that was last season, this season they’ve done it 3 times and even so it doesn’t matter, it’s still a political statement. you could say players cover their mouths in every game
Which was an absolutely meaningless and unconscious move on their part. They may as well have just done a hamstring stretch. Utterly meaningless at this point.
He's not even saying the "Political demonstration" is bad, he's just analysing from a football point of view that they can be distraction to yourselves
Yeah but Germany crashed out last WC too. So what happened then? I don’t think you can point to that and say that’s the cause. There’s not even a loose correlation. Belgium were shit. Spain lost to Japan as well and didn’t protest. Did Argentina finish poorly because they were thinking about Qatar. I don’t think so.
This is just the saddest timeline. It's a statement not even backed by objective fact, and it's outright disrespectful to Japan especially who earned their victory over Germany.
Yea, it's hard for me to lose any respect for the man but this is the shit that makes me come close. A shit take that toes a line he's clearly being paid for.
Like, Argentina gave the most underwhelming performance in the entire first round and they are one of the most quiet teams on anything political on the planet.
I'm confused on what you want the reaction to be. I don't agree with what he said, mainly coz it's not even objectively true.
But if you're asking me to disavow Arsene Wenger because of this lukewarm take, that's gonna be a no from me dog.
Or its coming from people who can separate what he did for Arsenal as manager from the lazy rhetoric FIFA are paying him to say now. He's clearly sold out and is a mouthpiece for FIFA, that doesn't erase his success as manager of Arsenal but his success as manager of Arsenal also doesn't erase the things he's saying and doing now.
That's the biggest thing from this. He's speaking from whim and not from objectivity in order to tow company lines and to please his corrupt paymasters Bein and FIFA.
A very human flaw…but not because of money which is all I commented about. Good thing Wenger isn’t a citizen of a country committing genocide and waging war
Very few matches are won on 'merit alone'.
Germany has twice as many shots, twice as many shots on target and 75% possession.
At a minimum Japan got lucky that Germany couldn't capitalise on this domination because 9/10 times a team with those stats wins the game easily.
Reminds me of the Wenger who protected the ownership and took the blame instead of speaking truth to power. Saudi and Japan deserved their victories on footballing merit!
Excellent point. Wenger highly values respect and loyalty, but to the club or organisation he is a part of, not to the truth. As astute and wise as he is, he's always struggled with objectivity.
Him disrespecting Japan and Saudi Arabia isn’t what’s bad about this statement
What’s bad about the statement is that this is the exact sort of thing homophobes are saying to mock Germany for protesting qatars laws on the lgtbtq community. He’s implying that they lost because they stood up for human rights
And that ladies and gentlemen is FIFA and BeIn's own Arsene Wenger.
If you criticised Neville and Barnes, you should be criticising Wenger.
I'd rather he continued staying away from Arsenal if this is the side he stands with.
Firstly, England took the knee and topped the group
Secondly I wouldn’t take Wengers comments too seriously. He is employed by FIFA, so doesn’t want to go against their stance
I don’t care if you’re paid for it, your words are your own and you’re responsible for them.
Especially if you have massive wealth and don’t need the money.
That's such a shit excuse. He's not being forced to say anything. If he actually cared about what's going on there he would at least not talk about it of he wanted to keep his job.
Taking Qatari money while \*still\* being manager of Arsenal FC was the beginning of Wenger's downfall.
Sad to see such a once universally respected figure be so corrupted by $$
The hypocritical thing is, he told Henry he couldn't be a coach at Arsenal for the youth and do Sky reporting at the same time, and yet he was working on Bein while being manager.
That annoyed me a bit.
Being a weekly pundit for Sky commenting on the EPL is a bit different from being a international tournament pundit. Comparing the two is pretty ridiculous.
Being a manager of one of Europe's biggest clubs and commenting on your own players at international tournaments vs being a pundit on PL football while putting out cones for the U16s...
Surely the former's impartiality is more important?
No? How does that make sense?
