Stop Calling Wenger A Paedo – Fergie Urges Man Utd Fans To End Vile Chant … Again

Ollie Irish

10th, December 2010

37 Comments

By Ollie Irish

Arsene Wenger: a big fan of the invisible chair

In November 2009 we published a post about how Man Utd had urged its own fans to stop with the “Sit down you paedophile” chant, aimed at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

More than one year on, it’s the same old story, as Fergie personally calls for an end to the chant. This from the Guardian:

“Sir Alex Ferguson is to make a personal plea to Manchester United’s supporters to put an end to the sick chants that are aimed at Arsène Wenger whenever Arsenal visit Old Trafford.

“United are so embarrassed by the nature of the songs Ferguson has decided to take the matter into his own hands to back the man he used to regard as a sworn enemy. The two managers share a cordial relationship these days and Ferguson believes the abuse the Frenchman has suffered at Old Trafford over the years goes beyond any legitimate form of terrace humour.”

Can’t wait to rehash this in the winter of 2011.

In United’s defence, they can’t do much more to stop the chant. It’s up to those morons who parrot it to shut the f**k up. Nonce sense.

Where’s Wenger? It’s the game that’s sweeping the nation

Posted in Arsenal, Featured, Man Utd, Songs & Chants

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37 Comments

  1. jon riceq says:

    am i the only one who thinks the paedo chants are actually just quite funny? it’s obviously sung because of wenger’s preference for youth (in football!). if i was wenger it wouldn’t offend me at all. just ignore it.

    its certainly got nothing on gunners mocking the holocaust at spurs, man city and liverpool mocking munich, or united fans mocking hillsborough

  2. arseblogger says:

    am i the only one who thinks the paedo chants are actually just quite funny? it’s obviously sung because of wenger’s preference for youth (in football!).

    They’re not really funny at all. And they’re not based on his preference for youth football either. If they were then there might be some leeway.

  3. Ollie Irish says:

    Jon, it’s not funny at all – and I say that as someone with a pretty black sense of humour.

  4. Chris says:

    I think I can spot Fabio/Rafael tugging on Wenger’s jacket.

  5. jon rice says:

    “And they’re not based on his preference for youth football either. If they were then there might be some leeway.”

    No? Why have these chants started?

    I think people get way too sensitive about this sort of thing. And comparing it to mocking the dead from Hillsborough, Munich or the Holocaust is MUCH more offensive than chanting ‘paedo’ at someone

  6. jon rice says:

    by the way…
    many of you probably wont be too familiar with bristol rovers, but our nickname is ‘the pirates’ and we have a couple of guys who dress in pirate costume and walk round the stadium holding a banner before games. accompanied by a bunch of kids they invite chants of “arrr!”, but also “paedo! paedo!” which everyone seems to find pretty amusing.

    maybe it’s a bristol thing?

  7. Ben says:

    I disagree with you Jon, the Hillsborough and Munich chants are sung by one set of fans in an attempt to wind up another – it’s childish but it’s not personal. To have been repeatedly and fiercely accused of paedophilia for more than a decade is just horrendous. It’s fair enough for you to say it wouldn’t bother you if you were Wenger, but a) you have no way of knowing that, and b) it obviously does bother him.
    If the abuse was racial or homophobic there would be police cameras on the stands to stamp it out, as was the case when sections of White Hart Lane were singing about Sol Campbell. Why should this be acceptable, just because Wenger isn’t actually a paedophile? A colleague of mine, a primary school teacher, was subject to months of (completely unfounded) accusations by a parent, and I can assure you that at no point did he think, “well, I know I’m not a paedophile so it doesn’t matter”.

  8. Ollie Irish says:

    @ Ben – couldn’t have put it better. It’s a personal attack, not a chant.

  9. Dave says:

    Yeah it’s funny if that’s all your pathetic excuse for a brain can muster. I love terrace banter as much as the next guy, but claiming that a man rapes children is bang out of order. As a Stockport county fan, I can honestly say that if the guy sat next to me started chanting that at the opposition, I’d do whatever is required to shut him up.

    I wonder how many of these morons could take that kind of abuse with the dignity that Wenger does?

  10. jon rice says:

    Ben.. First of all I don’t see how you can argue that the hillsborough and munich chants aren’t personal. Hillsborough was only 20 odd years ago, people died and their friends and family i’m sure would take that mocking extremely personally. in my opinion the two aren’t even on the same scale.

