I'm bored by Wenger's spin

"The fact we did not win the championship for five years means people say I am stubborn. If we had won in the last five years I would still be as flexible and open as before."

- Arsene Wenger, getting his cause and effect mixed up

Wenger believes that not winning the championship makes people say that he is too stubborn to change. He believes that if he had won the league, he'd be considered as flexible and open. While it's true that perceptions depend greatly on point-of-view, the one point that is fixed is that Wenger hasn't won a trophy in five years.

I think Wenger's getting confused about cause and effect. The cause is stubbornness (not buying a goalkeeper, no defensive training, too much faith on the wrong players). The effect is the lack of trophies in the past five years. It doesn't matter what would've happened if we'd won a trophy, because the stubbornness has meant that the trophy never eventuated.

This is the first in-depth Wenger interview I've read since the James Lawton one in 2008. When I read the 2008 one, I was very interested. I liked the vision that Wenger spun, and was impressed with the future Arsenal he described. But I couldn't finish reading this one in 2010. It's just the same stuff, the same spin, and nothing's really changed in the intervening time.

It's kind of depressing.

Don't get me wrong, I like the kids experiment. I like the excitement of seeing Frimpong and Wilshere in midfield, with JET, Gibbsy, Eastmond and Nordtveit in reserve. I'm fascinated to see how they'll cope with the pressures of Premier League football, and interested to see which ones will make it and which ones will fail. But I'm sick of Wenger saying the same things over and over, without even acknowledging the problems with his management.

So on the 260th last day of my 20s, I picked up a frying pan off the street. It's council tip day fairly soon, and all the neighbours are throwing out their junk. It's a Scanpan, and apparently pretty good value. Pretty happy about that. Turns out Wenger's right, and you can still get a bargain off the street.