I actually found a quote that perfectly illustrates why Wenger is the worst for the job: "There has been a strange dynamic around late-Wenger Arsenal, one possibly outside of his control and in some senses slightly unjust. Anything positive - statement victories (and there have been a few), big-name signings, strong runs of form or winning cups - barely registers, while any negative episode instantly has the club on the brink of crisis. Nobody has any faith in them whatsoever. If Arsenal were five points clear at the top with two games of the season left, there would still be naysayers. It is hardly an environment conducive to success, with players constantly walking a tight-rope." It doesnt matter what we do at this point with Wenger as manager - noone believes in him. The SECOND we lose a game its crisis mode. The atmosphere will never be the same again as long as he is in charge.
As opposed to the "Arsene Wenger we want you to stay" chants that we now hear at every ground we visit? I totally see your point, and I dont believe Rodgers is the right choice, but don't underestimate how much of a laughing stock we already are.
I just think it would smack of a lack of ambition and would feel like a huge let down. When Wenger goes it needs to be a moment that all the fans come together, hopefully behind a top quality manager. Appointing Rodgers would just feel like a slap in the face. Also it's pointless because he would probably do worse than Wenger imo.
Please stop all this Rodgers talk, we should be able to get better than that without much trouble. No need to find the next Wenger, we need to get someone who is good quality like Ancelotti to oversee our rebuild over 2-3 years. Fix all the issues that have plagued us over the years, which in my opinion are pretty glaring. Please please please, not another year of Wenger as it's getting bloody boring now. It's like bloody Ground Hog Day.
Would be a great change for us and i can see him getting us back into the CL in his first season and sort some of our issues straight away. What we need is improvement and that would come from fixing our defensive and midfielding deficiencies that Wenger has created. Any top manager should be able to reverse these issues and make us more stable in terms of personnel and tactics. Carlo would be able to do all that.
Wenger is still better than Rodgers. An ageing senile half mad shadow of his former self Arsene Wenger is still winning Cups. Wenger is nowhere near the manager he used to be but... he gets comparitively WAY too much critiscm. Pochettino for example is the EPL's Golden boy. Listening to Linekar/Talksport etc.. you would think he's the next coming of Ferguson and Guardiola - YET the reality is he has won NOTHING. Klopp apparently one of the best managers around. Has spent alot of money and is yet to win anything at Liverpool. I actually dont mind Arsenal fans complaining about Arsene. We want to do better. But Its an absolute disgrace how the guy is treated by the British media.
He's an excellent manager. I would take him at Arsenal. Has won of the best career win %'s out there.
What do these domestic cup wins actually mean in the grand scheme of things, though? Don't get me wrong, as a fan, it is great to see your team win a trophy and it's been pleasurable watching Arsenal reach 4 domestic cup finals in 5 years - which was in stark contrast to the previous 5/6 years before that - but it is not a measure of how a team is progressing. For example, last year we won a record amount of FA Cups, yet also finished in the lowest position we've ever finished under Wenger at Arsenal and got battered 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich, where we also broke multiple records for all the wrong reasons. The FA Cup wins should not give Wenger a carte blanche to do as he pleases. He does not have the luxury of being infallible which, based on his press conference this morning, is seemingly what he wants. The success in the domestic cup competitions has effectively saved his flailing managerial career. But at what cost? Any team can have a good cup run. It can be the luck of the draw, underdogs rising to the occasion, a dodgy ref decision or teams deliberately fielding skeleton teams to prioritise other 'more important' competitions. The reality is, Pochettino has Spurs playing the best football they've ever played for decades, they've got strength in depth, improved fitness, tactical intelligence, good work ethic and has developed their players into some of the most sought-after in the world. They are capable of giving the best teams in Europe a good run for their money and aren't afraid to rise to the occasion. When you factor in that he's been up against the financial powerhouses of City, Chelsea and United, as well as Liverpool's new owners that have been investing significant sums of money into their squad, and us, who have had the most stability out of all the aforementioned clubs, Poch has done extremely well to get them from being a 6th place side to a team that looks comfortably finishing in the top 4, fighting on all fronts. Even Klopp has made some very astute signings and has transformed Liverpool's style of play, which makes them one of the toughest teams to beat in the league. He's made Anfield a fortress and teams seldom enjoy going there. Defensively, they are starting to tighten up as well. Irrespective of how often he may get mocked (mainly for the £ tag), Van Dijk has made a big difference to their back line. All of this is in complete contrast to us, who are a shambles both on and off the field right now. So whilst Klopp and Poch should have perhaps won more silverware than they currently have, I am 99.9999% sure their fans are not particularly envious of us, despite having more trophies in recent years. There is no vision or direction in where we are heading as a club. You cannot say the same for the two examples you have given.
Current betting odds put Leonardo Jardim and Ancelotti as favourites to replace Wenger. The same argument was countered against Arsenal and Arsene from 2005 - 2013. We were finishing 2nd-4th in the league. Playing good attacking football. But were we winning trophies?.. Nope. Were we regularly critisced for NOT winning trophies? .HELL YES. People will believe anything they read but just apply some critical thinking. If we look at Spurs. When we were in the exact same situation Wenger received nothing but critiscm. While Klopp/Pochettino will get praised. Seeing as this thread was about Rodgers. Rember how much praise his side received from the press the year they didnt win the league and came second?! It's laughable really. The years Wengers team come second - all that gets discussed is how/why we failed.
I would prefer the former over the latter, but to be honest, at this point I would snap your hand off for either. I don't think it was from 2005 - 2013 we were getting criticised heavily. It was from 2008, after we'd come so close to winning the league but the Eduardo leg injury & 2-2 draw with Birmingham completely messed up the momentum we had. Then the 2011 League Cup final did us no favours and added even more pressure onto us, but that was self-inflicted. But again, you need to consider the context. We were a European heavyweight with the best players in the world, competing for league titles, challenging the best in Europe and playing scintilating football, whilst simultaneously having a physically-imposing, tough side who wouldn't dare to be bullied. To go from a team like that to the lightweight, powderpuff players we have now, was a very difficult transition for people to witness. Because all the characteristics that were synonymous with Arsenal and made us a feared team had been taken away. Our standards were declining - from serial league winners to regularly rat-racing for the coveted 4th place spot, it was a far cry from what many people were used to witnessing from Arsenal. Did the media overplay and embellish the significance of this trophy drought? Yes. But when you are amongst the best teams in the land, that is to be expected. The problem I have with your post is you keep making statements without contextualising any of them. We have finished 2nd once since the 2004-05 season. That season was in 2015-16 where we finished runners-up to Leicester City. The reason why we got criticised so heavily was because that year was the best opportunity we had to win the league. Virtually everything that could have gone in our favour that season did. We still threw it away. And even then, it's not as if we gave Leicester a close run for it, we were miles behind them. In fact, we only finished 2nd because Leicester's actual closest challengers, Spurs, were so demoralised following the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge that they just gave up. The 5-1 thrashing to a 10-man Newcastle proved that.
Think you'll find Liverpool probably spend even less than Spurs on the net spend charts. Yes but realistically, every man and his dog knew Wenger was still doing a good job and he got some praise for it. How did you feel as a fan back then, proud of your team for doing as well as you can and playing great attractive football (similar to spurs and pool). Winning stuff is where the real credits will be given out but even now you can acknowledge just as you did back then that poch and klopp are doing a tremendous job currently