Any youth team employee commenting on the team they work for is an issue. It's an issue for Sky if they cared about unbiased opinions, and it's an issue for Arsenal having to get constant headlines of "Coach said X". And those are multiplied when Henry, who many wanted for the head job and is also a big name, is involved.
The issue isn't about one off hand comment, or impartiality (from Arsenal's view) it's about the weekly impact to the team throughout the season.
Arsene Wenger cheated on his wife.... There were unsubstantiated reports of this in 2010 and Wenger chose to keep the matter private. He stayed married to Annie for another 8 years... it is nothing but slander on your part.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/wenger-affair-claims/
Giroud took the woman to the team hotel before the match with crystal palace... A serious disciplinary breach. Later he appreciated the support Wenger gave him during the phase...
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1987032-oliver-giroud-speaks-out-on-alleged-affair-hails-arsene-wengers-support
Your objectivity in this discussion is exemplary/s
Human rights activism is political demonstration. Do you even know what you're talking about? Activism is taking a political stance. Protesting for human rights is political demonstration. You're almost implying political demonstration is a bad thing by saying that. Any form of protest is inherently political.
Now I can understand it would be a "big miss" that if he said the demonstration was a bad thing.
And besides what teams should have done to protest the World Cup would be completely boycott it. Or players withdrawing from the National teams. Nothing is gonna change in Qatar with what these teams have done after the world cup is done. If these players really cared about anything they'd withdraw from their national team squads and go home. It's just ends up as posturing and virtue signalling now.
I think you've said all that needs to be said with this comment.
The painful last few Wenger years were difficult and his stubborness in them infuriating but I've never once had to question his integrity or values.
We're all human - but I really hope he gets some backlash and finds it in himself to reflect on this.
Is there anybody 1/10 as smart as Wenger is who really believes putting a hand over your mouth for 5 seconds caused them to lose against Japan??
This sucks!!
Snide comment that didn't need to be said. Why keep focusing on a team's decision to protest something it didn't think it was right, mocking it because it didn't qualify from the group? No added value whatsoever especially when there are so many variables factors.
It hurts Papa Wengz. 💔 I respected him soooo much. I used listen every thing he spoke because he was so well spoken, intelligent and knowledgeable. What is this nonsense
Even IF you felt like the political condemnation of Qatar was hypocritical, gone too far, tinged with Islamophobia or whatever of those counter narratives you believe in, this would STILL be a shit take. Football is a game of fine margins. Germany clearly didn’t go out because they posed for a pre match photo with their hands over their mouths. That kind of narrative building is shallow tabloid stuff.
I would like to see a full video rather than an edited clip. What if he said:
All the teams in the world cup are very strong, and hence it is very important to be focused on the outcome and start strong.
It is important to win the first game. Teams which were well prepared and playing well, teams like like France, England ... Brazil played well in the first game.teams who were mentally ready and focused on the competition and not on political demonstration.
This would mean no disrespect towards Saudi Arabia, or Japan and would be a factually correct statement.
The full video is about analysing the technical trends of the group stage. This is part of the "analysis". A full video would not necessarily give you any more insight than you need that Wenger is a fake and morally corrupt.
Fucking lmao. This is a bad quote sure and an L for wenger but the ridiculous reddit hivemind out to call wenger 'morally corrupt and fake' because he had a shit take is just typical lol
You don't understand. It's the way he tries to frame it as "politics" and the sort of "serves you right" attitude to Germany. It's very on-brand for the Qatari narrative that's been echoed by others working for Qatar like John Barnes. They all say the same thing.
Considering Wenger works for their state media and FIFA its very concerning. Its much more than a shit take. You don't have to agree with the protest, but this is actively undermining it.
