Originally Posted by
Letters
I disagree. If anything the problem is he IS the same Wenger. Football has changed and he hasn't. When he arrived at Arsenal he brought in new training methods, new diets, our team was fitter than everyone else and it showed. Wenger's knowledge of the European and to an extent worldwide game was (at the time) unparalleled and he was able to cherry pick fantastic players before most other clubs had even heard of them.
Other clubs have caught up. They've got their squads as fit if not fitter than ours, they have scouts around the world who can identify talent. I don't think Wenger has changed it's just that his methods which were once revolutionary are now routine.
Also when Wenger started you didn't have multi-billionaire owners throwing obscene amounts around, salaries and transfer fees had started to spiral but not like now when it's all gone mental.
The frustrating thing is in some ways Wenger has done well, in an era of billionaires and other clubs throwing silly money around he has kept us relatively competitive despite spending relatively little. But at the same time we've failed to win trophies despite being in positions where we could and probably should have done on several occasions.
I don't know whether his lack of spending is a stubborn attempt to do things the 'right' way or whether the board encourage him not to spend too much or actively forbid him from spending more. Who knows what's going on inside the club but something is going very wrong.
Some people on here seem to think we should be top 2 every year like we once were and us not being so is a failure. I disagree. With City and Chelsea both able to outspend us and Utd too having more resources than us it is far harder to win the title than it's ever been. But Spurs are a club who aren't in the CL, don't have the prestige or finances to offer anything like the wages we can and yet have still assembled a squad which is now looking better than ours. That and the aforementioned to finish the job when in positions to win trophies are damning.
If anyone thinks that we're suddenly going to be serious title contenders every year when Wenger leaves and that any idiot could do better then they're deluding themselves. But it's getting to the point where we have to try something different
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