Originally Posted by
HCZ
My point is the difference between saying Tony Adams worked with Ashley Cole to make him the defender he is
And Wenger couldn’t develop a player to save his life
The point I’ve continuously tried to make, is that the claim made by Lee Dixon wouldn’t have been considered controversial at the time given that defensive training was never considered one of Wengers strengths.
If however you had said at the time Wenger can take no credit for developing Henry at the time, I think that would be a different matter entirely. But when you speak to the player himself even he would challenge that.
What Wenger did personally to improve Henry, Van Persie etc who actually knows. Of course you make a valid point about his recent failure to develop players but I would also argue it’s more complicated than someone was doing it for him when it did work.
Of the players you have cited Wenger failed to improve, with the exception of Wilshere who most of his stunted career can be attributed to injury, would they have really developed better with someone else. I’m not saying they definitely wouldn’t I’m saying the jury is out.
With the best will in the world you can’t make an average player into a great one. If you look at Ramsey, he can’t trap a ball, his passing is average, he has little in the way of acceleration. Now you can argue a better coach would get the best out of him more consistently but even Ramsey at his best doesnt have the attributes of a top, top player.
The failure to get the most consistent performances from these players is most definitely his fault, the failure to turn them into top class players....were they ever that to begin with?