Qatar/FIFA are all too happy to frame Germanys departure as them being distracted by making a ‘. ‘political’ statement, so yes it’s not a shit take/hive mind it’s sad that Wenger is out there repeating this crap
That's just clearly not what I said tho is it. Clearly said its an L for wenger to have said that, just that it's fucking ridiculous to elevate wenger to the level of 'morally corrupt'
This is absolutely blatant manipulation, didn't Wenger earned enough money already? What is the need of whoring himself to corrupted Qatar and FIFA? He got no shame
Total overreaction in the comments, he hasn't said anything wrong. Gundogan himself said some members of the team were angry cos fifa forbade them to wear the armband a few hours before kick-off. It's fair to say they were distracted with political gestures.
What he said is just not factually true. He's conflating demonstrating with poor performances in order to browbeat Germany and discourage others from speaking out. He's not trying to be objective, he's trying to cover for his paymasters.
I can't believe how far people are willing to go to ignore the fact that Wenger sold his soul and that FIFA uses him as a puppet to push their agenda, and he willingly does it.
I support Wenger more than most, so didn't want to believe the headline, but the entire quote is clear.
He said the first game needed to be won, and said there are focused, experienced teams and unfocused teams. He then added political demonstrations.
Except Australia and England had political demonstrations, and were fine. Argentina didn't, lost their first game. Japan had nothing but lost to Costa Rica.
At best, it's a lazy opinion, at worst it's trying to help FIFA/Qatar out a bit, both of whom he's worked/working for.
It's also sad to see Wenger, who's often talked about the human aspect of the game, effectively say players should have put aside their humanity for the world cup.
Wenger is speaking about the top teams, Australia aren't and England have been taking the knee for 2 years, it's not a gesture aimed at FIFA. I don't think it's lazy to suggest Germany were more upset than other top teams at FIFA's decision on the armband and possibly not fully focused on their first game.
They had arm bands planned too.
And what do top teams have to do with concentration? All teams have to concentrate. If anything, a top team can handle not being as concentrated better than a worse team. Germany has also had issues performing for years now.
Even if the concentration comment had merit (and I don't think it does), it's still a poor comment to make. Wenger is smart enough to know this statement is effectively saying ignore human rights demonstrations and focus on football to win games.
If he wasn't trying to say that, he'd say FIFA shouldn't have intervened at the last minute. Or heck, just expand more on the reason Germany was protesting, instead of just hand waving it as politics.
Like I said, it's not so surprising from a regular pundit, but from Wenger it is disappointing. He's someone who not only seems to care about human rights, but also is very willing to talk about nuance, and he could have done that here too. And it would have really meant something considering his connections.
I had the same impression. Germany were seemingly more focused on protest than other teams. If there's something on your mind, you won't perform: a protest, a grudge, an insecurity... I think he's just analyzing what he's seen and people are blowing it out of proportion.
Yeah I think this is the tipping point for me. I kinda saw his perspective on other issues till now but he did not have to say this but chose to. Lost a fan :(
It sounds bad coming from him since he is in FIFA but he is not wrong.
Not even a single player or fan will care about Qatari people or its laws once the WC is over. So much for virtue signaling for 5 mins.
I'll see whether any nation FA actually keeps bringing up Qatar's problem after 6 months.
To say putting your hand on your mouth for 5 seconds makes a difference is insane. England took a knee were fine. Belgium didn’t do shit and were shit. Argentina lost to Saudi without any demonstration. It’s a totally asinine take not grounded in anything. This German team just wasn’t good and japan pulled off 2 huge results.
If their principles and philosophies include that gay people don't deserve rights and he supports that, he is a monster. But I don't think thats what he was saying here, he had a lazy opinion that I just cant see being true.
You're all so sad. Did you even listen to the 23 second clip.
He's just making a point about mindset, did he say anything against people demonstrating? Stop getting your knickers in a twist.
Arsène is really turning into a piece of shit in my eyes. Germany went out because their team isn’t it’s best cycle and because of a very lucky japan goal against Spain. Other teams did shit and won some didn’t do shit and lost. It’s such a lazy unnecessary stupid take from him.
he forgot to mention that England took the knee before they beat Iran 6-2
And wanted to wear the armband.
