Sometimes i wonder if we properly went out and got Higuain first time or Suarez from Liverpool that we would have won the league at least once. Add the money from winning the league, further advancements in the CL and merchandising, surely would have covered the costs and made a tidy profit? One thing that has been missing from our team since RVPs departure is a big goal scoring CF that is paramount to any successful Wenger team. The issue before was the solidity in the middle of the park, which we've sorted out. But the CF position still remains a constant issue. I really don't understand why they are so scared, the risk is minimal and worth it in the long run. For such a savvy financially sound management, their current strategy is short sighted.
If RM finish behind Barca again, exit the CL at the qf or sf stage, Real will move Zidane out the door. Is he a possibility?
It's funny but sad at the same time, the financial disparity has become mind boggling. How anyone can live on £14k a year in London is near impossible. We live in a crazy world where a man who kicks a ball earns more in one day than most earn over many years, living in the same country! Wenger earns 572x more than this guy!
Wow, talking about calling Wenger and the directors on it. Is this person going to become the "ground zero" for an 'Arsenal Spring' ??
Without a doubt we would have. Look at last Season. We created the most chances but came 4th in terms of goals scored. A TOP striker would totally transform this side. One of our biggest issues is that we often struggle to capitalise on our possession and end up pushing higher and higher up the pitch - this leaves us very open at the back. So I believe with a World class striker we would score more and concede less.
We just don't have the right CF that could make the most of Ozil and Sanchez. Henry and RVP would make a killing and the other two would benefit.
I wish we knew more about what really goes on at Arsenal. Were we even in the hunt for Higuain. Which strikers were really available to us and which ones did Wenger really turn down. So many of the years we didn't win anything were down to financial issues. Clearly you cant win the league while you are selling players like Cole, Nasri, RVP, Sagna and Toure. Arsenal, even now just can't afford to keep a 40M player until he is worthless. However we are starting to keep a few of the lesser valued players until they retire. I just don't know how you evaluate a manager with so little real information on the parameters of his job. Football is a game with a tremendous amount of luck involved in it. You just need to look at the FA cup every year and see the upsets. If you are trying to get rid of Wenger and hoping to get someone luckier, then you really are clutching at straws. My view is that Wenger finishing in the top 4 every year proves he is doing a good job. Not winning proves that he isn't lucky. For some reason we just get injuries, bad decisions and bad bounces. I think one of the websites did an analysis that if hitting the frame of the goal was a goal, Arsenal would have won the league last year. Another looked at acknowledged refereeing mistakes and determined that if referees had been perfect, we would have won also. I don't believe in conspiracy theories, so I just think that in the last few years we have just been plain unlucky. Despite what a lot of Arsenal fans think, it really isn't possible to completely buy your way to a title. You can buy your way to the top 4. After that you just need some luck, particularly with injuries. And for the last few years, since we stopped selling players, we just haven't had that luck, outside of the FA Cup.
For fear of starting something bad, I am reticent to say this, but feel I must. That post above......one of the biggest loads of bullshit I have ever read in my entire life Just saying. Arsenal haven't won the league because there have been better teams than Arsenal every season. And the reason for that is because Wenger/board, whoever, has not bought the personnel required to make Arsenal the best team in the PL, hence no title.
Well to some degree you are right. Wenger IS still a good manager (at least) you cant discount the fact we constantly finish Top four in arguably the toughest league in World Football. We play good football and he still comes up with some absolutely fantastic signings. But Wenger has a weird habit of doing there same things over and over again.. even if they are not working. The injuries for example are a symptom of Wenger's fitness requirements. He has always required the players to run a certain quantity of mileage in training on top of any strength and conditioning work. He uses this as a fitness barometer to check 'readiness' for games. Its an outdated modality and players with that are injury prone/have weaknesses will often break down when subjected to this protocol. Despite bringing in different medical and fitness staff its Wengers obsession with mileage that remains a constant. Top quote Raymond Verheijen (Wales Coach) on Ramsey and Wenger: "For the last 13 seasons, Arsenal has an injury on average every five days and that's unprecedented. That's probably the worst injury record in the whole of Europe. It is the responsibility of Wenger to sort this problem and he didn't fix it for 13 years. As the Arsenal injury pattern keeps repeating itself, it is a clear sign Arsene Wenger still has not discovered the underlying reason. Number one reason for not discovering a structural problem is denial. As long as Wenger keeps blaming external factors nothing will change." So I would agree with you that Wenger is still a good manager but unlike managers like Ferguson, Wenger seems unwilling to change and adapt and it's this stubborness that has stopped us from really competing for the last 10 years or so. He's slowing going from being progressive to old fashioned.
Maybe, but who was his compeition? Look at arguably the weakest Man Utd team to win the PL, the 2013 squad. RvP in his prime, an awesome goal scoring machine, maybe even the best in the world at the time. Rio and Vidic, the 2nd best PL defensive partnership of all time. The spine was there! Yes there was some gaps in Quality, but SAF had the knack of making the whole much greater than the sum of its parts, thats what SAF did, and why he was so successful. Now like who they were competing with in 2013. A City side full of mercenaries, mismanaged by Mancini An extremely unbalanced Chelsea team, ran by a fat Spanish waiter. And Arsenal.....who sold their best player to United and didn't replace him. Arsene is no SAF.
To think that football is predictable and the squad strength inevitably translates into winning trophies is very, very naive. Luck and random chains of events play a huge role. Otherwise we would be all millionaires just by betting on the right team. A strong squad is just an opportunity to get a bit lucky. These days we see a lot of football analysis and pseudo-scientific stuff that is worth nothing and is just a way for media pundits to make money. They often look clever and knowledgeable feeding us their BS, but still they are unable to predict the next match never mind anything more long term. So overanalysing football is a modern disease spread by the media, whereas in most cases the answer is simple: the ball is round and no one knows ****. Even those "experts" who look like they really know what they are talking about then go to Spain to manage a team and **** up big time. Never mind last season most "experts" predicted Chelsea would win it and Leicester would get relegated.
No one is debating that. But the suggestion that Arsenal have been the best team in the league for all these years and the only reason you haven't won it is down to being unlucky is ludicrious. There were serious lapses of quality in your squad that your manager failed to address, year after year. Everyone knew this. Hopefully, for your sake, he has sorted that this year. Then there are the injuries, the constant, never ending stream of injuries your squad seems to get. Wenger's inability to see a game out and claim the win when he knows his usual tactics will not work against that opponent (The only time in recent history I can remember Arsenal doing that is against City at the Etihad, either last season or the one before, I forget), his bizarre 75th minute substitutions, his complete lack of passion or spark when sat on the touch line during games, his dejected, borish interviews post loss about mental strength and how you "controlled the game" yet still lost.
While I understand the point you are trying to make, I do disagree. I think everything you have stated is highly true on any given sunday (to quote a great movie) but over the course of a 38 game season quality invariably wins out. In any given game the result is open to decisions, errors and freak occurrences so any result is possible but when it happens consistently over a season of many games then that is very different. I use a similar example as i play a lot of poker where luck is a far greater factor than in football - I think any given day you play be it cash or a tournament you invariably need luck to win but over a consistent period of time the player with the better skill does wind up winning in the long run.
I used to play poker for years (incl Bellagio and Aria ) and obviously will not argue with what you trying to say. Problem is football has much more variables than poker and you need a bigger gap in quality to translate it into evident long term success. You need Barca/Real against smaller teams situation. In the Premier League the gap is smaller, so luck plays bigger role. I still believe Arsenal could easily win one or two titles in the last 10 years were we just a bit more lucky. I can not say that about my poker though