    I have to say I’m not really aware of the accusations against Wenger. I’ve never heard anything like that except jokes about his preference for youth at arsenal.

    Do the chants extend to accusations or are they simply shouting “paedo!” at him? Like I said i’m not really aware of the accusations for “more than a decade” as you say. If someone would like to enlighten me i’d like to know more.

  11. arseblogger says:

    Jon – when Wenger first came to Arsenal rumours flew around the tabloid press about Wenger. He faced them down on the steps outside the club, challenged them to repeat them or print them, which of course they couldn’t and wouldn’t.

    That’s where the song comes from.

    And as you clearly don’t even know what the chants are I don’t know how you could pass judgement on them being humorous or not.

  12. Ben says:

    I appreciate what you’re saying about there being plenty of Liverpool and Manchester United fans who have personal connections to those tragedies, but my point is that those chants, while (in my opinion) sickening, are not personal. The fans who sing them aren’t doing so because they want to upset those people who are actually linked to the victims – in fact if you speak to fans of these clubs the majority will say “the reason we sing about Munich/Hillsborough is because they sing about Hillsborough/Munich” – it’s a vicious circle of a Catch 22 sadly.

    In terms of Wenger, I can remember going to White Hart Lane around 98 or 99 and hearing chants of that nature, I think that the jokes about his tendency to favour young players have come about because of an established “joke” that he is a paedophile. I have no idea where the actual notion came from, presumably the general suspicion of the man due to his being foreign and intelligent and therefore threatening to the English football supporter’s idea of what a “football man” should be…

  13. jon rice says:

    Well, considering that I was 10 years old at the time of the rumours, and the fact that the press obviously haven’t published anything about it since then I don’t think it’s crazy to expect me, and people of my age, to know next to nothing about those rumours.

    Which makes me wonder how many of the people who actually chant at him know where it comes from in the first place. Probably not many I would imagine.

    Anyway, I’m happy to admit I was ignorant of some of the facts and my opinion has changed somewhat. I still think Fergie is being a bit hypocritical to speak out against these chants and ignore the nasty stuff city and liverpool fans shout about munich every time they meet, though. And I don’t believe the Wenger chants are ‘worse’, however you might try and quantify that.

  14. yankmanc says:

    i think they’re farkin’ hilarious…. but if that what fergie wants…

  15. Graham Smith says:

    From memory, the chant started among certain Spurs fans soon after Wenger had arrived and had won the double in 1997/8.

    At that time he could really do no wrong and the song to me was a case of rival fans thinking: “he’s got no weakness or skeletons lets just make something up.” As a result, I’ve never thought our fans or manager are that bothered by the song really. Personally, I don’t think it is funny because it is not based upon fact.

    As an Arsenal fan, what would ‘wind me up’ would be songs based on us not winning a trophy for 5 seasons.

    I personally love singing our “Have you ever seen Tottenham win the league?” chant to Spurs fans because I know for the vast majority of them that hear it, the answer is ‘no’.

  16. nobhead says:

    You compared him to the child catcher Ollie!

  17. arseblogger says:

    Jon – you should read this then – http://gunnerblog.com/?p=2661

  18. gilly says:

    Little harsh on Wenger, as much as i hate him but the Hilsborough chants by the Everton/United fans against Liverpool, the Munich chants by the Citeh/Liverpool fans against United, and the Holocaust chants by the Arsenal fans are all far worse.

  19. Eboue says:

    Jon rice = a cunt

  20. tom says:

    some of the above posters are complete idiots. Its a joke, get over it. It is funny, thats why people keep singing it. Wenger DOES pick more young players than your average manager andtherefore it is an approriate insult to throw at him. No-one who sings it actually believes he is a paedo.

    With those facts out the way its time to address something far more important.

    If you believe jokingly calling wenger a paedo is worse than mocking the memory of the dead, especially those who died in such horrendous conditions as munich, hillsborough and the holocaust (which itself is a million times worse to make fun of than munich and hillsborough), then you havea disgustingly warped set of morals.

    Get over yourselves and dont ever be so insulting to the memory of others again. Just get a grip.

  21. […] matches to watch after you realize that it’s finally time to heed Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest call to stop joking about Arsene Wenger being a pedophile. I’m sure Man United fans will only have the nicest things to say about him when Arsenal […]

  22. […] matches to watch after you realize that it’s finally time to heed Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest call to stop joking about Arsene Wenger being a pedophile. I’m sure Man United fans will only have the nicest things to say about him when Arsenal […]

  23. […] matches to watch after you realize that it’s finally time to heed Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest call to stop joking about Arsene Wenger being a pedophile. I’m sure Man United fans will only have the nicest things to say about him when Arsenal […]

  24. nemo says:

    My god some people are a real bunch of pu**ies.

