Rival Watch™ 2013/2014

If your eyes are open then you really should visit the optician soon. Having topped the league you are now in serious danger of not finishing in the top 4 - the alarm bells are ringing and your resources to respond are diminishing!

Nobody is doubting that your club is stable but is that enough? The good players that you do have must be looking at their own futures and wondering why they should continue to play for a club that always fails to hit the hights - an FA Cup will only be a very small plaster. How large does the number of Gooners wanting Wenger out have to be before you finally accept that he is leading you nowhere. People are openly questioning if Moyes is the right man to spend big over the Summer at United, exactly the same questions can be asked of Wenger. So, if you are happy to continue being the all hat and no cattle club then keep Wenger but don't moan at what happens if you do.

 

The celebrations will be orgasmic, prepare to change the channel if we win the fa cup

 

Replacing a manager is a process and I don't think any of the targets myself and many other fans would want will be available is summer. It's also a World Cup summer and nearing the end of wengers career. Don't see the problem with giving him a last hurrah for a couple of seasons while we work on his replacement.

 

Come on, who wouldn't parade the prestigious Emirates cup?

Maybe you'll get an invite one year

 

I doubt that your board will see it the same way when players agents start making noises about their players wanting out and 'targets' agents become less and less available.

 

We've got better offers thank you.

 

Given when ozil signed he cited wenger as a reason for coming to us I don't think we need to worry about players turning down the chance to come to our club because of him being manager. Lots of players would love to play for him.

Currently doesn't seem to be unrest amongst the team like in previous years either so I'm not concerned that having wenger as our manager is going to negatively effect our players or make it more difficult to sign players. Think particularly the idea he will stop us being able to sign players is far fetched.

On the contrary I think a few of our key players are only at the club because of wenger and when he goes we may need to find a few player replacements as well.

 

Like playing Tranmere

 

As long as your happy. We are more than happy for your club to carry on present path. Makes life easier for us.

 

Even in the latter half of wengers reign he has kept us consistently ahead of Liverpool and I won't be too disappointed at you guys finishing ahead of us this one time, but even with wenger at the helm I think we'll be back up above you next season

 

You can hope but that's all you've got!

 

Including this season it'll be Liverpool above Arsenal 4 seasons & Arsenal above Liverpool 5 seasons since 2005, is it really that consistent? Especially considering all our ownership problems between 2009-11 plus the recovery from those problems in the years after.

 

Well 5 of 8 is over 50% and one of the three you finished above us by 2 goal difference. Maybe not quite as consistent as I had thought but he still has the better of Liverpool in that period. Then add the 8 previous years and he has finished above Liverpool in 13 of 16 seasons. So liverpool have only managed twice to actually get more points in the league than arsenal in all wengers time at the club.

Adding this season won't sway things too far back your way

But point taken good sir.

 

Very simplified version of events from you there, if you take into account Arsenal never almost went bankrupt, were involved in a power struggle for ownership that was fought on both sides of the atlantic, were given a manager not wanted and not up to the job(Woy) etc its easy to see Arsenal's stability would stay constant whereas we've had to start from scratch.

Wenger's successful early years are a million miles away from the present and his determination to do a Fergie and bring through a team of players reared by him has cost Arsenal dearly in recent years, the stubborn old ****er only cares about what he wants no matter how long it takes to achieve, I remember the disrespect he showed towards LFC after we won the CL when he called us "a good cup team", well what goes around comes around.

 

Yeh I take the point about your clubs difficulties in this time.

For the second paragraph though I think it was the clubs decision to take the approach we have since our stadium move as opposed to some sort of stubbornness from wenger. The financial restrictions on us meant it was a good idea to focus on youth, unfortunately at the same time Chelsea and city came onto the scene and we didn't quite get the success we could have. Thank god we are finally past the effect of moving stadiums!

 

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Did you worry about this for the last many years about your own club?
Dave, answer me a question. If Arsenal win the FA Cup and Liverpool get the top four trophy who has done better?

 

I had to add this season in to make your point look a little less valid I think Wenger is doing well to get into the top 4 on his budget, but its got to be worrying from your point of view that the same failings seem to come up every season where you just get dismantled in bigger games against the best sides. I do laugh at your fans thinking he has 100m+ to spend but is just deciding not to spend it though, like any manager would decide he doesn't want to spend and compete??

 

We would because we haven't had CL football for 4 years. But if we had been in the CL for 16 years straight and hadn't won a trophy for 8 years then FA Cup would be a better option.

Which is more important is relative to recent success. If a team has won 4 FA cup in 5 years but never been in CL they would happily forfeit it for CL football.

 

We've been down this route Diego and been told by supporters of many clubs that domestic silverware takes 2nd p!ace to CL qualification, now you're reversing the trend because it looks like we might qualify.