Transkrip Forum soal jawab Wenger dan Pemegang Saham.

Oleh kerana terlalu panjang, tak mampu nak translate, hanya sempat copy paste.Banyak sebenarnya soalan bertubi2 dan ade yang agak pedas.Tak hairanlah mengapa Hill Wood agak merah telinga dan membidas soalan2 tersebut tapi Wenger tetap cool jek.. Menariknya dalam soal jawab ini, Wenger tetap mengakui kesilapannya kerana manusia tidak pernah terlepas dari kesilapan, cuma mengenai transfer dan budget, die tetap berteka teki... Sila baca dan buat rumusan ke mana hala tuju Arsenal..

Bob Wilson – Two Semi finals, and another qualifying, eleven years now I think it is qualifying again for the Champions League, what is your overall view of this season?

Arsene – We had in the Championship; I believe, that we had a difficult start because in the first fourteen games we lost five, and after that we stabilised the team very well, and went on a long unbeaten run for 21 games, the longest run in the league this year, but on Sunday unfortunately we lost to Chelsea, but for me that was a strange game because it was down to the disappointment of losing to Man Utd in the Champs League.

In the Champions League overall we had a good season, because we finished in the last 4 in Europe, though of course we are not happy and it was a massive frustration, because we felt that in the second game we had no change to play the game, but we have as well to take some distance, because overall, with the policy we’ve gone for with a young team, to finish in the position we finished is not a shame.

I know that at the moment the vibes around the team are very negative, but I feel the Arsenal supporters should take a distance a little bit of that, and not get too much manipulated, because for example in the Champions league there are only five teams who have played the last ten years, and they are Arsenal, Man Utd, Real Madrid, PSV, and Olympiakos. That means, if you take these five, there are a lot of clubs, and big clubs, who havn’t been there every year, so I think that in the Champions League we have fulfilled our expectations this year, even though we are frustrated because we wanted to win it.

In the FA Cup we lost against Chelsea, I believe it was much more even the game in the semi final than people say, and of course people will say that we finished the season without a trophy, and it’s true, because we are here to win trophies, but I believe as well that the overall performance of the team has been consistent, and the team has gone up, and considering the overall age of the team, and the attitude of the team, overall we have performed.

What people forget as well, and I speak tonight to shareholders, that Arsenal is also about values, and when I came here, this club, it struck me that this club is something special, with it’s attitude, fair play, generosity, and I’m very proud of the team we had this year on that front as well, because I believe that this team will give a lot in making Arsenal fans and supporters very proud.

I regret that overall from the first day of the season we had negative vibes and manipulation around the team, and when you have such a young team it’s very hard to keep the confidence very high, and it was maybe the most energy demanding season for all the staff this year because we had the feeling that we had to support the team against all the odds in England, and that was difficult, but I must say as well that the team was very strong.

BW – Injuries as always affected a little bit?

AW – We had Gallas out, we had Adebayor out, we had Fabregas out, we had Tomas Rosicky the whole season out, and after last season we lost flamini, we lost hleb, we never expected to be without Tomas Rosicky for the whole season not playing one game, because we suddenly found, hleb was an experienced player, flamini was starting to be experienced, rosicky is an experienced player, and we suddenly lost the whole midfield experience wise, and we had to rebuild completely our midfield.

I ask myself this question and I have done for years, it’s been touched upon, really to what extent do you consider trophies and medals to be the be all and end all, or do you feel that the football we’ve played over the years is almost more important. I know you want both, and it’s difficult with the media obsessed with trophies and winning championships, which are history as soon as you’ve got them, but the general nature of the play, I think it’s really important. The media often ask which team you’d pay to watch, and they always say Arsenal, and that’s not because of winning trophies, but is the pleasure, the playing of the game in the right way, or what extent do you consider you have to win always?

I believe personally I want to win trophies, but I believe as well that in a big club, you need a style of play as well. Normally both work together, not always, but I still think that you cannot survive a long time as a club, or have a world reputation without a style of play. Today, Arsenal is hugely respected, with a massive reputation all over the world, as a club. The smallest reputation and respect we have as a club is inside here in England.

It is true, and I’m very sad and very frustrated as well, (that we came 4th in the league and champs league), but in fairness you have to say that that we play in the most difficult league in the world, against opponents with top quality as well, and at the end of the day this year you will have again the top 4, in a different order, you have Utd who are at the moment perhaps the best in the world, Liverpool, who are a massive club, and they’ve not won the championship in 19 years. They’re not a small club, they’re a massive club, and people take for granted and say “Why have you not won the championship” but it is difficult, and the best way to reach that is to have a style of play, and a culture that goes through the ranks, from the small to the adults, and that’s what we try to create, but the purpose and the target is to win the trophies.

