It really puts Wengers ability into perspective as over the years not only have we lost top players season after season as well as the new stadium we have never fallen away like the dead wood of Liverpool (who blame their misfortunes on the loss of Suarez) or United (who blame it all on poor Moyes) http://metro.co.uk/2014/12/17/why-l...ses-arsene-wengers-genius-at-arsenal-4991205/
I've said it time and again on this forum, but if we'd sacked Wenger when some fans were calling for his head then we would already be out of the top 4 and champions league. I remember a couple of years ago some fans were calling for Wenger to be replaced with an up and coming English Manager like Owen Coyle. Owen Coyle has just be appointed boss at Houston Dynamo .....
Or we would have appointed a better manager than Wenger and would have won more trophies, finished higher in the league, sorted out the defence, not get bum raped by our fierce rivals, win the league, go past the last 16 and not just make up the numbers in the CL.
Wishful thinking to be honest. You could equally say that we could have won less trophies, finished lower in the league, lost even more top players, got bum raped by our rivals and lower teams, been out of the champions league and not signed Sanchez.
It's impossible to say. What if Guardiola had replaced Wenger instead of going to Bayern? What I Garde had come in? Or de Boer, bringing Bergkamp back with him? All you know for certain is what has happened. Yes, Wenger has done well keeping Arsenal in the top4 under limited circumstances, no-one denies that. But for the last 2 / 3 years those financial restrictions have been lifted, money has been spent, the team have gone backwards and Wengers limitations have been brought into sharp contrast.
Less trophies than 1 domestic cup? Hardly a compelling argument. And out of the rest of your post, only the Sanchez comment is worth giving Wenger any credit. During the period Arsenal fans have called for his head, you have lost top players, you have got rinsed by your rivals and lower teams, and you have been knocked out of the Champions League. The only real argument you can make, the only one, is that he consistently gets you top 4 finishes. Your argument starts and finishes there tbh and whether that is enough is what it all comes down to.
Completely disagree with this comment. I think it would have been far worse without Wenger. We could have ended up like Utd, dumped out of the Champions League, pissed a ton of money up the wall and chopped and changed manager.
I agree it's all speculative, if Guardiola could have come in then yes things might well be very different, but that's a big 'if'. Remi Garde I'm not so sure about, but maybe he will be involved with Arsenal again at some point. De Boer and Bergkamp I think would be a massive risk, it's a huge step up from the Dutch league to manage a club like Arsenal. Maybe one day in the future. I don't agree that the team has gone backwards either, there are still obvious areas to address but I think Wenger is building a brilliant attacking side once again, we just need to sort out the defence. Also in particular are the years referred to in the OP article, when we didn't have money to spend and Wenger kept us in contention and in the Champions League, this is when people started calling for his head and I firmly maintain that we would have struggled badly without him and would already have lost our place in the champions league. I know people are hating on Wenger at the moment, but I think you have to seriously consider what he has done for Arsenal during those lean times and where we might have ended up without him. Look at Liverpool, Utd and Spurs all spending huge amounts of money to get nowhere and chopping and changing managers in the process.
I think ypu miss the point made. While arsenal has lost key players to richer clubs or injuries, wenger has maintained arsenals performance and challenged for trophies in 2006, 07, 11, 13 and 14. While at the same time other teams have struggled to cope with tge loss of 1 or 2 key players or a manager - such as liverpool with suarez/sturridge, spurs with bale and even harry, man u woth moyes, chelsea with some of their managerial changes always dropped off. If we hadnt had this consistency during the last 10 years, with no money, sugar daddy clubs poaching our best players and crippling injury lists then yes there's a possiblity with a new manager we nay have been much better, but imo its much more likely wed be worse tgan spurs (considering how much more money they spent tgan us), we could have lost a far greater amount of our best players, not being in the cl or even europe some seasons. And could have entered a downward spiral.
One thing id say, i cant ever see it likely that wed get guardiola, the most sought after coach in the world, offered unrivalled budgets at the biggest clubs in the world.
I know it's an extreme example but I have to mention Owen Coyle again, because it's this type of thinking of 'give him a chance, he can't do any worse than Wenger' that needs to be highlighted. Some fans were seriously saying that we should be trying to bring him in, he was doing well with Burnley and Bolton and people were saying he was exactly the type of up coming English manager that Arsenal should appoint. He's now managing the Huston Dynamo's Where do those people think Arsenal would be now if we'd listened to them ?
Completely agree Because it's speculative you can always throw in the 'What if we'd signed Guardiola' question, but the reality is that we probably wouldn't have and would have had to settle for somebody far less capable than Wenger. I'm sure in some parallel universe somewhere there are the Wenger out fans begging for him to come back as Owen Coyle lines up to take his place on the bench each week
I would like to add that Wenger kept us in the top 4 when the financial injection of the Russian club in west London and the SaudI club up North changed the financial landscape of the premier league forever. Only one team is ever going to win the league and instead of trying to compete on an uneven playing field by bankrupting ourselves to win some silverware he has managed to keep us at the next best level (constant champions league ) to reap finincial reward through good business and competitive football. Anyone who advocates Chelsea and City's blueprint for success must really despise football. Only in death will some people look back at Wenger as an absolute genius.
People talk about Maureen as some kind of God because he has won a lot of silverware but he is a Coward when things get tough. He ****s off when the pressure gets too much or he has alienated everybody. I hope City beat Chelsea to the title becuase it will really highlight that they are victims of their own ethos to flood football with unearned cash. It will be a beautiful ending to the the league campaign to see Jose holding his head in his hands as he fails yet again to secure a league title. Even better would be to hear him gas on about cracked eggs.
I think Alan Sugar summed it up when he said about Maureen 'I'd like to see how bloody special he'd be down at Leyton Orient'
Here's another interesting article: hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/12/25/tt-the-amazing-cesc-fabregas-stat-which-will-haunt-arsenal-fans/ - I was hugely in favour of bringing Fabregas back and it's become painfully obvious that it was the wrong decision not to.
