The most important question in my view for Arsene to answer is can we any longer afford this style of football which requires top, top quality players to be effective - those players that we can no longer afford? Wenger snubbed Parker (and, I suspect, many more similarly good players) simply because Arsene has had a certain kind a player in his mind and Parker does not fit the bill. Now Parker was the real MOTM on Sunday. We all know that the club can not afford "super quality" any longer. We can dream about Goetze or Hazard or even Kaka for as long as we can, but this is all just wishful thinking in current circumstances. So we end up with some youngsters with "super potential" who we then struggle to send somewhere on loan. Harry Redknapp, on contrary, buys everyone of good quality who is available and affordable and tries to arrange the game around them. And it does work better for a club with limited resources, such as Spurs and Arsenal. Just look at their midfield. To adopt this approach for Wenger is akin of going down the class ladder - boring, dull and not worth working for. But pursuing the ideal of "beautiful football" or just a quality attacking combination football when there is not enough resources may be fatal - just look at Bolton ( or indeed Arsenal). I am not saying though that we need to go Spurs way, but I just want to know what Arsenal fans think about it. Should we bite the bullet, simplify our game and try to strengthen the squad with good players we can afford? Or should we try to search for a new wave of talent, cherry-pick the players who suit our game and try to prove our critics wrong? PS. I think this question is more important than things like defensive coach etc because no defensive coach can solve the problem if the same players will keep playing the same game. Everyone actually knows what to do to improve -it is easy: just start pressing in midfield like Barca does, same way we did against Chelsea last year and ended up winning 3:0. But that proved to be an odd game (which gave us all a lot of false hope) because these guys are usually able to (sort of) do it for 10-15 minutes max and then they drop. So why keep trying then?
You make a lot of valid points in this article, and im sure a lot of people will agree that we should buy these types of players. But if i was going to play devils advocate for a minute, players like cahill and parker will never win you the PL, now spurs will probably finish forth, to then that will be a great achievement and their fans will be over the moon, but spurs will never win the PL, not this season or the next 5 years unless things change dramatically. Now before some fans jump on my comment and tell me that arsenal are never going to win the PL and are in a terrible position, I agree, we are not going to win the PL or finish 4th. Most of us will be delighted if we finish fourth. However, in the last 2 seasons we have been in a realistic position with 10 games to go of winning the PL, in the 09 -10 season with 10 games to go, we were equal with man u / Chelsea and had an easier run in, most of us thot we had a good chance. The reason we never won was because our players we not mentally strong enough when it counted. Im basically saying these types of player will not get you into a position where we could realistically win a PL Basically the point I am trying to make is players like parker and cahill might be enough for us to challenge and probably achieve 4 th spot, but we will never go any higher, now people will say the last team wenger built only achieved this, but that team was capable of more, they just didn't have the bottle to go and do it. This team has failed and needs to be rebuilt, wenger has proved in the past that he can take a group of unknowns and mould them into a title winning team. He has to rebuild, but if he rebuilds with the aforementioned players we will never go any higher than forth. Now here is where it gets tricky, by doing it the way he has there is a risk it will fail, and this time it has failed. But do you want the safe bet players that will get you 4th most seasons, or are you willing to take the risk and aim higher? The choice is entirely up to you my friends, because that's probably the only two choices at the moment as we cant spent the money to attract the real top starts like man u, city and Chelsea.
This is partly my question as well. the other thing to bear in mind (and i am sure Arsenal management is well aware of) is that a team of young intelligent players trying to swim against the flow and achieve something hardly achievable playing attractive football is a great selling point in itself from marketing point of view. It makes the club stand out of the football crowd and attract a certain kind of fans, regardless of a result. Tre is a thin line though between attractive and ridiculous and crossing this line is fatal as well.
I would go for a few more experienced players, maybe not exceptional ones but people who have been in top clubs before. However if we can afford/attract one or two top quality players then I would go for them as well.
Good thread and the question sums it up perfectly I think Wenger is definitely still trying to aim higher, albeit with players with potential, rather than the £30m off the shelf player, who we can't afford. Oxo looks like he could be another Wenger masterstroke, but he wasn't cheap by any means. Arteta, Santos and Mertesacker were bought out of absolute necessity. But I think Wenger prefers to build a team of top quality players. And he has proved more than once that he can do that.
Dude what are you talking about ? Man U won leagues with David May, Silvestre and John O'Shea. Are you telling me Parker is not playing at a higher level than Song, Frimpong, Arteta, Benayoun and Ramsey ? Are you saying VDV is not better than ANY midfielder we have (yes .. including Wilshere) ? Are you not telling me that with Defoe, the Russian and Adebayor they don't have a better attack than us with greater options ? Cahill can't be any worse than what we have - a bunch of clowns who don't know how to defend and are accident prone. I don't particularly rate him either if truth be told but I am sick of people telling me this player and that player isn't good enough. We should've bought Samba who is a defender FIRST. Instead we buy weaklings who try to win the ball nicely, sod all that DEFEND FIRST and defend properly, no nonsense. I used to be a nutter on the pitch, shouting and screaming at players, from the kick off it was always a case of "WE GIVE NOTHING - NOTHING" .. everybody knew what that meant, the opposition would have to fight for every ball, for every blade of grass. You must win the right to play and Wenger seems to have forgotten that fundamental fact.
