Quote Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn View Post
Why do you have to swing from one extreme to the other? So if Wenger's not leading the board by the nose, he can only be their puppet! Why can't he be an employee that happens to see eye to eye with his employers? But maybe for very different reasons. Why are some people going to such extreme lengths to eliminate the board from the analysis when it comes to figuring out what has been going wrong in the last few seasons?

Somewhere along the line the board decided it was going to cash out. Wenger is the ideal manager to have in place if you want to maximise what goes into your pocket, minimise what goes into the team and still do enough to claim the club is ambitious and competitive (keep the money coming in from the fans). And that's exactly what has happened right up until this season where the continuous bleeding of quality has finally tipped us over the edge. The year after the board jumped ship, btw.

Simple question. Why can't Wenger AND the board be responsible for the shit we're in? Why is it so impossibly difficult for some to believe the people in charge are responsible for the direction the club has taken. It's like going to ridiculous lengths to explain why the drunk driver can't possibly be responsible for wrapping his car around a tree because the drunk navigator gave him a bad steer. Bullshit, this club has suffered a failure of leadership in recent years and has seen a significant downturn in its fortunes on the pitch as a result. Meanwhile, certain individuals have diverted money that could have been used to alleviate our on the field problems and spirited it out of the club in the form of a huge pay day. Has this or has this not happened? So what, you think the board ended up saying, well Wenger won't spend the money so fuck it, we'll have it all for ourselves? You think they have been forced into robbing the club? By Wenger?
I do agree that there is some fault with the board. Most major one being that they have not fired Arsene Wenger yet. The reason why Wenger is to blame is because he as manager of AFC should want to win, he should not be happy with mediocrity. The board, I can excuse for being greedy and wanting to cash out.. I mean, which other board in ANY business is not the same? Its the same in the companies I have worked with or probably you have worked with. The board is after money- not a surprise.. AW, a football manager is after profits for the club and mediocrity- is a surprise.

Like I said earlier, the board is very greedy but I do not think they are irrational. A billionaire/millionaire would glady spend 10 million quid on a GK/CB in Jan if that meant 40% higher chance of winning the PL. These ppl have not become millionaires by chance... take the instance of defensive coach, you cannot seriously tell me that if AW wanted a defensive coach, the board would say 'no' because it would save them 500K a year!