So you meant to say "Especially when our own club captain might possibly be losing the faith in our manager". Perception I can accept, but stating it as a fact I can't. p.s. I was also mystified by the substitution, but only until the manager explained his reasons. I have no cause to call Mr Wenger a liar like some on here have done.
No mate, I am not hinting at you being one of the accusers I would think he is a lot less ambiguous behind closed doors, but agree with you in that I too would like to be a fly on his office wall at times. He can be very frustrating. I believe you to be a genuine fan, which is why I rarely dispute your posts COYG
This is what I mean by perspective. As much as we all want it, we're not title challengers at the moment. We have to be realistic about what we can achieve this season. A top 4 place is still very much within our scope, as is potentially winning either the Champions League and the FA Cup. I think we need to make improvements, but this is not a club in crisis.
Why is it that we can only change managers when we are in crisis?! If we want to be a big club then mere survival is not good enough, success should be called for too. And I have never heard of a period of transition lasting over 6 years, Wenger himself said 2 years ago that if our team does not start winning things soon then his youth project will have failed. But what happens? Our captain leaves and we now have our worst team in over a decade! You can't keep on delaying judgement on how well Wenger has done in recent years. P.S. I have never said that we are in crisis as I think a crisis is like what Portsmouth went through a few years ago, or Darlington are going through at the moment. This is just a bad period for us. Nevertheless it should be enough to ask serious questions of Wenger's job suitability.
I have to admit I feel somewhat conflicted too. However I still see things about our team that I know could be easily improved, which makes it all the more frustrating when they are left to cause problems for years on some occasions. I do recognise the brilliant job that Wenger has done in the past but I still feel that he has lost his touch somewhat and seems to be running out of ideas.
Is this the same as when you said Arteta could have played against Swansea and he wasn't really injured? Because you were totally right about that one!!
RVP has confirmed that OXO had an slight injury, I do not believe he would say so to defend Wenger if it was not the case.
toledo, my answer to this is, we never spent much before but were able to win things. The problem is not how much we are spending but the players we are buying. there are lots of players around the £10m - £20m we can afford, but Wenger won't buy them because they will "hinder the progress of Diaby" Wenger needs to go back to buying the calibre of players he bought before. Men.
Seriously ?? Every man and his dog had been saying Arsenal have a soft underbelly, we still do, what has been done to remedy it ? Every man and his dog said Arsenal needed a keeper, look how long it took Wenger to remedy it ! Every man and his do was saying we need a commanding centre half, we have only now sort of got there. These problems have been with us for YEARS !!!
Emir, I don't care what RVP says, it is a load of bollox, of course they are gonna support Wenger, he is club captain after all. You lot can be as naive as you want. There are still WMDs in Iraq because Tony Blair said so Nobody saw OXO slow down, nobody saw him grabbing his leg as Wenger claimed.
Ok then some examples. What about 2 seasons ago when Almunia had gone in to meltdown mode and it was clear that we needed a new keeper, but even though we had a whole summer to find one we still ended up with Almunia in goal (who then continued where he left off). Or how last season it was clear that we needed quality new signings to challenge for the title but even after Fabregas and Nasri left we only did the vast majority of our signings after we got absolutely destroyed at old trafford? If that doesn't smack of being out of touch I don't know what does. Or how in 2009 we looked to be able to challenge for the title but even though RvP and Bendtner had long term injuries and no one else was capable of stepping up we still didn't buy a new striker in the january transfer window? Or finally how Almunia, Djourou, Squilacci, Diaby, Gibbs, Denilson, Arshavin, Rosicky, Vela, Bendtner and Chamakh are still contracted to the club despite not pulling their weight for years? These are examples of what I believe is a manager who has become a bit too stuck in his own ways.
Oxo grabbed whose leg??? Only joking Mr Head As already suggested, I think it's a fair assumption that RvP is unlikely to prolong any schism that may have resulted from that substitution. He is too big a man to do that and patently aware that he needs to continue a good working relationship with his manager. Of greater concern is the continuing trend of ineffective decision-making at the management levels of the club. Even assuming for a moment that the rust brigade may have it wrong, what if in the longer term, our trust has been placed in a man primarily in view of his past achievements and out of loyalty for him and this turns out to have been misplaced because the man himself has been running on empty. Performance at the highest levels of endeavour is never infinite. Players and managers reach their peak and begin to slide away from being as competitive as they or us would like. To place all our trust on the basis of what had gone on before as opposed to what is happening now is not a way into a better future. To achieve a better future, we need to address the wrongs and ills now and in the world of competition, there is not a lot of room for sentiment.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I work at a management level in my job. People are always saying I should do this and that, employ this person, sack that person, pay this person more, that person less, go down this route, don't go down that. The opinions differ, sometimes daily, sometimes the same person will change their mind, sometimes they claim they never even held that view. Some are realistic, others are not. I have lots of different opinions offered about what would be best. But the one common denominator in all of it, is that these people do not have all the parts of the jigsaw, they might think they do, but their picture is based on a limited understanding of the entire scenario. They understand their part and they argue based on their needs. They mean well and have good intentions, and I listen to what people have got to say, because they have good ideas. But ultimately, I am the one who has to make the decision, based on all of the available information for the good of the organisation. That might mean upsetting a few people in the short term, because they don't get what they want, sometimes, what they want isn't even available when they want it. So rather than make decisions based on placating individuals, I have to take all aspects into consideration and make my decisions based on what I feel is best for everyone over the long term. It's okay having a wish list - but you need to remember, it is just that. The reality of the situation is usually far more complex.
PISKIE - nice speech. So lets assume you are the manager of a computer reseller, but you don't have anyone in sales who knows the technical side of the products you sell and you don't have a technical manager who knows the products you are selling. You don't make sales because the salesman caves under pressure when asked technical questions. Existing customers are not happy with the standard of support given to them. You can either : a) Train the technical manager on the products you sell and the salesman so you can make more sales and give better support, or b) Do nothing. Arsenal are doing nothing. Any manager who is taking the company backwards would get sacked pronto. It took Wenger too long to buy decent CBs. It took him too long to get a decent keeper, the very basics have taken Wenger too long to address.
If we took that view though then how could fans ever criticise the manager? They have to be held accountable and we cannot assume that there is an invisible obstacle the whole time which forces the manager to make mistakes.
I'm not saying that the manager shouldn't be criticised, it's a part of his job. I'm saying that the criticism usually comes from someone who hasn't got the whole picture.
