Doesn't ring true for me. Wenger is such a talented coach and a proven winner, had he had his wings clipped 5 years ago he could have walked away and taken the R Madrid or England job where he would have been given all the tools he could have wanted. He's still at Arsenal because he loves the club, he wants to turn things around and lay the foundation for the next generation of successes. What he didn't bargain for was the raised finances Chelsea, M City and M Utd were prepared to spend to get to/remain at their current level, he knows he's only playing for one spot as do everyone else. Tottenham have had a great start to the season but even the most deluded of fan will concede no-one can finish in front of the above three, it's just the way English football is....
The thing about not paying wages for top players and paying too much for young players for me is a clear policy, if you study the transfers. Compare the Mata and Oxlade Chamberlain transfer and possible one. By all accounts we wanted Mata and could got him for a set fee. We had the money, knew Fabregas wanted to go but refused to pay it. But, we paid Southampton what they want for AOC. The wages between the two is the difference. Mata has shown how good he is and for me that was a massive mistake by the club. For me we need to start thinking about paying our current and in the future top players the wages they want and start cutting the cost lower down the ranks. Risk it with young players who want to leave for bigger money, its better then doing the same with players in their peak. Starting over time and time again will hold the club back. Winning things will not.
respectfully, I will have to disagree. I believe that given the financial circumstances at our club, a manager other than Wenger, may already have found his team out of the Champions league.
I'd just like to say that the job Moyes has done at Everton has been pretty extraordinary, regardless of whether you think he'd have done as well as Wenger has. His net spend at Everton has been less than £7.5m in the 9 years that he's been there and their wage bill is less than half of Arsenal's. I don't know why he's still there, to be honest.
Completely agree. Moreover, I think given the 'fickle' nature of some Arsenal fans and their impatience/desire for trophies we could have been like most other clubs and suffered a number of management failures/casualties. I'd like to think we're not in the bracket of clubs where your manager is given a pot of cash and failure to win anything results in his sacking...
It's easy to think that simply sacking the manager will turn around a club's fortunes, but how many times have we seen evidence to the contrary? In reality, it usually means that the club goes through a period of instability, players leaving, new players coming in that don't gel with those that are there, a schism in the dressing room and quite often, another change of manager quite soon after. There are problems at Arsenal that need addressing, but sacking the manager is probably the most counter productive thing we could do to try and address those problems.
Fact is, it's ALL speculation - right down to the fees paid for players. Arsenal don't have to reveal the prices they pay, so they don't. All the rest is media speculation. Take Oxo for example, prices range from 10m to 15m and from straight cash to a low amount with add-ons. None of us really know what the situation at the club is. What is fact, is that they've paid for a massive brand spanking new stadium over the last few years and the fans were warned before this time that there would be a shift in emphasis to concentrate on youth. Keeping the club in the Champions League every year has therefore been a fantastic achievement. Fans should have been prepared for a lack of silverware - they were given fair warning. What is irking those who know this, is that investment should have been increasing year-on-year as the stadium debt was paid down, but this doesn't seem to have happened. Instead, the calibre of player recruited seems to be in decline. Fans pictured a self-sufficient Arsenal, debt free, and raking in massive profits from a 60,000 seater stadium, investing in the best stars and taking over the footballing world. So far, this has failed to materialise. That's frustrating. Alongside this, the deficiencies and stubborn nature of Wenger has started to come to the fore. In a situation where even a layman can see that the defense needs work, and specialise coaching, and various other aspects to the Arsenal game need attention, nothing seems to be being done. Inevitably, the cumulitive effect of all these issues, are to look long and hard at the Manager, and wonder if it is in fact he who is the problem.
My personal view is that Wenger needs help. Both with a defensive coach, and a right hand man on the board to negotiate transfers.
Aye...psychiatric help. The amount of times he has contradicted himself this summer, it seems like he's losing his mind. It's time the poor old sod was put out to grass.
How are you supposed to debate without a divide or difference of opinion? If everyone agreed, it would be a pretty terrible forum.
Awww, now I'm just confused! I can see we're going to have a wonderful blossoming relationship on here mr Piskie.
You were never one for commitment were you? It's all me me me me me. Why can't you take a share of the blame for once? There's two people in this relationship. Set your spirit free, it's the only way to be...Be a little bit wiser baby, put it on, put it on...'cause tonight is the night when 2 become 1
Given the massive amounts that teams like Chelsea, City, Utd, Barca, PSG, Madrid will pay for top talent, I'm not sure that the players we needed have been available to us.
We must also remember that we can only buy a player if the club want to sell their asset and the player wants to join us - key point to note is if the club want to sell. We've always done things the right way, AW has never deliberately set out to unsettle a player or destabilise his team like others have, the money no object brigade can clearly buy their way out of any situation including when breaking rules
