Mark Halfpenny
Arsenal’s season ends in less than four weeks’ time, after a Wembley showdown with Chelsea - the team that have showed everyone the way this season. However, the match at Wembley is nowhere near the most important thing that will happen to our Club this summer. That comes later. In private.
At some point between now and Saturday 12th August, a small group of old men will sit down and decide whether to extend Arsene Wenger’s contract or (finally) appoint a new manager. This will be done well away from any supporters or journalists and we will never know what was said, what the decision was based upon or who voted which way.
That decision is the single most important thing to happen to our Club in years. Why? Because the last ten seasons have been virtually identical, meaning that to re-appoint Wenger, and his outdated methods, would guarantee more of the same.
Two more years of a team with a soft centre. Two more years of fighting for the scraps. Two more years of overpaid, preening poseurs like Giroud, Walcott, Ozil and Ramsey. Two more years of stale, predictable mediocrity. Two more years of watching a team that cannot win the League and cannot compete in Europe.
Arsenal are England’s third most successful club but our recent record makes us look more like a mid table team. We might be making a profit but we are sliding further and further away from silverware.
Make no mistake, had we not started protesting two months ago, the contract extension would have been signed by now. Wenger wants to stay and Board members would love to re-appoint him. Once you’re on the Gravy Train, it’s difficult to step off. After all – Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. We must do all we can to convince them otherwise.
For the long term good of our Club, our intention is to hold another protest march, before the Manchester United match this Sunday. We will gather outside the old East Stand at Highbury from 3pm, leaving at 3.15pm and walking together to the new stadium. Against Man City there were 1,000 people on the march. This time we expect more so please join us and make your voice heard. There’s no point whinging online; no point moaning to your mates; no point in staying silent.
The alternative is two more years of falling further behind our rivals. Two more years of utter predictability. Two more years of watching the sort of capitulation we have witnessed against Spurs, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, West Brom, Liverpool and Bayern Munich (and many, many others before).
If anyone is in any doubt, if anyone believes that Wenger should stay, if anyone is wavering between stay and go, ask yourself this question.
If Wenger wasn’t our manager and he had been at say . . . Everton, Monaco, Ajax or Lazio for the last 21 years, would you be asking the Board to appoint him as Arsenal manager?
Have a closer look at his track record:-
* He has never won a European trophy.
* He may qualify for the Champions League but once we’re in it, we get thrashed every year.
* He hasn’t come close to winning his national league in more than a decade.
* He hasn’t spent one day at the top of his national league in April or May since 2004.
* In the last 24 away games against current top 6 rivals, his record is W 0 D 7 L 17 – 7 points from 72.
* This season, in away games vs the other sides in the current top 10, his record is W 0 D 2 L 6 – 2 points from 24.
* He is 67 years old.
What possible reason could there be for appointing that man? When his record is analysed, surely it brings into stark reality that the only reason people want Wenger to stay is sentiment and fear of change.
A 67 year old manager with a record like that is not the future.
Apart from the march the #NoNewContract protest group plan to continue hammering home the message to the board so there can be no doubt as to the desire of the majority of supporters for Arsene Wenger to step down this summer. The polls on national newspaper websites all say the same thing. Those results are not the result of a blog website poll where the readership might lean one way or the other. There are more actions planned. Already, thanks to donations, amongst other things, we have put a plane in the sky above West Brom, hired a mobile billboard at the Manchester City game, and beamed projections onto the old Highbury Stadium, the Emirates and Marble Arch. But we need more to continue, so if you agree that not doing anything and just staying quiet will not achieve change, then help fund us by making a donation on our JustGiving page - www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chris-butler-1. Please not that every donation is matched by a group of Block 9 Gooners, so a donation of £10 will mean £20 to fight the cause.
And whether or not you are attending the Manchester United game next Sunday, make the effort to get down to Highbury so you can add to our numbers and make your voice heard. We cannot allow the board to think they can just give Arsene Wenger a new contract without supporter resistance.
