Guest Blog: The Homey Train – Is it Still Cruising, or has it Ground to a Complete Halt?

I love how you all think its Wenger who has the keys to the Arsenal treasure chest. This has been a good post, and as we say in the stock market, I see the longs and the shorts pretty easily here.

To be fair, it's difficult not to think that when everyone, Wenger himself, says he has the funds to buy players, and then the only money he actually spends is money he receives from selling players.

Random thought, PSG is rumored to be lining up a 20mil bid for Tarbaat of QPR? Is he that good or the transfer market has officially tipped over to the crazy? Or maybe the gossip columns on tabloids have lost it?

Bit of column A, bit of column B. 

Arguing whether or not Wenger should, or will, be fired is pointless at this point. We all know that he will not be fired.
My question is this. Do people forgive him of a TERRIBLE summer transfer window which resulted in some horrible games while our new signings took the time to become accustomed to the club and new teammates, and cost us extremely important points and put Arsenal into a dogfight for 4th place?  

Yes I do.

no we dont

Follow the shoe!

If we win the next four games: Norwich (A), Fulham (H), Wigan (A), Everton (H), all pretty winnable games, judging by the form we are currently in, we would have 31 points and probably sit at 3rd place. Then we face Man City (A), which will be the true test of our potential for this season. 

Im still on the train moving to the front to gain control and run it off the track. The fact of the matter is that i have stated and will continue to state is that Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board have lost the plot and someone needs to be replaced for the following reason.

1. While the self sustainable plot was commendable in 1990s early 2000s it has essentially lost its way in a world where money runs the world of football. So while we can remain competitive im not happy with being that. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester Teams, Chelsea, AC Milan, Inter Milan have all figured out that in order to win trophies the holes in your team have to be filled by proven player over the past years.

2. We constantly sell our best player to competing team and essentially weaken our squad and have a habit of developing a partnership between two midfielder and then selling them at the same time so our squad lacks any continuity

Flamini- AC Milan
Kleb- Barcelona
Nasri- Man City
Fabregas- Barcelona

3. If MAN U had beaten us 2-0 i truly believe nothing would have been done in the transfer market which shows that our manager is more reactive than proactive. We all knew going into the season we would need a replacement for fab or nasri, in addition the center back pairing was one defender short (he admitted that if he knew that Vermallen was going to be out that long he would have bought another back in January) and also that we needed and still need another striker and a left back Gibbs plays 1/4 of the games per season. he bought chamberline- jenkenson-and park. All in position that we didn't need.

4. Wenger has been tactically out ccoached in every big game for the past two years. Fergie and PEP has owned him so has Harry and the two games we have won against Chelsea they have played without Drodgba. Its automatic when you playing Arsenal that the formation is  4-2-3-1 its like he doesnt know another formation.

Bottom line is we need a change

I cannot agree more about Wenger being often outcoached by most big teams coaches. Not sure Arsenal would have won against a Mourhino-made Chelsea team.  last year return leg against Barca was an embarrasment for a team pretending to play beautiful football. And this year we have the unfamous 2-8 against ManU. Let's hope the outcome will be better against Mancinicity

I’m bored with this absence of real football. And I’m annoyed, but, I suspect, no more annoyed than most of you.Right now, just when we, The Arsenal, are in the middle of one terrific run of results, when we look forward eagerly to each forthcoming match, not only to see a game of beauty from our boys but also anticipating at least one upset by one of the media-favoured teams, they make us wait on tenterhooks while national teams with no chance of winning the upcoming competition play each other to see which one will gain a little money. And don’t get me started about overpaid national team mis-managers showing that they were really working while attending (for free, I don’t doubt) all those matches and then tweaking their team selection for some useless friendly when they already know their final selection (injuries and red cards excepted).
I feel better after that rant, so I’ll come to the main reason for this piece of prose. Just what can we do during these times of boredom? How can we make them pass quicker?
Of course, we can read blogs. And I do. Untold, of course, and a few others of my favourites. I thank those fine writers (you know who you are) who produce something of interest every or nearly every day and also those who do the same thing less regularly. Even comments are often worth checking out, although I do find amusing the self-glory that some assume by writing the first comment often without firstly reading the blog. More amusing is “First” written unwittingly in the second comment. After my favourite blogs, I even started looking at others until I found I’d typed in “Le G”. I shuddered, murmured “Forgive me, Lord Wenger, for I have nearly sinned” and stopped.
I started reading from my library of The Arsenal books but realised that, for example, reviewing the history produced by Geoffrey Mowbray in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the club couldn’t compare with the thrill of remembering recent great plays by our boys, especially their goals. Robin’s third against Chelsea and Cech’s useless attempt to stop it is a case in point.
So I decided that I might cure the boredom somewhat and show my appreciation to those who wear the shirt by producing a song for them. Danny Graft has no need to feel the slightest concern – his anthem is far superior although my effort will have a tune.
I considered the title Our Team to the tune of Our House but realised that would be Madness (sorry), so decided on Green Grow the Rushes. For any of you not familiar with this song, there are versions on YouTube – threelegsoman does a reasonable one. I’ll wait while you check it out.
Ah, you’re back. So here goes with the first verse:
 