The quest for talent is par for the course of any organisation wishing to forge ahead. But to seek that talent to suit our game indicates that our game is right. However I think that it is pitched in the wrong direction since our game is not altogether right. It has holes in it. Back in the seasons ending 2008 and especially 2009, there was already talk of an absence of a Plan B. It was woeful to see that on several occasions we were unable to create chances and were stuck in midfield. Our game is wrong too because it ignores deficiencies in our defence so really, you can have all the talent you want and there will be times when even they will prove to be wanting. If you want to select players to fit into your game then you first have to get that game right. In the longer term you have then to ensure that those players stay or you'll have to start all over again and never reach your goals ( pun not exactly intended ). So if the game is not right then either you address this and work through the getting and keeping of the talent, which is a longer term arrangement or you find the best affordable and available and get creative from there. I think the former is fraught with uncertainties. I'm not saying it won't work but 7 years have shown that it is not an easy option. I doubt if we can go through another 7 years hoping it may work. I would actually prefer a change of architect. My 2c
...whereas the mighty Arsenal will win it ten times in the next eleven years Part of the problem that you are facing at the moment is that you do not give the proper credit where the proper credit is due. Harry has proved himself to be a better manager than Wenger. Why do you not have the graciousness to simply say that? Let me let you into a little secret, my friend. Spurs fans will be happy with 4th, because we appreciate the fact that we don't have the unlimited resources of City, United and the Chavs. We also are aware of the fact that we do not have the financial strength of AFC or LFC, both of which teams should be doing better than us, if money was the only determinant. We have humility, see.
If wenger changes strategy and goes shopping he can take us back to the top. He can be truely excellent in the transfer market. the problem is that he's ethically against big money transfers and top players are more expensive than ever. We put in first bids for: Yann M'Villa Mario Goetze Yoan Gourcuff Gary Cahill ...but we never followed up any of those with a second bid!! - why? because we were trying to get someone on the cheap and unwilling to barter over price. But that's NOT how negotiations work! and that's also why we need someone like David Dean back at the club.
No, honestly. What are you basing that off? Recent years? Careers? Trophies? Honestly, I'm wondering on what basis are you making that claim?
I said before the game that we should not play a high line without pressing and we did it. Chensey had to save three one on one chances. Wenger is not going to learn. Thats what i learned from this game.
Sadly, very true. Well observed Super J Arsene doesn't do tactics you see. At times I think he just works on technique and hopes all will fall in place simply because of the existence of technique.
Oh that info is well and truly out of the bag now. Sometimes you do not have a clue about what some clubs do before the games but we all known how we get ready for a game. Cesc compared the difference between how we and Spain get ready for a game. According to Cesc they would spend time talking about the other team and the players would get notes and stuff like that. And this is SPAIN. Even a special team like that who are the best study an opponent.
Ok (sigh, here we go...) Harry came into a dispirited club that was sitting at the foot of the EPL and facing certain relegation, and we haven't looked back. This season, we are already genuine contenders for 4th spot, despite the fact that we cannot compete financially with AFC, let alone the top three and LFC. Wenger, by stark contrast, inherited a successful club and have been given every advantage under the sun, and yet he has managed, almost single-handedly, to balls it up. I could embellish this story further, if you really need me to. Wenger has given AFC their past glories, but that now appears to be over. Harry is just starting out with us.
Show us his trophies as a manager, end of argument. Anyone who would write the above statement, clearly is either delusional or has no clue about football. I hate man united but SAF is a better manager than wenger, im quite happy to admit it, but redknapp, you having a laugh.
Load of ****. Redknapp is working under a guy like Levy who is THE man at Spurs. Arry is allowed to focus on the football side and Levy does his thing in the background. Perfect combo. Who got VDV in the last minute pf the transfer window? Thats right, Levy. Who made Modric stay? Again, Levy. Spurs have a stable structure within the club that leads to no confusion. At Arsenal its anything but. Wenger has been allowed to get too much power since Dein left. And Wenger can't no longer cope and is being buried under the pressure. He has been at the club so long its become too personal and he can't no longer take a hands off approach and relax and let someone else do some of the other work. Wenger is still a better manager then Arry. He is a master at developing young players and his attacking coaching is second to none. The difference between the two at the moment is simply down to the difference in stucture between the two clubs. Wenger deep down would love someone like Levy above him. The man that allows Wenger to take those weights off his shoulders and allow him to go back and being a coach. That is where Wenger still loves to be. But he loves Arsenal too much to not care about other stuff. ****, like dealing with agents and players should not be down to Wenger. But the man tried and failed to talk to Nasri and Fabregas. It got too personal and Wenger has been hurt by the idea that the players he worked on just left and his project was over in the summer. Infact thats another difference between Wenger and Arry. Wenger knows Arsenal is his club while Arry will be off to England next season. Arry is like a modern day player.
Yeah, you're right. Silly me. AFC are going to finish 4th, because Wenger really is that good. You win the argument
