Quote Originally Posted by Letters View Post


It was a successful side because of his strengths and it wasn't more successful because Wenger has flaws. This is what people don't seem to recognise. Maybe this isn't what people think but it comes across like people think Wenger was this genius of a manager back in the day and is now a bumbling idiot ™. The fact is he revolutionised the English game with his fitness regime and his knowledge of the European game. For a while we were just better than everyone else. And yes, people do talk about the Graham defence and while that was a factor it wasn't the main one, and the Invincibles defence was entirely his own.

Now we're not better than everyone else. Other clubs have caught up and arguably overtaken us with the fitness methods and worldwide scouting network. The billionaires swept in and bought up titles right at a time when our funds were (relatively speaking) restricted. We've lost the edge Wenger initially gave us. He's done pretty well to keep us in the top 4 during the stadium move, now we've got the new financial deals we should be pushing on. The FA Cups bought him some time to do so but this year we really needed to challenge. We did for a while but now we've fallen away. But that doesn't mean that he's suddenly an idiot or that the last 10 years have been an unmitigated failure.
On whose part is this misunderstood? Just looking at Bob’s and Alexander’s response to what I’ve said about Wenger’s previous teams, I think there is a misunderstanding on their part because I and others have been accused of revisionism and trying to strip Wenger off all his accomplishments. When younger, I thought Wenger was a genius but as the years have gone by and we’ve seen key components stripped away from the club (Old Guard, Vieira, Dein, etc) and Wenger being unable to reproduce the same results. Yes, the game has moved on and teams have improved but is it wrong to assume Wenger worked a lot better with figures like Dein and certain players? Surely we have to recognise the contribution from those that have left as well and consider their influence on the manager?

I said a long time ago Wenger wasn’t a great tactician and it was a pretty unpopular opinion when I said it on GW years back. So certain things being said now have been said before and not just a case of completely downgrading Wenger because where we are in the league. You say we were way better than the opposition when Wenger arrived and I agree with that totally. We were ahead of all of the Premier League teams tactically, fitness levels, technically, scouting etc. Yes, we’ve recently lost the edge but if we were way better than everyone else, when Chelsea arrived and then City, technically, we should have been way better than everyone else bar the 3 teams that were minted. So I don’t really go overboard with the Top 4 finishes.