I’ll bring you one, ho.
Clean flow the passes, oh.
What is your one, ho?
One is Song who plays alongside Frimpong for The Arsenal-oh.
 
Well that’s a start. Incidentally, the ho’s you’ll see are meant in the manner of Yo, ho, ho! And not Yo’ momma’s a ho!
You’ll have noticed that the original second verse makes reference to lilly-white boys and that has allusions to that lot up the road and has to go.
 
I’ll bring you two, ho.
Clean flow the passes, oh.
What is your two, ho?
Two to the fast, wide boys, Gervinho and Theo,ho!
One is Song who plays alongside Frimpong for The Arsenal-oh.
 
I’ll bring you three, ho.
Clean flow the passes, oh.
What is your three, ho?
Three, three is Sagna-ho!
Two to the fast, wide boys, Gervinho and Theo,ho!
One is Song who plays alongside Frimpong for The Arsenal-oh.
 
The verses in the original relating to numbers four to twelve are really too short to include enough detail so I decided to lengthen them, almost to the style of line two – I think it works. And I’m sure you don’t need nor want  to have to read each individual verse – anyway, I’m not trying to outdo Swiss Rambler – instead here are the relevent lines.
 
Forward passes made much better by Rambo, Beny and Arteta,
Five youths on the door do knock, Jenks, Gibbs, Ox, Ryo and Coq,
Six foot six at the back, with Kos and Verm is Mertesack,
Seven per season flashes of heaven from Rosicky and owl Arschavin,
Eight legs subbing front and back, Santos, Park, Djorou, Chamakh,
Doctor’s orders cure little Jack, but will Diaby ever be back?
Tension every time appear, Squillaci or Almunia,
Eleven, two poles between two poles, Fabi and Szczes fulfil those roles,
Twelve, yes we’ve got a twelfth man – not the ref but all the fans,
 
Yes, I know that some of those rhymes are rather laboured but that’s the best I could manage in one break. And yes, I know, there’s somebody missing. Or maybe there’s more than one person missing – I apologise if there are others. I just couldn’t resist finishing the song in the same way that Jimmie Rodgers did in 1962 with English Country Garden. You can YouTube that song too if you wish, although you’ll have to put up with nearly three minutes of pure schmaltz before that ending. Here’s the twelfth verse and ending in entirety.
 
I’ll bring you twelve, ho.
Clean flow the passes, oh.
What is your twelve, ho?
Twelve, yes, we’ve got a twelfth man – not the ref but all the fans,
Eleven, two poles between two poles, Fabi and Szczes fulfil those roles,
Tension every time appear, Squillaci or Almunia,
Doctor’s orders cure little Jack, but will Diaby ever be back?
Eight legs subbing front and back, Santos, Park, Djorou, Chamakh,
Seven per season flashes of heaven from Rosicky and owl Arschavin,
Six foot six at the back, with Kos and Verm is Mertesack,
Five youths on the door do knock, Jenks, Gibbs, Ox, Ryo and Coq,
Forward passes made much better by Rambo, Beny and Arteta,
Three, three is Sagna-ho!
Two to the fast, wide boys, Gervinho and Theo,ho!
One is Song who plays alongside Frimpong for The Arsenal-oh.
 
