Wenger Out ?

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm surprised by you. Last year you were at total odds with the way the club was being run and especially critical of Gazidis and Kronke. At least your now starting to see that they're doing what's required. Wenger has constantly made noise about funding in the football and they've done all they can to help provide the funds. The ball is now in his court.

We've had this sort of debate before and I did say it makes sense for the Board to be more cautious with our funds and pushing out the boat because they have a long term goal with this stadium move. Stability and consistency helps them forecast. You were pretty critical of me when I defended their approach and could understand why they're so cautious. Where we differ is, I put the onus on Wenger to push for silverware because he's the manager and motivations should be in line with the athletes. Winning as much as possible and taking home the silverware should be what drives him and I don't expect the Board to have to drive that message home to him.

It's not impossible to win the FA cup and secure a CL qualification place. I'm not sure why you'd argue otherwise when you know how important it is for us to break this mental block. The FA Cup is still a cup. I completely understand your point about this being a crucial moment and it may sound premature to want rid of Wenger but if we now have the financial backing and seem more secure financially, I don't think that strengthens Wenger's position at the club. It will be sad if he doesn't get to enjoy the fruits of his labour but he needs to help himself. If he were to walk now, I wouldn't be in a major panic because we now have the funds for a new manager to build a better squad.

The criticism was based on what went before, not what has happened since. I still firmly believe those rancid old buffers robbed the club blind when they sold out. When you see that sort of track record you then need to see some evidence the promises of cake later are believable. Ozil is a signature of their intent from what I can see so maybe we do have a new approach. Not saying they won't be in it for the money, but at least they haven't sliced a huge chunk out of the club like the last lot.

Yes of course Wenger needs to push. His job has been to keep us in the CL but if he can do more than that then he should. I don't mind winning the FA Cup. It'll be great on the day but it's no real measurement of anything much and I'm not sure a cup win will play a factor in the big Euro games next season or a shot at the title. I think media people like to make that sort of shit up to fill a few more columns. What I'd really like to see is for us to go to Germany and lay into Bayern big time. We were bloody unlucky in the first leg, we stood a great chance of winning that given the way we approached the game. That's what affects things more than FA Cups IMO, the attitude Wenger has going into the game. Is it positive or is it negative. We do quite well when he lets the players go for it. We are gambling when we play negative stuff because we just aren't that good at it. Wenger has dropped into negative mode over the last couple of months and I don't think he needed to. I think he worries too much about who will be fit, who has run how far, who will be 2% away from fitness. Half the players are injured most of the time anyway so a hell of a lot of his planning must go out the window. Just play the best 11 and tell them to attack. Then again, measured across the season he's been right more times than wrong.

Some of the shit he does bugs the hell out of me too but I don't like to see some of the fans turn on him in such a violent way. I think just about all of us have said it wouldn't be a disaster if he went. But on proper terms, not with fans, some of whom have been around a whole 5 minutes, jeering him out the door. But you are right, now we have finances his job gets twice as hard. We'll know within a season if he's up to it but surely he has to be given at least that long?

The other point is, when people say Wenger out they may not realise that out could well mean up and even more control. From their point of view they had better be careful what they wish for.