Arsene Wenger Talking ‘Nonsense’, Should Keep His Mouth Shut

Ollie Irish

27th, October 2010

28 Comments

By Ollie Irish

Arsene Wenger is talking “nonsense” on the issue of overphysical play, according to Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey.

“It is an absolute nonsense. Well, I hope he hears this: ‘keep your mouth shut’,” Moxey told the BBC.

“Play the game, play aggressive, let everybody play.”

“[Jack] Wilshere and your [Wenger’s] other players are going to make similar challenges.”

Moxey, whose club have been criticised this season for having their tough tackling (unfairly in my view), added: “I had a big, wry smile listening to Arsene Wenger trying to defend Jack Wilshere for the challenge [on Birmingham striker Nikola Zigic].

“All he said was exactly the same as every other manager has and yet he is one of the managers who goes on the front foot, moaning and complaining and bitching about it because it is unfair on his team.”

Xenophobia masquerading as genuine football debate, or is Wenger a big fat hypocrite?

Posted in Arsenal, Wolves

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28 Comments

  1. babo says:

    I really don’t get where xenophobia comes into it? The fact is that Wenger moans a hell of a lot, but isn’t man enough to admit it when his team doesn’t practice what he preaches!

  2. mjc says:

    Guess who is bottom of the fairplay league?

  3. Adam says:

    So, calling for leg-breaking tackles to be banned is now a nonsense is it? I think that Moxey tells is all we need to know about Postman Pat’s team of thugs. How much better would the PL be without McCarthy’s Wolves and Blakburn and Stoke?

  4. re:No! says:

    xenophobia comes into this at that place where Moxey and babo, as well as the author or this post somehow ignore the actual comments that Wenger made after Wilshire’s tackle. “All he said was exactly the same as every other manager has ” – well NO, he DID NOT. All the managers say that this is the game, and accidents happen, and player X is not that type of player, etc. What Wenger did was – he said that the tackle was out of the rules of the game and the red card was deserved. If every manager said that – players would not be making such tackles as often as they do.

  5. mjc says:

    Babo, didn’t you hear?

    French people are whingers.
    Mediterranians are cheats.
    Latinos are emotional.
    Africans are lazy.
    Germans are efficient.
    Scandinavians are laidback.

    It’s called xenophobic stereotyping, and it’s pretty much disappeared from all walks of life except for tabloid football “journalism”, where it remains compulsory.

    I’ll forward you the memo….

  6. John Brandon says:

    Mr Moxley is being stereotypical – cannot/willnot debate the issue but replies with a street corner “keep your mouth shut” – exactly what one would expect from a tough tackling tough talking person. Wenger accepted Wilshires red card as justified – his comments centred on the fact some teams are hell bent on showing how good they are by stopping others playing. Mr Moxley probably thinks “Mean Machine” is a technical training video demonstrating how tough Englishmen play the game. Tackling will always be a keep skill and some tackles will result in red cards and injuries – its just about ensuring teams go on the field with the mentality of playing sport and not preventing their opponents from winning at any cost.

  7. Eddy says:

    any team that suffers 3 broken legs in 4 years from their opponents’tackles is sure to be a bit “touchy”.Maybe someone didn’t deliver Moxy’s pies to his bungalow on Tuesday and he was feeling a bit touchy too.

  8. Ollie Irish says:

    Yes, Moxey reads too many tabloids to form a cogent argument on this issue, but in his club’s defence, I never really saw Wolves as a dirty team under McCarthy – direct, yes, but not dirty. It was the Karl Henry tackle on Gomez that made everyone lump them in with the likes of Stoke and Blackburn.

  9. neil says:

    moxey is a fag wolves are a dirty team i dont understand how idiots are always blogging

  10. Santi says:

    Jez Moxey – the coolest name in football

  11. m says:

    listen to that load of rubbish.
    Moxey, you’re an idiot, if anyone shouls shut up, it should be you. lets see how you like it when a couple of your players cinstantly have their legs broken.

    the author of this post is also an idiot. What a load of crap. really?

    Wilshere was condemned by his manager. He deserved the red card. case closed. What the hell is Moxey and this stupid author going on about then?

    let us rewwind back to the shawcross debacle. Managers and press were mostly sympathetic to shawcross saying how much of a good and honest lad he was. missed the point completely. Bottom line is, he broke someones leg with a reckless challenge. Thats it. full stop.

    Wilshere was reckless. full stop. see the difference.

    What idiots like the wolves coach as well as this particular writer dont understand is that these are growing players. whatever you do to them, physically on the pitch and then talking total nonsense of it, will serve to make them stronger…

    have you noticed Arsenal don’t get kicked around as much any more?

    stay tuned, bitch. the both of you.

  12. Ollie Irish says:

    @m – I would urge you to re-read what I wrote. To recap:

    “Moxey, whose club have been criticised this season for having their tough tackling (unfairly in my view)…”

    and a comment I added:

    “I never really saw Wolves as a dirty team under McCarthy – direct, yes, but not dirty”

    Cheers, Ollie

  13. Chicago gooner says:

    Wolves blackburn and stoke are all a bunch of shit kickers.u all belong in the lower leagues.ur only in the premier league on vacation and the sooner u fuck off down to div 1 the better

  14. bilbelte says:

    Respons to babo. Wenger did admit wilshire deserved the red card, and he accepted the three match ban, no problem. He added, he is 18, he will learn, meaning he is telling him he will have no more of that nonsense. All this is is bad luck, arsenal have been chopped down over two seasons, with one player being so destroyed that he had to be sold, and constantly 6-9 players out with injuries. Wenger speaks up, then wilshire makes a bed tackle, and suddenly he is a hypocrite, bad luck. Wenger is correct, you cannot identify one arsenal-player which plays nasty, and one bad tackle don’t change that fact.