Robin, don’t forget the Robin, Robin, Cap. van P. is Robin.
 
So there we have it. If you’ve got any ideas to improve the song (without changing the squad), feel free to comment. But don’t take too long – for did not the Chinese philosopher, Wun Hung Lo, say “Man who tries to forecast future football team has vision obscured by murky transfer windows.”
At least I’m not now bored. But I’m annoyed again – I can’t get that first verse out of my head now!

The recent form hasn't swayed me either way, since the releasing of key players and the lack of replacing them, the bad form and the spanking 8-1 had me buying a ticket and standing in front of the H-train pneumatic doors, but I have not boarded yet. Am stuck. having read the comments place I feel I agree with both sides of the argument. The late purchases annoyed me, when these should of been sorted far sooner! I do shout at my telly "buy him! or Him! or even HIM!" however I feel that Wenger has too many people behind the magic curtain to keep happy as well as the fans, the players he did buy have gelled and are playing well. I also agree highly on the fact we do settle for a "that'll do" attitude But yet again when we do play well and get our fluency going its a great sceptical to watch and Wenger is reason for that. 

Can't I just be the conductor and let people on and off slyly passing judgement?

The homey bandwagon has come to a complete stop. No more do we hear about how bad wenger is but of how underappreciated he is. Sacking wenger was never an option. Ppl said "sack wenger" out of frustration and anger, not because it would change anything for the good.

Commenting on the quote from Homey "Patoux with a hopeless tone, “When was the last time the team had a convincing win or at least played well? It was so long ago I can’t remember. Maybe last time it played Chelsea?” 
I have to admit that the last Arsenal game I really enjoyed was the destruction of Chelsea (again!), even though Chelsea's defense was horrible, the team really seems to finally gel now and plays more collectively and evenly so it's a good sign. The question now is for how long will it last? 

Commenting on the quote from Homey "Patoux with a hopeless tone, “When was the last time the team had a convincing win or at least played well? It was so long ago I can’t remember. Maybe last time it played Chelsea?” 
I have to admit that the last Arsenal game I really enjoyed was the destruction of Chelsea (again!), even though Chelsea's defense was horrible, the team really seems to finally gel now and plays more collectively and evenly so it's a good sign. The question now is for how long will it last? 

Commenting on the quote from Homey "Patoux with a hopeless tone, “When was the last time the team had a convincing win or at least played well? It was so long ago I can’t remember. Maybe last time it played Chelsea?” 
I have to admit that the last Arsenal game I really enjoyed was the destruction of Chelsea (again!), even though Chelsea's defense was horrible, the team really seems to finally gel now and plays more collectively and evenly so it's a good sign. The question now is for how long will it last? 

Wenger have contributed greatly to the club success over the last maybe 15years but nothing for the last 6 years so do we want to keep this unsuccessful trend for another few years. Unless Wenger radically changes his strategy I think he has to go because he's a stubborn coach of the past glory. Would you keep playing a legendary player like Henry because he did so much for the club in the past but now isn't performing well at all? I don't think so.

Nice to see the diversity of opinion being applauded not stifled.  Good job on that admins.

 I wouldn't deny Wegner messed up the summer leaving us woefully unprepared and undermanned for the start of the season; you wouldn't deny he has had remarkable success.

To me our fundamental disagreement comes down to this.  Homey, you see Wegner as settling for being a "big club" and not doing what is necessary for being a trophy winning big club; I see him as having failed to win trophies while building a team around Cesc and truly trying to re-invent the team for another run to glory.  Given the overhaul and the horrific start, I am happy with top 4 this year and this year only if it means competing for the league title next year and in future years.  You have every right to be skeptical about that but those who disagree have every right to say a top 4 finish this year should earn Wegner one more year to finish a project that has clearly given some grounds for optimism.  The only two starters in our last win who also started on opening day last season are our unfairly criticized central defenders  Kos and Verm.

I know you are enjoying both the recent run of results and the way we have been playing the game. We spend most of time together on the Gunner Train which seems to be on a rather convoluted route to the Championship Station and I understand why you would prefer to be on the express, But let's keep enjoying the journey and the sights (like John Terry falling down.)

Cheers to homey for posting the blog. Round of applause for sticking to your words and not going with the flow and changing your opinion

I like the life that the term "Homey Train" has taken on.
 
