Match Reaction Arsenal 1-2 Ostersunds

[Niall_Quinn]

This loss doesn't change a thing. It's not enough to get him fired. I'm not even sure an embarrassing exit and beating on Sunday could get him fired.

Someone has to take one for the team. We need a brave fan to run up on Wenger and punch him right in the face! That might be enough for him to get the message.

Make a martyr of him? Are you kidding me? He'd get a fucking 10 year sympathy contract if that happened. No. He's doing more than enough all by himself to get fired. He'd have been fired 10 times at any normal club. And even the Kroenke's will have to come around eventually because this guy Wenger is taking the club lower and lower and it's plain he doesn't have the first clue how to do anything except make it worse.

People were arguing over that 40 mill contract. It's a very ordinary deal that reflects our diminished status. As money continues to pour into this game and the hype ramps up, next season and the season after we'll be seeing the real players bag 60, 80, 100mill contracts that dwarf our deal. That's because those teams will be appearing in all the places that sponsors want to be, and we'll be trading off the diminishing remains of our past glories. That tank is going to be empty real soon. So our new contract is no better than the old contracts of the big boys. It's not a surprise. And the same decline will play out across the board. Eventually Kroenke will have to step in. If he's a business man and not some sort of Wenger blackmail victim then he'll have to step in, to prevent the growth curve swinging around into a decline. Is he going to sacrifice his own wealth and business stability to accommodate Wenger? No way. Wenger's a dead duck walking and it's just a matter of how the club wants to arrange his departure. He'll be afforded the dignity he barely deserves, a generous reward in return for his horrible selfishness that he displayed when he signed that new contract even though he must know, in honest moments, he's shot.

He's gone. I hope at the end of this season. Surely, surely at the end of the next one. Even if he won the Europa it'd be a desperate fluke, it wouldn't be the result of planning and part of a progression back towards the top. It'd be a desperate fluke. That's where Kroenke will need a steer from Ivan and those who want Wenger out. Kroenke mustn't be hoodwinked just because Wenger promises him glory (cash) from the CL appearances that will result from a Europa win - because we aren't getting back in the CL on the merit of league position. But that could happen if somebody in the club can't explain the larger football implications to him.

It would be a lot better for Arsenal Football Club if we did not win the Europa. A new manager is much more valuable to the club than a shiny cup that has Wenger attached to it.

[Marc Overmars]

I honestly feel this is his last contract regardless of what happens in the Europa and also this Sunday. We’re a million miles from being a competitive team at the top level and deep down I think he knows he’s fucked it. He’s been allowed to carry on by those above him so we have to hope they pull the plug soon. I have a little feeling that the penny may have dropped because of the sheer weight of apathy running through the club right now.

Ideally he needs to go at the end of this season. We just can’t have the will he/won’t he stay situation again after the debacle last year. Putting us through that again would just be plain taking the piss out of every single fan.

[Niall_Quinn]

I honestly feel this is his last contract regardless of what happens in the Europa and also this Sunday. We’re a million miles from being a competitive team at the top level and deep down I think he knows he’s fucked it. He’s been allowed to carry on by those above him so we have to hope they pull the plug soon. I have a little feeling that the penny may have dropped because of the sheer weight of apathy running through the club right now.

Ideally he needs to go at the end of this season. We just can’t have the will he/won’t he stay situation again after the debacle last year. Putting us through that again would just be plain taking the piss out of every single fan.

So we win the Europa, meaning we qualify for the CL, and to avoid the carefully detail uncertainty from the last contract - Wenger gets a new contract.

Or, we win the Europa and Wenger steps down (because he won't be sacked barring a catastrophic run of results).

Which is more likely? If we win the cup?

And what if we win both cups?

There's a real danger that Wenger could yet get a new contract. Under most circumstances it would be fair for a manager to get a renewal based on two cup wins. But not when that manager has turned us from a top tier club into an also-ran. Should he be rewarded for being a second rate manager winning second rate trophies at what is supposed to be a top tier club? I don't think so. I don't think any manager should be rewarded for dropping the standards of the club across the board as Wenger has done.

But plenty of fans will go along with the idea you can't get rid of a "double" winning manager. Even though the gypos, chavs and Utd have no such reservations.

It'll be great fun if we win on Sunday. For a day. And the same if we somehow luck into a Europa win. These are days out but they are also potentially a prelude to at least two more seasons of underachievement and backsliding. And possibly long term harm that will take years or even decades to recover from. Look at Liverpool. Even Utd. They both spent years in the wilderness.

[selassie]

I watched the first 35 minutes then switched it off. The club disgusts me TBH, it hurts I feel this way but that is how I feel and I’ve been a Gooner for 40 years.

The sad thing is when we were 2 nil down last night I actually didn’t care, I wasn’t actually bothered because right now I have nothing but contempt for the way the club is being run and the way Wenger has wrecked this team.

Sad times.