Yes its the wenger brigade or whatever you want to call it, but blaming wenger and shouting "8 years without a trophy" is ridiculous. Its not hard to work out why we haven't won a trophy since we moved to the emirates, wenger can only do the best with what he has and lets face it the players we have are not in the same league as bayern's. We are being compared with teams who have all the money in the world, if thats the case then give us a level playing field financially. Our players are obviously inferior to bayern's and then when we get beaten we blame wenger as if its his fault, ok so as the manager he should take some responsibility but does anyone on this forum actually think that if we had spent even a quarter of the money than man city or chelsea have that we would still be without a prem title since 2004??? Everyone is just looking for someone to blame and because wenger is the manager he gets the brunt of the criticism. Everyone goes on about this run without a trophy but in all honesty the only major chance we threw away was birmingham and if having a carling cup and maybe a couple of fa cups keeps the fans happy then im seriously worried. I assume i'll probably get slated for this but its just what i think and i think and you can't compare us with a team that have vast wealth and can buy literally any player on the planet, we bought cazorla in the summer and the only reason we were able to do that was because we sold rvp. IMO man city and chelsea should be slated an awful lot more than us, hopefully the day comes when we are able to even spend the same amount as man utd or spurs with wenger still in charge and then we'll see where we finish and criticise him then.
or Bradford Citys it seems , or Blackburn Rovers . Do you have an excuse for those performances? Or the Villa draw , or the Norwich loss , or the Swansea loss..... etc etc etc No you dont. "you can't compare us with a team that have vast wealth " do me a favour . Swansea city gave us a footballing lesson at our own gaff , at a fraction of the cost of our team and their wages. One of our players cost more than bradfords team , but we were totally embarrassed by them , it aint about cost. Its about desire and determination . Its about inspiration and pride . Its about tactics and leadership.
Wenger has made £10's of millions in profit from transfer dealings over the last few years and we have been told there was money to spend before that. Where has all this money gone. On the one hand we have stories that there he wouldnt5 spend any money and on the other people saying that he never had money to spend. There has been plenty of profit being made so the ones who should go are the ones who wouldnt spend money. I was always prepared to give Wenger the doubt but now believe it is down to him, in which case he should start investing in the team or go. One thing we can say for sure is that he stuck with the likes of Denilson, Diaby and others far too long because of his project. It didnt work, so again a reason he should go. We also need to know who made the decisions to sell players and not relace them with as good or better players, another reason to go. Alternatively it is the club who are lying in which case they should just sell to Usmanov and feck off.
I would add to that, that it's the board despite the protestations from Wenger, who have seen fit to sell our best players to maintain their financial plan. Wenger did not want to sell Henry, Cole, Cesc, Nasri, RVP etc, it was the board that sanctioned the moves. If you look at the players Wenger has brought to this club and moulded into world beaters, then you will get a measure of how good he is. Also despite the last 8 years of frugal spending, selling our best players, the break up of the invincibles, the break up of the board and takeover by Kronke, Wenger has kept the team in the top 4 and Champions League EVERY season. There are problems at Arsenal and Wenger is not faultless, but people need to wake up to the real issue which is the way in which the board have been selling our best players, instead of blaming the man who has kept us in contention despite the dismantling of every team he has assembled. It's misguided and misinformed.
This is Wenger's team, Wenger's philosophy, Wenger's tactics, Wenger's training methods. Who else do we blame? Last night wasn't exactly David vs Goliath was it? We're not a tiny little team with a miniscule budget. We are ARSENAL. Sorry but I disagree with almost your entire post. Plus gunnerbeallright makes a great point. We aren't just losing to the sugar daddy clubs, we are losing to average joes, underdogs and overachievers. We are losing games where we are Goliath. Surely our humiliating exits to Bradford and Blackburn can't be blamed on the board room or financial fair-play?
How many times did he say " a big club doesnt sell its best players " and yet they were sold from under him and he rolled over and accepted it. If he had ANY integrity he would have walked then . Imagine Mourinho putting up with that **** from the board ? he would have told them to stick it up their arse. protestations ???? too ****ing soft.
Yeah, ill blame the board for sticking with the likes of Gervinho, Santos, Denilson, Squilachi, Bendtner and co. .
4 out of those 5 are on loan and on their way out. The first one has been frozen out of the first XI.
The defeats against Blackburn & Bradford were nothing to do with money. Wenger was tactically out thought & outclassed.
HAHAHA. Nope. More like soak up all the pressure and get a lucky goal, in Bradfors'd case they had to take it to penalties. We were not TACTICALLY OUTHOUGHT on those games, the Bayern one yes, but those two no.
