Completely agree, and to be fair quite a few Arsenal fans have wised up. New manager, new ideas, spend some decent money on top quality signing which Arsenal can actually attract. There is no excuse now.
Unfortunately Wenger is under no pressure to do anything. No fear of losing his job, means he can keep us in (relative) mediocrity while still pocketing a fat salary every year. Lost the ambition years ago. Why do you think we've been stuck on this merry go round of occassonal spectacular results, abysmal seasons, 4th place every season etc. No desire to go further than what we are.
We have, sadly the fans that are still backing Wenger continue to hold the club back, sadly the only thing I suspect that will get them to turn on Wenger is us finally finishing outside the top four.
Yeah, I cannot disagree with any of that. He reminds me of Bernie Eccleston in the F1 in some ways. Untouchable yet people think he's lost the plot and focuses purely on money (whether correct or not). But you cant move him without a massive show of opinion which makes him think he should stand down. The thing is you're still a good team and whilst that's stays people will always be afraid of change. Its a big call but the evidence is clear to see.
And that won't happen. You'll get 3rd and finish the season well and people will ignore the problem and be optimistic for the following year.
TBH I am a Wenger critic, but don't see how you can blame him, tonight it was clearly the players who didn't show up, and once AGAIN they have let the manager down, the man who puts so much faith in them. I guess the criticism you can level is that Wenger picks the players, but then again, beforehand, would anyone say that starting line up we had wasn't good enough to beat Monaco? Doubt it. The players let themselves, the club, and the fans down tonight with that horrendous cowardly performance.
Wenger said in the presser that we weren't mentally prepared enough. I don't even know what to say about that.
His fault you have to settle for playing Giroud or Welbeck upfront. His fault you have no defensive midfielder because he failed, yet again, to sign one. His fault you never replaced Vermaelen His fault you are playing players like Belerin and Chambers, who should be squad players at best for a team with title aspirations
TBH Wenger is not making excuses and in a way is totally laying into the players, saying they weren't using their brains and weren't acting rationally, even called out Giroud saying he had an off day. http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150225/wenger-on-defeat-defending-and-balance The man's obviously not happy, he's basically saying the players were dumb today, as most of us were. .
This has happened for too often for most of the blame to be put on the players. Of course the players deserve to be castigated as they didn't turn up on what was a massive night e.g. Mert, Kos, Ospina, Sanchez, Ozil etc but it has happened too often and for too many years for it to just be a coincidence.
As I said, having said that, those players still should have won the game. And technically Vermaelen has been replaced, we brought in Paulista. Tonight the players let him down by giving a pitiful performance, we mention Giroud-Welbeck, but Ozil was **** and useless too, and he's actual world class, so it can't all be Wenger's fault. Sometimes is the players.
Firstly in those ten years he's taken us to multiple finals (CL, FA Cup, League Cup) and also had a couple of years we were very close to winning the title. More importantly though this was while overseeing the move to a new stadium and the financial constraints that came with that. He's kept us in the top four throughout that time with a run to a cup final every couple of seasons, granted we didn't win one for a long time, but he did the job the club needed him to do during that period of change. It's only really the summer we signed Ozil that the financial restraints were properly lifted. That's when the new deals on sponsorship, naming rights, kits etc started to come into place and the stadium debt hit a more manageable level. Coupled with increased tv revenues this is when we entered the same markets as the other top teams rather than shopping in the category below or for youth. Each season or period of time has to be looked at as a whole and during the trophy less years he was doing a good job despite us not hitting the heights we wanted, he did what no other club have managed in his time managing us and stayed in the top four which was what we really needed to secure a sustainable future for the club. Since buying Ozil and the lifting of our financial restraints we have won the Fa Cup and Community Shield, have a better squad than we have in years and are still in with a good shout of retaining the FA Cup and improving our league position from last year. If we regress now and don't continue to show signs of improvement his position has to be questioned, but currently he could still produce a good season. He will be with us anyway until his contract runs out, but I'd say the rest of this season and next season we will see whether wenger is still capable or not. If by the end of next season we still only have the one fa cup and community shield and still only manage top four then he probably isn't going to challenge again for the league. By then he will have had three seasons since the financial landscape changed to show us what he can do with money available. And personally I do think it takes time to get things the way a manager wants them.
Oh the players aren't blameless, even the best managers send out awesome XI's that do not perform and get beat. But if your manager cannot get them stoked enough to turn up for a Champions League last 16 match.......
If you actually look at how we started, we started really good, and you were thinking how exactly are Monaco that good at defending? But then we just fell apart.
my god, he always says this kind of **** too ""We controlled the game quite well, with their first shot on goal they scored. Everything went for them tonight but you see why they did well in the group stage. They didn't weaken throughout but we did." You controlled the game? What exactly did you control? you got your asses kicked!! He says you controlled every game. Then maybe someone should tell him to control the players to score more goals than the opposition.
Fairs points, granted - but the cold bottom line is minimal trophies have been won in that period - looks at the other clubs who have won far/ or equal to the amount he has. He was supposedly under some constraints but I'm not convinced he spent the money that was available to him nor that he's only had decent money available recently. You get close, flaws are exposed, then they're not dealt with. The progression is minimal, and there is evidence to suggest in fact you're going the other way with Wenger. In regards your last point - if there is one thing Wenger has had - then it is time to get things how he wants them.
How did they score if you were in control? So you controlled them to score against you? You need a new controller. I know they scored against the run of play, but they scored in the 30th something minute, then you more or less capitulated. How is playing ok for 30 minutes, then completely collapsing controlling the game?
While I get the point your trying to make: 1) giroud averages out at a 20 goal a season striker for the last five years of his career. He brings a lot to the team and has actually been in very good form for us so far this season. He isn't world class, but he is a good option and a front three of Sanchez--Giroud--Walcott will get plenty of goals between them. We haven't struggled for goals this season we've leaked too many! Today though his finishing was woeful. 2) coquelin has been playing this role but I expect in summer we will get someone in. Coquelin has been getting a lot of plaudits for his performances in this role so it has been somewhat addressed, at least in the short term. 3) chambers and Paulista have been brought in to replace vermaelen. We now have more defenders than we did last season and vermaelen has spent the best part of his last two seasons with us out of form or injured. He's been injured a lot since leaving too. 4) bellerin and chambers are squad players for us, had debuchy not spent almost the whole season out I doubt we would have seen much of either other than in cup games. So while I understand what you're trying to say I have to disagree with most of the points you made