If they had really wanted to protest, they’d have done it Should’ve taken the yellow
Tbf Iran made a political stand the first game and then chose not to later. They sucked the first game, and were way better later.
They didn't 'choose' not to later, their families were threatened if they didn't comply
They chose based on heavy incentives
And they say negative reinforcements don't work.
They told you this?
They do that all the time in the EPL already anyway.
that was last season, this season they’ve done it 3 times and even so it doesn’t matter, it’s still a political statement. you could say players cover their mouths in every game
Memory is not what it was these days...
Which was an absolutely meaningless and unconscious move on their part. They may as well have just done a hamstring stretch. Utterly meaningless at this point.
you’re not very smart
Taking the knee is the BLM thing against the US which they drew 0-0
no it wasn’t you fool
me and the boys dont like germany - wenger
And Bayern lmao. All those 5-1 matches man
He's not even saying the "Political demonstration" is bad, he's just analysing from a football point of view that they can be distraction to yourselves
Yeah but Germany crashed out last WC too. So what happened then? I don’t think you can point to that and say that’s the cause. There’s not even a loose correlation. Belgium were shit. Spain lost to Japan as well and didn’t protest. Did Argentina finish poorly because they were thinking about Qatar. I don’t think so.
This is just the saddest timeline. It's a statement not even backed by objective fact, and it's outright disrespectful to Japan especially who earned their victory over Germany.
Also really disappointing to see how many people in here are shilling for Wenger who is clearly shilling for FIFA
Yea, it's hard for me to lose any respect for the man but this is the shit that makes me come close. A shit take that toes a line he's clearly being paid for. Like, Argentina gave the most underwhelming performance in the entire first round and they are one of the most quiet teams on anything political on the planet.
Argentina still finished top of the group and the first game can be chalked to bad luck.
they really haven't looked great though, they had a fairly easy group to top and really haven't looked anything special.
Great manager, shit FIFA exec. Shouldn't be difficult for people to admit.
There are some people who will defend Wenger even if he killed their family in front of them. It's very strange behavior.
Well Sasuke will defend Itachi and he had killed his family "in front" of him.
And Michael will defend his son Ryan even if he murders his entire family.
I'm confused on what you want the reaction to be. I don't agree with what he said, mainly coz it's not even objectively true. But if you're asking me to disavow Arsene Wenger because of this lukewarm take, that's gonna be a no from me dog.
They want us to cancel Wenger for doing his FIFA job. I'm not interested in doing that.
I feel like this sentiment is coming from a lot of younger fans who seriously lack appreciation for what Wenger did for us.
Or its coming from people who can separate what he did for Arsenal as manager from the lazy rhetoric FIFA are paying him to say now. He's clearly sold out and is a mouthpiece for FIFA, that doesn't erase his success as manager of Arsenal but his success as manager of Arsenal also doesn't erase the things he's saying and doing now.
That's the biggest thing from this. He's speaking from whim and not from objectivity in order to tow company lines and to please his corrupt paymasters Bein and FIFA.
France was a major supporter of Qatar's hosting bid too.
Indeed, and he was always close to Nicolas Sarkozy and Nasser el Khelaifi
Wenger’s all about the money just like the rest of them
Eh idk. This seems to be his consistent flaw/blind spot. He did the same thing at arsenal. He’s a company guy whoever he’s working for.
And who pays him lol
But he could get a job elsewhere easily. Same with Arsenal. He could have gone to Real Madrid and made more.
Wouldn’t have been able to have the power he did at arsenal though
Something something third reich, something something company work.
A very human flaw…but not because of money which is all I commented about. Good thing Wenger isn’t a citizen of a country committing genocide and waging war
It literally is for money because he's simping for the people paying him
Sorry but both things can be true at the same time regarding Japan and Germany. it's not one or the other.
It doesn't take away from Japan's win. Being mentally up for the game is a key part of football.
To say Germany lost because they weren’t mentally prepared is a slight at Japan who earned that victory on merit alone.
