Or the medical staff have told him to 'run it off'.Originally Posted by Letters
That's usually how we assess players recovering from injury.
Or the medical staff have told him to 'run it off'.
I don't think he changed everything, we've still got some very fast players like Bellerin and, if could ever stay fit, Walcott. That signing alone surely shows he values pace. And the ManYoo game this year where we blitzed them from the start could have come from The Invincibles season.
The lack of a strong captain has been a problem for a long time although I do think there are stronger characters in the team right now.
Project Youth wasn't a vanity project, it was a response to the stadium move. Maybe Wenger could have spent more in that era but I have no doubt he did what he did because he thought it best for the long term future of the club. And keeping us up there during that era while the billionaires ran amock and teams like Spurs and Liverpool spent big to try and get and stay into the top 4 was impressive.
Two years ago the new financial deals saw a clear change in transfer policy. The money was there, he started spending it. He failed to do that last summer, if that costs us then yes, it's on him.
Everything that happens is on him.
And tight now what's happening is we're 2 points off the top. We should be top but other teams are stumbling too. No-one has got a grip on the title so far this year, while we're in the mix I'll believe we have a chance.
What's changed, IMHO is Wenger's ambition. When he first arrived at our club he was essentially a nobody - and was motivated to show the world that he was a winner and an innovator - which he did. He supported and greatly facilitated the stadium project because this fitted with his own football philosophy - a self sustaining big successful club - but also correctly saw his own role as key to this, and saw the advantages this would bring in terms of his unparalleled control and influence.
What happened during this process and since is twofold. First - the rise of the billionaire mega clubs. Second the megalomania that happens invariably once driven people attain longstanding power. The first gave Wenger another reason to explain our failure to win things. While there is undoubtedly some validity in this - IMHO it altered Wenger's view of himself and his legacy. Instead of being remembered for innovating and winning things, he now sees himself as a champion of doing things the right way, and being perhaps the only manager among Europe's 'elite' who can achieve sustained success without the financial 'doping' that he despises.
But 'success' for Wenger now means 'competing' rather than winning the league. And with our despicable owner we are in a perfect storm - because The situation suits both sides ideally. Wenger gets the power and control he needs to indulge his principles (not to mention one of the highest managerial salaries in the world). Kroenke gets to use the club as a cash cow, and has little, if any interest in us winning anything. No accountability on one side; no questions asked on the other.
And so we fans are left in our perpetual Groundhog Day as also rans - being shown enough each season to keep enough of us hopeful/loyal, but never enough for us to arrest the drift away from greatness that we have been experiencing for a decade.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Completely disagree about his ambition, but do agree with this:
I think that could be a problem. One could argue that trying to do things the "right" way in the current climate is significantly more ambitious than throwing money around till you win stuff. Any idiot can do that, given enough money and time. The signings of Ozil and Sanchez were an immediate response to the new financial deals. That showed that him not signing big before that wasn't just idealism. He was probably over-cautious in that era but he seemed to be taking a longer term view which now sees in a very healthy financial position.
The signings of Ozil and Alexis don't show Wenger reverting to the methods of the past though, the methods that delivered on his philosophy of football and also delivered SUCCESS. He shirked on adding the additional pieces to complement two undoubtedly excellent signings. Theo could be one of those components, but we know all about his injury record and so does Wenger. Instead we have Bif, the antithesis of what is required up front to see a return to the aggressive, high tempo and dominant brand of football we used to play. He also failed, for the 10th season, to bring in the midfield general who could glue the whole thing together. Instead he plays Santi there, and good luck to Santi who had to learn a whole new game - he's done well but he's not the enforcer and the play maker we used to have in that role. Signing Ozil and Alexis and then chucking 50-70 mill on top as soon as those new finances came on tap, that was what was required. We all said it, we all knew it. Wenger thinks otherwise. Maybe he's planning to buy one of the required players per season, this season Cech, another valuable addition. But that means we get less from the players we have brought in while we wait for the team to come together over a protracted period. 2% away as always, we've laughed about that season after season but he has, indeed, kept us short.