I am on board (switching between the front seat and the bar car), but i realize and have become resigned to the fact that, not like him or not, AW is going nowhere. He will not resign and the board will not fire him because he makes them money. So for me the debate of when/if he should/might leave is pointless.
 
Back in historical times he did great things with the club; no one doubts that, but these days it seems that keeping the accountants happy (finishing in the CL and making money from selling players) is his only interest.
 
This is what annoys me; that 4th place is good enough for him (and them); of course he'd like to win things but is not willing to go the extra mile to try to achieve it. I am convinced that, had we only lost 3-1 to Man U, he wouldn't have made any aquisitions at the transfer deadline. (Realize all, that this is my opinion only, i cant see inside his head any more than anyone else can).
 
I was though, slightly impressed that he did do the panic buying, as it required an admission that his long held plan of football domination with a bunch of kids wasn't really working out.
 
And I'm somewhat impressed too, that he appears to have, for whatever reason, changed his tactics somewhat; we're ALLOWED to move forward these days and be aggressive rather than just get the ball in the other end, wait until the other team gets back so we can impress them with our tippy-tappy.
 
Yes the Homey Train is a little quieter these days, based on the nice little run we're on, but it can fill up very quickly if things dont always go so well. Remember all, that its still a long ride to the station next May

It's a long train ride. Homey is going to have to pick up his own bar tab too. AW is going nowhere, agreed. He will not resign or be fired and makes money. He also fields an impressively competitive team with a salary budget (from Kroenke & board) that allows him to pay key players only $70,000 per week or so. I'd like to see what any other manager could do with those limitations.

He has $50 million pounds available for January transfers and salaries. Maybe he goes for Eden hazard at $30 mil transfer fee and $6 mil salary and gives RVP and TV5 a raise. Then half of the rest of the team needs a raise too. $50 mil is gone. Homey will be Happy. Will it address an injury to RVP or allow us to compete with Real, Barca, Bayern, City or United. You guys expect the world when his board gives him the budget of a 3rd world country.

Glad I'm not the only one, but I knew we are few and far between.

Dawn and I thought Europe was in a big economic crisis!

HAHA,the Homey Train...was just thinking about that... what'sup Homey?

AW is one of the greates coaches ever, he has done a lot of good things and has a chapter in football history. I d hate to see the team without him, I love the man.

Still, someone has to be responsible for 6 years without a trophy.

Can we just like, win something and keep Arsene...? mommy? daddy?

I think the Homey train terminus is The Month of May Central Station.

PS our boy Campbell scored for CR! And my beloved Panama won, not too shabby for a non Arsenal game.

My opinion is that as long as Wenger's plan makes the board and owners more money they would have no intention of firing him. We may not even finish 4th or above this season but I have the feeling that they don't really care if the club is unsuccessful. The thing is that you don't manage a club like an normal company because what matters for fans are trophies and not profits. In comparison Real Madrid is under a huge amount of debt yet they manage to buy players for ridiculous money (Ronaldo how much?) and their fans are happy because the team is competitive and entertaining.
Though I can see Wenger sacked at the end of the season if we don't qualify for the next CL not because it would be a huge stepback for the fans but because of the loss of revenues coming from this competititon. But at some point they need to realize that trophies and success bring more money, better players and more fans but lack of success tends to the opposite ...

The Real Madrid comparison doesn't quite hold up, though. Real Madrid has so much backing from the local government that they have access to essentially unlimited interest-free (or at least low enough interest that it won't outpace inflation) and would essentially be "bailed out" if they ever ran out of money. Arsenal don't have the luxury of either of those fallbacks -- if we tried to spend like Real Madrid, we'd end up in the third division like Leeds did within 5 years, and the same fans now bitching that we don't spend enough money would be bitching about financial mismanagement.

Yeah I know the comparison may be quite irrelevant because each ligue has its own regulations regarding football clubs but I think the revenues coming from C. Ronaldo RM jerseys was big enough to cover most the transfert fee. So might be something to think about. Are you going to see many people buying Mert jersey? Probably not

Kush. Wenger is still the man to lead this club- I can't think of anyone else who has the drive and the know-how of the club and its members to adequately replace him. At the same time, we still need to invest in January- unless we all hold hands and believe that Park and Chamakh will develop into adequate backups for van Persie, and Arshavin will suddenly develop discipline and consistency.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.u...

