Winter Transfer Despair and Bafflement.

[selassie]

Calm down, calm down. That's not me saying we can't afford to risk a change of management. That's me saying we can't just pick anyone and give someone their first job. If we finish outside of the Top 4 again and then appoint a manager that has no draw and has players around the world questioning our ambition, we're going to be in serious trouble. We're not Barca or Madrid. We can't spend our way out of trouble and we don't have enough talented players here to just hand the job to someone and expect them to do a Pep or Zidane.

Edit - We don't have a decent squad. Not now and not by the time Wenger leaves.

We need Ancellotti or someone of his ilk to steady the ship and rebuild the squad...whoever comes in needs to bring in young talented players though, not projects, players who have genuine star quality.

Make no mistake, whoever takes up the post after Wenger leaves has a helluva job on their hands, the lack of quality in the squad is evident but the whole mentality of this football team needs changing, the new guy needs to demand and set a standard that "winning IS EVERYTHING".

We need to rid of Wenger's "loser/anything goes mentality"

[Cripps]

I don't agree with this idea that absolutely anyone can come in and do a better job. We should be going for a young and ambitious manager I agree, but that should mean someone in the ilk of Jardim.

We need someone with charisma and proven experience. Someone that captures the imagination of the players so that they adhere to him. Look at how the Utd players reacted to Moyes; they dismissed him and undermined him. He wasn't able to motivate them.

If we go for a completely left wing appointment like Arteta I'd be seriously worried. The completely left wing / risky candidate should be someone like Howe; someone that has experience of management and has some sort of pedigree. Not Arteta.

[Power n Glory]

We have a better squad than Wenger makes them look. A new coach might, for example, work with defenders on defending. Or work with midfielders on how not to pretend to be strikers. Or work with wide players on how to go forwards instead of backwards. Many possibilities.

Our reputation? Alexis and Ozil are clawing the door with bloody fingernails trying to get out. The club is either being laughed at or pitied.

Our ambition? We could scoop a turd out of the bowl and smear it across the dugout and it would show more ambition than letting a senile old goat see out his days because he once knew what he was doing.

That's as it stands. What about next year once we've lost Alexis and Ozil and whoever else? What about when we're left with Wilshere, Welbeck and Iwobi? Not a chance!

The next manager has to be someone that can inspire some sort of hope and someone that can get us back on track quickly.

[Cripps]

That's as it stands. What about next year once we've lost Alexis and Ozil and whoever else? What about when we're left with Wilshere, Welbeck and Iwobi? Not a chance!

The next manager has to be someone that can inspire some sort of hope and someone that can get us back on track quickly.

Exactly. We've got a raft of players leaving over the next 2 years. It's a critical phase. An Arteta coming in would be the final bullet.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

That's as it stands. What about next year once we've lost Alexis and Ozil and whoever else? What about when we're left with Wilshere, Welbeck and Iwobi? Not a chance!

The next manager has to be someone that can inspire some sort of hope and someone that can get us back on track quickly.

I don’t think there is a single player at this club who wouldn’t be a lot better under a new coaching regime

I don’t think the issue is so much whether Arteta would be a great risk free option. But we are getting to the point where Wenger is such a barrier to positive progress that the risk of appointing someone like Arteta over keeping Wenger is basically negligible.

I’d prefer someone with more reputation, but with reputation comes ego and what we need is someone who will work with a whole new team rather than someone who holds onto too many of the reigns himself. I agree with Vieira that someone like Jardim would be the kind of guy we should go for (or failing that Unai Emery who has fallen out of favour at PSG) or maybe if nothing else we could entice someone like Arteta to understudy an older head to take over in a few years.

[Power n Glory]

We need Ancellotti or someone of his ilk to steady the ship and rebuild the squad...whoever comes in needs to bring in young talented players though, not projects, players who have genuine star quality.

Make no mistake, whoever takes up the post after Wenger leaves has a helluva job on their hands, the lack of quality in the squad is evident but the whole mentality of this football team needs changing, the new guy needs to demand and set a standard that "winning IS EVERYTHING".

We need to rid of Wenger's "loser/anything goes mentality"

For sure. Unless word circulates that Arteta is an absolute beast behind the scenes, I just can’t see this being a good move. I heard he was one of the players everyone respected when he was our captain but his presence wasn’t enough where they were shit scared to put a foot wrong around him. As captain he didn’t command that sort of authority and coming back to Arsenal so quickly after leaving and for his first main job….nah.