  15. supaphil says:

    He doesn’t “moan a hell of a lot”. The press ask him a question and he responds in kind.

    -“Arsene, what did you think of that challenge by ________________ .”
    -“Euuuuuhhh, I uh, thought i’ twas a bad challenge, he euuuhhhh, came in late and was out of contwol, and yes, it was a bad tackle.”

    Next day’s soccernet headline: “Wenger Slams ‘Out of Control’ Tackles”

  16. MikeSA says:

    Wenger very clearly stated at the time that he was brining this topic up that he didn’t consider Arsenal players to be angels.

    He specifically said that the rules apply to everybody, including Arsenal, and that Arsenal players must also be punished for bad tackles when they make them.

    He also admitted the tackle was bad.

    He also apologised for the Willaim Gallas tackle last season, which was nowhere near as bad as all the hysterical little morons are trying to make out it was.

    The media apologists of the “english game” constantly deceive and subvert what Wenger ACTUALLY says to promote their childish, petty, small minded, vindictive, and yes, thoroughly xenophobic littel agendas.

    All that Wenger asks is that refs in England apply the rules correctly, not in some la-la-land perspective generated from idiots who quite frankly should be exterminated on the basis that they steal oxygen from the rest of us.

    Wenger has more intellectual capacity in one nostril hair than this wolves clown could garner from his entire family, dead and alive.

  17. Anonymous says:

    And Karl Henry on Zamora where he BROKE HIS LEG, and Karl Henry and others where they tried to kick Joey Barton off the pitch. Kick him off the pitch seems generous, it was close to assault. That was a delierate tactic to go in hard on a player i presume to make him lose his cool. Which he didn’t. I had a lot of respect for Joey Barton that day. And Karl Henry where he left six studs marks on Tomas rosicky’s leg and stayed down after which Mick Macarthy called him a diver. So they’re not dirty compared to… who?? Or is it just Karl Henry???

    Get a grip.

  18. Ash says:

    And Karl Henry on Zamora where he BROKE HIS LEG, and Karl Henry and others where they tried to kick Joey Barton off the pitch. Kick him off the pitch seems generous, it was close to assault. That was a delierate tactic to go in hard on a player i presume to make him lose his cool. Which he didn’t. I had a lot of respect for Joey Barton that day. And Karl Henry where he left six studs marks on Tomas rosicky’s leg and stayed down after which Mick Macarthy called him a diver. So they’re not dirty compared to… who?? Or is it just Karl Henry???

    Get a grip.

  19. babo says:

    “lump them in with the likes of Stoke and Blackburn.”

    Ollie – have you seen Blackburn’s disciplinary record this year? i am no fan of our esteemed manager, but for however physical we are, we’re not thugs, or as the inbred Chicago Gooner claimed; “shit kickers.”

    Arsenal are actually below Rovers in this years fair play league. Educate yourselves before you cast aspersions.

  20. Warpath Mike says:

    Strongly biased article by by Ollie Irish.
    I’m disappointed.

  21. gamblino says:

    Moxey is fucking clueless but you lot need to actually watch a bit of football instead of relying the 30 seconds of wolves coverage on ESPN.

    Wolves are no stoke (the most dire football I’ve ever had to watch). Wolves play a bit of football – see how jarvis (an attacking winger) is playing. This isn’t bias – watch a fucking match. Henry let the hardman thing go to his head maybe but even he’s had two red cards in a ten year career! I remember Colin murray giving it “Henry’s got another red card” on match of the day. Fucking bullshit. If they were putting more away up front no one would even talk about the physical stuff (and EVERY team needs it in this league).

    Most of you are more clueless than Moxey will ever be.

  22. Ben says:

    Everyone is wrong except me and all teams except the one I support are inherently evil.

  23. Steve says:

    Arsenal fans are the most pompous of all. Hyprocrites by definition.

  24. Alan King says:

    There’s a few references to the fair play league on here. It seems Blackburn are particularly amazed pleased to be above Arsenal. Remember, the league is based on cards issued not fouls commited. In fact Blackburn’s foul to card ratio is high and we can only conclude that refs are going easy on them because Sam doesn’t mean to tell his players to play dirty.

  25. Alan King says:

    Well, gamblino, it’ll take a while before I forget about how Wolves and Karl Henry in particular played against us – it was appalling. But you are right, they can play when they want – played really well last night and could have won it.
    The likes of Moxey can only be bad for the game and he doesn’t help his club’s cause at all.

  26. RedSkywalker says:

    Agree 100% with the statement, Wenger is a complete prick

  27. Ash says:

    Alright gamblino answer me what the hell all that was with jory barton? I’ve seen teams use tactics like that and that day wolves did. Reputations don’t come from no-where. Wolves aren’t the most rough side out there, they fight hard and understandably so which is fine, but Karl Henry is ridiculous, maybe it is only since he’s been in the prem, maybe it’s only being noticed now.

    And I’m all for people having different opinions and those people putting them across, but the point is Moxy’s comments have come out of the blue, he’s misquoted wenger, resorted to telling him to ‘shut up’ and he has a platform on a national broadcaster. Not exactly adding to a debate that needs to be had is it.

  28. gamblino says:

    No idea why Moxey would do that. He’s just a prick.

    As for Joey Barton – seriously if you had the chance wouldn’t you try and kick the shit out of him?? It’s JOEY BARTON. Not Florence fucking nightingale. I imagine they were reminded of this and he took the brunt in what was probably touted as a must-win. Last season wolves had a shit start because they were too soft in games like this (This season they’ve just had a shit start!) Never gonna be a free-flowing classic but was still a cracking football match. And had ’nuff Premier-league entertainment value – despite the brutality.

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