Surely delivering trophies would be better for his ego than how much he can sell a player for.
I mean, that's pretty obvious.
Surely delivering trophies would be better for his ego than how much he can sell a player for.
I mean, that's pretty obvious.
My best guess. Wenger has an unflinching belief in principles that others will only speak to rather than practise. He thinks the game should not only be played in a certain way but run in a certain way. He makes no secret of it. Clubs living within their means, financial doping, level playing fields, these are the things he talks about. I picture him as a knight on horseback - going up against a tank and complaining furiously after he has been run over about the lack of honour displayed by the tank driver who, with a few levers, can easily overcome years of training, discipline, restraint, chivalry. For as much as he's practical in a financial sense he's utterly impractical and lost in ideology in other key areas connected to the game. An anachronism. If everyone thought his way then the sport would be better. With nobody else thinking his way he's left us, the fans, having to suffer for his ineffective (even if well intentioned) principles. Changing is easier said than done. You have to want to change, for a start, and I doubt he does.
Of course he's ideal for the like of Kroenke. Even if he didn't agree with what the yank is doing it wouldn't matter because their methods coincide even if their personal agendas don't. I'm not saying he's not fully on-board, just that it wouldn't really matter if he wasn't.
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when you look at his recent signings in the last two years, they are not players who he can create into world class players like he did with henry.
Per
arteta
podolski
cazorla
giroud
monreal
and i include benayoun here even though he was a loan
of the others, the ox and gervniho, they are two players who have talent and he can work it.
so the majority of his recent signings are hardened seasoned professionals who he believes can help us acheive our aims by hitting the ground running etc and not by him creating the next henry/viera
Most of his recent signings have been players who have already hit, or are very close to hitting their ceilings. A problem when bringing in players like that is you really need them to be of the highest quality because they're unlikely to improve much. We've bought a lot of players who, with maybe the exception of Cazorla most would consider to be perhaps a level below the names that are revered in the game, so as a result our team remains stagnant.
How we could have done with some of our recent signings a few years ago when the team was young and had serious quality, but were crying out for some calmer heads.
I actually think he needs to bring in some players under 25 who he can work with, because lets face it one of Wenget's strengths is (was?) to polish rough diamonds. Maybe Jovetic could be one of these guys in the summer.
Even Fergie doesn't go heavy on ready made players anymore, RVC was his first worldie in years. The rest have been young guys who he can get the most out of in the long run.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 07-05-2013 at 05:01 PM.
Yep, it's a key point the fact we didn't bring in the players when we really needed them. We always need to get right to the edge before reacting and then all that can be done is to hold the line. Everyone at the club seems to believe getting 4th in the face of spending from city and the chavs is some huge achievement. It's conveniently ignored that we were right up there with Utd in past years, they have gone on and continue to compete (and they poured a ton of investment into their stadium too), we fell back. Bare minimum done on the pitch to maximise the outcome on the balance sheet. That's our recent history. A very few have benefited to a ridiculous degree, the vast majority have been short changed. Just a couple of key signings at critical moments, that could have made the difference. Still, we will always have the morally superior cup, invisible as it is.
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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
That's my guess too.
Yep me too.
That's my guess too.
I personally think that Arsene is at the point of "no return' in regards to relaxing his methodology and modifying his approach.
It's "His Way" or no way at all. He would sooner walk than be told to modify his approach to achieve better results on the football field, that's just my opinion.
This is as good as it will get until he leaves IMHO.
Agreed, NQ. AW is utterly wedded to his principles and thus his ego overwhelms the club's primary interests. These principles include not pressuring his best players to stay. The fact that he is given free reign by an owner/board who have no real interest in winning silverware makes it a perfect storm.
Wenger is principled but not stupid, which is why he appears to have thrown in the towel against the mega rich clubs - and why it is perfectly reasonable to suggest that it is player development rather than silverware that motivates him these days.
With the news of today's new kit deal - my concern is that Wenger will still approach the transfer market with the brakes on - and buy what he regards as good value rather than buying the very best players possible. In that sense Wenger is like a great racing driver competing with the handbrake on.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
The evidence would suggest otherwise...
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Agreed. He seems to view himself as some sort of father figure with a responsibility for furthering the career of the player that outweighs his responsibility to the club. Maybe unfair but that's how it seems to me. When he loses the battle to keep the player (our board just stinks of shit) he then seems to become an agent for that player. Odd thing here is we're criticising him for doing the decent thing. But the decent thing just doesn't work in the shitty world of big business football.
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