The great thing about Arsene Wenger is you'll never catch him resorting to tired stereotypes

[Monty91]

“In Spain they are good passers with good technique, in Germany they have good mobility and efficient technique and in England they have a good fighting spirit. In Italy the emphasis is on defending well"

:-|

['Neg]

[Rich]

[Gunner Since Time Began - born to moan]

[Supermac1976]

[redgunamo]

Well done, the Veng :-|

['Neg]

[7evens]

He's slowly strangling the last vestiges of interest that I have in the game..

:yawn:

['Neg]

[barrybueno]

He even rips his own the SFC

[Classic Jorge]

Is that you, Claude?

[Monty91]

but I'm more more than happy to stick him out for another few years and see what he can do, given that he's hardly dragging the club down into the pits of mediocrity.

Surely it would be right and fair to give him that opportunity, given how long he had to work under such tight financial constraints. After all, the first season post-Emirates that he had proper money to spend, he won a trophy :shrug:

[7evens]

I mean .. Eighteen f**king years :hehe:

Is this a way to run a ballroom ?

[Classic Jorge]

[Monty91]

[redgunamo]

[7evens]

There's some currency in believing his true merits lie in building a squad of players on meagre resources. A kind of Dario Grady of the Prem..
There are limits of how effective someone can be at that age m.
It's no coincidence that most of us look to retire beyond 60...
You seem to advocating that we keep him until he's almost 70 ? which is pretty ridiculous in a competitive sporting environment at this level..

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

He chose to continue to manage us throughout those years when funds were not as freely available as now. No gun was held to his head as such. So we do not owe him anything in that respect, a chance to have a go now that there is money available.

The sole decision has to be whether the board think he is or was the correct man to see us through the next 3 years which they chose he was.

I don’t think the FA Cup win you allude to has done him any enormous favours with the supporters, or large elements of, who simply judge him on now, this season.

[Monty91]

then we have to assume age has't yet caught up with him.

And the most recent evidence we have to call upon is finishing 7 points off a club that has spent a billion pounds and winning a domestic cup.

I don't think any of us are in a position to judge him on anything else.

[Berni]

the jizz left in him to do anything more than he's doing now. Of course, the question of whether anyone else can do any better is academic until such time as someone else tries, but whatever happens, I'd like to see him leave with dignity.

[Monty91]

to the fans and to Wenger, to let him keep going for now.

In short, it would be unfair on the fans to risk a managerial change based on external pressure when we have a perfectly good manager already.

[Monty91]

Criticising him for having massive amounts of jizz but not enough to overhaul far richer clubs seems harsh.

[Berni]

The sole question is whether someone else can do better. If the board believes they can, they should appoint him. You can't just never change on the basis that it's risky. It's equally risky to let him retire and choose his successor a la Ferguson and Moyes.

[Rich]

[7evens]

Just look at how we've let games slip and struggled against average sides.
One can point at Liverpool or Spurs but only on the basis that they're just as poor with similar problems but is that really our yardstick ?
It's all gone a bit stale from where I'm sitting and crying out for change.

[Monty91]

an exit strategy.

Given this is likely to the case, I'm more than happy to let him get on with the excellent job he is doing :shrug:

Especially if a favoured successor is not yet available.

[Berni]

Eventually, he's going to come up dry and we'll fail to qualify for the CL or whatever and then the whole thing will go into freefall. Better to act now imo.

[Monty91]

and make a modest push for the top and even win another trophy .

[Monty91]

buy you know only has 3 years left before needing to be scrapped, there is not necessarily any harm in hanging onto it for those 3 years, especially if there's nothing more reliable on the market.

[7evens]

which is probably why everyone's filled with admiration by what's being achieved at Southampton, so far..
The injured will limp back, we'll find out rythmn and a run of results, just like last year and er , the one before that.

I'd just like someone else to have a go now.. :shrug:

[Berni]

to keep on the road until a time comes when you realise it's cost you more to keep it than it would have done had you replaced it in a timely manner. Then you end up getting rid of it in a hurry and getting a replacement quickly rather than at your leisure.

To be honest, I'm just delighted we're off jizz.

[7evens]

and are you that sure that a chap like Koeman (who I'll use for very obvious reasons ) couldn't come in and at the very least, prevent us falling into an abyss ?

[Monty91]

under Wenger? Is it the 17 top four finishes in a row? The trophy we won just six months ago? The fact we were two wins and a draw from a club that has spent a billion pounds?

Are you really basing that on a handful of games this season which has seen us, fall to the depths of, err, sixth?

If he has truly lost it as you suggest, why hasn't this manifested in us dropping down the league?

[7evens]

The club ( largely due to Wenger and a savvy board ) is fairly bombproof in this era. Too much invested and built for it to fall into a relegation battle..

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

right imo. I reckon a front wheel bearing's gone.