Match Reaction - Spuds 2-2 Arsenal

[AFC Leveller]

"I have no problem to cope with everything but I find that a bit boring in the end. I always have to convince you that I am good enough. I worked for 35 years at the top level.

"What I find just boring is always sitting here after 19 years to face, 'Do you think you are good enough?' If I am not, somebody will tell me."

"Look, I have worked here for 19, 20 years and I'm always sitting here having to justify that I'm good enough to do the job," he said at his news conference ahead of an FA Cup fifth-round replay at Hull

[Globalgunner]

I doubt we'd have stayed in the top 4 had we stayed at Highbury. The fact that the billionaires rolled in ans bought up trophies left, right and centre just at the time when the stadium move did somewhat hamper us is not Wenger's fault. That said, we should have some trophies in that era. Now we have the money to compete there were some promising signs but Wenger has failed to push us on and for that he should be sacked. But he'll leave us with a squad which should be able to compete with a few additions and enough money to allow us to stay competitive.
Things could have gone better but they could certainly have gone a lot worse.

You doubt if we would have stayed in the top 4?. Where relatively speaking have Spurs and Pool and Everton been pre 2004 and now?. Only Pool can be said to have regressed and been usurped by the new money teams....... On second thought, in actual fact I agree with you. If we had stayed at Highbury we would have dropped out of the top 4 and long been overtaken by said Spuds and Liverpool because the dunce in charge of this club needs at least 2 world class players to save his bacon each season just to stay in the top 4. He has always had at least 1 in the form of Fabregas, Arshavin, RVP etc. If we had still been buying sub £20m players like before at Highbury, we would be wallowing in mid table obscurity by now, conversely maybe the muppet would have left or would have had to come up with a new spectrum of lame excuses.

If we had stayed at Highbury the moustached Vampire may also not have bought the club..... What is that Jane Austen quote about Highbury again?

[Kano]

"I have no problem to cope with everything but I find that a bit boring in the end. I always have to convince you that I am good enough. I worked for 35 years at the top level.

"What I find just boring is always sitting here after 19 years to face, 'Do you think you are good enough?' If I am not, somebody will tell me."

"Look, I have worked here for 19, 20 years and I'm always sitting here having to justify that I'm good enough to do the job," he said at his news conference ahead of an FA Cup fifth-round replay at Hull

I don't doubt for a minute that he works his arse off, cares deeply for the club, desperately wants to succeed and try to analyse things when they go wrong.

But it's clear that he cannot analyse himself so well anymore and his best isn't good enough to do anything other than maintain the status quo. That is key part of any self-analysis he cannot face up to.

[Letters]

You doubt if we would have stayed in the top 4?. Where relatively speaking have Spurs and Pool and Everton been pre 2004 and now?. Only Pool can be said to have regressed and been usurped by the new money teams....... On second thought, in actual fact I agree with you. If we had stayed at Highbury we would have dropped out of the top 4 and long been overtaken by said Spuds and Liverpool because the dunce in charge of this club needs at least 2 world class players to save his bacon each season just to stay in the top 4. He has always had at least 1 in the form of Fabregas, Arshavin, RVP etc. If we had still been buying sub £20m players like before at Highbury, we would be wallowing in mid table obscurity by now, conversely maybe the muppet would have left or would have had to come up with a new spectrum of lame excuses.

If we had stayed at Highbury the moustached Vampire may also not have bought the club..... What is that Jane Austen quote about Highbury again?

You lose points for not calling Wenger a c***

[Niall_Quinn]

And yet, 2 years ago, when we'd just won the FA Cup - which was our first cup in 9 years and you're now dismissing as a 'minor' trophy' - you reacted with "good stuff" when Wenger signed a new contract.
Why? It had still been 8 years of 'failure to deliver'. Why was one 'minor trophy' enough? And the answer was it hadn't been 8 years of abject failure and you knew that.
The money had clearly been a factor and while we should have won more in that period it seemed with the new money that things were on the up, we'd signed Ozil, we'd won the Cup, onwards and upwards.

