Now is certainly not the time to get rid of him. That would have been before the season started with enough time to get a squad together. Now would be a knee jerk reaction which I believe would cause more harm than good. Not that I want him to go.
Whilst I can understand peoples frustrations I am surprised that people think there is a better option out there. I know I sound like a broken record but Man City and Chelsea have made it financially impossible for anyone (except Man Utd) to compete with them, so until it becomes anywhere near a level playing field we're playing for 4th. Any manager that can work within the same paramiters as AW and do a better job is welcome with open arms, unfortunately the best managers generally need a wealthy chairman backed up by an open chequebook to succeed
You mean the problems that have been apparent for about 4 years, that he has failed to fix? How do you know this?
It is amazing how the Wenger appreciation thread comes up a day after we dispatched a league 2 side in the mickey mouse cup. Why did you post this after the 8-2 mauling or after the debacle at Blackburn eh?
My friends I think Piskie rose to the occasion to support Arsene by way of the appreciation thread following several exchanges when members like yours truly called to question our manager's handling of the club's affairs, especially those on the pitch. His thread is therefore not unwarranted so as to balance out the discussion since all things in life and war are fair or hopefully meant to be. Hopefully we can show the world that our season begins in earnest this weekend.......Oh did I say that last week too? to one and all
as a utd fan i would rather enjoy seeing wenger sacked (his selective vision irritates me greatly) but it wouldnt be a good move for the club. the majority of the players at AFC now have been brought through by arsene and know and trust him. theyre all a bit shellshocked at the moment with the departures, arrivals and lack of form, but within a few weeks (a month or two, tops) they will start to gel properly with their new team mates and return to somewhere resembling normality. if you sacked wenger now, it would only destabilise things further and alot of arsenes youngster would probably start thinking about exit strategies. after that, it would only become a matter of time before arsenal started to turn into a more upscale sunderland or everton. and that would be a shame.
Rich coming from you, considering in the Mourinho years when Chelsea were winning things, SAF's head was on the line... because he had not won anything for 1 season or so..... I am sure as a manure fan, you would be happy for us to continue with Wenger and his policies..... I know in a sick perverted kinda way I would as well if I was in your shoes! We have become a joke of team, (thanks to Wenger), SAF after the mauling, said he did not want his team to score anymore goals...... How Wenger can even show his face is beyond me, I switch off whenever I see his mug on tv!
'We have become a joke of team, (thanks to Wenger), ...... How Wenger can even show his face is beyond me, I switch off whenever I see his mug on tv!' Very harsh bordering nonsense IMO
Fair enough, I know I am not alone in putting the tv on mute when he comes on...You cannot fool the people all of the time! It really irks me, when you hear our rivals (well former rivals), pontificating about the de-merits of getting rid of Wenger...... I remember the well liked Chelsea manager (his name escapes me now), at the onset of Abrahamovich revolution, people were up in arms at his sacking, but look what they got to replace him......
I think you're refering to Ruud Gullit, and the reason they were up in arms was because his successor (Vialli maybe ?) was a player in the team and had been having covert hotel meetings for months with Roman and his people, so I think it was more the disrespect shown to Gullit. Don't get me wrong I do understand where people are at re AW, I am as frustrated as anyone, but we are not a joke of a team, we're had a huge number of personnel changes (whoever you/I blame is irrelevant, we'll never know the full truth) and they will take time to settle. Yes we've had a poor start no-one with a brain can deny that but we've also qualified for the CL group stages and come away from the German champions with a 1-1 draw. We've also played Utd, Newc and Blackburn away and Liverpool at home, not the easiest of starts in the league, so whilst we're way off the pace (and did you/anyone ever expect us to be near the pace ?) it won't take much to get us back within striking distance of the 4th spot. I do genuinely think 4th is what we're playing for and if we make it I would put that down as a successful season. I know others will disagree but if you watched the Arsenal sides of the early/mid 80s you will see how much progress we've made - even the mid 90s when we nicked a few cups we were never in a position to challeneg the league, we even finished bottom half in 95. Some perspective is needed I think when using terms like 'crisis'
I was referring to the likeable Claudio Ranieri.... everyone liked him, but made strange decisions and was always tinkering.... I am not saying Wenger is becoming like that, I think he is liked by our former rivals for his eccentricities! I have always thought, CL qualification was the target for the past 4yrs. All this talk about challenging for the title is very hollow. We keep going back to the 80s as to why should be forever be grateful to AW. Well he has said, he wants to continue for another 14yrs so that will be 2025, I guess we would still be hankering back to the what he did in the 90s.... I know the current Board will not sack him as they are part of the problem, will he know when to walk, well we just have to see! No MAN is bigger than the club......
