Match Reaction v West Brom (home) 15/16

[Özim]

I do discuss this a lot with my Brother who whilst certainly isn't an AKB, he is of the opinion that Wenger should not be sacked and deserves the entire length of his contract to try and achieve something....because he feels the club owes it to Wenger for his consistency in a period where he has had nothing to spend and had to sell our best players (yeah fair to say i don't agree with him).
He believes if Wenger is unable to win the title next season his contract should not be renewed, but he believes managers aren't given enough time and Wenger can only be judged on his performances from 2014 onwards (again i disagree with him)

Needless to say I don't agree with your brother, at the end of the day Wenger's achievements in the last 10 years only really mean something to fans who value a top 4 slot, for me it was fine for a few seasons but when I realised that all it was was a cash cow and that we never competed or had a hope of competing in the CL top 4 soon lost it's appeal.

Wenger has proven he makes the same mistakes time and time again and that regardless of the scenario he can no longer deliver on the big stage, to keep him onboard for reasons other that football is wrong, he should be judged like any other manager would be at any other club, on results and in the end these haven't been good enough.

As has been mentioned he would have been sacked at almost any top club by now for some of the debarcles, he should think himself very lucky he's had as long as he has and seemingly continues to have as long as he wants to carry on without really delivering on the pitch. After 10+ years of relative failure sentiment should no longer get in the way of what is the obvious decision, that he should be relieved of his duties after yet another disastrous end to our season.

He's had plenty of time to right the wrongs and frankly failed miserably for one reason or another, it now seems he lives in his own little world, where everything is rosy and we play the perfect football and where winning is basically a top 4 place.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I do think there is an argument to saying that keeping us in the top four made the stadium easier to pay for, but the problem now is that where it was regarded as a springboard it's now just achieving it (if you can call it that) for the sake of it.

Now you can quite legitimately argue that the debacle at the start of 2011/2012 was very much of his own making, but considering how relatively poor the team was in terms of overall quality (RVP aside) he did well to take us to third and it's not an achievement that an average manager could have been capable of.

The problem is that it appears that is all he is capable of, whether he has a terrible squad lacking in technical quality or a expensive squad full of talent the result is the same......whether it's an almighty uphill struggle, or a fall from the top....third or fourth is where we end up....it's likely to be 11 seasons in a row we end up in one of those two positions in the table.

We probably won't fall below that standard whilst he remains here, but neither will we get any higher.

He's not a terrible manager because a terrible manager would not have had that consistency, but the fact that he's using it as a defence shows that this is not a man with vision or ideas. I have stated previously that i fundamentally disagree with you that when he leaves there will be a lot of damage to repair, I think any manager who takes over from Wenger will be in a very fortunate position to have a squad that needs reinforcement rather than re-building and will have the Champions League to sink his teeth into.

Its like to me he puts the club in a very good position for a successor to build on, but he doesn't do the important thing and leave.

[Bumble]

Wenger inherited a team that was defensively solid with top keeper, back four plus bergkamp and wright. so he was able to add a greater dimension to the attack. this time round. We probably need someone a bit more defensive in nature... to make us harder to beat.. to be able to shut out teams when we aren't playing that well. So we can win 1-0 again. If you cant win 1-0 then you wont be winning the league.

On the West Brom game... I watched the first 10 minutes, we scored and then couldn't be bothered watching anymore. It will be interesting to see how we do against Sunderland a team who have something to play for.... West Brom are going through the motions more than we are. A win at Sunderland will be a good result and should be enough to ensure we are top 4. As Norwich and Villa at home should be straight forward enough even if we lose the City game.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Wenger inherited a team that was defensively solid with top keeper, back four plus bergkamp and wright. so he was able to add a greater dimension to the attack. this time round. We probably need someone a bit more defensive in nature... to make us harder to beat.. to be able to shut out teams when we aren't playing that well. So we can win 1-0 again. If you cant win 1-0 then you wont be winning the league.

On the West Brom game... I watched the first 10 minutes, we scored and then couldn't be bothered watching anymore. It will be interesting to see how we do against Sunderland a team who have something to play for.... West Brom are going through the motions more than we are. A win at Sunderland will be a good result and should be enough to ensure we are top 4. As Norwich and Villa at home should be straight forward enough even if we lose the City game.

I think there are times when we have made ourselves hard to beat under Wenger, if you look at 2013/2014, after the Villa game - at home we were incredibly defensively solid and once we got a lead invariably we'd hang onto it. Where Wenger falls down is to ability to fuse defensive solidity with attacking flair.

[rodders]

The win whilst welcome should not disquise the fact that the performance was typical of the recent displays. Sloppy final ball lots of possession without for the most part showing much threat. What will happen when Sunderland start clattering us at the weekend.

[Munchies]

Paul merson

‘It’s getting to a bit of an awkward situation now. He’s getting like a squatter really.

“You know, you have a squatter in your house and you want them out – and you can’t!”

Fans have been urging the Gunners’ board to finally make a decision about Wenger and cut him loose, and Merson shares a similar view.

“They’ve got to make a decision,” he continued, when speaking about those in charge at the Emirates.

“They need change! Arsene Wenger is getting a lot of stick now, and he’s going to be forgotten for all the great things he’s done for the club.”

[Kano]

and he’s going to be forgotten for all the great things he’s done for the club.”

er, no.

[Marc Overmars]

He will probably leave under a cloud of frustration but his legacy is the stadium and therefore secured. In time when we are successful again he will rightly be appreciated.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The board i don't think want to make a decision, but come this time next year is Wenger is unsure of whether he will sign a contract extension i don't think they will be twisting his arm to stay.

It didn't appear that they were doing that last time around, they offered him a contract in January 2014 and it was like "if you sign, sign....if you don't....oh well"

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

He will probably leave under a cloud of frustration but his legacy is the stadium and therefore secured. In time when we are successful again he will rightly be appreciated.

Exactly i think his legacy is pretty much unassailable, as i said earlier anyone who takes over from him will be rubbing their hands in glee and i think it would be wrong to suggest any other than he is responsible for creating the expectation that we are so frustrated that he has failed to live up to.

Yes we won things before he came to the club and had a long and proud history, but we are in a position now where we can and should be competing for top honours consistently. Was that really the case before he came....he's like the architect whose built a beautiful house and now won't move out so it can be lived in.