The most of the rest of your post is about our failure this season which I've already agreed he deserves the sack for. The money is there now, we've been signing a level of player who should push us on, this season in particular the title was an open goal and, fittingly given our strikeforce, we've missed it. Wenger should be sacked for the last 2 years where we haven't pushed on, not for the last 10.

Didn't we do this yesterday? Does hitting reset disqualify what we've already discussed?

2 years ago we were supposedly coming out of the alleged financial restrictions Wenger has voluntarily accepted. 2 years ago we'd finally managed to land a trophy, silencing the league wide mockery that had accompanied every other trophy challenge that went before. We were no longer a laughing stock and it looked like we had money and Wenger would finally get a chance to show what he could really do with resources at his disposal. Most fans were on board, pretty optimistic, waiting for the future that had been promised prior to the stadium move. These were the days when the money excuse was still very effective because there was no conclusive evidence against which to test it. Now we were going to use money to level the field on which Wenger had previously been disadvantaged.

Two years on we all know what has happened. Wenger has actually done worse. In the last 2 years many fans have snapped into the harsh reality of the main and overwhelming reason for our failures on the pitch. How could they not? The truth was already dawning before this season kicked off. This season has settled matters beyond dispute. Wenger stands hopelessly exposed. Nobody believes his bullshit any more, well almost nobody.

This season has provided the long missing evidence that can be used to judge the real reasons for our failure over a decade. You say no, everything was understandable prior to this season but now some terrible anomaly has occurred. I say that doesn't compute, because the terrible anomaly looks identical to all those seasons gone before. Before you meandered off into every distraction you could muster I said the money excuse had finally been blown away. You say, oh no, that's not the case at all. This must mean you believe something radical has occurred this season, some significant reason why Wenger has so desperately underperformed.

If we stick with the now discredited idea he failed to deliver in prior seasons because he was financially disadvantaged, then what's the excuse this season when the money factor has been removed? And why does this season look the same as all the others?

[Globalgunner]

I don't doubt for a minute that he works his arse off, cares deeply for the club, desperately wants to succeed and try to analyse things when they go wrong.

But it's clear that he cannot analyse himself so well anymore and his best isn't good enough to do anything other than maintain the status quo. That is key part of any self-analysis he cannot face up to.

Funny that in 25 years Fergie never faced the same questions....Why because he was his own harshest critic, always striving to beat the rest, to change, to adopt new ideas. Not Le Prof....he knows everything apparently.

[Niall_Quinn]

Funny that in 25 years Fergie never faced the same questions....Why because he was his own harshest critic, always striving to beat the rest, to change, to adopt new ideas. Not Le Prof....he knows everything apparently.

Are you questioning Wenger? That's boring. You shouldn't do it. You should get your wallet out and support the team.

[Letters]

Funny that in 25 years Fergie never faced the same questions....Why because he was his own harshest critic, always striving to beat the rest, to change, to adopt new ideas. Not Le Prof....he knows everything apparently.

Utd went a couple of years without winning a trophy and fans were screaming for his head back in the day.

[Kano]

Funny that in 25 years Fergie never faced the same questions....Why because he was his own harshest critic, always striving to beat the rest, to change, to adopt new ideas. Not Le Prof....he knows everything apparently.

No, what you're missing here is the ability to self analyse sufficently. I'm sure Wenger does. Most humans doing their job do that. Its stupid to think otherwise.

But how effective that analysis becomes is the key part. Fergie I'm sure asked himself enough difficult questions to remain on top. Wenger probably doesn't go far enough or doesn't rely enough on people around him enough to face some home truths. Whereas Ferige probably did do that.

[selassie]

Utd went a couple of years without winning a trophy and fans were screaming for his head back in the day.

And then he won stuff again because he adapted.

I watched the presser yesterday with Wenger and it was genuinely quite amazing what lengths he went to absolve himself. Not only that but his whole demeanor was one of "how dare anybody question me or what I have done in the game".