Someone had the authority to appoint two senior positions over AW's head. Let's hope that someone can at least suggest to AW that he checks out a mirror sometime.
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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. :shrug:
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.
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?
I think it's complicated by the fact that he now knows that leaving Arsenal effectively means retiring. He's 70 next year. No big club is going to take him on in a full managerial role at his age. So if he goes, what's he going to? I don't think he has any other interests.
Yes, that is probably true. Changing one's modus operandi can be quite hard when the mind is set in stone. One can easily lose perspective. If it is his choice to operate this way, he should have gone. Our recruitment has been pretty ordinary and we have produced very little from the youth system. Not a good recipe for progress imo
Our mistake was thinking that, if he can turn lead into gold, how much better will he do when he gets gold to start with? Sadly, it doesn't work like that. Virtually every big money signing he's made tells me that he isn't great at handling big-money players who come to him as the finished article.
Well, quite. That is a common mistake. I've always said it's possible Wenger doesn't have an intuitive appreciation of this fact of life. On the other hand though, if He did, He almost certainly wouldn't still be with us.
Now, this is not meant in a bad way. All would be extremely happy for Him had He gone off and had a career winning European Cups at Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid, I'm sure, after all He's done for us. But He loves the club and wants to stay, so rather than spend Mourinho-money which would only get Him two or three years, He makes sure to stay within financial boundaries that ensure our board is always more than happy with Him.
I wonder with the ox’s emergence at Liverpool as something resembling a decent player will make other younger players think twice about staying at arsenal. When was the last young player Wenger actually improved? Hector seems to be going backwards and maitland-miles is getting his confidence dented every week because he’s played out of position
No, not that sort of corruption. But tainted, twisted, damaged. Broken. A of lack of honesty and humility. Where else would a manager at this level with three away wins in twelve declare that he would see out his contract, while the clown car explodes all around him?
We're still in the Buffalo Cup though.
Perhaps his (he has lost the 'right' to a capital H) bosses are accountable for doing sod all about his clearly exhausted management
Well said Ash
Comical wenger see no evil