I'm certainly no expert on the practice of "tapping up," but this situation seems to fit that description.

if any of you are looking for some arsenal stimulation during the Interlull, I highly recommend The Tuesday Club podcast with Alan Davies. Very funny podcast about the Arsenal.

Did they have a podcast this week?

I don't think so, but I've been listening to old ones. Funny to hear them go from loving Djorou to hating him and from hating Koscielny to loving him.

I don't think so?

At the risk of stating the obvious, I just don't see that much point in talking about whether Wenger is the man going forward or not right now. And this is no criticism of Orion, who's been a good addition to the site -- lord knows I remember what it was like trying to come up with stuff to write about during the Interlull.

But I would say that there is no way Wenger is getting fired mid-season. None. So the real question becomes "Should Wenger be fired next summer?" And I don't really see how any logical person could answer that at this point with anything other than "It depends." If Arsenal come back, maybe win a knockout round or two in the Champions League, finish top 4 in the league, a deep run in one or both of the domestic cups, then I would say, no, definitely he should not be fired. But if Arsenal hit another bad patch of form, finish 6th or 7th in the table, get knocked out in the first knockout round of the CL and don't make any noise in either of the domestic cups. Then I'll probably say yes, his time has come and it is time for a change. Somewhere in between is a tough call. I do think his future is tenuous at the moment, but I think I probably speak for the vast majority of Gooners when I say we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out this season before deciding whether we believe Wenger is the man to take us forward or not.

AW himself said that there should be a sort of transfer window for managers as well; their position at a club is much less secure than it used to be. Fans have seen an exponential rise in Arsenal's stature as a club during the Wenger years, and that means that he has set very high standards, not only for him, but for his successors as well. 

So yes, there's no chance whatsoever that Wenger will leave midway through the season. However, I think that some of the Arsenal fans have a blindfold covering their eyes when they judge Wenger. And that blindfold has a hole, through which they can only see the last five or six games. If they see a "WWDWLWW", that means that we are doing well and Wenger is safe. If they see something like "DLLWLWDL" then Wenger should leave. This is irrelevant of any other factors such as injuries to key players, departures of key players, new players settling in, etc.

My point is that Arsenal fans as a whole need to take everything into perspective, and not be so close-minded all the time.

Well, I agree with you there. The mood swings of the fanbase in general, and certain fan voices in particular, are just insane. It even extends to players -- if Song has a good game, he's world-class and instrumental to our success in future seasons. If he has a bad game, the same fan is talking about how he's not smart enough for the position, makes too many bad fouls, and gets caught out of position too often.

What if... Song is instrumental to our sucess, but is prone to bad fouls? ;)

Well I don't think the point was that there's any real talk about Wenger's status at the moment.  Obviously, as you said, he'll at least have until the end of the season.  To some extent, the Wenger supporters wanted to say "I told you so," and me, being the big man that I am, don't mind letting them have some blogging space to do so.  Ha.  
Nevertheless, we're still one injury to you-know-who away from potentially having a major struggle on our hands.  I'm genuinely hoping we win every game, but I'm far from being convinced that Wenger is our best choice.  If we're doing well in January, and we make a major purchase anyway, then that will be the clearest sign of serious intent for me.  So that might get me back on board.  I'm not holding my breath though.  

I love how shiny new signings are the only way for you to get back on board.

