One would think he's a bumbling idiot from that reasoning you've given.Originally Posted by LDG
One would think he's a bumbling idiot from that reasoning you've given.
A bumbling masochist, more like it.One would think he's a bumbling idiot from that reasoning you've given.
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
No, that isn't a co-incidence. The new financial deals have meant we have a new spending power, we've been signing a higher level of player and that has yielded immediate results. I do agree that we should have pushed on this summer, Wenger has always valued stability too highly in my view but unless he does make an 11th hour signing he's made his decision and will live or die by it. I reckon Wenger has a point to an extent - in theory there should be plenty of goals in this team. I also agree that a real top class striker would have pushed us on and Giroud and Welbeck aren't going to win you the league.
He's always been a stubborn sod but overall he's got more right than wrong over his time with us. I don't think he's knowingly made wrong decisions but I do think he's always taken a longer term view, he could have spent more but he didn't want to put us (as he saw it) in short term financial difficulties. Personally I think he could have spent more but he's shown with Ozil and Sanchez that when the money is there he's not averse to spending it.
Overall he's going to leave us with a lot of good memories and in great financial shape for whoever comes in. It would be nice to think he'll go out with another title, I doubt he will but at least the 2 FA Cups will go some way to mitigate a decade of frustrations. He doesn't deserve some of the disrespect he gets on here. Arsenal fans suck the cocks of here today, gone tomorrow players who we all know in the back of our minds will be kissing another badge in a few years. Meanwhile they massively disrespect the man who has won us more trophies than any other manager, kept the skip steady during a massively complex stadium move and who has clearly only wanted the best for the future of the club. We should be preparing for his departure, but I don't really think he should be told to 'f*** off'.
But he doesn't live or die by his decisions - he lives every year. Who's going to make him die by his decisions, not the board who are shit scared of upsetting the financial apple cart.
That's a fair point
The board seem to have set his target as top 4 - it's been opined on here that Wenger has a job for life at Arsenal which is balls in my view, he's stayed because he's met his targets. We can debate whether the board's targets should have been higher but I reckon had we slipped into mid table he'd have long since been sacked.
Whether the board will have higher targets now the financial constraints have been lifted remains to be seen, I suspect not, but the fans' target is loftier so that is how Wenger will be live or die in terms of opinion if not in terms of his job. Right now while Internet twats ™ (no offence, like) have turned against him I don't think that is reflected in the mood in the ground. The crowd could seriously turn against him if we have many more games like West Ham.
Not looking forward to this game, it's going to be tough.
1-2
2-2, because Per Mertesacker.
That is where I do find myself in agreement with you, and actually at a stretch I think this is why the results are better when 4th place is in doubt, things do change performances are more professional.....and although it's not the full answer it's a good indicator of why we cannot sustain a title challenge, because the bar is set too low and the pressure isn't applied
Wenger even himself admitted he's been under more pressure when top four was on the line
In any high profile job, you have to have rewards for success and consequences for failure and the board I'm sure believe that too, but a) This won't stir them out of their laisse faire approach to the team and b) they don't want to rock the boat whilst we are getting top four and it's abundantly clear that whilst the promise of premier league title challenge teasingly remains it's not having an adverse effect on our ability to sell out our stadium on match day.
This is valid if the focus of the board is on the football pitch. Many times I have watched a board operate and wondered what sort of drugs they are taking. All the shit that they generate over and above the stated goal of the business. To the extent that sometimes they even place that goal in jeopardy while they fight it out for pecking order, their conceited "visions" and all other manner of personal ambitions. We saw this happen at Arsenal when the last board were stuffing the wheelbarrows ready for departure, we saw it before with Dein and certainly there is still some element of it taking place with the jostling between Kroenke, Usmanov and this Nigerian bloke who has been making himself known over the last few weeks.
I wonder if the main focus of Arsenal is football?
A good board with a good executive and a good structure that extends all the way down with everyone focused on a clear plan of action is rare becoming increasingly unlikely as a company grows. This is why football and business don't mix, or sport and business in general. Their goals compete, they don't align. Unfortunately the closest we have seen to a proper alignment is, hate them or hate them, the chavs. They have a dictator at the top who has a genuine interest in the game, attends the matches, lives and breathes the results. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for the rest of us or nobody would ever catch them) the man at the top likes to micro manage and that's their downfall.
Arsenal is the other way around, a board that doesn't seem remotely (and they are certainly remote) interested in football. Combined they make Abramovich look like a pauper but minus the love of the game none of that wealth has come our way. And we have a manager who loves the game but manages upwards rather than down onto the pitch. It's really fucked up, like a cigar club that happens to have a footie team.
It can't be easy for Wenger behind the scenes but how much of it has he brought on himself? He has to want to be involved in all the areas he really shouldn't be involved in. It would be perfectly legitimate for him to bow out of all that shit and focus on the football but that hasn't happened. Does he not trust the guys at the top? Is he on a power trip himself? Does he think he can merge the interests of business and sport (good luck with that)?
Sport at the highest level is about absolute focus and total commitment to excellence. Every ounce of every resource is poured into the pursuit of the goal, whetehre it's a gold medal, a yellow jersey (Which is why Armstrong's betrayal cuts so deep), the Champions league trophy.
We don't have that, do we? The absolute focus and the total commitment to the claimed goal. Wenger is at the heart of the problem, but it's not just him. For all their financial results and fancy stadiums and bold proclamations, this board doesn't love Arsenal. Their words say yes, their actions say the opposite.
Für eure Sicherheit
We haven't lost our first 2 games of the season for 23 years, lets try and make it 24 today
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