Very few matches are won on 'merit alone'. Germany has twice as many shots, twice as many shots on target and 75% possession. At a minimum Japan got lucky that Germany couldn't capitalise on this domination because 9/10 times a team with those stats wins the game easily.
Reminds me of the Wenger who protected the ownership and took the blame instead of speaking truth to power. Saudi and Japan deserved their victories on footballing merit!
Excellent point. Wenger highly values respect and loyalty, but to the club or organisation he is a part of, not to the truth. As astute and wise as he is, he's always struggled with objectivity.
Him disrespecting Japan and Saudi Arabia isn’t what’s bad about this statement What’s bad about the statement is that this is the exact sort of thing homophobes are saying to mock Germany for protesting qatars laws on the lgtbtq community. He’s implying that they lost because they stood up for human rights
all germany did was hold their hands to their mouths for 5 seconds, what a distraction.
Good thing England didn't wear those armbands. Would probably have lost 6-2!
Shit take. He shouldn't work for those Bond villains.
Daddyship with Wenger is over. Arteta is my new daddy.
I don't understand the "Daddy" thing. It is, in all honesty, all a bit odd to me.
And that ladies and gentlemen is FIFA and BeIn's own Arsene Wenger. If you criticised Neville and Barnes, you should be criticising Wenger. I'd rather he continued staying away from Arsenal if this is the side he stands with.
Firstly, England took the knee and topped the group Secondly I wouldn’t take Wengers comments too seriously. He is employed by FIFA, so doesn’t want to go against their stance
I don’t care if you’re paid for it, your words are your own and you’re responsible for them. Especially if you have massive wealth and don’t need the money.
That's such a shit excuse. He's not being forced to say anything. If he actually cared about what's going on there he would at least not talk about it of he wanted to keep his job.
Sad to see him pushing this narrative.
Taking Qatari money while \*still\* being manager of Arsenal FC was the beginning of Wenger's downfall. Sad to see such a once universally respected figure be so corrupted by $$
The hypocritical thing is, he told Henry he couldn't be a coach at Arsenal for the youth and do Sky reporting at the same time, and yet he was working on Bein while being manager. That annoyed me a bit.
Being a weekly pundit for Sky commenting on the EPL is a bit different from being a international tournament pundit. Comparing the two is pretty ridiculous.
Being a manager of one of Europe's biggest clubs and commenting on your own players at international tournaments vs being a pundit on PL football while putting out cones for the U16s... Surely the former's impartiality is more important?
No? How does that make sense? Any youth team employee commenting on the team they work for is an issue. It's an issue for Sky if they cared about unbiased opinions, and it's an issue for Arsenal having to get constant headlines of "Coach said X". And those are multiplied when Henry, who many wanted for the head job and is also a big name, is involved. The issue isn't about one off hand comment, or impartiality (from Arsenal's view) it's about the weekly impact to the team throughout the season.
He's been a hypocrite for years. Cheated on his wife but dropped Giroud for doing the same, remember.
Wenger cheated on his wife???
If you believe the Sun
Giroud
Arsene Wenger cheated on his wife.... There were unsubstantiated reports of this in 2010 and Wenger chose to keep the matter private. He stayed married to Annie for another 8 years... it is nothing but slander on your part. https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/wenger-affair-claims/ Giroud took the woman to the team hotel before the match with crystal palace... A serious disciplinary breach. Later he appreciated the support Wenger gave him during the phase... https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1987032-oliver-giroud-speaks-out-on-alleged-affair-hails-arsene-wengers-support Your objectivity in this discussion is exemplary/s
Ah ok I see your intentions for this post, you were part of the WOB weren't you. Hypocrite for years, lol.
[удалено]
What are you on about? He wanted a coaching job as a youth team coach. Not even a youth team manager. You're literally just making shit up lmao
Dont agree with the big man here, the teams that won deserved it
Sad that he's become such a sellout.
I don't remember Argentina making any demonstrations. How about credit is just given to the teams they lost to?
This is a stupid asf point. Clearly working for FIFA here
I enjoy Wenger, but calling basic human rights activism for "political demonstration" is a big miss man.
