Rival watch

Those Goons with nous probably wish 2012 and 2013 never happened.

A season out of the CL would not been a financial big deal then.
Spurs were still not a financial threat either,
A reset then, with or without Wenger, when it was still at
worst PL 5 into 4, and things would have been much different.

 

Not your greatest ever manager then?

 

Yes, but he also became one of the biggest obstacles to our progress and struggled to rectify a lot of issues we had for years. I remember a period where everyone said "Give Wenger money to spend and he'll have Arsenal challenging on all fronts". Well, he was given money to spend in the latter years, and we got progressively worse by nearly every metric you want to consider.

The owners were too passive, and didn't make the change earlier - which is where they were the bigger issue. They weren't proactive. Wenger wasn't held accountable and was allowed to get away with mediocrity for too long. At some point, the owners have to make a decision based on the poor results. They didn't until the rot had already set in.

The current board and way of doing things has been failing, but the root cause of where this started was from the previous regime.

 

Man Utd fans talking about context as a result of a Uruguayan striker reportedly saying something dodgy

For some reason Saltypool fans are finding this remarkably ironic...

 

Emery played 10, pts 16 - sacked
Arteta played 10, pts 13 - trust the process

 

Krankie out? Be careful what you wish for. I bet the average age of the Arse fanbase gets a year older every year.

 

Yet somehow, if you listen to them, they seem to be getting a lot younger...

 

Come come, they've always thrown their toys out of the pram. They just do it more regularly now.

 

Do you not think he had to run a tight ship because of stadium costs? He warned us for example that we could suffer the same, and you could argue that it did for Pochettino.

 

It's the danger of having a long term manager now. See Fergie. Yes it brings success but at a price of after the lord mayor's show.
Also reminds us of how , despite what one may say, the process is still cyclical. It's difficult to see in the short term, especially in the midst of the cycle, but zoom out and it becomes clearer.
Even the money teams will weaken when the money man leaves or another money team takes over.

 

For a while yes, but not in his final 4/5 years. He invested poorly for the most part or didn't invest when we needed to (e.g. Summer of 2015).

And whatever restrictions he had in terms of finances, that didn't excuse the poor coaching at the club (which numerous ex-players have been vocal about), didn't excuse his poor recruitment, tactics, team selections, defensive ineptitude, away form, record against the top 4/6 sides etc.

There were no excuses in the end. His position was untenable. We ended up being stuck with a predominantly average group of players on exorbitant wages they didn't deserve. A lot of those players are still here. We won't ever truly progress until they've gone.

 

I've said it before and I'm sure that I'll say it again, but Wenger wasn't really the main problem. You've never replaced David Dein.
The quality of signings since his departure has declined, as the fees and wages have risen.

Arteta may or may not be a good manager, but I've no idea how much influence he has over signings and he's got no experience at all.
Everton picked up Ancelotti and they can sign good players off the back of his reputation. Arsenal have to rely on the club alone.
Leeds have Bielsa. Leicester have Rodgers. How have Arsenal and Man Utd ended up with untested, untried ex-players?

 

I'm one and I'm glad he went. In fact he should have gone sooner. I don't know anyone who was in favour of Wenger leaving having now changed their mind. Him being our greatest manager doesn't change that.

 

they listened to the stupid fans and media hyperboles, that’s why

they get what they deserve

 

Even if we just assume this is true..... So what? Do we only have a finite amount of club reputation to trade in for signings? Who have we lost out on because we didn't have Ancelotti in charge? Our Arteta signings are invariably and objectively some of our best players now. Magalhaes is our best defender. Partey is our best centre mid.

Anyway, I'm rambling and depressed. No idea what the problem is. Something hidden away and easily fixed I'm sure...

 

Everton can now sign players like Allan, James and Doucoure when they probably wouldn't been able to sign the first two, at least, prior to Ancelotti joining.
Those three would improve Arsenal's squad right now, in my opinion.
The calibre of players that someone like Ancelotti could attract to Arsenal would be higher than he can at Everton, too.

Who did you miss out on this summer? I've no idea.
Would those three Everton players have improved your squad? I think so.

 

Bill Nick should have gone after the Waffer in 72, in his own words he was 'burned out with nothing more to offer'. Having said that, if the Club had listened to his advice and appointed Danny Blanchflower as manager and Johnny Giles as his assistant, the 70's and 80's may have been a much brighter time for Spurs. Every manager reaches a natural end. The trick is to recognise it.

 

I liked 80s Spurs, thank you very much.

 

End of the 70's were ****, particularly 77, 87 was **** also. 81 to 84 was good, however, that whole period could and should have been better.

 

Regarding your first point - yes, absolutely. Wenger was given too much control and given responsibility beyond his job title. This is where I blame the ownership, as they allowed him to have this stranglehold on the club, with no proper checks and balances in place. It's what happens when you have a passive owner. The consequences of something like this is long-lasting when things go wrong and they don't intervene at the right moment. Now we're reaping what we sowed...

Regarding your second point - I think Arteta is a great coach, and many people in the footballing world have given him high praise. But I don't know if he's cut out for a job as deep and as rotten as the Arsenal job. It was always a huge risk to appoint a novice, and the club have invested a lot of time and effort into him. Things can change fast in this game, though. 4 weeks ago, everyone had faith in Arteta and believed he can take us forward. But he's made a lot of mistakes, in a short period of time, without showing that he's learned from them.

We haven't managed more shots per game than any of the bottom club's across Europe's top 5 leagues. We went 8 hours of football without a goal from open play. It's our worst start to a season since 1983. These statistics are beyond awful.

Even from the start of the year, there's been a drop-off. We played Man United at the beginning of January, you could see a definite improvement in our work rate, style of play and defensive nous. We then became competitive in games and could score goals (even if that didn't translate to the right results). But now? Almost one year later and it's deja vu. It's looking like how it did before Emery got sacked - which is extremely concerning.

As I said on the Arsenal board - These players have let down 3 different managers now. I remain convinced that, until most of these freeloaders and perennial disappointments leave, any other manager we get will struggle right now beyond an initial honeymoon phase. The rebuild we require is gigantic, yet we have two rookies in charge (Edu and Arteta) overseeing it.

It's a dark place to be in and there's no immediate solutions around the corner.