Blokey from the AST – We had a Q & A with Ivan Gazidis earlier in the week and were very impressed with him, and his vision for the club. I’d be interested in what your relationship with him, and what you’re looking for from him in terms of taking us forward next year, and how does his role interact with yours in the modern football world to take us forward??

AW – I see Ivan as someone who can help me achieve my targets, and share the vision of the club. As much as you can say “if we don’t win, I am responsible” I want to say “if we don’t win, he is responsible!”

BW – You’re putting him on the spot, he’s sitting on the front row.

AW – I believe that we have a shared vision as to how the club has to be run, and we spoke about that today with the board, if I say now “look today we go out today and buy a player who is worth 70 million pounds, then everyone is happy for two months, but after that if we do not win, people will ask, “why do we not win”, but for two months everyone will be very happy. For me football is more than that, it’s a style of play, and a shared vision of how you want to run the club, how do you think you can develop the team, and we are on the right track.

We are convinced, the board, the directors, that we are doing the right thing, because we want to run the club by respecting the financial balance, by developing the idea of the game played how we want it played, and by developing the players who we bought, who have been at the club for five years. If we do not get there next year, or the year after, then I will be responsible and stand up for it, don’t worry, but at the moment I just say one thing – what this team has done, with the average age it has now, no team has done that. Somewhere you have to realise that it’s the most important moment in the life of this club, is to be strong now and support this team, if they don’t deliver in one or two years, then you can say this is the right thing to do, but now what this team needs is the support of the people who are the fans of the club.

I will tell you something – we win at Chelsea after a disasterous game at Man City, I go to the loo after the game, and the guy says, well done Arsene, we won today, but we will not win the championship this year, and this was in November. I say sorry to me you are not an arsenal fan, he said of course I am an arsenal fan, I said we are just a team with the older player 21 in midfield, and we beat Chelsea, who is a mature team with a massive investment, and the only thing you can say after the game is we will not win the championship. You cannot say to me you’re a fan because you don’t even believe in your own players. That’s a responsibility as well, because people say I am a fan, but only if it all goes well, you win 38 games on the trot, and win all the trophies, then I am a fan, but I’m sorry, that is easy.

Shareholder – I wonder if you could identify the person who pulled Nicholas Bendtner’s trousers down last week because you seemed certain that it was sabotage in quotes last week.

AW – We didn’t identify the person, but we identified Bendtner, and that was enough.

Shareholder – It’s been a very interesting time in the boardroom this season with all the changes that have occurred, and we were wondering how that’s impacted your strategy on the pitch?

AW – Well I’m not involved at all in the shareholders and the ways the shares are bought by people but all I can say is that it didn’t change anything, and if we havn’t won a trophy this year that isn’t an excuse.

Shareholder – I think we’ve been spoilt over the years, which is why we’ve been a bit negative about everything, but for the future I’d like to ask you, is there money available, and if there is money available, I get the impression that the backbone of the team isn’t there. We used to have Bob Wilson, Adams all the way through to the centre forward. Is there money to buy anyone in the future?

AW – Yes we spoke about that today, and there is money available to buy. Where do I buy or who, it’s difficult to speak about that, because if you come out with that you pay double price, so we’re rich but not rich enough to do that. But we will buy.

Shareholder – When you joined the club 13 years ago you inherited possibly the best back 4 we’ve ever had. Technically they weren’t the best footballers, but they really knew how to defend, and now we have some great footballers in the defence, but they don’t seem as well drilled as they were under Keown and Adams, and it’s very disappointing when you play against Chelsea and hammer them for the first 20 minutes, then they have one free kick up the other end and score from a set piece. (wenger nodding in agreement) I was wondering if you would ever consider inviting Adams and Keown back to the club in a coaching roll, to drill the back four we have now?

AW – You know what people forget, is that defence was a great defence that I inherited, but the team that was invincible was a back four in which none of those four played. It was Lauren, Kolo, Campbell, and Ashley Cole, so that was the back four that was invincible and played 49 games unbeaten. It’s true that we didn’t perform defensively this year, but Gallas was out for a long long time, Kolo was injured, and defensively we hadn’t found a stability. If we had a weakness this year it was more as a unit, as a team defensively, because offensively we performed quite well.

