AW's 20 years with us. Your assessment?

[PSRB]

The achievements of the second half of his tenure, keeping us successful enough to keep the stadium full and the champions league money rolling in whilst having to make a profit on player sales, is probably even greater than the trophy-winning days.

The man should be treated like a God by anyone with any feeling for this club.

Great minds and all that........

[Sir C]

Harsh, I rather think his 2nd 10 years were actually better considering how the whole game changed around us (through no fault of AW) and he still has managed to keep us right up at the top. Dread to think what would have happened and where we'd be if he hadn't been Le Boss

Well said p.

[PotatoNoel]

Ultimately a career filled with what ifs. Even with the Invincibles, one of if not the best team ever to play in England, we only won 1 premier league title. We should have dominated European football for atleast 2-3 years. Then the last 10 years or so, that final in Paris, league cup defeats against Chelsea and Birmingham *shudders*.

That said, he has given us incredible moments. Not necessarily trophy wins, but still moments which never fail to make me smile when I think about them. Arshavin vs Barca, Welbeck vs Leicester, Thierry vs Man Utd.

I want him to leave and have done for some time now, but I can never bring myself to abuse the man. After the things he's done for Arsenal, despite all his shortcomings, he deserves better than to be called a ****.

[World's End Stella]

whilst having to make a profit on player sales

There is no evidence of this being true imo, Charles. In fact, I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that the stadium constrained his spending in the way many believe. It isn't true according to Danny Fiszman (RIP), it isn't true according to David Dein and it isn't true according to the financial statements I have read.

And you can still consider him to have performed at a high level even without it being true, I think. He was brilliant from 96-2005 and has been consistently good since then. And yes, all Arsenal supporters owe him a deep and profound sense of respect for what he has achieved.

[Sir C]

There is no evidence of this being true imo, Charles. In fact, I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that the stadium constrained his spending in the way many believe. It isn't true according to Danny Fiszman (RIP), it isn't true according to David Dein and it isn't true according to the financial statements I have read.

And you can still consider him to have performed at a high level even without it being true, I think. He was brilliant from 96-2005 and has been consistently good since then. And yes, all Arsenal supporters owe him a deep and profound sense of respect for what he has achieved.

Well, given that we didn't spend a great deal of money on players, and given that we regularly sold our best players, and given that this led to the club now being in a sound financial condition, I'd say you're probably incorrect.

[Luis Anaconda]

There is no evidence of this being true imo, Charles. In fact, I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that the stadium constrained his spending in the way many believe. It isn't true according to Danny Fiszman (RIP), it isn't true according to David Dein and it isn't true according to the financial statements I have read.

And you can still consider him to have performed at a high level even without it being true, I think. He was brilliant from 96-2005 and has been consistently good since then. And yes, all Arsenal supporters owe him a deep and profound sense of respect for what he has achieved.

Still banging on about that. You really do talk utter *******s, you know

[World's End Stella]

Well, given that we didn't spend a great deal of money on players, and given that we regularly sold our best players, and given that this led to the club now being in a sound financial condition, I'd say you're probably incorrect.

How do you know we didn't spend money on players because Wenger believed in the young players he had purchased and he didn't want to limit their opportunities? Or perhaps because he thought the market was temporarily inflated by Chelsea and City and that with FFP coming it might be wise to hold off?

Regularly sold our best players, because of the financial constraints of the stadium? I don't think we sold Fabrergas and Nasri because we had to financially, I think we sold them because they wanted to leave a team that wasn't winning trophies and they wanted to increase their salaries. But neither of us really know, do we?

[World's End Stella]

Still banging on about that. You really do talk utter *******s, you know

How about - and this will be a novel idea for you, I know - you present a counter argument rather than merely insulting someone who has a different opinion than you?

Or are there no valid opinions that you don't agree with?

[Pokster]

Still banging on about that. You really do talk utter *******s, you know

To be fair to WES (can't believe I am saying that), our report and accounts over that time showed we did have money to spend, and the fact we are a PLC and the board members said the same, if this wasn't the case the board were breaking a lot of Stock Exchange rules imo

[Sir C]

How do you know we didn't spend money on players because Wenger believed in the young players he had purchased and he didn't want to limit their opportunities? Or perhaps because he thought the market was temporarily inflated by Chelsea and City and that with FFP coming it might be wise to hold off?

Regularly sold our best players, because of the financial constraints of the stadium? I don't think we sold Fabrergas and Nasri because we had to financially, I think we sold them because they wanted to leave a team that wasn't winning trophies and they wanted to increase their salaries. But neither of us really know, do we?

Well, we know that by not spending a great deal of money, and that by cashing in on our best players, we have ended up in this situation, with a healthy financial position. If we had spent lots of money and hadn't sold our best players, we wouldn't be in this healthy financial position.

I can quite see how this complicated financial stuff is confusing, but look at it this way. If you have two pennies, and you spend them on sweets, tomorrow you will have no pennies but, and this is the crucial part, if you don't spend the two pennies, tomorrow you will have two pennies. And we currently have the two pennies.

Do you see?