Arsene Agree's With Vital Arsenal

Arsene Wenger has echoed opinions voiced by us here at Vital Arsenal with reagrds to comments made about our 'lack of Englishness'.

Wenger seems almost to have read my mind and hit out at our critics, labelling them as racist and regressive. I am in no doubt however that Le Boss handled the situation in a calmer and more rational manner than I.

The statements made by Gordon Taylor and Alan Pardew were particulaly annoying.

But Wenger fought back with,

“For me when you represent a club it's about values and qualities,” he said. “It's not about passports. Unless you change rules, we do nothing wrong. Are we not respecting every rule that exists at the moment? That's why I don't accept that way of thinking.

“It's really disappointing for two reasons. First, we are kicking racism out of football and racism starts there. The second part is that players accept the technical opinion of a manager, but not that kind of remarks.

“It's a regressive way of thinking. I never would like to say to a player ‘sorry, you are better, but you're not playing because you don't have the right passport'. It's just not acceptable unless the rules change or you do not want to make a [united] Europe.

“When, for example, Alan Pardew calls me at the beginning of the season and asks to have Jeremie Aliadiere on loan, he doesn't check if he's English or not. He just checks if he is good or not.”

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