.

sportsczy wrote:You know what the easiest solution would have been... give Nasri his 135k/week and get him extended. That would have taken care of a lot of the offensive problems.

Second issue.. Arsenal has not scouting in Serie and Bundesliga. Those are huge holes. I cannot for the life of me understand why the club doesn't look at those leagues. There are solutions outside of the EPL, La Liga and Ligue 1.

Third issue.. burnt bridges are coming back to haunt Wenger. He's burnt a few in Spain and now a lot in France. You can do that if you spend like Man City. But it's a death sentence if you're cheap.

Don't think it would have mattered. I think that he wants to win silverware and his chances (yes I am kicking myself) are better there than here. Nasri said at the beginning of the summer that he wanted to see our ambition and we showed NONE!

To me that meant that if we were able to keep Cesc and get a couple more WC players. Or get those WC players and replace Cesc with another WC player. He might have been willing to sign that contract for bigger wages. Instead we are playing a youth team with a few squad players, RVP and TV in the EPL.

If only Arsenal signed qualty players, Cesc and nasri would have been still at Arsenal. Why would they stay at Arsenal when kids are coming wtf, I dont know why RVP still here.

We could have signed Young but no we go and sign a 17 year old for around the same money.

if wenger leaves arsenal are gonna be worse off tbh...

HscouserZ wrote:if wenger leaves arsenal are gonna be worse off tbh...

I think that is why he has not left us yet, if he leaves we will be used to score line like this. He still has time, all he has to is buy. Not hard buy players.