Match reacton - Soton

[Niall_Quinn]

Kroenke has no ambition beyond the cash.

Wenger can say whatever he wants but he's shown beyond any reasonable doubt he has no ambition beyond the cash.

These are the scumbags setting the tone for the club. And we expect greedy young egomaniac footballers to come in and fight for the club?

"We don't want his sort here", very true.

Murdoch, Abramovich, Kroenke, the Arabs, the scum at UEFA and FIFA - AND the central bankers and politicians, don't leave them out. Damn right we don't need their sort here, in our game, in our country.

The product (whatever product) is now 50 times more expensive and a tenth of the quality. Price inflation, entertainment deflation. You can't stand up at games. Don't shout the wrong thing, let's call diving "professional", let's pretend the utter gash we saw yesterday when the mancs sent out their two mercenary units is a premium product. Hype, hype and mountains of cash. That's what it's about now.

Of course we've lost our way.

[Cripps]

NQ's back

Had to work overdrive last week to hit his deadlines after 3 weeks of shirking and is now back to shirking

[Letters]

Unsurprisingly, I don't agree that Wenger is just interested in cash. If he is then he sure wastes a lot of it on high salaries for mediocre players.
I think he wants to win the biggest prizes but he doesn't have the ability to.

[Niall_Quinn]

Unsurprisingly, I don't agree that Wenger is just interested in cash. If he is then he sure wastes a lot of it on high salaries for mediocre players.
I think he wants to win the biggest prizes but he doesn't have the ability to.

Sure he does. That's why he says no to Mbappe and gets Sanogo instead. That's why he created the Top 4 Trophy. Keep that cash rolling in and he keeps his job, which is his life. He's had HOW MANY chances to mount a challenge? Guess he must have been unlucky every single time. Used to be we'd pretend to mount a challenge for at least part of the season. Now we flounder around in 4th, 5th, 6th and talk about "tough fights" for the Top 4 Trophy.

Not an ounce of ambition anywhere to be seen - beyond the personal and self interested ambition of Arsene Wenger.

[Letters]

He didn't create the top 4 trophy, UEFA did that by expanding the CL so that the top 4 qualify and making the prizes for doing so large enough that it becomes every top half of the table team's ambition.
Wenger didn't create that situation but he does benefit from it as it means failure to land the biggest prizes still carries big financial rewards and that keeps his bosses happy.
The failure to mount serious title challenges is not bad luck, he's just not able to properly compete.
In the current climate we will never be able to outspend City, Utd or Chelsea so I don't believe any manager will have us sweeping all before us on a consistent basis but we should be getting a lot closer in the league and our European record under Wenger is indefensible. Change, we need. But I think that change needs to happen at board level as well as management level ideally.

[Özim]

Sure he does. That's why he says no to Mbappe and gets Sanogo instead. That's why he created the Top 4 Trophy. Keep that cash rolling in and he keeps his job, which is his life. He's had HOW MANY chances to mount a challenge? Guess he must have been unlucky every single time. Used to be we'd pretend to mount a challenge for at least part of the season. Now we flounder around in 4th, 5th, 6th and talk about "tough fights" for the Top 4 Trophy.

Not an ounce of ambition anywhere to be seen - beyond the personal and self interested ambition of Arsene Wenger.

Precisely, 17 points behind the league leaders by December and he doesn't even seem that bothered to be honest, our season has been awful and he's doing his best to deflect away from that.

I think you can see how good top 4 is now, pretty much every team is stuttering losing/drawing games making top 4 very achievable, we've been awful this season and somehow we're still in the hunt, just shows how little an achievement it is other than financially.

[Letters]

Precisely, 17 points behind the league leaders by December and he doesn't even seem that bothered to be honest.

What is your basis for saying that?

[selassie]

What is your basis for saying that?

Wenger's recruitment and lack of planning tells us all we need to know about his ambition or lack of it. The title was conceded before a ball was even kicked because Wenger is doing the absolute bare minimum in attempting to improve us.

We are are in a fair position to be honest, this team is no better than 5th, maybe even 6th place, it's not surprising even though Wenger regularly comes out with his excuses telling the whole world how unlucky we are. It's just hollow platitudes, boring rhetoric.

As others have said, this season is just the same as every single season, boring boring.

[Niall_Quinn]

He didn't create the top 4 trophy, UEFA did that by expanding the CL so that the top 4 qualify and making the prizes for doing so large enough that it becomes every top half of the table team's ambition.
Wenger didn't create that situation but he does benefit from it as it means failure to land the biggest prizes still carries big financial rewards and that keeps his bosses happy.
The failure to mount serious title challenges is not bad luck, he's just not able to properly compete.
In the current climate we will never be able to outspend City, Utd or Chelsea so I don't believe any manager will have us sweeping all before us on a consistent basis but we should be getting a lot closer in the league and our European record under Wenger is indefensible. Change, we need. But I think that change needs to happen at board level as well as management level ideally.

UEFA created the top 4 qualifying spots. Wenger turned qualification into a trophy.

"The first trophy is to finish in the top four, and that's still possible. I believe finishing fourth is vital for us, so let's focus on that."

Of course, if you focus on winning the title then top 4 is a given, rather than a trophy in and of itself. Wenger couldn't be clearer about where his priorities lie. Okay, maybe he does have ambition beyond his own position. His ambition is to be second best, in fact 4th best will do. His ambition is to be a loser. Over the years he's trained the board, the players, the fans to accept and even glorify second best and second rate. That's why players like Sanogo can take to the pitch in our shirt. Second rate in terms of ambition for the club (except the finances where we are always world class), second rate in terms of the team, always short (literally these days), always "nearly" doing shit, always failing when it really matters. Even the FA Cup, sure, that's a trophy. Not THE trophy though. It's the also-rans consolation prize. The pinnacle for the second tier - at least when the genuine contenders don't hoover it up on their way to the main prize.

These are just the facts. We are world class when it comes to raking in the cash. Second rate at everything else. And Wenger is proud of it, he boasts about it. What a loser.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Hard to disagree.