Fabregas is a unique situation. I have no problems there. This is where I completely disagree. Even when we were winning things Wenger would let our players go easily while Ferguson sted-fastly kept his squad together. 1. Nasri wanted more money. We should have either: given him a decent payrise (he's worth 120,000 a week IMO) or bought a player of the same calibre.(Hazard, Goezte etc.. are all 20m plus purchases so there is no cheap solution) 2. Adebayor also wanted more money - we should have stumped up. He's worth every penny. An excellent striker that never really wanted to leave. 3. Toure left becuase of a dispute with our poorly chosen club captain. Wenger essentially chose Gallas over Toure - which was a truely terrible decision. Toure was a great player for us and is totally under-appreciated. We sold him at 27 yrs old after a poor run of formdue to malaria. He has since been excellent for City. They now get his best years as a defender. 4. Henry. We should have kept him also. 5. Pires had another 3-4 years in him. 6. Lassana Diarra. could have been a very useful player for us. 7. Mathew Flamini - left beacuse he was never offered a decent contract extension. 8. Gilberto - was still a useful squad player. To name but a few. Wengers insaine treatment of players over 30 and nonchalant manner in which he has let players leave the club has been one of the biggest contributers to our lack of trophies over the last seven years. Ferguson understood the value of keeping experienced players in the team. Wether or not they had 'lost a yard of pace' with age.
1. Bowing to player demands for cash is not the answer IMO, if we become a soft touch then every player in the world will want to join us but we will soon be financially crippled. 2. As above 3. Agreed - I never felt that Gallas ever wanted to be at Arsenal, Toure was a better option. 4. Disagree - we should either have sold him a year earlier and got £20m+ for him or kept him until he had no value and retired an Arsenal player, then moved into coaching 5. Pires - agreed, a mistake IMO 6. Diarra - agreed, though the player does strike me as a potential cancer and our squad had a number of midfielders that were ahead of him. 7. Flamini was offered a contract extension but chose not to sign it - he was a squad player until the final year of his contract when he got his chance he proved to be a great player, but by this time his agent had been busy agreeing Flamin's salary and his own commission with Milan. 8. Agreed but I think the player wanted first team football so left. The over 30 rule AW used was strange, but he realised this and backtracked, not sure who we lost (worth keeping) other than Pires in this time
You dudes are hilarious. I won't mud sling though. Wenger is the best manager Arsenal have ever had, he is obviously a great manager, he needs to move with the times and learn to adapt, those who adapt survive and prosper, no ?? I don't want Wenger to leave but I want him to change. If he cannot change then "see ya .. and I wouldn't wanna be ya" ! But why are you comparing us to how we were in the 80s ? What does that prove ? Should Man U compare themselves with the 80s when they were rubbish and then let themselves return to that crap heap they USED TO BE on ? How about Liverpool, how about Preston North End in the early 1900s (or whenever it was they were good) ? Times change, football changes. We used to be mediocre then we became very good under Wenger. What does the 1980s have to do with anything, those times are long gone and expectation levels are high.
Hothead I often scoot back to the 80s because I was there, doesn't make it right of course but some younger fans only recall history from the start of the Wenger era (or any time since) when we were (relatively successful). The comparisons I make with these trips down memory lane includes stadium, facilities, quality of players, training facilities and overall performances, and we are undeniably in a much much better place. For what it's worth, my brother often reminds me of how bad it was in the mid 70s when we were in genuine relegation battles...
Personally, and it may be just me, but I thought Toure was proper ****e in his last season. Gallas was immense for 2 years and I thought signing him and losing Cole (when he had his hissy fit to leave) was good business. Sure he was an utter toss pot but then so are Barton, Cole, Ferdinand, Rooney and Gerrard and you can't argue they're good players.
But most modern day clubs are better now than they used to be ... apart from Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry, Watford, Everton and Liverpool. I'm sure I've missed one or two out but you know what I mean. Furthermore EVERY club has better facilities and stadia, that's obvious when compared to the 70s/80s. The teams I listed above are not as good as they were in the 70s and 80s but what does thinking back to mid table rubbish accomplish ? We were bad then, we are better now, doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels.
Thing is despite what the club say Wenger is not doing a good job and I fail to see why he is irreplaceable.
But what is normality? Bottling it every year when things get tough? There was a good case for getting rid of him last summer but I resisted because I thought if he changed his approach and bought top quality experienced players then we could finally overcome our mental hurdle. However apart from signing Gervinho and a few kids from league 1 we did nothing for the whole summer until Man utd destroyed us which managed to convince Wenger that our squad was well short of being good enough. Now I am hoping he will turn it around although that is more out of loyalty than actual belief.