Wenger has spent 5+ years offloading quality talent and replacing them with inferior players. It started with Henry and Vieira but I think most fans, whilst not wanting to see our best players leave, accepted that in their 30s we had benefitted from their best years, average age of Cole, Nasri, RVP, Cesc, Adebeyor and Clichy was about 24 when we sold them. The Bear made a great point a few days ago about conditioning, we get outmuscled more often than not, we don't have a dominant figure that opposition players are scared/wary of, Kos maybe at the back ? If you were a centre forward would TV5 worry you ? If you were a winger would you be scared to take on Sagna/Jenk/Gibbs ? I'm no coach but I know the successful Arsenal teams I've seen have all contained a multiple physical presence, this has very little by way of muscle. Ultimately the selling mentality has set the club back 15 years, this season has proved that the purchases of recent seasons aren't up to winning, so Jack aside the squad needs a major overhaul which takes 2, 3 or 4 windows to achieve, and despite the funds we have available it isn't enough. To create a team capable of winning I think we need 6-8 quality players who will all come with a price tag of £25m+, we will not be spending anywhere near that kind of money. It looks like a throwback to the early 80s for me where top 6 and a EUFA Cup spot was a successful year....
Squillachi barely played. Santos has been here for about a season and a half and was at the beginning of the season many were hailing him as someone to challenge Gibbs, Denilson hasn't played a game for Arsenal in close to two years, B52 despite his ego and arrogance actually popped up with some very crucial game winning goals now and then and he also hasn't played for a while, and Gervihno hasn't even been with the club for up to 2 seasons.
Does anyone really think that Wenger wanted to sell those players? That ANYONE at the club really wanted to sell thiose players? I mean seriously just think about how much less work they would have had to do if they had just kept all those players. Despite aroun 1000 press conferences where the players that left ALL said they forced Arsenal to sell them, everyone still believes that the club sold the players against their will. Or does anyone really think that Wenger would have got any peformance out of them if they had been kept at the club and forced to play for half what they could have been paid elsewhere. Or how the team would have looked if ALL those players had left Arsenal a year later on a free and we would have hasd no money to buy new players with. The criticism on tactics and everything game related is fair enough, but as far as the actual team goes, no one at the club could have done ANYTHING to stop them leaving. I haven't seen a single practical suggestion on how Arsenal would have been able to keep them at the club.
I would agree with most of that, other than I'd change your opening word from 'Wenger' to the 'Board' It was the board who saw fit to sell our best players, Wenger wanted to keep them. He built those teams and brought those players to the club, it was the board who opted to sell them and seemingly overruling Wenger in the process. Wenger famously said 'A big club does not sell it's best players'. To me that says that he wanted to keep them and was overruled by the board.
So essentially everyone accepts that Wenger is: ** Poor tactically ** Has a poor squad which he assembled (under some duress due to players being sold, but he still purchased ALL of the current players, refused to spend more for Mata / Alonso, bought Gervinho, Squillaci etc.) ** Is losing to vastly inferior teams on a fairly regular basis ** Is responsible for the ridiculous "parity" wage structure which means top players want to leave due to lack of wages, while lower players can't be moved on due to high wages that no-one will take on, giving a squad full of useless players who won't play for the Team (Squillaci, Park, Bendtner, Chamakh etc.) ** Doesn't coach the defense (evident from the same mistakes being continually made game after game, season after season) ** Doesn't improve the team (poor crossing has been a problem for YEARS, bad positioning, static players etc.) ** Manages a Team that is now struggling to get 4th and finishing further and further from the top each year ** Shows zero signs of changing his philosophy to spend money in summer ** Shows zero signs of starting to coach the team effectively Take off your Wenger Specs, read that list, and tell me WHY he is the man to take the team forward. To me, it's "he did it once he can do it again." Incorrect. He was ahead of the game at first, now he's significantly behind. Arsenal are showing absolutely NO progress this year. They currently have 2 points less than they did at this stage last season. Nostalgia seems to be the only realistic reason that people want to persist with him at all. Ignoring all the facts, and clinging to the hope that he'll magically change his ideas and philosophy and turn things around.
Piskie totally agree with this mate. I was having this chat with a mate of mine who supports Arsenal. As an outsider, it's baffling me why the fans want Wenger out, especially when one considers the exact reasons you've highlighted. For me it's simple, if you sell your best players you're going to struggle to keep up with those clubs who are getting stronger. buying a cheaper replacement usually means there's a reason why that player is cheaper. (inexperience, unknown, unproven) - Those factors can be time consuming and also have big implications if things don't work out. It's not to say there's anything wrong with that policy, but its risky if you're selling your best players. - I think this is the affect that you guys are beginning to see. IMO, Wenger isn't the problem. You would not have been selling your best players a decade ago, so for me, the problem is upstairs. The attitude has drastically changed at the club. But there's now a bigger potential problem. Each season in recent years, you've qualified for the CL whilst selling your best players. You pay competitive wages and have been able to offer CL football to any new player you've been interested in. But what happens if you don't make the CL this season? what will be the knock on effect of EL football? I ask those as genuine questions. How it could affect the club and attracting top players? We're set up not to expect CL football, but Arsenal are a club that are in the competition year in, year out. The league is so tight this year. Everton are right in the mix, Chelsea aren't 6th and i'd say it's unlikely that we'll capitulate like last season. just wondering what your thoughts are guys.