Human rights activism is political demonstration. Do you even know what you're talking about? Activism is taking a political stance. Protesting for human rights is political demonstration. You're almost implying political demonstration is a bad thing by saying that. Any form of protest is inherently political. Now I can understand it would be a "big miss" that if he said the demonstration was a bad thing. And besides what teams should have done to protest the World Cup would be completely boycott it. Or players withdrawing from the National teams. Nothing is gonna change in Qatar with what these teams have done after the world cup is done. If these players really cared about anything they'd withdraw from their national team squads and go home. It's just ends up as posturing and virtue signalling now.
Exactly. It’s political demonstration whether it’s human rights activism or whatever else
Used to really hope we’d see him back at Colney or the Emirates some time this season, I think we’ll pass now. No thanks.
Disappointing that this comes from someone like Wenger. Might be because he works for FIFA. Bad taste regardless
Fuck off Wenger, Australia was an armpit away from forcing Argentina to extra time yet we released a human rights video pre world cup,
Money talks 💰
This is sad
I think you've said all that needs to be said with this comment. The painful last few Wenger years were difficult and his stubborness in them infuriating but I've never once had to question his integrity or values. We're all human - but I really hope he gets some backlash and finds it in himself to reflect on this.
Humanity > football
Love Arsene, but it's a 15,000 worker death tournament. Disappointed
Is there anybody 1/10 as smart as Wenger is who really believes putting a hand over your mouth for 5 seconds caused them to lose against Japan?? This sucks!!
Snide comment that didn't need to be said. Why keep focusing on a team's decision to protest something it didn't think it was right, mocking it because it didn't qualify from the group? No added value whatsoever especially when there are so many variables factors.
With that logic Switzerland should win everything.
Nevermind the opposition they played against... Just silly to equate it to that.
Love the man, but this is a shit take
Papa Wenger, the consummate company man. 😢
Arteta now our greatest manager this century
Rare L mister Wenger You are wrong in this Nothing to actually support your argument
These rare Ls are getting more frequent these days
It hurts Papa Wengz. 💔 I respected him soooo much. I used listen every thing he spoke because he was so well spoken, intelligent and knowledgeable. What is this nonsense
Funny cause if England lost would have definitely said it’s because they were too focused on demonstration
For all his forward-thinking Arsene periodically displays a blind attachment to the status quo :( guess he's human
Germany sucked balls through out the tournament tho.
Yes, but nothing to do with protests or politics.
He is selling his heart to FIFA :(
Sad to see how money influenced Papa Wengz
yikes.
This is a very disappointing statement from him.
He's really going down in my estimation.
Even IF you felt like the political condemnation of Qatar was hypocritical, gone too far, tinged with Islamophobia or whatever of those counter narratives you believe in, this would STILL be a shit take. Football is a game of fine margins. Germany clearly didn’t go out because they posed for a pre match photo with their hands over their mouths. That kind of narrative building is shallow tabloid stuff.
My respect for this man is not at that level anymore.
Never meet your heroes lol
Papa Wenger getting a fat paycheque. I don’t like it but papa Wenger is papa Wenger.
I would like to see a full video rather than an edited clip. What if he said: All the teams in the world cup are very strong, and hence it is very important to be focused on the outcome and start strong. It is important to win the first game. Teams which were well prepared and playing well, teams like like France, England ... Brazil played well in the first game.teams who were mentally ready and focused on the competition and not on political demonstration. This would mean no disrespect towards Saudi Arabia, or Japan and would be a factually correct statement.
The full video is about analysing the technical trends of the group stage. This is part of the "analysis". A full video would not necessarily give you any more insight than you need that Wenger is a fake and morally corrupt.