Well, since we opened the door to the Wenger debate, and thus some Homey bashing, let me state my position again.  Basically, I feel like AW has been content with qualification into the Champions League, but he hasn't been willing to take the extra step to actually win something.  I fully understand that clubs like Man City operate at a completely different financial stratosphere.  And if we did our best to field our best possible team, and we still fell short, that would be fine.  But instead, we seem to do just enough to get by.  Think about the last two times of big spending by the club - when our CL spot was in danger a few years ago, and we bought Arshavin, and this August when our team was garbage, and we bought five new players at the deadline.  I wonder if we hadn't been destroyed like that by Man Utd, if there would have been much action at all.  
Repeatedly, Wenger and Gazidis have told us that the money is there, and lots of it.  And they aren't afraid to spend it.  Then they do pretty much nothing.  Why were there supposed inquiries for Hazard with a day left in the window?  Why weren't those made a month earlier?  On and on and on... we frittered away tons of points in August, not having any real sense of purpose or direction, and that's why we're still in seventh place in the league. Does nobody remember that?  Then we got a couple of pretty good players along with a couple of average ones, and we improved (largely due to the incredible form of one player).  But where are we long term?  Still hoping to finish fourth, with no expectations of trophies yet again.  Maybe we can luck out and take the Carling Cup this year, but beyond that, there still isn't a lot of hope.
Getting back to my earlier point, if our nice form continues, and Wenger and company feel we're safe for another fourth place spot, then I feel sure they won't make the extra push in the January window to really be ambitious and try to win something.  They're only going to spend when the team's back is against the wall.  If they wanted to be ambitious, then we wouldn't have had to suffer through the likes of Silvestre, Squillaci, and others in recent years.  A couple years ago, when we could have challenged for titles, we did nothing about our bare back line.  Does nobody remember that blatant oversight?  
Sorry for the rant, but I really want to see some ambition.  Some effort.  Maybe  "shiny new signing" wouldn't win us a title, but I can't stand seeing us keeping our powder dry every single year.  Then telling fans there's plenty of money to spend, and all the while raising ticket prices to boot.  Does nobody else see that? 
I'm sorry that I'm all alone in driving the Homey Train, but my complaints from the past still persist unless I'm shown differently.

Totally agree with you there Homey. Everyone who even follows soccer vaguely must have seen Cesc transfer coming in. We had more than a month to find replacements for Cesc and Clichy and by that time Jenkinson had proven himself to be Carling Cup quality and Jack's injury was declared long term; yet we waited till the end and bought Arteta and Santos. I'm not denying that Arteta is very good, but why not bring in a Hazard or Mv'ila or even a Mata?
Managers who want to win trophies can't just depend on all players being miraculously fit, other teams having bad weeks and your team miraculously winning the big games. I agree we are not as big as Utd/City/Barca/Real/Chelsea money wise, but if we sometimes go out of our comfort zone and scrap the bottoms to pay up for a good player, it will instill confidence in players (RvP will need some mighty convincing most likely by buying a "proven World class" player) and in fans. Call me a greedy fan but i would be very happy if we make a marquee signing like Mata rather than AOC or Miyachi.

You are not alone. What would be unusual about a manager being moved on from his position after 15 years when his form continues to stagnate? I can't see any reason for us to keep him, and like Homey has shown, there are plenty of accomplished managers who would be more than capable of taking his position.

I also think it is unfair to dismiss Homey wanting a shiny new signing. It is only reasonable. I feel that unless we do something of the sort in January or even next summer, then we will continue to lose players to other clubs who don't feel we are ambitious enough. RVP, Song, Ramsey, Sagna; all of these players may leave unless they feel there is a reason to stay (even if that reason is money). As sad as it makes me, I think it is a step that we have to take.

Unless we win a trophy this season I will still be sitting in the front row of the Homey train, and even a trophy may not tempt me to leave.

While I know I'm in the minority, it's good to know I'm not alone.

What are you talking about, in this blog, you and the rest of your "train" are the majority.

We've been calling for his head for quite some time, but considering that he's the head writer, it's been difficult convincing him to fire himself. 

Oh nooo.... I've been ridiculed for quite some time - even by my fellow bloggers.  I'm quite certain that I'm in the minority, and especially now during the winning streak.  
You should go back and look at the comments' section of my big "Wenger Must Go" blog and see how negative it was.  Believe me, you're in the majority on this, and I'm in the minority.  Which is fine with me, as long as we can respect each other's opinions.

Regardless of our disagreement with this topic, I definitely respect your work here no doubt! Regarding the minority thing, I'm just going off of what I see in this post...comments and likes, but fair enough per your other post.

To be honest, I'm stunned that I'm still getting this much support here for my views.  People seemed to come out of the woodwork on my side a little bit.  

