Is Peter Wood-Hogg or whatever his name is actually giving Arsène Wenger the dreaded vote of confidence?
“Of course he has my backing. What he has done for the club over the last 12 years has been fantastic,” Hill-Wood told Arsenal TV.
“We are only a third of the way through the season and we have had a few disappointing results – but you do not lose faith in a man like him after three or four bad results. It is a ridiculous suggestion really.”
What he says is of course literally correct: it is a ridiculous suggestion. But the chairman of Arsenal is surely aware that in the modern media statements of this nature cannot help but mean the opposite of their literal content. Isn’t he? Why is he making a statement like this to Arsenal TV, if not to apply pressure to Wenger?
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by Brian Phillips · November 27, 2008
The Simplest Game Community
The Arsenal TV interview apparently covers several issues, including the new CEO. Wouldn’t it be strange if he wasn’t asked about Wenger? Wouldn’t it be strange if he didn’t declare his support for him? It seems like pretty much the same stuff he always says on the rare occasions he gives interviews. Not every vote of confidence need be dreaded.
I actually don’t think it would have been strange if he hadn’t been asked about Wenger, and I think it would have made Wenger’s position look stronger if he hadn’t. But obviously I agree that he doesn’t really intend this as a warning shot at Wenger. It’s just a strange consequence of the hieroglyphics of these statements that taking them at face value is the third or fourth option you think of.
True enough. With regards Arsenal and Wenger (and at the risk of coming across like a fanboy) I think that the board’s confidence in Wenger is strong enough and well enough established that it’s possible for Hill-Wood to be asked about Wenger and for him to answer without it becoming a drama. To read more into it would be misguided, or mischievous.