    ‘With a packet of sweets and a cheeky smile,’ is funny.
    Maybe its not your kind of humour but to some it is.
    I like Doug Stanhope the comedian, most people dont. Is he funny? To me he is, so it bothers me not that some dont think he is.

    Dirty songs or chants are the same. Some people think theyre over the line, some laugh their heads off. Its like an april fool’S joke.

    Are you whiners going to bitch at BBC because Special 1 refers to Wenger as Voyeur?
    If you think being called a pedo by a few drunken fans is bad, how do you feel about your taxes going to fund a show which calls a respected EPL a voyeur?
    You think being called a sexual deviant, a criminal is a good thing? Voyeurs are deviants who stalk, spy and often record women without their consent.
    You think thats funny?

    YOU CANT HAVE IT both ways.
    You cant say being called a pedo is worse than a voyeur. Both are criminal acts which carry a heavy sexual stigma EVEN IF THEY prove not to be true.

    You are hypocrites or not.
    Its your choice.

    I still think you are joyless souls whose buttcheeks are so clenched, they cant walk straight.

    Wenger is a fine man, well spoken, intelligent and whose style of play is second to Barca in terms of entertainment. We should kiss his ass every time he fields a team that puts so much emphasis on ball movement and offensive skills. That shouldnt stop us from laughing at jokes at his expense, funny or not.

  25. mercmonster says:

    Jon Rice is an idiot. Really.

  26. Ben says:

    Tom, if you actually read my post you’ll see that in no way do I condone the singing of Munich-, Hillsborough- or Holocaust-related chants. My point, and the point of the article, is that hurling abuse of this nature at one man is unacceptable.
    I think it’s ironic that you would say “it is an appropriate insult to throw at [Wenger]” because his selection policy favours youth, and then accuse me and others of having “a disgustingly warped set of morals”.
    Also, can we get beyond this notion of there being some scale or league table of what is and isn’t acceptable? By your logic, if 96 people died at Hillsborough and 21 died in the Munich air crash, is singing about Hillsborough 4 and a half times worse than singing about Munich? Your point seems to be that because football supporters sing about worse things, that makes it alright to sing about this, which just doesn’t make sense. As for your idea that it’s all a big joke, well I bet his wife and kids find it hilarious.

  27. Newfield Chris says:

    People only care because this is the premier league and it’s Wenger. Dario Gradi has been called a paedo by Port Vale fans for years and no one bats an eyelid.

  28. Carmen Sandiego says:

    Fuck this would make a cool movie – mel gibson and danny glover could be the heroes uncovering wengers (played by rowan atkinson) evil plans to create a paedophillic village, with the whole plot being uncovered when a boy is “taken” from ollie (played by liam neeson in a wheelchair). Hells yeah bitches

  29. […] matches to watch after you realize that it’s finally time to heed Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest call to stop joking about Arsene Wenger being a pedophile. I’m sure Man United fans will only have the nicest things to say about him when Arsenal […]

  30. Michael says:

    I think that was very classy – the moment when Wenger went to the United fans and good for those who applauded Wenger or just smiled.

  31. TravKOP says:

    typical from united fans

  32. Liger says:

    Anyone who thinks chants about rape, child molestation, murder, spousal abuse, or death is funny and standard banter.

    Singing it in front of children? Do mancs think it’s funny to joke about child rape in front of children?

  33. Jon Rice says:

    I’m not a cunt or an idiot, but arsenal fans are very sensitive

  34. Micheal says:

    Fans think it’s rather funny to chant Wenger “Pedophile” but if there’s an issue of whose better at bringing young players, you always say SAF… As if there’s no young players at any other club… The fans chant that in the stadium in front of women and children… Good example… No wonder you call it the “Theater of Dreams” It should have been “Theater of Wet Dreams”. I will know if I see a Man Utd fan in the future… Dumb-asses…

  35. Dazz says:

    Give Arsene Wenger Some Respect He Has Do Great In This Country And He Has His Own Philosophy And Has Worked. Btw Good To Hear SAF Come Out and Say Enough Is Enough Cause No One Else From OT Has The Balls To Say That. In Arsene We Will Always Trust