I have one question about Wenger. What exactly makes him 'one of the best managers in the world'?

[Pat Vegas]

not stirring up but I hear this constantly.

Please elaborate why this is? because I can't see it.

Limited budget blah blah always secured CL football. But to be honest he's had some quality players over the years. Of course he was the man who signed them. He may have been up there with the top managers 10 years ago. But not now. I would like to see how he got on at other clubs to be honest. Would their boards be patient with him? As I said before he has a unique situation for not having the board on his back.

How would he manage all the egos say at Real Madrid?

Of course Arsenal fans are going to think he is one of the best but is he really? I don't think so. Anytime he usually faced up to other high quality managers they usually get the best of him.

[Ashberto]

I doubt you'll like it now.

AW might have had a bad two months at the office but have you wondered how many players Mourinho has developed into world-class players? And how many Arsene has?

[Mo Britain less Europe]

that on such a modest and humble site (with much to be modest and humble about) we should have cutting-edge football philosophers who know more about football than all the paid pundits, all the pros and ex-pros is.....overwhelming. I must go for a liedown.

[Pat Vegas]

and I've been saying this for a few years now.

[One Wilf Copping]

It's worth mentioning he was sacked by Monaco when they were about 17th or 18th in the table. They gradually regrouped and climbed up the table after he left, possibly even making the European places

If there was a MonacoWIMB back then, the comments would have been exactly the same as here over the last few years. Probably just with a few more gallic shrugs and better taste in trench coats.

At Monaco, Wenger went from being celebrated as a footballing Wunderkind with radical and progressive ideas on training, conditioning, importing players from the Ivory Coast and playing an attractive, fast-paced attacking game to... being constantly criticised for poor tactics, the opposition 'finding out' and countering their gameplan, stars not being replaced properly, as well as players apparently lacking discipline, motivation and fighting spirit. By the time he left the team looked a mess – very, very poor.

[Pat Vegas]

[Jake]

You're being awfully polite a, you know that.

[Rich]

were beating all that came before us.

The loss of probably our 4 most creative players has meant we have become less creative. Is that a surprise.

f**king football fans are so bloody thick that they can only remember the last couple of months.

The man is a fantastic manager and this club will certainly be worse off without him.

Some people's attitudes are pathetic. c**ts.

[Pat Vegas]

Strangely we can't put it together when it matters.

[Rich]

[Mo Britain less Europe]

encylcopaedic scouting system. He has won far fewer trophies than other managers (top or not) but he has never been in a club which is close to dominating its national league.

If he had left in 2005 all the Wenger Out brigade would still be weeping for him. His mistake was to stay and try and keep the team competitive during lean financial times, when everyone else had cottoned on to all the above and when billions of new money were pumped into the Premier League.

[Monty91]

finished above us for the past 17 years, almost exclusively, are far bigger, richer ones - some with wealth unparalleled in the history of football. This coinciding with a long period where we were financially restricted ourselves making his achievement even more remarkable.

[Pat Vegas]

Why doesn't Wenger address the areas that needed strengthening in the transfer window.

doesn't make sense to waste money on Ozil and have Giroud as the only striker. With a inexperienced teen as 2nd choice and having to use Bendtner :shrug:

[JohnnyPuma]

- he has won more trophies than any other Arsenal manager
-he has a better win percent than any Arsenal manager (except short-term ones)
- he has bought and promoted a huge number of great players to the first team
- other teams have finished outside the top 4, but not Arsenal (Liverpool several years, Chelsea, United this year and Spurs most years)
-he is not only concerned about the short-term results, but makes choices about what is beneficial to the club in the long-term.
-everything he did has been copied by others, which ironically has made it much harder for him to succeed.
- Performances in the 80s and 90s were uneven, now we are a top team.
- Often he has been proven right when everybody said he was wrong (the unbeaten season, Song, Ramsey f.ex)

He is not perfect, but he has proved me and countless others wrong before.

[The Tony]

Can u imagine Real rolling up to the Nou camp and getting an 8-2 battering.

Don't bother taking the flight home Arsene....

[Monty91]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8029106.stm

[Pat Vegas]

6 months.

[pjlincs]

[Monty91]

just throw unlimited money at a problem whenever one arises, see, amongst others, Tottenham Hotspur.

[redgunamo]

it is all about money, imo.

Spurs are just **** obviously.

[redgunamo]

It's as it should be.

['Neg]

[redgunamo]

I wouldn't wonder that the manager Himself were thrown by it too, in fact. After all, in football it's almost unheard of for a boss to still be responsible for decisions he made a decade ago.

[redgunamo]

what is scouting for?

[David Pleat AHADF (Royal Welsher and monkey lover)]

[Ashberto]

they're not doggies.

[Nicosia Gooner]

Here is another pub (Compton, Surrey) for your list, 16th century and I'll be there tomorrow for lunch

http://thewithiesinn.com/

[redgunamo]

come from FC Barcelona rather than Sainsbury's; I get my puppies from some of the top coursing kennels in the world, and not from www.battersea.org.uk

If it were about development, what difference would it make where they came from.


I know we shan't agree :-)

[:hehe:]

[:hehe:]

[David Pleat AHADF (Royal Welsher and monkey lover)]

Cheers

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Ashberto]

would still be lunch, but if half your first team were out, then there's a good chance that with one bound he'd be free, no?

Otherwise, where's the sport?

[David Pleat AHADF (Royal Welsher and monkey lover)]

Volunteering day at jelleots Hill.

['Neg]

I mean Nic.

And you.

[Nicosia Gooner]

time - btw, there volunteers everyday of the way including local companies and the biggest of those are Waitrose who also planted more than 150 new fruit trees.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/volunteers-turn- out-jealotts-hill-4205256 (http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/volunteers-turn-out-jealotts-hill-4205256)

[Nicosia Gooner]

[redgunamo]

The only disappointment regarding injuries is a lost opportunity to see one or two particular individuals do their stuff. Like going to Glyndebourne and finding that your favourite Bâ™* trumpeter is unavailable with a sore thumb that evening; not really enough to render the overall performance "****" or affect your enjoyment. Ideally, your pleasure ought to be actually enhanced by the discovery of a fresh talent, new favourites.

Your second question is rather like asking "Where is the art in music that hardly anyone wants to listen to." The "sport" (or "art") is in the activity itself, the social facility. At this most important level it actually has nothing to do with results at all; the real success in football is football itself.

Hence, Wenger out obviously.

[Ashberto]

listen to, if only they knew how good it was. I expect a lot of reserve team footballers feel the same but they only have to persuade a manager, and not a whole industry.

An orchestra might not be the best metaphor for Wengerball though, if the accusations are correct. Perhaps a bluesy jam or a trad jazz quartet would be closer. Either they sort it out amongst themselves or they don't.