BW – What you’re saying there is that you defend from the front, right the way through, not just the four guys there?

AW - Exactly, and also what people forget is that football in the last 12 years has changed massively in England, it has evolved a lot, and it’s much more difficult today. Today it’s the case that in every single club the forwards are internationals. When we played Wigan this year they had Heskey and Zaki on the bench. That was not the case 12 years ago. When you play against Newcastle who are playing not to go down they have Owen or Martins on the bench, and this was not the case 12 years ago. The level of this league has gone up, and for the defenders it’s much more difficult than 12 years ago, and people underestimate that highly, because in every single team in this premier league you’ve got international players, and many time on the bench as well.

Shareholder – When we played Utd in the first leg semi final, you saw the way we defended the corner, the whole back four all went to the far post leaving 3 players unmarked on the near post, whilst adebayor just kinda wandered about, I’ve got no idea what he was doing

AW – He’s a striker he was looking to get forward and score.

Shareholder – I understand that instinct, but is it the job of the coaching staff to make sure that whilst it’s his instinct to get forward, when we’re defending a forward, when a player especially the size of adebayor is on a post, defending, marking the forwards?

AW – Well do you really think that you work 25 years in football but you don’t tell these things to your players?

Shareholder – I’m sure you tell them, but some don’t seem to listen?

AW – The nature of the game is that you have to accept mistakes. Know how many mistakes statistically on every single goal? 5 mistakes, everytime that’s five mistakes every time you concede a goal, and also every time you score a goal, that’s also what people forget, you find always five mistakes. People say we scored four fantastic goals against Liverpool, but when you look at them again you can see the mistakes. We also conceded 4 goals with mistakes, but mistakes happen because of the speed and quality of the football. With this game, with the corner I agree with you, it was a problem of concentration, but when a player is offensive minded he can make this kind of mistake, because he thinks ok the ball is not coming to me to clear, so if I go forward if it’s won again I can attack, if it’s a defender he doesn’t react like that.

Shareholder – My question revolves around the captaincy of the club. I don’t believe we’ve got a player in the squad at the moment who’s capable of being captain of a great club like this. You look at the other top clubs, and they’ve got 3 or 4 players who you could say would be good captains, you look at them and say “he’s a captain, he’s a captain, he’s a captain”, they’re captains. This was clearly demonstrated when Kieran Gibbs had that awful slip the other night against Man U, who went around to put their arm around him and say it’s ok, take it easy, compose yourself, we’ve all been there. It goes back again to taking responsibility and I don’t believe we’ve got anyone in the squad who’s capable of being captain of the squad. I think that was clear when we played Portsmouth, and Arshavin was the 9th player to captain this great club in one season. It’s a poor reflection on the great guys who’s captained this club previously.

BW – VP went to Gibbs straight away so I would mention that.

AW – You can take that argument on both sides, maybe we have too many captains as we’ve had 9 this year. I believe in shared leadership in the team, and I believe that we have many captains in the team. There’s two things to be a captain, one is to project yourself in front of the camera, and to speak a lot, which people like, and the other way is to behave like a captain in the dressing room and on the pitch, and we have lots of players who stood up and take responsibility, and fabregas is a good captain for me.

BW – And not alone either?

AW – No not alone, Arshavin can be a captain, Van Persie can be a captain, Kolo too, they are captains.

BW – Almunia

AW – Yes Almunia, they are people who stand up and take responsibilities, and I don’t share that opinion at all.

Shareholder – When we were at highbury we attacked the opposition from the start, trying to get an early goal, and not let them settle, and be several goals up at half time. I’ve been doing my own statistics at the emirates recently, and find that we have more attacks in the second half than the first, is this part of your tactical plan?

AW – No. It’s part of the defensive play of the opponents, you need to be patient until you can find space. You know how many goals Man Utd scored this year after 36 games - 67, you know how many we scored – 64, there is no difference there. Going forward we’ve had a very good season, and we’ve scored as many as the best in the league. It is sometimes difficult, we had a difficult period where we couldn’t score at home, but all the big teams had times when they found that difficult, and most of the time we had to be patient because we played against teams with ten men in one half and it’s difficult.

Shareholder - I’ve been watching arsenal for a long time, since before Bob broke into the first team, so maybe I don’t see things as quite as disastrous as some do.

BW – Those days were pretty disasterous

AW – They were worse than that! But I think that the players should be proud of getting to two semi finals, though obviously disappointed with how we played once we’d got there, but that’s how things can work out. The young players have another seasons’ experience under their belt, and I hope to see some great stuff from them next season. But in hindsight this season, I make mistakes in my job, and do some good stuff. In your job this season, if you had to pick out a couple of things you did right, and a couple you did wrong, what would you pick out?

