Giroud Discourse

[GP]

But conversely he can do things other strikers can't. Back to goal he is very good at holding the ball up and playing in others around him. Ok hes not that pacy, but I think he will get chances with the right service. He always seems to get on the end of crosses, just needs to improve his finishing. But thats different to saying he can get marked out of games.

Yep, good post.

[Fist of Lehmann]

He's a relic and there are very few top teams that have a bulky slow player that holds up play. It's not needed and we don't need that sort of striker. Name a top team that plays regularly with a target man type striker?

No-one with CL aspirations. West Ham and Stoke mainly.

[Power n Glory]

No-one with CL aspirations. West Ham and Stoke mainly.

Exactly. The games evolved and hold up play strikers is a step backwards. It's funny because we were once the pioneers and moved away from playing with target men strikers and always went for pace, power and technically gifted players. Even with slow strikers like Kanu, he was technically brilliant and not a battering ram sort of player or a player that heavily relied on others to create chances for him. If Giroud is tightly marked, he's unlikely to create space for himself to shoot or for anyone else for that matter.

[Marc Overmars]

Giroud is not a bad striker by any means but this was always going to be the problem with any RVC replacement, he raised the bar to such a level last season that it was going to be near enough impossible to reach again.

We could have tried to sign a worldie but opted for someone relatively unproven who was riding the wave of his breakthrough season. You reap what you sow.

[Letters]

It's being called into question right now.

By a few internet warriors, no-one else.

I do take the point about failing to retain the title and win the CL though, I think that does take him out of the 'all time great' category. But the way some on here have bent over backwards to deny him credit for the things he did achieve is pretty silly.

[Özim]

Nothing since 2005 speaks for itself I'm afraid.

Name me one other top manager who has gone that long without winning a thing at a big club?

[Power n Glory]

It was always going to be hard to replace RVP but Giroud just doesn't fit into our set up at all. He's a very un-Wenger like signing when you look at the history of strikers we've had in the past. He's very slow, average technically and not even clinical. I can't see him scoring more than 15 goals for us this season. It's going to be twice as hard for him in this set up because the service is piss poor as well.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Well no, it hasn't. Clough had a lot of success with Forest and Derby in the 70s but then won very little after that (OK, a European Cup in 1980 so his success crept into the 80s, but very little after that). And he ended up taking Forest down. No-one doubts he was a great manager in his day though.

For all his failings over the last 7 years Wenger has kept us top 4 every year, we haven't dropped into mid-table, or worse (yet!). You may not value that as an achievement the board clearly do and so to most of football - clubs like Liverpool and Spurs have spent a lot of money trying to get into the top 4 without much success. Given that he has kept us up there he should have won a few trophies but it's no mean feat in an era of billionaires.

Ferguson will go down, rightly so, as an all time great manager. Possibly the all time great manager. Fergie was Wenger's competition when he joined Arsenal and Utd were already established as the dominant side of the 90s. For the first half of Wenger's time with us they stood toe to toe, Wenger arguably got the better of him in the early noughties. He has failed to maintain that, partly because of the billionaires, partly because other clubs have caught up with his training methods and scouting which initially gave us an edge, partly because of his own damn stubbornness. But let's not get all revisionist about it, in his day he was brilliant and transformed the club from a boring mid-table club into the best team in the country playing a fantastic style of football.

And now, ironically, he's taking us back to being a boring, mid-table team again.

[Letters]

Exactly right, you can't not question a man's record when he's gone so long without delivering any success

Yet you fawn over Graham who has achieved virtually nothing since he left Arsenal.

He was great back in the day. Football has caught up with his methods and now with silly money being thrown around and a combination of factors (one being his own damn stubbornness) he's no longer able to compete. That doesn't mean we need to bend over backwards to belittle his past achievements.

[Letters]

And now, ironically, he's taking us back to being a boring, mid-table team again.

is that ironic?