Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[Özim]

And yet you believe he'd be a nice person to meet with on a one to one basis. If I thought all of those things and more, as you do, about somebody, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near them.

I'd take everything he says with a pinch of salt based on what he says at the moment, it's hard to dislike someone when you meet them unless they are clearly being nasty and arrogant, maybe he would be, but I can't judge him until I meet him in that respect.

I'm not willing to judge someone without meeting them, it might be that if I met him he could be perfectly charming, likewise he could be not my cup of tea, but without meeting him in person it's hard to judge.

What I can say is he is a poor manager and the way he does and talks about things football related is somewhat embarassing, as a football manager I don't rate him and don't respect the way he handles himself in public and the things he comes out with and consequently backtracks on, nor the way he points the finger at others.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't dislike him personally, but there's no question he has become more remote, aloof and arrogant because the club have made him untouchable

He resents questions from journalists "who are you to question my methods, no-one else is allowed to" attitude is very prevalent.

[Power n Glory]

Whether it's been imposed on him or not is irrelevant (in fact I'm fairly sure it hasn't been imposed on him but the fact that he has chosen to take on those responsibilities without someone stepping in and intervening is even more concerning) the fact that a club is prepared to operate in that fashion is deeply, deeply concerning.

Of course it's relevant. Fergie had the same sort of freedom at Utd but had the sense to evolve and delegate. I think if we were to sign a top manager that has experience at other top clubs, they’d have the same sort of sense to do likewise. If the Board are open to new ideas, we’ll be in good shape. We’d be in serious trouble if they did decide to impose ideas on the new coach because I don’t think any up there has a clue about football. It’s the blind leading the blind. Wenger is the only one at that level that knows football but he’s totally out of date. I’ve said the same to in my post to NQ. The key is to be as open and receptive to change like we were when Wenger first arrived here in 96.

[Özim]

I don't dislike him personally, but there's no question he has become more remote, aloof and arrogant because the club have made him untouchable

He resents questions from journalists "who are you to question my methods, no-one else is allowed to" attitude is very prevalent.

There's an arrogance about him now and I agree his untouchable position is the main contributing factor, he's the author of his own downfall by the way he behaves, talks and of course manages.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Of course it's relevant. Fergie had the same sort of freedom at Utd but had the sense to evolve and delegate. I think if we were to sign a top manager that has experience at other top clubs, they’d have the same sort of sense to do likewise. If the Board are open to new ideas, we’ll be in good shape. We’d be in serious trouble if they did decide to impose ideas on the new coach because I don’t think any up there has a clue about football. It’s the blind leading the blind. Wenger is the only one at that level that knows football but he’s totally out of date. I’ve said the same to in my post to NQ. The key is to be as open and receptive to change like we were when Wenger first arrived here in 96.

The responsibility Wenger has over the day to day running of the club far exceeds what Ferguson had at United, this is partly because Wenger cannot delegate and it's partly because he has taken up aspects of David Dein's role (in terms of transfer and contract extension negotiations). No club should be allowing this, and if the club are happy for Wenger to have this responsibility why would they not try and give the same responsibility to whoever comes after him.

No one is talking about imposing ideas, we are talking about a board letting the manager know he has a boss and has expectations to fulfil, and for instance if we had a manager who is reluctant to spend money when it was needed someone like Gazidis would have more leverage to say "actually you need to do this".

Kroenke is happy as long as we finish 4th, if a new manager is failing to exceed this....is he really going to let Gazidis relieve him of his job after a certain time?

[mastermind84]

Giroud is a middle of the road striker, only an incompetent manager like Wenger would be happy to rely on him and not sign anyone, any other normal manager would have signed a striker a long time ago, as usual though it will blow up in his face, it always does, but he never recognises it.

I don't think highly of Giroud but he is not a middle of the road striker. He is a 2nd tier striker when Arsene's system depends on a top tier striker.

Having Giroud leading the line could win the premiership with a better manager, imo. If your "system" needs top tier talent to succeed then how good is your system?

[Özim]

I don't think highly of Giroud but he is not a middle of the road striker. He is a 2nd tier striker when Arsene's system depends on a top tier striker.

Having Giroud leading the line could win the premiership with a better manager, imo. If your "system" needs top tier talent to succeed then how good is your system?

He went something like 15 games without a goal, that's middle of the road for me, that's not even 2nd tier, especially not for a team like us that create a fair few chances.

We could never win the PL with Giroud up front, he's a sub, someone who could be rotated when you needed something different nothing more, to win the PL you either need goals from all over the team (several players who can score goals) or a top striker, we have neither.

[Power n Glory]

The responsibility has over the day to day running of the club far exceeds what Ferguson had, this is partly because Wenger cannot delegate and it's partly because he has taken up aspects of David Dein's role (in terms of transfer and contract extension negotiations). No club should be allowing this, and if the club are happy for Wenger to have this responsibility why would they not try and give the same responsibility to whoever comes after him.

No one is talking about imposing ideas, we are talking about a board letting the manager know he has a boss and has expectations to fulfil, and for instance if we had a manager who is reluctant to spend money when it was needed someone like Gazidis would have more leverage to say "actually you need to do this".

This is all over the place and slightly muddled. There are two conflicting ides going on in that post.

So the club have allowed Wenger to work a certain way because that’s how he likes it. He’s taken on more than what Fergie took on, but that’s the difference between Fergie and Wenger. Fergie had the sense to delegate. He worked with freedom like Wenger does at Arsenal, but he delegates. So let’s assume our Board believes it’s important for a manger to work with freedom and it’s their job to support him with resources. Why would they impose something on a new manager that goes against that principle? They only allowed Wenger to work how he liked. They didn’t impose anything on him so I can’t see them pushing something on a new manager if that’s not what he wants. Especially if new manager is someone like Pep that comes with experience at the top.

[Özim]

I don't think we'd have any problem attracting quality new manager, we're a bit of a challenge, a team who haven't won anything of note for 12 years but have all the infrastructure and resources to compete if we're managed properly. A new manager would get support financially if he wanted but unlike Wenger who was here before all of that lt above him he'll have certain targets and in all likelyness will take more pride in his work and will want to win and do everything he can do to win.

I hope Wenger isn't involved in choosing a new manager or doesn't have a say in the day to day running of the club though, because if he does we can forget about being competitive, the guy is a control freak and won't allow anyone to do things differently to the way he thinks they should be done, I suspect he'd bring a Wenger clone in as well, doesn't bear thinking about.

[Power n Glory]

I don't think highly of Giroud but he is not a middle of the road striker. He is a 2nd tier striker when Arsene's system depends on a top tier striker.

Having Giroud leading the line could win the premiership with a better manager, imo. If your "system" needs top tier talent to succeed then how good is your system?

I agree to an extent but Giroud's goal droughts and drop in confidence every year suggests something deeper. I think we could get more out of him with a better system but just looking at his performances for France kind of backs up the criticism.