Stoke abuse is the worst, says Wenger
THERE was a long pause as Arsene Wenger considered the notion for a moment before deciding, firmly, that the abuse he gets at the Britannia Stadium from Stoke fans is worse than from Arsenal’s rivals Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
It comes to something when a manager is hated more by fans of a club 150 miles up the M1 than supporters of their bitterest foes.
But Wenger, whose side travel to Stoke today, has history with Mark Hughes’s team.
The fans took umbrage when he accused them of rugby tactics under Tony Pulis in 2010, singling out Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth for the way they kicked and pushed goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes at set-pieces – the match in question did not even involve his own club, but Spurs.
The season before that he tore into Shawcross for the tackle which broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg, suggesting that if football had come to challenges like that he did not want to be involved any longer. ‘The major incident was Ramsey, that’s where it started,’ Wenger explained of this conflict.
The Frenchman insists it does not bother him, that it is simply a part of the game nowadays. But he acknowledges that his reception is worse when he visits Stoke than any other club in the world, including Arsenal’s longest-standing rivals. ‘It is maybe more aggressive, yes,’ he said, before joking: ‘Do you want me to stay at home?’
It is a wonder he does not stay on the sofa for this one. The fixture last season preceded the infamous incident at Stoke-on-Trent train station, when a torrent of abuse was directed at Wenger by Arsenal fans. That 3-2 loss was his side’s fourth visit to Stoke in a row without a win.
The incident was filmed on a smartphone. One fan yells at Wenger to ‘f*** off’ and there were calls for him to quit.
‘It didn’t stop me from [sleeping],’ Wenger said. ‘What stops me from sleeping is losing games. The fact that people are not happy, I can live with that. I can understand it.’
The grainy footage is just video evidence of another’s pain, the stuff of the ‘happy slap’ generation. Wenger fears the rise of social media is perpetuating this kind of behaviour and those who work in football have to get used to it.
‘In an ideal society, you want everybody to respect everybody,’ he said. ‘I cannot influence that. You ask me, “Can I live with it?” I say I would prefer not but if I have to, I will.’