Quote Originally Posted by Letters View Post
Yeah. Just like it was INEVITABLE we would be 10 points off the top after 8 games (we weren't).
Or that we were out of the CL after the first two group games (we weren't).
Both things you confidently predicted.



So yeah, pat yourself on the back if you like about your 'prescience' but many of your predictions have been wrong this season. You were as hopeful as a lot of us that Wenger could push us on 2 years ago, you backed his contract extension on the back of the FA Cup. Maybe you lost patience with him earlier than me, there is a case that he should have been sacked last year because of the lack of a title challenge. I think the FA Cup bought him one last chance. But it wasn't INEVITABLE that it would go wrong because 2 years ago the goalposts changed. The new financial power HAS made a difference - to the transfer dealings (Ozil and Sanchez, one of the highest net spends in the league) and the trophy cabinet. It wasn't a given that Wenger would fail to push us on to the bigger prizes. He's done it before, we all hoped he'd do it again. It's increasingly clear he can't but that doesn't mean it was obvious all along he wouldn't or that everything he's done in the last 10 years has been wrong.
My predictions haven't been wrong at all. The timing was wrong, that's all. But I won't be patting myself on the back. It's no great thing to predict an outcome that happens every year. As for the losing patience thing, you're right, this has timed out differently for individual fans. This patience will have been built on several things, but not results. Once the inertia has been overcome it gives you a chance to look at the whole. He should have been sacked years ago. Some fans saw it early and I don't think back-patting is warranted there either. I doubt any of them wanted to see the manager collapse in the way he has. I can't imagine there's a single Arsenal fan that wouldn't have wanted to see Wenger's early years being duplicated in the later years. Regardless of when individuals eventually twigged (and both of us are latecomers) Wenger's record is appalling. All the shit he served up prior to this season was a clear enough indicator of just how massively he might fuck up. This season he has delivered what every season before has threatened. I'm not going to list all the reasons why this season confirms just how poor he is.