Havn't really seen any talk about protests against manager / board this season. Do you all think its time we start these up for the rest of the season (at least in the premier league?) We STILL have never seen the entire stadium together against Wenger (maybe because it lacks class?) I still think the board will keep Wenger on for another season - which would be awful for everyone connected with the club. I feel we need to make a more firm statement that we want a change NOW. Or with us still in the Europa League, do you think protests are too negative/ uncalled for? thoughts?
I think the club need to be talking to Wenger now about replacing him this summer and then releasing a statement to this end. If they do that, then fans will get behind the team and the manager until the end of the season and try to give Wenger a decent send off. As things stand, people are just getting more and more angry with Wenger and eventually they will hound him out of the club in a **** storm. As frustrated as people are, no real fan really wants that for our club. My fear though is that the board do **** all, spin the same ****e in summer about being focused, mentally ready etc etc and we simply have yet another year of building anger and failing results. This is going to come to a head sooner or later, if the club are smart they will properly manage it, otherwise it's going to get ugly.
We are past the stage of anger and protests, what is now happening is something even worse, there is just an apathy towards the team and the club now, fans showed their true feeling last night by not bothering to turn up, the City end was full so let’s not use the weather as any sort of excuse.
Yep if you can come down from Manchester for a 7:45pm KO in the snow, then there's no excuse for not turning up. Maybe a half empty stadium will be the thing that the board finally take notice of, although I fear that with the money that comes in from TV and sponsorship, they might not even give a **** if fans are staying away.
Of course they don’t give a ****, do you think that ****er Stan even knows what the result was yesterday? The fact there are no protests or even real anger scares me because this club is just drifting now, we are sinking into a mid table club in front of our very eyes, the teams above us either have more money, better managers or both, how the hell are we going to bridge that gap in our current state? Also I fear the worse we get the more determined Wenger will be to prove everyone wrong, this guy is utterly deluded and stubborn as ****, he needs a tap on the shoulder but who is the guy that is going to confront him and tell him some home truths? My tiny hope is Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat along with Gazidis somehow put enough pressure on Wenger for him to walk away but Wenger could have a word with Stan and that ****er has the final say like he did last season and Wenger walked with a new two year comtract.
but I am asking SHOULD we start protesting NOW. Like seriously protesting, not just the 'time for change' cards that 1/10 of the stadium held up. I honestly think starting a unanimous chant during matches would do wonders; but it has to be the WHOLE stadium. Im for the protests at this point. It has to be us, the fans that gets Wenger out, as sad as that is. Forget respect, its time to mobilize and make our voices heard, even if it means hounding him out.
Kronke is a waste of space. He's just ****ing absent. But I think Gazidis is making moves behind the scenes to pave the way for a new manager and clearly the appointments of Mislintat and Sanllehi were his work. There were some barbed comments from Wenger about how Mislintat has to report to him and not Gazidis, which suggests there's a schism between those two. As for the rest of the board. They just exist in their own bubble and treat fans like ****. That AGM last year was a ****ing farce. With Chips Keswick patronising the AST and telling them to go and read the paper to find out what Kronke thought, as he couldn't even be bothered to show up for the meeting. Then when they had a Q&A with the fans, they shut it down when people started demanding answers to difficult questions. Bunch of ****ing shysters. As for Wenger, he's so entrenched in his belief that he can turn it around and as you say, he becomes more and more stubborn when he's criticised and just digs his heels in deeper. If Gazidis can't do it on his own, then I think we might need to see another board shake up maybe bringing Usmanov and Dien into the fold to get things moving.
I think he might go at the end of this season, if a suitable replacement can be found, that is to the board's liking. I think I am a pretty good weather-vane for the thinking at the club, and about as pro-Wenger as anyone these days, and I am now thinking he should leave, so you can take that on board, if it cheers you up.