The dopers have certainly made it more difficult but the idea a monkey with money can win the title doesn't stack up. Fergie put that idea to bed and look at the monkey van Gaal, how much is he spending and still intending to spend. The gypos have had a stream of chequebook managers and they have won titles, but they haven't bought a dynasty. There were several seasons, and you can include this season, where if we had not been Wenger's 2% short we could have challenged despite the doping. But Wenger didn't press when he had the opportunities and, as others have said, you have to look at his ambition and his priorities. With the amount of cash pouring into gypoland now, most of it not longer coming from the pockets of the owners but instead from third parties who want in on the action and the publicity, the gypos will soon be a self-sustainable operation themselves. The chavs are getting there too, albeit in a much slower and less impressive manner. So Wenger's idea of surviving on bread and water while the pennies stack up is not the only way to go and it could be argued it's the inferior route because we'll end up in the same position as the gypos but with none of the silverware to show for it.
Our big problem, we have a shit owner who has a track record of doing fuck all in a sporting context. He uses sport to squeeze earnings and build assets while missing all the underlying goals of sporting endeavour and excellence. Abramovic and the Arabs might be dopers and short-cut merchants, but at least they appear to have some understanding of what sport is supposed to be. Our greedy, inert, useless bastard is clueless. Arsenal is always expressed as a growing asset, always expressed in terms of security and sustainability and growth. This is banker talk, not football talk. Wenger appears to prioritise that mindset. In this respect he's ambitious beyond all others, like a fund manager who genuinely cares about returning a healthy pot, with the silver pot a secondary consideration and nice if we can get it . We are at 2% under minimal investment as always. The absolute minimum required to achieve the absolute acceptable minimum return and only after all expenditure is secured and then some by revenue. Ambitious it's not.
Für eure Sicherheit
Didn't Citeh make a profit in the last financial year, so doing things the "right" way. People always talk about transfer fees in terms of Wenger not spending but we had one of the largest wage bills. So that is where the money was spent and average young players Denilson etc in the hope they will come good. These guys were on very good money.
Its not all about money though otherwise Citeh or Chelsea would win every game. Good tactics, good on field attitude can win too. In the last decade we should have won more regardless of the actions of other teams. Top 4 was always the minimum as we were always top 4 in terms of wage bill.
Aye I don't think you can call it ambitious in the real sense when principles and balancing the books are the priority over success. In fact, once you have a manager with balancing the books as any kind of priority, then I think you are pretty much doomed to failure. And it is patently obvious as NQ says that we have a cynical prick of a venture capitalist in charge whose main difference from either the Arabs or the oligarchs is that he could not give a flying fuck whether his tenure sees our star slowly fade, as it is, as long as he keeps milking his asset. And IIRC, Wenger was always in support of Kroenke - unlike the one truly ambitious board member we have had in recent times - David Dein. I reckon Danny Fizman - whose love for the club cannot be denied - would be the first to recognise his mistake in selling out to Kroenke were he alive now.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Whatever you think about Chelsea and City their owners prioritise football and success first and then worked on the assumption that profitability would follow due to increased popularity around the world, in fact they've sold some of the shares to a Chinese company it appears to tap into that huge market.
We've basically spent little and achieved little, thus restricting our growth worldwide and our marketing has been pretty shocking on top of that, we've prioritised business over football thanks to Wenger and his cronies and haven't done it in the most efficient way possible either.
Wenger wants to always do things the right way and football and success in the real world is secondary to his view of success, CL qualification and restricting spending where possible basically.
He's a manager who just won't succeed in modern day football with his methods and what's more he won't acknowledge this or move on and let someone else have a go.
Last edited by Özim; 02-12-2015 at 02:04 PM.
Agree with all that. It might be a shame that football has become so cynical, but like everything else - and most big sport - these days success overrides doing the right thing every time, and Wenger is swimming against the tide.
One question I have asked myself a lot recently is which top European side would employ Wenger as manager - and I'm not sure any would - at least those clubs with any ambition. If the question was which venture capitalist would employ Wenger - then I think he may truly be the most sought after manager on earth.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I think the reason why Chelsea and City owners have had no option but to concentrate on success primarily before making money is because of the lack of modern prestige associated with the clubs. They both needed lifting out of the duldrums and a new history created for them, rather than relying on trophies won fifty years and players only popular in the domestic game.
Whereas for Arsenal, we already had a worldwide rep, making us perfect fodder for a couple of billionaires to come along, invest nothing and sit back to collect far sooner than the oil barons will be able to.
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