How will the Fabregas debacle affect Wenger?

[Niall_Quinn]

Plus playing in the CL is vital because it's a shop window for next season's transfer window.

[Özim]

They should rename it the "Chumpions League" because it's largely full of chumps like us, teams who just make up the numbers.

[Master Splinter]

They should rename it the "Chumpions League" because it's largely full of chumps like us, teams who just make up the numbers.

[fakeyank]

Right....so you don't want us to qualify for the CL this season so that we can concentrate on finishing 4th and therefore qualify for the CL next season?

....OK.

Exactly! I want the board to see why not buying top quality will only result in us being eliminated and may be.. just may be that will make the board and AW realize that next season with top players, we can actually get through the qualifying and group stages.

[fakeyank]

No......I would rather see an Arsenal team play the CL......than any other team, pure and simple.........go on to the pitch intending to give it their all (ie the last two seasons against Barca) and if they lose, walk off the pitch with their heads held high, the sound of outr thanks ringing in their ears cos like us they know they left it all on the field.......that is not just in the CL mind, this is what I want from my Arsenal every single game

Unfortunately this squad doesnt give their best in all the games! About the games against Barca, we did not show up at all in the second leg last season.. not even a single shot on goal. I understand they are the best team in the world but not one freaking shot!

[Cripps_orig]

I think it would have hurt Wenger. Cesc was the poster boy of Project Youth and the one he was hoping to keep and build many a team round. Now he's gone, the project has failed. Granted, for many of us it didn't need Cesc leaving to realize that it had failed but hopefully Wenger realizes it noW and goes back to becoming the world class manager he once was, the one who ate the likes of Fergie and Mourinho for breakfast instead of what he is now, arguably the worst manager in the premiership.Alas even if he did realize it, I think its too late. We are on the brink of CL elimination and favourites for 6th. It would be a surprise if Wenger was here next season.Wenger For who he once was and not who he's become

[Japan Shaking All Over]

well I know who my vote for the speech giver at Wengers funeral is going to........take it away Cripps

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I think Wenger has had chances to make his team the dominant force in English football and when put to the task he has always faltered and maybe our past view of the man is more rose tinted than based on fact, as far as i am concerned despite his undoubted ability as a scout and developer of talent, he fails badly as a tactician and is far too conservative with transfers to have bought the one or two players he needed down the years that could have won us arguably twice the trophies we have won under him.
His diet and physical regime and psychological enhancement methods were revolutionary when he came to this country but he was one of the first overseas managers in the premiership and was merely enacting what was standard practice on the continent and the reason the spanish, italian and even german league was miles ahead of ours at the time.
His main failing is his inability to pick his side up from setbacks, in 2002 we lose to Everton marking our first premier league defeat in ten months, the hangover continues for a following three games losing them all 2-1, two years later after the controversial 2-0 defeat to Manchester United to end our unbeaten run at 49 games, we have a mini slump where we manage only three wins from the next nine (two of those coming in league cup ties where a reserve side is fielded).
2008 after losing 4-0 to Man United, we win only two of the next 12 games in all competitions.
2011 after losing 2-1 to Birmingham in the league cup final, we win only three games from 15 up to the end of the season (one of those being a home league cup tie against Leyton Orient)
I think the failings have always been present, the prostrate years between 1998 and 2002 where Wenger didn't have the guile or the tactical nous to challenge United's supremacy seem to have been glossed over as if Wenger's deficiencies have only been a recent thing, if anything it's more acceptable now because the squad is not as good now as it was then in terms of quality and physical/mental strength.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Right....so you don't want us to qualify for the CL this season so that we can concentrate on finishing 4th and therefore qualify for the CL next season?

....OK.

Fakeyank, lad you have had a shocker today.

[fakeyank]

Fakeyank, lad you have had a shocker today.

Exactly! I want the board to see why not buying top quality will only result in us being eliminated and may be.. just may be that will make the board and AW realize that next season with top players, we can actually get through the qualifying and group stages.