No way do you come out with 4 weeks of the window and say we can not compete. I mean it puts the club at a disadvantage. Who wants to join a club where you here you will play with good not wc players. You only cover for the manager once the window shuts and no one else comes it. End of the day if he disagrees with Arsene he can go out himself and get deals done. What can Aw do throw a strop and walk out, hardly a disaster. Ivan had his orders from Stan to say that rubbish it was obvious. Guess Aw tried to play good cop by saying we can compete.

The fact Wenger says we can compete made Ivan look a right mug. Ivan said it off his own back.

Good little article about what most of us has been saying.

http://dailypost.ng/2016/08/15/ifrek...prised-wenger/

Players are rejecting Arsenal because we are not top draw, a new manager will not suddenly changed that. Players move depending on who the manager is. If it is not world class imo expect more good but not great signings. New manager would have plenty of money but players need to believe in him.

You say the board are not backing him, do we have proof of this because they seem to have offered the deal it is up to him.

i guess the best they could do is sit down and tell him, after a hard think it is best he goes and make a joint statement with him.

This way Wenger boo boys get their way, The Akb's get to sing his name as much as theywant. Also the players will be pushed into playing for their futures and i think we would all give him one last push for him to go out on a high.

When recently asked about this contract situation, he replied it will depend on the performance of this season. Reading between the lines that means he has to win the PL (or at least challenge) or the contract won't be extended.

We don't know what happens behind the scenes at the club. Will be sickening if he is still here next season.

And to be fair although there were some good finishes this was no great Liverpool performance overall. That's a big worry too.

We have for the last 3 or so years regularly conceded 3+ goals to our main opposition. NOTHING has been done about these defensive frailties. I'm not even talking about signings, adjusting tactics would do.

I fear there are going to be some very embarrassing results this season.

Yep, we concede the same way time after time. I don't believe Bould can be having any significant influence. Biggest issue for me is that it doesn't matter who we have in the team it still happens. It's not down to individual players but bigger than that. It's been going on for a decade and there's been zero improvement except for when Keown was around.

A bit of trivia....five of the seven goals scored yesterday were by ex Southampton players. Just saying like

You're assuming our club is run on a rational basis. That hasn't appeared to be the case for a number of years now.

I don't think Ivan has any real power. To my mind the club is Arsene and although Ivan might report to Stan, all the major decisions are left to the manager. Ivan is left to run the business side of things and support the manager, nothing else.

I think the chances of Ivan being allowed to go out and sign a player on his own initiative would be zero. Stan would have Ivan's head if he did something to make the manager walk. No, to my mind the problem at the club is Arsene has far too much power and nobody (and that includes Ivan) holds him to account when he so often underperforms. This absolute power has been confirmed by so many people in so many interviews over the years that I don't doubt it's absolutely the way things are run at the club and why we are so dysfunctional.

Our problems at the moment start and stop with Arsene. The moment a new manager comes in will be the point at which it is possible to tell if the rot is deeper than that.

I concur re Wenger and the amount of power he holds. He was instrumental in the Gazidis appointment as far as I am aware.

Despite that, if results continue to be poor then something would have to give. There's only so long a club and it's manager can be bullish and a toxic atmosphere can be sustained for. Then there's the players. I can't believe every single squad player is happy. Once it's evident that they are not playing for the manager anymore then that's it. Publicly they will say what's expected by the club but privately there will be disquiet.

I think he would jump before being being pushed. If the contract extension was withdrawn come the new year then his position would become untenable anyway. My point being is that he would be afforded every chance to walk and to leave with some dignity. We are a club in limbo.

If he wanted that he should have left after the FA Cup win. There is no dignity now. He will leave in absolute shame (probably at the end of the season when we finish 6th) and unfortunately, he's brought it all on himself.

It's quite sad because he seems to have been overtaken by other managers and it looks like he doesn't understand why. We have a board that doesn't have a clue either. There's no statement of intent from them, just treading water.

Just reading that Xhaka played 24mins and in that time committed the most fouls of any Premier League player all weekend!

Walking red card at the moment I suspect. A strong manager would take steps now to reduce the likelihood of that happening. Anyone seriously wonder what will happen at Arsenal?

Ramsey's apparently out for a month. I despair.........

I wish the club (ie: Wenger) would just come out and say "we're not going for the title, we're happy with a top four spot" and be done with it. Telling the fans they want to strengthen, they are ambitious.....barefaced lies. On the one hand I was angry that there wasn't much noise when the scoreline was 3-4 yesterday, but on the other you can only string a fanbase for so long and promise them something without delivering. The fans are resigned......and it's only day one!!

It's sad that fans can't get excited about matchdays anymore because we know the score!!! There will be high moments of course, but more abject performances, more amateur defending, schoolboy errors.

Wenger for years now has been stubborn to the purest form. He doesn't care about the league anymore, it's just mantaining this sterile hegemony whereby he gets a bonus for doing the minimum. Someone on Twitter wrote he doesn't buy the necessary players to complete his team because it'd mean he'd have no excuses not to compete.............as bonkers as that sounds, it's plausible. Just like rejecting all these clubs because he'd be out of the door quicker than you can say 'Yaya Sanogo'.

David Ornstein just tweeted the following:

"Arsenal yet to agree fee for Mustafi. #AFC considering Omer Toprak & Simon Kjaer as alternatives but Mustafi remains priority & keen to join.

Price the issue. Arsenal want to hold back funds for possible striker signing. #AFC transfer budget factors in fee, salary, agent commission."

More dithering and no strategy. I'm sure if Mertesacker and Gabriel weren't injured we wouldn't have been in for a CB which is unbelievable considering the poor season BFG had and the obvious decline he showed.

I'm fuming that the club are considering the cheap option yet again 😡

We have more cash than anyone in World football and we want to save a few million for a big striker signing which only a fool would think Arsene is actually capable of delivering. Even worse this player actually wants to join us. What a fool.

This isn't transfer budgets, this is Arsene's standard negotiation tactic. The club is officially beyond a joke. I wish I could swear on here but Arsene just **** off!

According to Spencer Morgan, Aw never wanted him.https://mobile.twitter.com/spencermo...6304531456?p=v

How true it is i am not sure, his dad is Piers Morgan so making up Bs could run in the family.

Not sure we do have more money than anyone in world football. We are at least 10th in the world.

If Roman Abromovich owned us Wenger would have been sacked long time ago. I agree Aw has too much power but the Owner and the board should be looking at things in a serious way. Wenger is an outdated Manager and someone up top needs to tell it how it is. For me the owner has to take some blame it is not all on Wenger. As much as the Russian is a crook it is time he came in and turned it around.

I said it before, the club is in a mess and no one from top to bottom, seems to know whatvto do or what is going on.

The worm has turned, John Cross of all people saying it's time for AW to go.

My mistake, more cash reserves than anyone in world football

This isnt going to happen FFS if Mustafi actually wants to join the last thing you do is haggle over a few £m
This is going to be like Mata a few years ago (available for a measly £18m) who joined Chelsea instead after being heavily linked with us, or even Mkhi this season.

The rumours about Ozil won't go away either.

First game of the season.

Conte, Mourinho & Guardiola 1, Wenger nil.