I am hoping that we go for Ancelotti as he is available and wants to manage in the PL again, and in London He could do a restoration job for us to get rid of deadwood and sort out the defence and midfield - may only need 3 significant signings to do so. Sell Ospina, Chambers, Elnene, Xhaka, Welbeck, Santi, Get in decent CH decent AM decent DM And a long term replacement for GK
Don't actually think Elneny is too bad as a back up DM. Xhaka though needs to go. He's neither a DM, CM, AM or box to box player and just seems to offer nothing in games, other than sideways passing and giving the ball away. CB is an increasingly important area that needs addressing, as Kos is ageing and injury prone. And Santi is basically done, he's not coming back in any decent shape for us, especially at his age. I still think Cech is a decent keeper, but he's been horribly exposed recently. With a decent defence and DM in front of him, he'd be a lot better. A new manager should be able to organise, coach and get the best out of players like Bellerin, Monreal, Mustafi, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette, Aubameyang. They are quality players who are just rudderless atm. And for the players coming in I'd like to see players like Kostas Manolas at CB, William Carvalho at DM and somebody like Isco or Rafinha at ACM
I agree I don't think we need a big rebuild but the new manager will inherit some damn fine players to work with. But he will need to fix the ongoing issues. Any top manager like Anchelotti will be able to identify it. One thing I'm curious is how the new manager will do with the exact same players, especially the one's that we criticise the most. I think played like Xhaka and Elneny have got worse playing for us and other good players didn't have ample opportunities.
I would also bring Joel Campbell back from Betis and put him in the team. Like Perez he actually played pretty well for us when he was given a chance. I reckon if he was given a run in the team we'd see the best from him. This is obviously going to require a new manager to do this though .
Same here. I think we will see how much Wenger was in decline when the new guy comes in. I reckon we will get back into the top 4 if we have a good summer window. Preferably dump Spurs out in the process!
We'll see. It could take a while to get all the players to work to the new manager's philosophy, but some of the basic things like defensive positioning, tracking back with runners, showing them onto their weaker side and just the general overall effort and work rate, should be able to be improved almost immediately.
I think the players have got used to playing in the system and winning games without hardly trying. Wenger's system used to work so well, that the objective used to be to avoid making a mistake and the system would win the game. Tactics have moved on, and I think that teams (particularly that watched Leicester win the league), who can make the big teams are now vulnerable to teams set up to give up 60% or 70% possession and still win, particularly on pitches that are not set up for a fast passing game. At 68 Wenger is not going to be innovating anymore, and we need to change. Going to 3 at the back was a change in formation, but it didn't change the overall style of play. I was in favor of Anchelotti coming in, but I am now thinking he may be a bit old-school to be successful as well. Football is a sport where there are no hard and fast rules. Play the press too much and the long ball will beat you. Play a tiki-taka passing game and the other team just drop back and sit in a zone. There is always a counter, and you need to change with the times.
Not so. Barca tika-taka is at such a level (assuming that Messi alone is not the distorting factor) that 99% of the time it will prevail. However, although that is great to have/know, having some variation in your game for the 1% raises you up even higher. The problem with Wenger is that whatever regime he envisages he is playing, it is nowhere near the 99% effectiveness level of Barca, and he is too dogmatic to accept/change that in the face of obvious failure.
I don't think he is alone in that. I think the new tactics have left pretty much everyone else behind as well. Mourinho has no new ideas either, his rather dull system is fading as well. There is revolution going on in the game, Real Madrid are crap this year, Roma Lazio, and Inter are 15+ points of the top in Italy, No one is near PSG in France, or Bayern in Germany. It isn't so much that the top one or two clubs cant win, it is that the rest seem to be unable to win consistently. You need to be significantly better than a team to guarantee victory these days, in every league, and it is due to the success of defensive football. You can give up a lot of possession and still not give up chances. But this is going to be the status quo, until someone can find a reliable way to break down a team that is not going to attack except if they are on the break. Pep's strategy is to defend the halfway line and press the hell out of teams, so that they catch teams as they are trying to break, or play out of the back. The long ball has been frowned on so long, that teams are not going to it, but maybe the 442 is going to come back in fashion. Anyway, I will agree that Wenger isn't going to be the man to try it.
Completely agree with that. He's currently getting a free pass and a fan love in because he's surrounded by so much **** in central midfield and the only one who seems to vaguely care. But simply being not as bad as utter **** is not enough to make you good enough for Arsenal.
Totally disagree about Wilshere. He's Quality. Better than Ramsey that's for sure. Plus he plays with heart and will give his all for the Club. This is important in a era of mercenaries. I can think of 5-6 games this Season where Wilshere has carried this team.