Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shown during his team's Premier League match against Chelsea in January. AFP Photo / IK Images
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shown during his team's Premier League match against Chelsea in January. AFP Photo / IK Images
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shown during his team's Premier League match against Chelsea in January. AFP Photo / IK Images
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shown during his team's Premier League match against Chelsea in January. AFP Photo / IK Images

To Arsene Wenger, ‘an agenda’ is behind his criticism from Arsenal supporters


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Manager Arsene Wenger has urged fans to look at Arsenal's season "in perspective" ahead of a planned protest by supporters' groups during Saturday's Premier League match at home to Norwich City.

Black Scarf Movement, RedAction and the Arsenal Supporters Trust want Gunners fans present at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday to show placards saying: “Time for change. Arsenal is stale, fresh approach needed.”

Last week’s goalless draw with Sunderland ended Arsenal’s title hopes.

It is now 12 years since they were last crowned champions of England and the patience of many Arsenal fans has snapped in a season where unheralded Leicester City are on the brink of taking the title.

Meanwhile Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal's bitter north London rivals, are second – and all this with Wenger's men failing to take advantage of the lapses in form suffered by usual contenders Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United.

But Wenger, Arsenal’s manager since 1996, has suggested fans are being “manipulated” by external critics and that supporters need to look at the club’s “evolution” since they moved from Highbury to the nearby Emirates.

• Read more: Arsenal hysterics finally feel justified, as Arsene Wenger's almost-success finally feels unacceptable

“We have to put things a little bit into perspective and see how the club’s evolution has gone over the years,” Wenger said on Friday.

“It was not always easy. The quality of the work we’ve done at the club has got us into a strong position where expectations are very high, but we are frustrated when we don’t get what we want.

"When you build a stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years where we had to pay back – we had (to qualify) for the Champions League three years out of five and have an average (gate) of 54,000 people (to finance the new stadium). We didn't know we would be capable of that," the 66-year-old Frenchman added.

“We had to sell our best players every year to survive, but we didn’t do three years out of five in the Champions League. We did five out of five. But during that time, it was very difficult.”

Former Tottenham midfielder turned Sky television pundit Jamie Redknapp said Wenger had “brainwashed” Arsenal fans into thinking fourth place and qualification for the Champions League was “good enough”.

But Wenger responded Friday by saying: “The best chance (Arsenal supporters) can give our team is to be behind our team.

“Some groups of people try to manipulate our fans, and I believe apart from an agenda, a personal agenda, a big ego, there’s not a lot behind it.

“This team has character and attitude. Some people question them. I know them well, and they have less character than this team have. I saw them play and I know them very closely, and they shouldn’t question this team’s character.

“When a club cannot enjoy anything any more, it’s in trouble. In football you go down very quickly and come up very slowly. We have to stick together.”

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Abandon
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay
Translated by Arunava Sinha
Tilted Axis Press 

List of alleged parties

 

May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff 

May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'

Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff 

Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson 

Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party

Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters 

Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz 

Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party 

Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Rating: 2/5
All about the Sevens

Cape Town Sevens on Saturday and Sunday: Pools A – South Africa, Kenya, France, Russia; B – New Zealand, Australia, Spain, United States; C – England, Scotland, Argentina, Uganda; D – Fiji, Samoa, Canada, Wales

HSBC World Sevens Series standing after first leg in Dubai 1 South Africa; 2 New Zealand; 3 England; 4 Fiji; 5 Australia; 6 Samoa; 7 Kenya; 8 Scotland; 9 France; 10 Spain; 11 Argentina; 12 Canada; 13 Wales; 14 Uganda; 15 United States; 16 Russia

Specs

Engine: Duel electric motors
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Groom and Two Brides

Director: Elie Semaan

Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla

Rating: 3/5

Living in...

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How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Red flags
  • Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
  • Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

Company%20profile
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The bio

Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist

Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi

Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup

Hobbies: Reading and drawing

PROFILE OF SWVL

Started: April 2017

Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: transport

Size: 450 employees

Investment: approximately $80 million

Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Living in...

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Long read

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Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

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In numbers

1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:

  • 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
  • 150 tonnes to landfill
  • 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal

800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal

Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year

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