"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
For me he deserved a shot at the thing with the new commercial monies. He had earned that imo. He bought two world class players but failed to build a good league team around them, as we have seen. He got three FA Cups, which some of us of a certain vintage can enjoy, but last summer was the time to step down. Now he has lost the goodwill of most of those that stuck with him over that tough decade, and he needs to see that.
He has finally united the fanbase.
Wenger - six 'ish years ago b?
greg mitchell was first out of the traps a good 10 years ago in calling the inevitable decline based on "Wenger's refusal to strengthen". I thought he was wrong because I still believed Wenger was capable of finding gold in a silver mine.
Something like that. I wouldn't claim any great perceptiveness in it. We could all feel the thing had drifted.
Calling for Wenger's head 10 years ago was crazy, though. We were financially constrained and yet in 2008 we could easily have won the league. I still believe that Eduardo doesn't get crippled and we win that season.
Last edited by Burney; 01-15-2018 at 10:51 AM.
A natural point for him to leave would have been 2014 after winning the FA Cup. I think all round it would have seemed right. As Ash points out, if any manager deserved the opportunity with the financial changes, it was Wenger. For him to choose to stay was not beyond the realms to lunacy. This, as it turns out, has not succeeded.
To be offered a contract by the board in the summer was sheer lunacy. For Wenger to sign was not. After all, he had failed, his reputation has taken a dent and it looks like he had no other Football options and he got a pay rise. To accept that was somewhat of a no brainer.
"Scoring a goal is better than sex" - Whoever said that was sticking it to the wrong woman
I think we underestimated the extent to which he actually enjoyed the years of having to get by on a shoestring. I think he took great pride in being able to achieve what he did with very little money. The problem is that, when he finally had money, he either didn't really know how to spend it or (and this is my suspicion) just didn't want to because that isn't how he liked to work.
I don't believe he had no other football options. I dunno if he even cares about the money. What does he spend it on?
"Every decision I take is taken in the interests of this football club" or words to that effect. Does he generally believe that no-one else could do a better job, or is he consciously bullsh1tting, I wonder?