AW – That’s very difficult. I don’t see it like that, I just think there’s two different things at a football club, and some people don’t see that. For me, as you said, it’s a frustration not to win against Manchester Utd, but you can still make a distance with the overall performance of the season which has not been a disaster at all, because if you look back at the history, maybe in the future one day you will look back, maybe at this season, and think it was not as bad. I think personally, there are a lot of positives to take from this season. As for what kind of mistakes I’ve made this season, I’m not pretentious enough to think that I do not make mistakes, but you must give me one credit, I’m 26 years in this job, but 35 years working as a coach, and I work every day thinking what can I do better, and believe me before I go into games, I think about it day and night. This is a job, that noone can imagine how energy consuming it is, that you make a hundred decisions in a week, only a fool could say that he doesn’t make any mistakes over those hundred decisions, of course I make mistakes.

I believe the most important thing at the club, is that it’s in the right shape structure wise, with a fantastic training ground, and new stadium, and you look at all the other clubs with big new stadiums where they are, and they’re all down, but we have stayed at the top. We maintained this club, having built a massive new stadium, at the top level in Europe, and let me tell you something I’m very proud of that, because when we built a new stadium, I was thinking now, the difficulty starts. To maintain the team at the top level when you move stadiums, when you go into expense as we did, and what we managed to do for me is fantastic. That we have no trophies to present today, I’m very sorry, but I do not say I’ve made no mistakes, of course I made many mistakes, but I tried not to make mistakes. Overall for me, what’s very exciting is that this club is in a fantastic situation, and everybody is down, because every morning we get up, and take our breakfast, look at the papers, and nobody says you are great, so you think you are nobody. That’s it, it’s as simple as that, and I believe there are a lot of positive energies in this team, and there is a lot of positive, with me or without me that isn’t important, but the future of this club is great. What saddens me is the attitude of the players is great, and the quality of the players, but everyone believes the team is bad.

Shareholder – I’ve been following the club for 60 years, and the last 13 years have had the best football I’ve ever experienced, and although we’ve not won anything in 4 years, it’s disappointing but isn’t the be all and end all. However after getting to the semi final of the FA cup, I was wondering what the logic was in not picking Arshavin, who wasn’t eligible for the champs league, and the following Tuesday he scored 4 at Liverpool, so why didn’t he play at Wembley?

AW – For many reasons that it’s difficult to talk about the selection of the team. I knew for the team that that semi final was a very important step to go through in the champions league as well, and I knew that arshavin wasn’t available in the champions league. In my calculation, was to give the team the confidence to beat Chelsea, and bring arshavin on if needed, and that the team could then go on in the champions league and know that it could win big games. It didn’t work like that, but arshavin played, and that was the only reason, not that he wasn’t good enough.

Shareholder – I’ve been going to pretty much all the away games for the last 20 years, and I think it’s a really sad state of affairs that the gap between the fans and the players has widened, for a variety of reasons, but small things at the end of games, like acknowledging the fans, giving them a clap after games, because when we win they come over milking the applause, but when we lose you’re lucky to get one or two, especially in Europe, in places like Moscow or Kiev, and it’s disheartening when you see players who don’t seem to care, little things like that can make a big difference.

AW – I’m very sorry for that and you’re completely right, and I thought we do it. When the players do it after a win it’s because they’re happy, and if we don’t do it after a loss it’s because they are ashamed, but I can see that people could think it’s because they don’t care about you. I must say there is a massive difference between the away fans, who are absolutely fantastic, and have been fantastic all season, and the home fans, but I agree with you completely on that.

Shareholder - I’d like to reiterate what the previous person said about players acknowledging the fans, and I think other clubs players do it, and the fans would often like to actually give the players support, even if they havn’t achieved what we hoped of them. I’d also like to say that over the past four years we’ve stayed in the top four, and moved to a fantastic new stadium, and I personally think you’re a genius, and we’re jolly lucky to have you. There’s one other thing I’d like to say, our motto is victory through harmony, and I’m sure you’d agree that in addition to your values the arsenal motto should also be remembered, do you agree with that?

AW – Well I would like to answer first that I am very honoured that you rate what I do, but don’t worry I do not think at all that I’m a genius. I just think I try to do the best I can for this club and I’ve very proud of that, and I’m very sorry as well when we do not respond completely to the expectation levels, of people who love the club. Don’t worry I do not drive home when we lose a game whistling, I am very sad, but I know as well that I’m not the only one, that complete families are devastated, and that hurts even more.