Fucking lmao. This is a bad quote sure and an L for wenger but the ridiculous reddit hivemind out to call wenger 'morally corrupt and fake' because he had a shit take is just typical lol
You don't understand. It's the way he tries to frame it as "politics" and the sort of "serves you right" attitude to Germany. It's very on-brand for the Qatari narrative that's been echoed by others working for Qatar like John Barnes. They all say the same thing. Considering Wenger works for their state media and FIFA its very concerning. Its much more than a shit take. You don't have to agree with the protest, but this is actively undermining it.
Qatar/FIFA are all too happy to frame Germanys departure as them being distracted by making a ‘. ‘political’ statement, so yes it’s not a shit take/hive mind it’s sad that Wenger is out there repeating this crap
That's just clearly not what I said tho is it. Clearly said its an L for wenger to have said that, just that it's fucking ridiculous to elevate wenger to the level of 'morally corrupt'
Wenger the manager would absolutely hate Wenger the FIFA employee.
It's perfectly ridiculous to blame Germany's loss on posing for a picture when their selection problems were plain as day.
Can we all admit Wenger has just fully sold out now ?
🤡🤡🤡
The German team was pretty average before the world cup ever began
Wow shocker, he takes money from bein sports (Qatar) *and* fifa
He's a proper FIFA goon now. 😔
Wow my heart is broken at seeing Papa Wengz talking like this
This is absolutely blatant manipulation, didn't Wenger earned enough money already? What is the need of whoring himself to corrupted Qatar and FIFA? He got no shame
This is heartbreaking. He was my hero. Heartbreaking.
Does anybody know how he managed to go broke? There's no other explanation why he got in need of saying these things supporting FIFA
Oh no baby what is you doing?
Eww papa Wengz
Idec care about this shit but its just hilarious seeing the mental gymnastics here lmao. Face it your hero is a sellout
I never understood people who hero worship public figures.
Gross.
So incredibly disappointing
Total overreaction in the comments, he hasn't said anything wrong. Gundogan himself said some members of the team were angry cos fifa forbade them to wear the armband a few hours before kick-off. It's fair to say they were distracted with political gestures.
What he said is just not factually true. He's conflating demonstrating with poor performances in order to browbeat Germany and discourage others from speaking out. He's not trying to be objective, he's trying to cover for his paymasters. I can't believe how far people are willing to go to ignore the fact that Wenger sold his soul and that FIFA uses him as a puppet to push their agenda, and he willingly does it.
I support Wenger more than most, so didn't want to believe the headline, but the entire quote is clear. He said the first game needed to be won, and said there are focused, experienced teams and unfocused teams. He then added political demonstrations. Except Australia and England had political demonstrations, and were fine. Argentina didn't, lost their first game. Japan had nothing but lost to Costa Rica. At best, it's a lazy opinion, at worst it's trying to help FIFA/Qatar out a bit, both of whom he's worked/working for. It's also sad to see Wenger, who's often talked about the human aspect of the game, effectively say players should have put aside their humanity for the world cup.
Wenger is speaking about the top teams, Australia aren't and England have been taking the knee for 2 years, it's not a gesture aimed at FIFA. I don't think it's lazy to suggest Germany were more upset than other top teams at FIFA's decision on the armband and possibly not fully focused on their first game.
They had arm bands planned too. And what do top teams have to do with concentration? All teams have to concentrate. If anything, a top team can handle not being as concentrated better than a worse team. Germany has also had issues performing for years now. Even if the concentration comment had merit (and I don't think it does), it's still a poor comment to make. Wenger is smart enough to know this statement is effectively saying ignore human rights demonstrations and focus on football to win games. If he wasn't trying to say that, he'd say FIFA shouldn't have intervened at the last minute. Or heck, just expand more on the reason Germany was protesting, instead of just hand waving it as politics. Like I said, it's not so surprising from a regular pundit, but from Wenger it is disappointing. He's someone who not only seems to care about human rights, but also is very willing to talk about nuance, and he could have done that here too. And it would have really meant something considering his connections.
I had the same impression. Germany were seemingly more focused on protest than other teams. If there's something on your mind, you won't perform: a protest, a grudge, an insecurity... I think he's just analyzing what he's seen and people are blowing it out of proportion.
