Where has Wenger gone wrong?

[Globalgunner]

This doesn’t really warrant much discussion

It’s a very rare thing a manager can last a long time at a club and be consistently successful. Ferguson was an outlier and a lot of his success was invested in knowing what he didn’t know as well as what he did know, and deferring those things to other people

In many respects I think Wenger used to be the same, he knew he wasn’t a tactical genius, he knew defensive coaching wasn’t his strong suit. He knew he wasn’t a great vociferous leader....so to a degree he delegates to those who were. Whenever there was shouting in the dressing room it was done by Pat Rice or Tony Adams. Or the players were themselves able to lead between each other. It is claimed that Patrick Vieira as captain used to tell Sol Campbell to shout at him and give him both barrels when the defence wasn’t getting enough protection.

And whilst I’m not singling out Fabregas, he was really where it started to go wrong. More because Wenger chased that type of technically gifted passer at the expense of everything else, because he wanted to emulate the Barcelona style.

And that’s why for years we had teams that were good on the ball but couldn’t deal with physical opponents

And now there’s just nothing, no philosophy no nothing. We have a duct taped patchwork team without any style or substance or character.

Nothing about Wengers current state of megalomania shows that he knows anything of the sort. His delusion is in thinking the success of the invincibles was mainly down to him. He thinks he taught Bergkamp how to pick a pass from midfield. How Henry and Pires could dovetail between each other. How Vieira instinctively knew when to stay and when to march imperiously forward to join the attack. How Keown, Campbell and Adams knew to kill an attack when it was still building up outside the box rather than start panicking when the striker was 3 yards from goal.

These things were not taught by him. The players knew what to do and did it from a decade of experience. Adams said they used to laugh at Wengers pep talks. Same with his lackadaisical back room staff. Boro Primorac telling Adams how to defend?. His great mistake is and always was ego. He needs the adulation, even from just looking in a mirror. Once that squad which he couldnt browbeat was disbanded. He bought a new set of players, subject to his authority. players who wouldnt question his methods. Maybe because they too bought into the mystic illusion of Wenger the great. They soon found however that his methods didnt work. If you followed them you were bound to fail...and fail they did. the good ones left and Wenger built again...and again..and again. Still Wenger believes.

Shit manager. Always was.