Wenger Referendum: Yes Or No

[I am invisible]

I'm prepared to cut him a little slack where our transfer business is concerned - Man U were going hard for a lot of CBs too and they also ended up with no one, so it could just have been a shit summer for decent CBs moving around? And it sounds like the lack of a defensive midfielder wasn't for lack of trying either - by all accounts, we went after several high-profile players (Bender, Khedira, Carvalho), as well as some more modest targets too (Rabiot), but it's difficult to know how straighforward / complex each of those talks were without having been involved, so I don't think it's right to go too overboard on that?

What I'm finding increasingly hard to defend, though, is things like the lack of shape and structure I keep seeing on the pitch, our lack of preparation and motivation going into games, the way it takes us an age to get our shit together whenever we suffer a setback, the way some players sit on the bench gathering dust while others are worked to breaking point, Yaya Sanogo, etc - certain things I might be willing to chalk up to the shortened pre-season, the fact that we've had more games than anyone else because of CL qualifiers, and a string of fairly tough games (Everton > Man City > Dortmund), but to be honest some of these things just happen way too frequently for them to be anything other than fundamental problems with our coaching and training...

[mr_brighterside]

the right man for when we had a mid table budget but he can't hide behind that now.

Needs to go imho. Difficulty is getting a replacement who is better. The spuds have shown the chelski manager merry go round approach doesn't work for everyone.

[fakeyank]

We're consistently exposed against sides of quality and even the lesser teams are able to really get stuck into us. There is no tactical nous, the team play like they've just been told to go out there and do their thing, they start every match like they're on auto-pilot and only seem to react when they've been caught cold. Why does he persist with such an ineffective style of play? We have a fair bit of pace now and Giroud is out of the picture, so why not mix things up. Square pegs in round holes everywhere hoping to replicate some sort of lite version of tiki-taka.

The problem is the man doesn't give a damn about we think, if anything the more we complain about something the more he'll turn a blind eye to it. He's too far gone and stuck in his ways, there's nothing progressive or innovative about what he's doing anymore, it's stale and there are a host of younger managers who have more going for them now. People say we couldn't have signed someone like Ozil without him which is true, but what good is that when he can't even extract the required quality out of him. That guy looks like an absolute shell of a player under Wenger's management, not too dissimilar to other previously highly rated players who have been and gone over the past 5-6 years.

Possibly one of the best posts on here and touches on the exact reason why I have wanted him gone for many seasons. It was NEVER about the money for me. It was about tactics, man management, formations, player roles which made me want him gone. Like someone on here said a few days back "Give him 250 million quid and all he will spend on is attacking midfielders"... couldnt have said it better!

[fakeyank]

the right man for when we had a mid table budget but he can't hide behind that now.

Needs to go imho. Difficulty is getting a replacement who is better. The spuds have shown the chelski manager merry go round approach doesn't work for everyone.

Just get Martinez. Pay the extra buck to Everton and bring that man here. He is a top class manager!

[Letters]

Difficulty is getting a replacement who is better.

Yes, that IS the difficulty.
We do need change. Some would say 'change, we need'. But we don't want to get into changing manager every 5 minutes and for all the rhetoric about Wenger's bumbling incompetence you don't finish top 4 every year by luck and we did just win the FA Cup. He's no Moyes.

[I am invisible]

I just hope the club has a decent list of candidates drawn up for when the moment does come (and have maybe even started sounding people out for the job)? Whatever else you might think about Wenger, you can't say that he hasn't given us long enough to plan for his eventual successor, and prepare for what happens next - if we end up with a total panic-appointment, then that one at least is not on him...

[Globalgunner]

Yes, that IS the difficulty. We do need change. Some would say 'change, we need'. But we don't want to get into changing manager every 5 minutes and for all the rhetoric about Wenger's bumbling incompetence you don't finish top 4 every year by luck and we did just win the FA Cup. He's no Moyes.

When all you do is finish 4th with the 4th highest budget in the league (and for a long time the 3rd, before City got minted). It is hard to award yourself the title of genius.

The man has achieved the minimum expected of any decent manager with his means. He is limited by his own incompetence and yearly accruing arrogance. He wont win the CL in another 20 attempts. Its just not within him, given the opportunity he will always find a way to handicap himself

[Letters]

I don't think anyone awards him the title of genius, but Moyes showed what a real incompetent can do - taking the reigning champions to 7th. And some on here thought he was worth a punt.
There may be better managers out there but I'd suggest there aren't many. There are plenty of worse ones.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't think this is something that can be done without caveats, especially considering it's an ephemeral topic....the only question i can give a yes or no response to is Am I happy with Wenger's management of the club? and the answer is unequivocally No.
Whether i want Wenger to go would be dependent on who we could bring in to replace him, the reason many of us including me are frustrated with him is because we have squandered the oportunity to push on from 4th place security to mounting a serious and sustained title challenge, and challenging on other fronts for major honours. We are tired of going into a season with one hand tied behind our back because we haven't strengthened in an area that glaringly needed strengthening in the transfer market. We are tired of his lack of tactical nous that sees us perenially come up short against the top sides when it matters.
However the board are playing a safety first game with Wenger, i doubt they are overly happy with him but they know he is the safe pair of hands when it comes to securing the revenue of a champions league place...no matter how dicey it's looked at times by hook or by crook he's never failed to finish lower than 4th and it's that consistency and stability he represents that makes his position rock solid.
I want us to do better than that, i am sick of Groundhog season....but i don't want him to go just for the sake of sacking him, i want him to go because we know we can secure the services of someone who will push on and not just find excuses for not going toe to toe with the Chelseas and Man City's of this world.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

So to sum it up unless there is someone who can be brought in who represents a positive move forward from Wenger than he stays for me.