Should Wenger go?

[GP]

I really am saddened by what is happening to him and think we passed the point of no return about two years ago. I will always appreciate the breath-taking football he brought to Highbury. I remember at the time thinking we were witnessing the golden age of Arsenal. The football was insanely exciting and he raised expectations to a level that was unsustainable given the strategy he and/or the Board embarked on to facilitate the move to Ashburton Grove.

We were promised that the move would enable Arsenal to grow and compete with the best. The environment changed with the advent of the sugar daddy. Ferguson adapted, but Wenger did not. The Club consequently operated a strategy completely at odds with what was promised to the fans. I accept that we could not buy the best, but for years now, we haven't come close to buying/developing a team that makes effective use of the resources that are available to us.

The approach is utterly bizarre - that might just be Wenger, it might just be the Board, but I think it is both. We are now a fallen giant and will remain so for as long as Wenger is in charge. It may still remain the case with his successor, but we have to take the jump.

I'm gutted for Wenger - anyone with an ounce of objectivity can see how much he wants to do better, but he is now being ridiculed by some - including those who rejoiced the loudest in his proudest moments. And he deserves so much better than that.

Good post.

I could never disrespect the man. He took us places we never would have gone without him.

[alexander]

Good post.

I could never disrespect the man. He took us places we never would have gone without him.

This is true, cant take that away, but he is ruining all the good work he done for us.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Good post.

I could never disrespect the man. He took us places we never would have gone without him.

I have the utmost respect for him, his integrity and achievements but his time has passed.

[Coney]

I have the utmost respect for him, his integrity and achievements but his time has passed.

Yeah - I have to broadly agree, I think he was the right man at the time he joined and made a difference to the Arsenal and it appears he had a big influence on a lot of the other PL teams who do a lot of the same stuff now - diet and so forth. However, now that the rest of the PL are doing that, we need something new again to regain the ability to challenge for honours consistently. I'm pretty sure that if Wenger had been prepared to compromise his ideals - just spend on 2 or 3 players - that could have made the difference to a lot of results which, in turn would have given rise to more trophies with a corresponding positive effect on the team mentality, turning what is a tired team into one able to turn it on and show confidence in attack and defence. Wenger has, for me, yet again shown that he has not changed - he did not do anything this January and for me that is the last straw. It might well be he is covering for the board and it is not all his decision, but as you say, the situation cannot continue and the only way that it seems it can change is if he moves on.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Good post.

I could never disrespect the man. He took us places we never would have gone without him.

I have no problem in disrespecting the man, for me he has been complacently riding his achievements to stem the outrage of our descent into mediocrity. He has no more respect for the fans than that fat fuck Hill Wood does, look how he responded two weeks ago when he heard that there would be a fan protest just dismissed it like we were a bunch of malcontents and didn't try to take any responsibility for the fact that we were feeling aggrieved.

Also what have we achieved barring over-reaching by reaching a european cup final and going through a season unbeaten, I know it's hard for fans to believe but we won league titles before Wenger came to the club and even with his successes comes a plethora of missed oportunity. 03/04 was an open goal for us in the champions league...we had gone to stamford bridge in the quarters and ground out a decent result to stand us in good stead but we bottle it at highbury....anyone who says that the team we had couldn't have got past monaco or Mourinho's Porto doesn't know what they are talking about.

We have won three titles, by my calculations that's three less than we should have.......1998/1999 everyone will remember as United's treble year but not if we hadn't bottled it against Leeds.

2002/2003 - five points clear in february, united win by five points in May say no more

2007/2008 - five points clear in february.....i'm sure you get the picture

Not to forget the 2000 uefa cup where we outplay galatasray and lose on penalties

[Xhaka Can’t]

Your anger clouds your judgement.

[Cripps_orig]

I have no problem in disrespecting the man, for me he has been complacently riding his achievements to stem the outrage of our descent into mediocrity. He has no more respect for the fans than that fat fuck Hill Wood does, look how he responded two weeks ago when he heard that there would be a fan protest just dismissed it like we were a bunch of malcontents and didn't try to take any responsibility for the fact that we were feeling aggrieved.

Also what have we achieved barring over-reaching by reaching a european cup final and going through a season unbeaten, I know it's hard for fans to believe but we won league titles before Wenger came to the club and even with his successes comes a plethora of missed oportunity. 03/04 was an open goal for us in the champions league...we had gone to stamford bridge in the quarters and ground out a decent result to stand us in good stead but we bottle it at highbury....anyone who says that the team we had couldn't have got past monaco or Mourinho's Porto doesn't know what they are talking about.

We have won three titles, by my calculations that's three less than we should have.......1998/1999 everyone will remember as United's treble year but not if we hadn't bottled it against Leeds.

2002/2003 - five points clear in february, united win by five points in May say no more

2007/2008 - five points clear in february.....i'm sure you get the picture

Not to forget the 2000 uefa cup where we outplay galatasray and lose on penalties

:goodpost:

The lack of bottle we have now was evident in previous Wenger teams. Its just come more to the fore now

[Letters]

Also what have we achieved barring over-reaching by reaching a european cup final and going through a season unbeaten, I know it's hard for fans to believe but we won league titles before Wenger came to the club and even with his successes comes a plethora of missed oportunity.

Yes, we did win titles before Wenger but not since the 30s had we had such concentrated period of success.
3 titles, 2 of which were complimented by the FA Cup to make them Doubles. One league season unbeaten. A couple of other FA Cups. And all in a style of football which no-one expected Arsenal to be playing. In the 90's you couldn't say "Arsenal" without the words "boring boring" preceding them. There's some dispute about who brought Bergkamp to the club, there's no dispute about Henry though and all the other players he brought in in that era. I'm not even going to list them, you know who I'm talking about.

So yeah, what have we achieved?
What have the Romans ever done for us...

And yeah, there were missed opportunities but I'd suggest you could say that about any club in any era.

[Letters]

Good post.

I could never disrespect the man. He took us places we never would have gone without him.

And good post Gary (to which this was a reply to - damn you VBulliten and your lack of nested quotes).

It is sad how it looks to be finishing for Wenger at Arsenal because he did take us places I'd never think I'd see us go and even now the fact that a finish outside the top 4 is something so distressing for us shows something about how he's raised expectations. But we're in a real mess and I don't think Wenger can turn it around. I'm not sure many other managers could either, especially if they're handcuffed in terms of transfer funds like Wenger is (whether through choice or imposition by the board, I suspect there's a bit of both). In some ways he's done well to keep us up there in the top few in the era of billionaire owners. The sad thing is it wouldn't have taken a silly amount of spending to keep us really competitive, a mix of the kids he brought through and some established quality would have done that. Why he's not done that...well, maybe one day he's write about it and we'll find out. But he's not a stupid man and those who disrespect him come across as ungrateful toddlers throwing toys out of the pram, they undermine their own arguments which often have solid basis.

Anyway, I voted yes. But it made me sad to do so

[Coney]

I voted yes. But it made me sad to do so

I decided to follow the example of the team. I abstained.