Yeah, you're right, he's calamitous. That's why Roma have decided to loan him season after season... I always thought his main problem isn't his ability, it's that he's a d*ckhead. Do agree on one thing and that's him not kicking on. Anyway, may have jumped the gun. Rumours now saying it's an all wages paid loan deal with option to buy for £13.4m.
To be fair, gone are the days of really expensive keepers who aren't class acts even in this inflated market. Apart from De Gea, i can't think of a keeper recently thats moved for more than double figures. So in respects, you getting 13.4m for Szseszny is actually a fantastic deal considering he's basically a keeper like Gomes, produces outstanding saves and then produces calamities and has shocking decision making. Also his kicking is terrible.
We are going into yet another season completely unprepared, both in terms of personnel and fitness. How long is this perpetual loop of mediocrity going to occur before genuine changes are made that will enable us to push on? We've been waiting for more than enough time. It's actually so incredibly boring watching the same thing happen to us every season. I don't understand how there are some people out there that are content with what's going on. The mind boggles.
But who else is out there who could achieve nothing and mismanaging this squad like Wenger does? What we need is someone to continue his reign of mediocrity and not challenging in the big trophies and there aren't many of those out there... Name me a manager with experience who would be able to keep this team mediocre rather than improving them?
Its tricky.. because the squad isn't as good as people say it is. I think 2nd/3rd over the last two Seasons is about right. Do we have the best side in the league? ..Nope don't think so. Would Mourinho win the league with this team... I'm not soo sure. Last Season was a great opportunity with City and Chelsea having terrible Seasons. On one hand Wenger is clearly insane. Sticking with the same ideas and principles year upon year. But the fact he has never really had a terrible Season in all these years is also somewhat remarkable. Wenger has a system which delivers financial security year upon year and doesn't require massive investment. You have to wonder how much influence Arsenal FC have on things. Have they been pushing him to keep things 'as they are'? It would make sense.
the rumour at the end of last season was that we only had 50 million to spend (inc wages), and most of that was spent on one player, that would fit with what has happened so far, i dont think we are a well off as people think. Most of the profit we made between 09-13 was because of player sales, without that we would have made substantial losses. Now we have more money, but the marked has increase so much that we are not that much better of, we can buy one player a season at 30 - 40 million but not 3 or 4 like people are expecting.
Liverpool, who haven't built a new stadium, have the same net transfer spend as us in the last five years. If we really don't have much money and can only spend on par with a club that have a rotting old stadium who aren't in the CL and never win anything then why have we built a new stadium ourselves and taken all those years of being poor and having to sell? If it was going to make such little difference to our finances then why did we do it? So 30k more prawn munchers could watch home games?? But anyway I don't believe we're THAT poor. As someone has already said before... We once spent 22% of our annual revenue on a player once. We don't now. Plus, I'm not so sure it's the lack of spending that's actually the issue. It's the lack of strengthening areas that even a ****** could see need strengthening that's most galling. Dortmund, Atletico, Leicester... All can win trophies and/get to elite finals with balanced squads with good players in each position. Wenger is reluctant to spend large sums, he doesn't strengthen the correct areas, he can't motivate a team for a whole season and he exudes mental weakness which percolates through all our players, new or old. But I'm sure he'll be damn tough to replace...
we finished well above liverpool in most of that seasons, apart from the one time they finished second, lets not forget that Liverpool were days away from going bust, so not sure why you would compare us to them, anyway they are 5 times European champions and generate plenty of money in sponsorship, and in some cases more than us. im afraid i dont quite agree with the whole wenger cant motivate the players, in the last 5 years there has been a couple of times that we have had horrendous starts to the season and ended up getting into the top 4, it more than mourinio, who was on course to relegate Chelsea, and the players had downed tools, i dont mind people criticising wenger for things like not buying a striker ect when we need one, but he also deserves credit where its due, and he has been incredibly consistent, and while some people would rather swap that for a more risky strategy, i have no problem with that, but the constant slating of wenger is over the top in my opinion
For every single one of us it's a question of how long. How long do you put up with what Wenger delivers before enough is enough. Because he always delivers the same thing, which isn't the big ones that the big teams strive for. So is it 10 years? 20? 50? If he did nothing in the big ones (which, let's face it, is all but guaranteed) but still got CL qualification for the next 20 years would you still be fine with that and praise him?
Till the end of his contract, plus he has been progressing, despite what people like you suggest, we have finished 4th, 3rd and 2nd in the last 3 years, the cold hard facts suggest that progress has been made in the 3 years since we stopped selling players. A decision will need to be made at the end of this coming season, as his contract is up, i personally think he will finished at the end of this coming season unless we win the league.
What many on here go on about is the fact they think another manager would do much better with "this squad", they never seem to wonder if another manger would have "this squad" in the first place.
Yeah I would say that's a fair assessment. However I think Wenger blew his chance last year. Had we added a quality CF last Summer we would almost certainly won the league. This Season we have Mourinho in charge of a hugely expensive United side, Guardiola at City and Conte has Abramovic money to chuck around at Chelsea. I think next Season will be the most competitive league to win in years.
So you're taking the position that a squad of our current quality (which isn't THAT high it has to be said, with quite obvious weaknesses in certain positions) could only have been assembled by Wenger and that no other manager could have assembled a squad of this moderate quality? Wenger has a very strange hold over a lot of people, Arsenal fans and non-Arsenal fans... Just bizarre.
I think what he's saying is players like Bellerin & Iwobi would have not come through under a manager like Mourinho. And guys like Koscielny plucked from relative obscurity not many top managers have that kind of eye for talent.
I take it you haven't been following what Liverpool have been planning for years, and what Liverpool have done over the summer?
