Bayern 5-1 Arsenal (plus all other games for the rest of the season) Match Reaction

[Özim]

I can see a horror appointment on the horizon.

Yes I can see that as well, rather than looking for a proper manager, we'll end up with some Wenger clone he's chosen for the club, oh the joys of having one man in charge for so long!

[Özim]

They're German champions for the last 2 years and in both seasons they got to the semi-final of the CL. They've only lost one game all season.
We shouldn't be getting spanked by anyone but obviously Bayern are a good side.

Being champions of Germany isn't that great, they basically are a bigger club than all the other teams and sign their best players, the other German clubs can never really build a team to compete against them for more than a season or two. Xhaka was a star in Germany, look at him in England, he's rubbish.

I don't think they are as good as they were, that's all I'm saying.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

They're German champions for the last 2 years and in both seasons they got to the semi-final of the CL. They've only lost one game all season.
We shouldn't be getting spanked by anyone but obviously Bayern are a good side.

It's all relative, they are obviously not bang average. They are stronger than any other club in Germany by some way. But i stand by what i said, PSG, Chelsea, Real Madrid three clubs off the top of my head who i think would turn them over with little difficulty.

[Niall_Quinn]

As much as i hate to say it Chelsea would have taken them to the cleaners last night

Man City, Liverpool and Spurs would all have put up much more of a fight than we did

You compare them to the PSG side on tuesday, well drilled, athletic, strong......i think PSG would take them apart as well

Bayern looked good as a result of how spineless we are, we had a decent spell (decent not good) of 20 minutes throughout the entire game and in that time we could and should have scored three goals against them.

Unlike some of the absolutists on here, i don't think the side needs totally ripping up......it depends on how many of our top players are willing to stay in the summer.

We definitely need to go out and sign a new left back, a long term replacement for Santi Cazorla and someone who is more physically imposing and better on the ball than Francis Coquelin.

A top striker would be great but who do you sign?.....if nothing else Wenger has shown that playing Alexis up top pays dividends.

The time for all that has passed. Wenger blew it at every step. He started down the road of doing the job properly but then reverted to buying a bunch of second hand jumble at showroom prices so the money is wasted, the contracts are in place and the net result of putting jumble on the pitch means we've endured another humiliating collapse that will give the world's top players pause before they ever consider coming here. That's if we are prepared to part with the cash for their wages. Wenger's going to leave us where Ferguson left Utd. He's doing real, structural damage now. Every day he stays we sink deeper. It proves he doesn't love this club at all, or if he does love it it's the kind of love a kidnapper has for the victim who reminds him of his dead mother. Giving him money has made everything worse.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The time for all that has passed. Wenger blew it at every step. He started down the road of doing the job properly but then reverted to buying a bunch of second hand jumble at showroom prices so the money is wasted, the contracts are in place and the net result of putting jumble on the pitch means we've endured another humiliating collapse that will give the world's top players pause before they ever consider coming here. That's if we are prepared to part with the cash for their wages. Wenger's going to leave us where Ferguson left Utd. He's doing real, structural damage now. Every day he stays we sink deeper. It proves he doesn't love this club at all, or if he does love it it's the kind of love a kidnapper has for the victim who reminds him of his dead mother. Giving him money has made everything worse.

Don't agree that any lasting damage has been done, most of these players are capable of being reformed under a better manager

[Niall_Quinn]

Don't agree that any lasting damage has been done, most of these players are capable of being reformed under a better manager

That won't be hard, in fact the new guy will have to be a total idiot not to extract significant improvements. However, ideas of being up there competing with the elite of Europe, forget it. Wenger is not the only problem we have. The club is geared not for football dominance but financial dominance. I don't see that changing no matter who comes in. A new guy might even nab a title, Ranieri managed it so theoretically if the heavens align just so a half competent guy could maybe drag this squad to limited success. But with the people we have upstairs there will never be enough focus on the football to move the club up to the top level.

I see an embarrassing future where we unjustifiably get included in a small group of clubs who break away to guarantee themselves perpetual Euro league riches. And we'll be one of the whipping boys in that league. All very undignified and a sad end to a great club. But very, very lucrative so all the wrong incentives will be there for the vampire squid in the boardroom.

[selassie]

The time for all that has passed. Wenger blew it at every step. He started down the road of doing the job properly but then reverted to buying a bunch of second hand jumble at showroom prices so the money is wasted, the contracts are in place and the net result of putting jumble on the pitch means we've endured another humiliating collapse that will give the world's top players pause before they ever consider coming here. That's if we are prepared to part with the cash for their wages. Wenger's going to leave us where Ferguson left Utd. He's doing real, structural damage now. Every day he stays we sink deeper. It proves he doesn't love this club at all, or if he does love it it's the kind of love a kidnapper has for the victim who reminds him of his dead mother. Giving him money has made everything worse.

I pretty much agree. Psychologically this team is damaged, the culture that has been bred into this club over the past decade is that "competing" is enough. There is no drive or will to succeed and this runs from the top right through to the players who bottle up every chance of competing for the big prizes.

Those who are competitive just walk, what are we left with? a squad full of players who have not improved and who have been rewarded for mediocrity.

The mess is pretty big IMO and will require a good few windows and a complete change of tact to erase it.

[Power n Glory]

If after a decade of this abject shite Wenger still hasn't walked then it indicates the owners don't give a shit about the football side of the club. They care about one thing, the cash. The easy solution here is to create a new role for Wenger where he effectively remains in charge and then bring some yes man in to manage the team in a much reduced role and take all the heat off Wenger. This is what I think will happen. Also, we have a serious footballing knowledge vacuum at Board level. I suspect most of the key decision makers have no clue of how to run a modern day football club. Remember, it was Wenger that came in with his ideas on how to shape the future of this club along with Dein.

Right now, I judge whether they have the balls to pull the trigger now that Wenger's popularity is at a serious low. 10 years ago, if they pulled that trigger and got it wrong, they'd have bore the brunt of the blame because there were more Ty's and Chris's around.

Whatever happens, I'm positive it will be done with the same utter contempt for the fans.

Considering the conversations we're now having about the manager compared to what it was 10 years ago, I'd say Wenger was successful at shifting the burden over to the Board with his financial doping argument. His flaws as a manager were ignored for a long time.

Now that we have access to money and he's been spending it freely, the focus has been placed firmly on his shoulders. I don't think it's a case of not caring. I think it's more so a case of the Board thinking they needed to deliver the promised resources in order for to succeed. They bore the brunt of the blame for a long time.

[Letters]

Being champions of Germany isn't that great, they basically are a bigger club than all the other teams and sign their best players, the other German clubs can never really build a team to compete against them for more than a season or two. Xhaka was a star in Germany, look at him in England, he's rubbish.

I don't think they are as good as they were, that's all I'm saying.

Ignored the bit about the Champions League then.

[Niall_Quinn]