[Niall_Quinn]

I don’t think there is a single player at this club who wouldn’t be a lot better under a new coaching regime

I don’t think the issue is so much whether Arteta would be a great risk free option. But we are getting to the point where Wenger is such a barrier to positive progress that the risk of appointing someone like Arteta over keeping Wenger is basically negligible.

I’d prefer someone with more reputation, but with reputation comes ego and what we need is someone who will work with a whole new team rather than someone who holds onto too many of the reigns himself. I agree with Vieira that someone like Jardim would be the kind of guy we should go for (or failing that Unai Emery who has fallen out of favour at PSG) or maybe if nothing else we could entice someone like Arteta to understudy an older head to take over in a few years.

That's right, the ego thing could be a big problem. What we don't want post-Wenger is another my-way or nothing type character. The club will have to go through big changes. The manager's role will need to be downscaled. All of those responsibilities that Wenger grabbed and wouldn't let go of need to be reassigned to the proper people within the club. We're going to need a flexible person in such an environment. Our next manager could quite easily be a stopgap or a short-term appointment while all the transitions are made. Wenger has pretty much assured that this season and next are write-offs in terms of us competing for serious honours. So we should be using the dead time to get ready for 2019. Instead we have the old goat dragging the mediocrity out. Wasting valuable time, setting us back another year at least, probably two because a new guy will need time. Madness. Get him out and get somebody else in. If we can't arrange a big name in time then get anyone in. I'd lay a bet with anyone who wants to take it, no matter who we brought in they'd instantly improve this team, squad and our prospects. Of course they would. How could they not? They'd literally have to engage in sabotage to do a worse job.

[Niall_Quinn]

For sure. Unless word circulates that Arteta is an absolute beast behind the scenes, I just can’t see this being a good move. I heard he was one of the players everyone respected when he was our captain but his presence wasn’t enough where they were shit scared to put a foot wrong around him. As captain he didn’t command that sort of authority and coming back to Arsenal so quickly after leaving and for his first main job….nah.

We're talking theoretical - this was an article from the Daily Star. So it won't be happening. But I'd have no problems whatsoever if it did. I'd be leaping for joy and looking forward to watching the next match.

[Globalgunner]

In reality we can do better than Arteta to replace Wenger, Luis Enrique and Ancelotti are available right now, and if only Wenger was pointedly shown the door at the end of this season, many more managers would make themselves available. Its just a mark of how desperate some of us feel that literally anyone would make us instantly better, simply because of Wengers continual barmy methods and totally insular behavior, another day of his stay is a day we slide further behind in the other clubs. If Steve Bould took over 2mrw we would see our prospects of finishing in the top 4 double in potential. As it is, we are in a race with Pool, Spuds for 4th, which i doubt we will win.

[Cripps]

That's right, the ego thing could be a big problem. What we don't want post-Wenger is another my-way or nothing type character. The club will have to go through big changes. The manager's role will need to be downscaled. All of those responsibilities that Wenger grabbed and wouldn't let go of need to be reassigned to the proper people within the club. We're going to need a flexible person in such an environment. Our next manager could quite easily be a stopgap or a short-term appointment while all the transitions are made. Wenger has pretty much assured that this season and next are write-offs in terms of us competing for serious honours. So we should be using the dead time to get ready for 2019. Instead we have the old goat dragging the mediocrity out. Wasting valuable time, setting us back another year at least, probably two because a new guy will need time. Madness. Get him out and get somebody else in. If we can't arrange a big name in time then get anyone in. I'd lay a bet with anyone who wants to take it, no matter who we brought in they'd instantly improve this team, squad and our prospects. Of course they would. How could they not? They'd literally have to engage in sabotage to do a worse job.

I think behind the scenes we are preparing for Wengers departure. We've hired a director of football albeit given him a different title... that in itself is huge! It's a massive sign that Gazidis is preparing for the old goats departure and ultimately much different to Ferguson's departure for example, where he practically announced it out the blue and they hadn't prepared. They're still seeing the ramifications to this day.

So I don't think there's a need for a stop gap. We can go for a top coach and reduce the responsibility of the new guy coming in. In fact aside from Wenger I can't think of another manager in Europe that operates like he does. He's the last of a dying breed. The likes of Jardim, Allegri etc are happy to work as head coach. There's no need for an Arteta.