Gunners told: Expect the unexpected from Celtic!

• limpper

  7 Aug 09, 19:30

  Arsenal boss Wenger unhappy with fans' expectations

  Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is unhappy with the expectations of fans.

  "I feel that what is accepted at Arsenal is to win the Champions League and the (Barclays Premier League) title. Anything else is looked at like a disaster," said Wenger, who was at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on Thursday to help launch the club's partnership with the famous children's charity.

  "In 2007, we were very close to winning the championship, last year we were in the semi-finals of the Champions League and it was looked at like a disaster.

  "A fan who had been a supporter of Arsenal for 50 years, he told me last season had been a disaster. I asked him 'how many times have Arsenal been to the semi-finals of the Champions League since you have been watching the club'?"

  Wenger, though, insists there are plenty of reasons to be positive.

  "Overall, our results last year were not as disastrous as people think, nor in the way we played our football," said the Arsenal boss.

  "We did not win a trophy, and of course that hurts. but the overall assessment of the season has been highly negative because we did not win a trophy in the years before.

  "We had a bad start, but then had the longest unbeaten run in the Premier League, were in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Champions League. We did not lose against bad teams.

  "If you look at the average age of the team and our overall achievement, I think it is quite remarkable."

• limpper

  8 Aug 09, 01:31

  Wenger: Arsenal don't need Champions League monies

  Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger claims the Gunners would not be financially challenged if they failed to qualify for the Champions League group stages.

  "It’s not crucial on the financial side of the club," Wenger told the club's official website. "It’s crucial on the football side. We want to play with the best and that means the Champions League Group Stage.

  "We are conscious that we have tricky teams out there [in the Play-Off round] but on the other hand I don’t think anybody would like to play against Arsenal."

• zocoss

  8 Aug 09, 09:38

  Wah, he talking like he is getting ready to get kick out or something... Celtic are the ones that should be disappointed and upset having been match up against Arsenal...

  And on the money, I think he is talking a bit big lah... If don't get the $25m CL money, next season their transfer budget will get smaller liao...

• reyes

  8 Aug 09, 13:51

  as a manager, what he should be concentrating is winning games and trophy and not the financial part of the job. no wonder he has no interest in real madrid job because AW like total control of the club. at real madrid he can only do the footballing matters on the pitch. anymore off the pitch such as players transfer, he will have no say.

   

• CannyOng

  8 Aug 09, 14:09

  Originally posted by zocoss:

  Wah, he talking like he is getting ready to get kick out or something... Celtic are the ones that should be disappointed and upset having been match up against Arsenal...

  And on the money, I think he is talking a bit big lah... If don't get the $25m CL money, next season their transfer budget will get smaller liao...

  
  Actually Arsenal doesn't splash big money on player and they always sell their star player which reduces their wages burden and recruit youngster.

  What he says hold some truth. But they are not going to win anything if they keep relying on youngster. Many top player in Arsenal will just treat Arsenal as stepping stone for better club to win trophy.

• limpper

  8 Aug 09, 16:25

  Arsenal playing Celtic for stunning £25M Euro jackpot

  Arsenal are playing for a jackpot of £25 MILLION in their Champions League playoff clash with Celtic.

  The Daily Mail says Arsene Wenger’s side will pick up around £18m in television money and matchday revenue from six group games if they get past Celtic following yesterday’s draw for the final qualifying round.

  And should Arsenal win every game of the round-robin phase they will get a further £8.5m and it is easy to see why beating Tony Mowbray’s team is so important to Arsenal.

  Even the fact that the loser will drop into the revamped Europa League is of scant recompense given the continued financial disparity between the two European competitions.

• reyes

  8 Aug 09, 16:49

  i hope they beat celtic like the way they beat rangers week ago.

   

• limpper

  8 Aug 09, 16:50

  im backing the gunners to get rid of celtic

• iceFatboy

  8 Aug 09, 17:53

  come on, your scots..

• I-like-flings(m)

  8 Aug 09, 18:46

  they dun need the money what... so they dun win better lah...

• limpper

  8 Aug 09, 19:09

  Brady warns Arsenal of red-hot Celtic atmosphere

  Liam Brady has warned his Arsenal to expect the unexpected in their Champions League playoff against Celtic.

  Brady, the former Celtic manager who is Arsenal's head of youth development, told the Guardian: "Our players have been all over the continent but they will never have experienced anything like it. The atmosphere at Celtic Park is unique. Arsenal have to go and cope with the environment and the pace Celtic will play at and the tremendous following they have. It is different to what you get in mainland Europe. Our players will have to be prepared for that.

  "The Celtic Park leg is the unknown aspect of this tie. For intensity, it will be a bit like the Liverpool-Arsenal quarter-final from a couple of years ago."

  Celtic's dramatic away win at Dynamo Moscow, to set up this tie , suggests they are very much in the mood to upset the odds in this European campaign. Brady is conscious of how keenly Celtic respond to adversity.

  "If you match the two teams up player for player, there is no argument about who is the strongest. You have to fancy Arsenal big-time, but Celtic have proved they can raise their game when they are underdogs," he said.

  "They have started the season well under Tony Mowbray. He gets his teams to play football ... But I think there will be plenty of aggression, too. You need to be on the inside to realise how big the expectation is ... which I discovered during my two and a bit years there. It is like leading a community rather than just being a football manager."

  The high stakes will only add to the tension.

  Brady said: "Both teams are desperate to get into the group stages, and possibly beyond, for the financial rewards as well as sporting reasons. Arsenal are under pressure to get to where the team has been for several years. Celtic badly need it because they get very little domestic revenue in Scottish football."

• zocoss

  9 Aug 09, 13:03

  Yeah, the match at Celtic won't be easy... Arsenal will have to win at home which I think they will to go through... cos I don't think they can get a win at Celtic Park, at best a draw or maybe even losing is a possibility...

  The lucky part of this is Arsenal play the 2nd leg at home... So whatever damage done in the first leg can still be fix...