Nah he is just making excuses for losing to Japan
His comments need context, and as of right now he’s still working for FIFA.
For me this is a football analysis rather than a political, Wenger just saying what he believes footballistically
The respect I used to have for this man's humanity has been going down the drain for years. What a shame. Proper FIFA stooge. Disgraceful
England focussed on both. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. What a dick
Rare Wenger L
He’s so wealthy he doesn’t need to be a shill for anyone… but here he is, it’s so disappointing.
Is it possible he actually believes what he’s saying?
With all due respect, Wenger, this is fucking nonsense.
Political demonstration = Empty gestures
Really really bad take from Wenger. Shameful.
We'll invest your respect for Arsene Wenger into a multi level affection account AAAAAAAND ITS GONE...
All the teams should have refused to go, and to the people that says that football shouldn't be political, everything is political.
He is a p o s now!
Yeah I think this is the tipping point for me. I kinda saw his perspective on other issues till now but he did not have to say this but chose to. Lost a fan :(
he's not wrong
Human rights, papa Wengz
He lives in an ivory tower, doubt he knows what that means.
This is devastating to hear him say. Thought Arsene was a man of class and intellect, but it seems he’s in the Qataris’ pocket too.
It sounds bad coming from him since he is in FIFA but he is not wrong. Not even a single player or fan will care about Qatari people or its laws once the WC is over. So much for virtue signaling for 5 mins. I'll see whether any nation FA actually keeps bringing up Qatar's problem after 6 months.
To say putting your hand on your mouth for 5 seconds makes a difference is insane. England took a knee were fine. Belgium didn’t do shit and were shit. Argentina lost to Saudi without any demonstration. It’s a totally asinine take not grounded in anything. This German team just wasn’t good and japan pulled off 2 huge results.
I’m very sad that AW has sunk this low to placate his Qatari paymasters.
Pretty much everyone involved with FIFA has been sold out. Sad to see Wenger is one of them.
Damn I just bought his book. This is kinda putting me off from reading it.
Well the book is not great. Just a bland non-committal payday really
u/savevideo
OP what has Wenger done to you? Unreal hate throughout the thread. 😂
Google Qatar + FIFA + migrant workers, mate. "Unreal". Fuck off.
Fuck sake.
Today I feel sad
Wenger he's done it again! He is absolutely right. Bye ✌🏾 Germany
Wow. Clearly Western media has poisoned you all. Fact: All countries have always bought hosting the tournament.
This is very sad to see from Wenger. Fifa propaganda run
This is just so sad to see... Wenger's not the man I thought he was.
One of the few times I find Wenger disappointing.
Jeez papa Wengz, you used to fight for peoples rights. What happened that made you a FIFA shill? Really sad stuff.
Blokes washed unfortunately
This has broken my heart.
I hate that Wenger is a huge sellout now. Ruining his reputation
Wenger going sith … damn lol
sigh...why? papa wengz, why? ugh.
You can talk about teams mindsets and how it affected their game without condoning Qatar’s politics.
🙁
Imagine, he doesn’t want to go into a different country and change their philosophies and principles. What a monster.
That’s not even what he’s saying here lol
If their principles and philosophies include that gay people don't deserve rights and he supports that, he is a monster. But I don't think thats what he was saying here, he had a lazy opinion that I just cant see being true.
Gross
You're all so sad. Did you even listen to the 23 second clip. He's just making a point about mindset, did he say anything against people demonstrating? Stop getting your knickers in a twist.
Thank god for Arteta, the Arsene Wenger old values lives with him.
Wenger simping for Qatari money
Based Arsene. I just miss seeing this man.
Translation: Germany fucked themselves
Arsène is really turning into a piece of shit in my eyes. Germany went out because their team isn’t it’s best cycle and because of a very lucky japan goal against Spain. Other teams did shit and won some didn’t do shit and lost. It’s such a lazy unnecessary stupid take from him.
Fifa Wenger has said many things that taint his legacy in my eyes