Interrupting agitated red-faced Shareholder – Nicholas Bendtner went to a night club, whilst our fans were crying their eyes out he was drinking £500 bottles of champagne.

AW – But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care, and we all care about the same club. It is a time when you have to think, and take a bit of distance, away from the immediate result. We live in a world today where it’s all about immediate and definite opinions, and immediately after a game people have an opinion saying “get him out”, or “kick him out.” I’m convinced that if the basic situation is there at the club, like we are now, and you think the basic are rights, then we should stand behind that, and lets try and correct what did not work this year, and come back next year and show that we are the right people thinking the right way, and doing the right things, but not always only be guided by that negative fear instilled in us by the media in a subtle way. What happens in the modern game is that everyone calls in after the game and has an opinion, and that opinion is right. People work everyday on the football pitch, and think day and night about what they do, and they are not all stupid, and they care about the club they care about the team, and they want to do well. I believe here at this club we are in a period where we need people to believe in what we do, but more than that, is people who believe in the players who go out there, because they are good, and if you don’t do that you will regret it one day.

Shareholder - If the board was to agree a new rights issue with a number of new shares to help specifically to provide funds for you to compete in the transfer market, something like a hundred million pounds could be raised this way, would you welcome it?

AW – First of all I cannot answer that question because I don’t know if it is legally possible or plausible, maybe the chairman could answer that but I couldn’t answer that.

Shareholder – If it was possible, just say that you could?

AW – I believe that my target is to use the money available in the best possible way, if it’s ten million it’s ten million, if it’s twenty million it’s twenty million, if it’s 100 million it’s 100 million. I’m always happy to work with the resources I have and to do the best that I can, but I also believe that when you sign for a club you cannot say suddenly there is not 100 million available, so sorry I cannot work, that isn’t responsible. When I sign somewhere I work and know when I come in that I do it in the resources available, and I do as well as I can.

Shareholder – I’d like to reiterate the other bloke in saying you’ve worked relative miracles over the last few years with the resources you’ve had compared to some other clubs, but we spoke about your belief in collective responsibility, which is fine when it’s going well, but with such a young side, the other night when they walked off at half time, you look around for leadership figures, like a Puyol or a Terry, and with such a young side do you not think it’s necessary to have someone who’s capable of rallying them on the pitch?

AW – Well I agree with you, as what team doesn’t need a leader of course, but I believe as well that experiences in your life you grow into responsibilities, and early someone says to you “you do that”, and you say “I don’t know if I can do that”, but Fabregas has learned his trade this year, and next season he will be a responsible captain from the start next year, and I’m confident that he has the qualities to do that. That’s what I believe as well. This team has been shocked against Man Utd as noone can imagine. There’s no worse feeling than coming out of a game, and feeling that we had not even arrived to play the game, and this is what the team experienced. They were up for it, I can tell you, and the fans were up for it, and after ten minutes it was game over, and even if you have a leader, to get over that is nearly impossible.

Shareholder – Arsene do you give less of a priority to physical stature down the spine of the side these days, because these days the spine looks far smaller than it used to. Going back to Vieira and Petit they were both man mountains, and both could play. This season most of the time the central midfield has been Fabregas and Denilson, both are fine players, Fabregas is a brilliant player, but they don’t have the physical stature, and when I see us play against physical sides like Chelsea, we seem to lose out through that.

AW – Of course, I believe that every single team in Europe against Chelsea has a physical inferiority, we saw that with Barcelona when they played against Chelsea, that Chelsea is above the average level physically impact wise. We tried a little bit as we are conscious of that, but in some games we needed muscle a bit more in the midfield which is why we added diaby in some games, or song, because there is more physical shape then to fight, one against one. Against Chelsea I thought we had quite a good game going forward, but we were punished at a time, and gave another goalscoring chance away and were 2-0 down. At Wembley I still think we had a little handicap because the pitch was not good at all, and that turned it into more of a physical battle, and on the front Chelsea are simply stronger, but they are stronger than everyone else in Europe on that front.

BW – Thank you very much for all your questions and coming along tonight. I’m sure you’ll all thank Arsene for answering your questions honestly. Arsene, your enthusiasm remains just as it was?

AW – Yes, because in our job you look to the next game, and just want to win it, you never look back, except to analyse, you look at the next game, and for us it’s Manchester Utd on Saturday, and next season.

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