Firstly, I am not an Arsenal fan but find myself both saddened and annoyed by the personal character sleights by all sections of the media towards Arsene Wenger. Here is a man who has exhibited extreme loyalty to Arsenal, when more lucrative and challenges and opportunities have been presented to him.
A man who is the most successful manager in Arsenal history, who led a team throughout a full season unbeaten, a feat that eluded Shankley, Clough, Chapman, Revie, Paisley, Ferguson and even the special one. It is worth remembering that Alex Ferguson didn’t win a trophy for 4 years and that Shankley went 7 years without silverware and Clough went 9 years.
Do Arsenal fans remember the style of play under George Graham, successful yes but Wenger has been successful and attractive. As Johan Cryuff says “Football is a simple game but the hard part is to play simple”. Arsenal made a business decision to build a new stadium to compete financially in the long term with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid.
A decision which placed Arsene Wenger in a financial straitjacket with regards to team building. Unlike certain managers who would have upped sticks and left, Wenger accepted the situation and adjusted his requirements accordingly placing greater emphasis on Arsenal’s youth academy and the purchase of younger players who in time would develop into better players.
The financial straitjacket was further tightened with the purchase of Chelsea by Roman Abramovich and Man City by Sheikh Mansoor. Prior to the purchase of Chelsea by Abramovich Arsenal had never finished lower then 2nd in a full season under Arsene Wenger.
He was lauded as a tactical genius, a shrewd innovator and clever in the transfer in the market, remember that he purchased Nicolas Anelka for 1/2 million pounds from PSG and sold him to Real Madrid for £23.5 million. Fast-forward to 2013 he is now referred to as a Dictator, a coaching non-entity, a tactical flop and yet Arsenal have never started a season under his stewardship in a position to NOT compete for the 4 biggest honours in domestic and European football.
In the current climate of social media and the WE WANT IT NOW mentality Arsene Wenger is a shining beacon of calmness, intergity and loyalty and when the dust finally settles on his time at Arsenal, I have no doubt that the last laugh will reside with him.
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I agree with all of that, with the young lad’s coming through and just signed long contracts and now he has the money to buy 4 or 5 top players and Arsenal will be the team to beat.
Here here finally some sanity amongst all the madness! Well written!
I completely agree. I can understand why people would say some if the negative things they say from a short sighted and perhaps in informed point of view. But that’s exactly what it is, short sighted and uninformed. To think that some other manager would come in and some how ‘bully’ the board (who quite clearly have a clear and certain vision for the club) in to spending 50-60 mil every year is ludicrous. Wenger would have known what the plan was, was also probably part of making that plan and has done unbelievably well given the financial restrictions this plan entails. My view is that there is only one man in the world who could have kept the club competitive over the last 8 years and that is Arsene Wenger. Ok we didn’t win any thing but we have stayed competitive. Would you rather be leeds or liverpool? The fact is Arsenal never really buy ‘megastars’ or ‘big names’ but we seem to sell 1 or 2 of them each year. Isn’t that wierd? No not really, it tells you that Arsene consistently develops players in to the ‘top’ players we all crave. So my view is that signing players like podolski, giroud, arteta etc ie player of 25-27 years. And signing Walcott in his last year instead of selling him. And signing up all the young British boys we have, this signals a change in policy which we see us keep our top players and ‘build on’ a squad rather than ‘re-building’ a squad each year. My prediction is that we will do more than compete in the next few years and Wenger will be hailed as the Genius he is. Simply, Arsenal.
At last, a perfect testament to the best manager Arsenal have ever had. The noisy minority make themselves sound like idiots. If they find it so bad, go somewhere else. They would soon be back I am sure. Hopefully they will have the good grace to admit how wrong they were.
? are you blind.. we make the same mistakes every week.. how many good players have wasted careers under Arsene because he plays them out of their proper positions trying to fit them into a system that doesn’t work? I’m worried for Podolski..
shut the fuck up idiot!!
Why I totally disagree:
There are some people that are blind followers, who would forever miss the wood for the trees. Even after eight years watching the same mistakes reoccurring will still give the impression all is well.
For 8 seasons Arsenal have faltered at the same hurdle and still it’s not yet addressed. Poor defence, a lack of quality, and a lack of tactical know how has been Arsenal’s weakness. In this PL any team with a weak defence will be hammered in the big games. Wenger has been guilty of getting rid of weak defenders, but only to replacing them with a similar. 8 seasons on we achieve the same result. Why? Is that an accident?
What has saved Arsene’s bacon is his early results. But for any other team, the Directors would have brought him in after two seasons and tell him to fix the defence or you are down the road.
Giving Wenger more money without highlighting first where needs strengthening is a remedy for disaster. Wenger should first be addressing the problem with the coaching and stop acting as a know it all. He is standing in the way of our team’s progress.
Now every manager knows Arsene’s Arsenal weaknesses and aims to exploit it.
Arsenal/Arsene’s problem is much more than just money being available but tactics, determination and mentality. Wenger just rly has to change his policy to save his alws declining status!
Do u attribute loosing to the likes of Blackburn N Bradford in d FA N C-ONE cups respectively due to lack of money or quality players? Hw abt feeding a 2nd/youth team against Chelsea’s 1st team in the Carling Cup Final few season ago, was that due to money also? His aim going into every season is to finish 4th place in epl N for a club of Arsenal’s status, datz just nt good enough. Wenger need to aim higher than 4th place N take domstic cups serious, only then can his players also show genuine seriousness on pitch. Dear Arsene, everything is not all about money becouse you can’t achieve greatness when the mentality you’ve instilled into ur players reads, “Just give me the 4th place and i’ll be happy”!!!!!!!
Nicely put. As a supporter for 43 years I have seen ups and downs and I think the hysterical reaction driven by social media is terrible. We are 5th and considering the run in’s us Chelski and Spuds have, we can quite easily take 4th or even 3rd.
As someone who stood on the North Bank through the 70’s and 80’s it saddens me greatly to hear our fans booing the team. The crowd is supposed to drive the team on regardless.
AW is past his sell-by date. His social wage structure is a disasterous economic crusade because journeymen stays while stars are leaving so you get poor output from the third most expensive wage bill in the league. Kroenke is an empire builder with mediocre teams in his portfolio. Stars generates shirt sales, no proven world class player in the team anymore, Fab, RvP gone.
Wenger shd have gone a long time ago.He is deluded if he thinks his current philiosophy will work if he were to spend on the top players.
Defensively he is very poor. He doesn’t want to get the quality players who will make a difference., Tactically he has been found out and refuses to change.At any top team the manager will be flexible enough to know wich areas need improvement.
The defnce has been a shambles .
The question of patience doesn’t arise.He has been given so much time he has abused it.