I have never been jealous of other teams before but I increasingly get jealous of the British teams doing well and better than us especially in Europe. Maybe it just in our designs we will never be a force in Europe like other British clubs. Why have we never been good enough? Since we have been in Europe we have seen Manchester United win it twice been to three finals ,Liverpool win it once and going all the way to the final the following season, Chelsea being in two finals winning it once and winning the Europa Cup final. Us one final and one Europa Cup winning none have not looked close or good enough to get to a final since. What can our problem be in Europe?
Since I started supporting Arsenal we've won two European trophies and appeared in four losing finals
No one cares about your antique super cups The last 10 years we've never really had a squad to win the champs league. The only disappointment with the invincibles was that they never did more in Europe
Jadot, we will win it sooner or later trust me. Unfortunately we won't win it with Wenger, but thanks to him, he has made Arsenal an even more powerful force in world football. We have all the appropriate foundations to succeed in Europe. All we now need is the right man at the helm. It's just sad that it won't be Wenger, especially after all the wonderful work he's put in.
Criminal that we didn't win it in 2004...we should never have lost to Chelsea at home. We would have walked the semi and final that year.
It seems to me that in order to win the league, you have to aim to aim win teh Champions League. What I mean by that is that if you build with a th efocus on teh Champions League, you will do well (usually) in teh league too. Notrice how Liverpool were strong in the league when they won/challenged for Champions League. SAF had a near obsession about being serious contenders in europe, and teh setting of those standards paid dividends in teh league. The reson for is simple I think - all the top contenders in ENgland aim to do well in the Champions LEague. We aim to qulaify to CL, and try our luck in Europe.
**** Chelsea I bet they ****ing win it now, out of nowhere too win it twice! Yes they have spent money but when you break it down, it only Torres and the Russian can't spell he's name(AS) they really spent mad money on most have been £20+m players while we have spent £7+m on player averagely till Ozil
The manager. That squad was full of characters and ego's so Wengers nervous disposition didnt effect them too much but it certainly didnt help. With the later squads this has caused us problems bigger problems. He's not exactly a 'fighter' is he? The man makes me nervous just watching him. Much as I love Wenger I've always thought the big issue is that he simply is'nt an alpha male. It sounds silly but when you look at Ferguson or Klopp they stand by the bench like a general while Wenger sits in the dugout chewing his nails. Mourinho demands his teams win or someone is going to pay for it.. Ferguson treats every big game like a battle to the death. Any athlete needs positive reinforcement.
Wenger's too reliant on Plan A and doesn’t counter the opposition. You can do that against a lot of sides if you're a very good team, but probably not all of them. It's no coincidence that the likes of Mourinho and Benitez are consistently successful in Europe. They take great pains to study every club they face and do whatever it takes to get through each round. They don't give a crap if they have to be ultra - negative as long as they progress. Wenger not only wants to win, but to do it playing in his own style. It's admirable, in a way, but it reduces the chances of success when you repeatedly face the best sides.
I dont really have a problem with this to be honest. I like Wenger's footballing philosophy. If you look at the best Barca sides or Brazil 1970 they were the same way. My issues is that we are soo fragile.. mentally and this does come from the manager. The only way Wenger could counter this would be to bring in players with ALOT of self confidence like Ibra.
I can think of several reasons he might do that, and still not be "wrong". Rather than just plowing the same old furrow, do you perhaps think that maybe there could be a reason why an experienced manager might try to focus a set of players on playing their game instead of worrying about what the opposition are doing? This is becoming a bit of a cliché now, and although there are undoubtedly negative consequences to it, when it does work, we keep it simple and defensively we concentrate on just doing what we want to do right, we often win. In those games we lost, I'm not sure that giving them more freedom is the way to go. Just remember, if we do things "The same" as Mourinho and Chelsea, we are likely to lose every time. They have more resources, a deeper squad and better players. Everybody has to get out of the mind-set that doing things the same as Chelsea is going to get us somewhere.
I missed the Fairs cup (I was only 4) but I remember all the rest. Remember Paul Vaessens goal inTurin?