Homey, have you ever taken a moment to think that the board uses Wenger as their media scapegoat? They tell him to tell the media and fans one thing, but won't allow him to do that very thing he states the club has the ability to do. When Dein was around, he worked his magic with the board to make signings happen, its quite (a very likely) possible Wenger just doesn't have that pull with the board. Without Dein, we never would have had Wenger. He truly did work some magic behind the scenes due to his reputation and stature. Without Dein's 42% stake in Arsenal, the board is now free to do as they please. 

OK, let's assume your theory is correct for a moment.  I'm supposed to applaud a manager who willingly tells huge lies to the public on a repeated basis?  And who willingly has passed up several other jobs so he can stay and work for a money-grubbing board who won't let him spend as he wishes?  I guess all that is possible, but I don't think it says too much about Wenger's character and ambition either.
I think the much more plausible explanation is that Wenger DOES have money to spend (albeit not Man City type of money), but he's in love with doing things HIS way (youth promotion, developing stars rather than buying them, etc).  And while I applaud his ability to achieve great results on a more limited budget, I'm baffled that any manager would intentionally spend less than he could on a repeated basis.  So my question is at what point we can say that enough is enough.  Obviously that's hard to say during our current winning streak, but I'm not trying to analyze just one month.  I'm looking at years of evidence on this issue.

Staying on board with a team he truely loves to continue to try and make do with what he has available is an absolutely honorable and applaudable decision. Being the board's scapegoat will be a situation any Arsenal manager will have to be until we have a more ambitious stake holder/board member. Dein was just that and hence we were able to make the purchases we did.

Intentionally telling the fans and media lies on a repeated basis is not honorable, if in fact your theory is correct.  And again, no matter how much a manager loves a team, I don't know any manager in the world who will stick with a club despite getting zero support from the owner/board.  Especially when that manager could go to other big clubs.  
Again, the more reasonable assumption would be that Wenger and the owner/board are a perfect fit.  The owners want to make more profit, and Wenger doesn't want to spend lots of money.  A win-win situation... except for the fans.

Don't you find it kind of curious that Dein himself has come out and said that Wenger is at the helm of the board? For all of us to trust in Wenger? And that he wishes that Wenger still had the buying power he had when he was there? If you're going to ask me to give you links of those types of statements, stand by, I'll dig them up for you.

I've always found the cult of Dein a little weird. Not saying he did a bad job with the club, but he's the one who sold all his shares of the club to Usmanov. I agree with you that even if what you posit is true, which I don't think it entirely is (although I suspect there is an element of truth to it), Wenger's sticking with the club and turning down Real Madrid is admirable. But don't see how we should also laud Dein for doing precisely the opposite -- cashing out of the club he supposedly loved just so he could make a huge personal profit.

I'm not sure what Dein is supposed to say, since he's the one who hired Wenger in the first place.  Of course he'll back the guy he brought in.  
Again, neither of us can say for sure what's going on behind the scenes of ownership.  However, either scenario is troubling to me.  Either there's this conspiracy to deceive the paying fans and media, with Wenger as the front man, or our manager has plenty of money and refuses to spend it anyway.  I think logic favors the latter theory, but neither is very appealing to think about.

Is it any surprise that the so-called "Homey Train" has slowed down? I've never been and never will be on that train, its wreckless at best. 28 years of watching this club, you learn to take the highs with the lows. We've had much worse, and we've weathered every storm. Arsene continues to drive this club in the right direction (always taking into consideration with what he has to work with). There isn't a better man for the job at Arsenal Football Club. END OF STORY. 

Going with the theme of having a biblical scripture at the end of every Homey post, its time he and the others repent.

I am glad to  be your partner at Arsha club! :)

I think you, Darren, and I may be the only 3 Arsha fans left on this blog. Glad you're still with us.

Well said Perry S. A few biblical quotes that fit the Homey trainwreck are:

Ye reap what ye shall sow
A prophet in his own country is without honour
Father forgive them for they know not what they do
When you were children you played with childish things now you are men you must put away those things
To every time there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven

Very nice. Except for the "trainwreck" part.

We all realize that the moment Arsenal go into a rough patch of 3 or 4 games, the 'Homey Train' will raise it's voice once again, right? Homey is just waiting for it, so he can tell us we need to buy a new squad with a new manager. :)

Sounds almost as if y'all think I'm hoping the team loses or something, which is certainly not the case.