Officially, from the man himself. It was brought up in an article in the Guardian today about Damien Comolli (who worked for Arsenal between 1996 & 2003) that in 2010 when asked about him Wenger replied: "I let you write what you want about Comolli. He was a scout here and not a director of football. He worked under Steve Rowley [the chief scout]. That is it. Only one person decides who comes in here and that is me. Nobody else." Now while that doesn't give an indication of whether Wenger is ever told "no" on a player due to funding issues etc; or how prudent he knows he has to be with players, it does show that he has final word on whether a player is recruited or not. It's not a revelation, but it's 100%.
I think this should stop all this nonsense about Wenger not being No1 at Arsenal. He is the main man, he decides who comes and goes. I mean, why wouldn't they give him 100% control. He has made Arsenal a ton of money while making them more and more profitable as years go by.....
So do you mean it was solely his decision to sell Fabregas and Nasri? Whilst it may be true he decides who comes in (within financial constraints) when it comes to who goes i'm not so sure. From his statements at the time that would seem unlikely. First he said they were going nowhere, then he backtracked saying..'you cannot convince the world you are serious contenders if you sell these players' and we all know what happened after that.
I don't think that this surprises me. It surprises me that Dalglish did not pick the players at Liverpool. My argument has never been that Wenger does not pick the players, it has always been that he doesn't set the budget. My support for Wenger has always been that we have no idea of what resources are available to him and we have even less idea of what hypothetically he could have achieved. We can speculate but the answer could range from, "He should have won every trophy every year", to, "It was impossible to win anything and he was a genius to finish in the top 4 each year". My support for Wenger is based a little like the quote from Under Siege, "Because if I goddamn can't control you, I might as well support you. Correct?" Interestingly, this links into the Moneyballs thread. The story is that JJ Henry went to his friend Billy Beane and wanted to encorporate his philosopy at Liverpool. Comolli was recomended as a student of the system. Not a condemnation of the Moneyballs system, but perhaps its applicability to football is not proven. My view on the whole thing is that baseball is a sport where players are very isolated, it is one of the least "Team" oriented sports out there. In a game where team plays a big part it is very difficult to rate players. We have had a lot of discussion here about the validity of statistics, and I think they do help in a limited way, but I am not surprised that basing an entire team acquisition strategy based on them resulted in failure.
Come on, just because he's Wenger the sun does not shine out of his @r$e. He chats $h1t like everyone else if it suits his agenda and he's been doing it more and more recently. But the guy is definately the head honcho when it comes to the Arsenal team. Anyone who doesn't think this is seriously delusional.... Wenger is one of the most respected and sought after managers in the world of football. If he walked out of Arsenal right now, Man City and Chelsea would sign him up by the end of today! Arsenal knows that if he leaves it would be hard to sign anyone up that would be close to Arsene's quality. I mean, look what he's brought to Arsenal, success (past) and fortunes (present). You're telling me they wouldn't do what he told them to do right now?
Taking the statement "Only one person decides who comes in here and that is me. Nobody else", said in the context of someone, refuting a junior scout, who was claiming to be "Director of Football" at Arsenal, and extrapolating it to Wenger saying that he makes every decision financial and otherwise at the club is very weak. Probably why you don't have any recourse other than to just restate your opinion more forceably. If you write it out, in my opinion, your argument isn't very good.
Don't be pedantic TT, you know what i mean. The guy is one of the highest rated managers in world of football and could walk into any job (available). They would bend over backwards to make sure he gets what he wants. His track record shows that he has brought both success and great financial fortunes to Arsenal. He is "DA MAN" as they say. Ultimately it was down to him not to buy anyone, as it would taint his "project".
I would agree that Wenger did not want to buy any midfielders, prior to Fabregas and Nasri leaving. I think he felt he could compete for the title, and I don't think that the way things have turned out this season, he would have been far wrong. I think the timing of Nasri and Fabregas going was critical, along wth Wilshere being out all season. It all comes down to the money. Should he have hedged against the decision to sell Fabregas and Nasri and stumped up for Mata etc, "Just in Case". Given an unlimited budget, the answer is absolutely yes. But Arsenal don't have Manchester City's budget. I think we have to put all that to bed. The question is who do we buy now? I think we need very little this window. If we already have Podolski, given the way the team is performing, and realising that we are not Chelsea, older is better for us, then I think we are pretty good. I am worried about Arteta and Rosicky ageing, so I would like an all round midfielder to come in, but we have a huge number of young players, and I am not certain that the hyped youngsters from other leagues and systems are the best way to go. If Ox is slated as a CM then perhaps he is enough. I think, given this year's debacle at full back, I would like an all-purpose full back who can play LB or RB to come in, but again, perhaps it is a young player, because they may never get a game.
