Originally Posted by
Letters
As a stadium it's about a million times better than Highbury. It is soulless - partly because of the lack of history but that can only come about with time. Were the internet around a hundred years ago your great grandfather would probably be whining on it about Highbury and asking what was wrong with South London. The fact that we haven't had a title there is a factor, we haven't had a really successful side since we've been there, things like that create memories.
The fact is we had to do it. We've pondered for years whether Wenger could really compete these days, clearly he can't. I held out hope longer than most but whatever, we're on the same page about that now. But the next chap would be massively hindered in his attempts to do so were we still at Highbury. Every other top club has expanded, moved grounds or is looking to. The fact that we have a fanbase large enough to fill it is pretty much down to Wenger and the success and style of football in the early years. Our average home attendance in 1993/4 was around 30,000, and that year we finished 4th and won the CWC. It was only a few years after the last Graham title.
It's nowhere near good enough, given our resources. But you have to concede that those resources and the fanbase which generates them are in no small part down to Wenger.
It matters because it provides some historic context. We've always been a big club but not since the 1930s were we the best side in the country for a sustained period of time.
I'm not sure what you mean by "pitched up". We won the FA Cup in 1971, 1979 and 1993 before Wenger joined.
We've won it that many times in the previous 4 seasons and everyone is wailing and gnashing their teeth. But that's because our expectations have changed. That level of expectation comes in no small part from Wenger's early time with us. Before that we never had that expectation.
We've pretty much never been properly shite enough to get relegated - but we never had any expectations of a title challenge. Maybe a hope we would but those hopes were generally dashed pretty early in the season. And we were much more erratic. We nearly became "Invincibles" in 1991, two years later it was the height of boring boring Arsenal and while we did win both domestic cups that year our league form was such that at one point I genuinely believed we'd be dragged into a relegation scrap. Our last 27 league games our results were W6 D9 L12. We scored 40 goals in 42 league games. That season we clearly concentrated our efforts on the cups but these days that isn't acceptable, we expect to be competing on all fronts. We didn't expect that before Wenger.
I hope Wenger goes sooner rather than later. Every season - it's getting to the stage where it's every match - further damages his legacy and reputation. But I hope when he goes and the smoke clears people will remember the good times. My happiest memories of Arsenal are from his time with us, most people's are. Clough took Forest down in the end and I think he's still regarded as a Forest hero, all Wenger's done is failed to sustain the early success and is now not even able to maintain his record of keeping us in the top 4.
Like any manager he has strengths and weaknesses. Those strengths revolutionised us as a club and it revolutionised the game over here. It brought us a sack of trophies and a level and style of football I never thought I'd see Arsenal ascend to. Those weaknesses failed to make the most of one of the great squads in English club history - he never won the CL, he never retained a title. Other clubs have caught up and now surpassed us. But while top 4 shouldn't be the limit of our ambitions, keeping us in there, and the FA Cups, show Wenger hasn't got everything wrong. I just wish he'd gone at the end of last season, that was his last chance to be applauded out the door.
