Originally Posted by
Power_n_Glory
These guys are in their 70s and at retirement age. How can they tell Wenger about youth development? You've seen Wenger's prickly response to former players and ex managers when it comes to this sort of thing. He points to their credentials and talks as if their opinion isn't valid because they're experience doesn't measure up to his. I don't think PHW could walk on to the training field and make such an assessment about a players valuation. Wenger would just fire back and say he's been in this business for years and talk about the age of which a player physically and mentally matures in football (23) and justify why he's worth the wages.
You heard the talk about why RVP may not be worth a huge wage increase when he's approaching 30. He makes it all sound so scientific and precise. He puts forward a good argument and I doubt these guys could fire back with anything that would change his opinion. Plus, I still think they're all in awe of the man. We all used to get excited about Wenger's young players at a point and still do to an extent. Denilson looked like a fucking world beater when he first arrived. Diaby looked like the second coming of Vieira. Theo Walcott was tipped to be the next Henry! Shit, even Eboue had a moment where he looked like was top draw. We'd never predict in a few years that they'd turn to total shit. Heck, people had Song written off as a waste of space some years back and he's turned into a very good player and underrated on here. With youth players, it's a total gamble but Wenger makes it look like sure thing and people believed him. I can't fault the Board for thinking this guy would turn shit into gold. We all believed at one point.
Wenger is the expert in all this and gets paid well for his expert opinion. They shouldn't have to second guess him when it comes to the valuation of a player. The only way they'll know that he's getting it wrong is through long term results. Took a while for the fans to catch on to his pipe dream because the players he hallmarked as world beaters at 16/18 were still shit in their early 20's or couldn't even make it into the first team. He's had everyone focusing on the future, the future and in 3/4 years time, blah blah blah.....that time has come now and we're still not where he said we'd be. For us fans that watch every single game and scrutinise performances on the pitch, we've finally seen the pattern over the past 3 or 4 seasons. We had to hold up what we were seeing on the field against his words and talk about the future (2% away) to realise that it wasn't going to plan.
For the Board, I guess they'll see the pattern when our league position, wage bill and attendance figures start going up and down. He's very philosophical when comes to losing and always has an excuse. He could probably explain away the loses and results by pointing to City and co, the bad guys with more money than us and that sort of argument flips the attention right on to the Board. Instead of focusing on the results, they're planning trips to Asia and Nigeria, looking at ways to increase revenue without looking at the bloody results on the pitch and the manner in which we lose these days. Would be nice if they'd paid attention to football like Dein did, but how many CEO types do that in football with the managers backing? Wenger respected Dein and his opinion before joining Arsenal and I don't think he'd take advice from many other outside influences. He's had the same team together for years and won't even take Keown, Adams or Vieira on under his wing. I suspect they'd clash over what needs to be done in training. He's too stuck in his ways and it's his flaw. The Board will have to grow some balls and fire him. That's the one thing I will hold them accountable for. If they keep him in this job for too long after seeing all this then they're complete morons.
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