"Why should anyone "enjoy" a dirty cheat who should've had more than one red card in the last eighteen months? There's nothing "enjoyable" about watching him play, especially if you want to compare him to the last "pantomime villain" that was a constant source of constant irritation Luis Suarez." By the Narrative (TM) , you would think the above were like Richie McCaw in rugby (he being renowned for pushing the boundaries of breakdown play infringement with minimal penalties) . If McCaw did the equivalent of those two during his international career, he would have had a lifetime of post-match citings, sin bins and sending offs.
They are going backwards, we are moving forwards. Most managers go past their sell-by date, Wenger is well and truely past his.
It seems that everyone wants Wenger to go now, but I'm not sure that is a good idea (for them). Who could they get that is better? I know there comes a point that they assume that anyone is better but are they? They are actually performing better than any of the Sky 5 this season, which maybe isn't saying much but is nevertheless true. They have actually beaten Leicester twice, which nobody else has. They keep getting eliminated at the same stage of the CL, but who wouldn't if they draw Barcelona at the same stage? Far from making excuses for the guy, I'm thinking that replacing Wenger could be good for us!
"It seems that everyone wants Wenger to go now, but I'm not sure that is a good idea (for them). Who could they get that is better? ..." Who cares ?? SNMP (simply not my problem) . All I do know is that this season his luck may finally have run out, with any of : - one of the current top 2 winning the PL come May - the Goonie tantrum children not having their sad little "St Totteringhams day" - losing their precious CL slot quite real possibilities.
This is an intriguing one that I allowed myself to imagine during a self-indulgent moment the other day. By comparison, West Ham have an easier run-in. Only Leicester away stands out as a really hard game for them (maybe Chelsea away does too due to the rivalry between the two). Arsenal still have to go away to Everton, West Ham themselves, a scrap at Sunderland and then City. However, in reality now that Kompany's out again I'd say City are slightly more likely to miss out on the CL.
"This is an intriguing one that I allowed myself to imagine during a self-indulgent moment the other day." I guess I had sub-consciously ordered the list in decreasing likelihood. After tonight, Wenger executes step 2 of operation SOS, which usually means at least one of the bottom two in the list will not happen.
please log in to view this image Given where we currently are, truly outstanding transfer dealings by Levy.
Shows just how bad the performances of the wealthier clubs has been. Almost as if some Sky 4 / Sugga Daddy FC hater has poisoned the collective well they all drink from.
£79m!!! £79 chuffing million? Where did West Ham get £79m to spend on players? Oh yeah, if you paid rates (old git alert - Council Tax) in London in the last decade, it's our bloody money!!!
What strikes me is how Arsenal's wage bill has increased exponentially over the past decade, despite a complete lack of noteworthy success or even an indication that noteworthy success was on the horizon. Us and Liverpool, probably the closest to them financially, both have periods of a few years where the graph more or less plateaues, and especially in our case have kept the total relatively low. Considering they navigated the construction of a new stadium pretty smoothly, it is remarkable how poorly run that club is.
They haven't been spending that much on bringing players in, all things considered. Similar to a lot of other Premier League sides over the same period. They've not been making anything on player sales, though.
£140k pw for Theo Walcott will do that to you. They've signed some very, very good players in recent seasons. Cech, Ozil and Sanchez are the best examples. They've also paid some very average players rather large amounts of money and failed to improve some youngsters who looked to have a lot of potential. Virtually anyone from Southampton springs to mind for the latter.
Their management of their wage bill has been poor, and now they have been dragged into an arms race with their wealthier rivals. It remains to be seen whether similar will (have) to happen on player signings too, As for new WHL, I believe ENIC will get if funded in such a way that we will neither have or need the "stadium" excuse to explain/defend our seasons' showings. To remain at least as we have been the last 6 seasons while new WHL is built, will be the final nail in the Goonie meltdowns coffin.
PLAYER AGE WEEKLY WAGE CONTRACT LEFT Petr Cech33 £100,000 (4 Years) 2019 David Ospina 26 £40,000 (4 Year) 2019 Damián Martínez 22 £10,000 (2 Years) 2017 Per Mertesacker 30 £70,000 (2 Years) 2017 Laurent Koscielny 29 £60,000 (2 Years) 2017 Gabriel Paulista 24 £50,000 (4 Year) 2019 Kieran Gibbs 25 £60,000 (3 Years) 2018 Nacho Monreal 28 £50,000 (2 Years) 2017 Mathieu Debuchy 29 £70,000 (4 Year) 2019 Calum Chambers 20 £10,000 (5 Years) 2020 Héctor Bellerín 19 £10,000 (Last Year) 2015 Mathieu Flamini 30 £65,000 (Last Year) 2016 Francis Coquelin 23 £20,000 (4 Year) 2019 Mikel Arteta 32 £80,000 (Last Year) 2016 Krystian Bielik 17 £2,000 (5 Years) 2020 Jack Wilshere 23 £90,000 (3 Years) 2018 Aaron Ramsey 24 £80,000 (3 Years) 2018 Abou Diaby 28 £65,000 (Last Year) 2015 Mesut Özil 26 £140,000 (3 Years) 2018 Tomás Rosicky 34 £85,000 (Last Year) 2016 Santi Cazorla (new contract) 30 £90,000 (4 Year) 2019 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 21 £65,000 (3 Years) 2018 Serge Gnabry 19 £10,000 (3 Years) 2018 Alexis Sánchez 26 £130,000 (3 Years) 2018 Theo Walcott (new contract) 26 £110,000 (4 Year) 2019 Olivier Giroud 28 £100,000 (3 Years) 2018 Danny Welbeck 24 £75,000 (4 Year) 2019 Joel Campbell 23 £30,000 (Last Year) 2016 Paulista £50k; Flamini £65k; Rosicky £85k; Arteta £80k; The Ox £65k; Walcott £110k; Debuchy 70k - that's half a million a week on not very much.
> Now I know why you don't use the quote button! If I need to split the paragraphs, I am going Usenet stylee.
