Here is a fairly lenghty interview from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/07/arsene-wenger-arsenal-interview Some interesting quotes:
Re: Interview with Wenger Arsene gives the best interviews around. Without question, he's the smartest guy in the business. A Professor if you will.
Re: Interview with Wenger I don't know that I'd say he's the smartest guy in the business (as much as I hate to admit it, Fergie's pretty smart too, and Mourinho's no dummy), but he gives incredibly candid and articulate interviews, and he appears to do it wholly without ego, which the other guys really can't do. The result is that you see interviews that are informative, and educational to read.
Re: Interview with Wenger "I travelled at the World Cup a lot, you cannot imagine how popular Arsenal is in the world," he says. "It is massively important to me that we win titles, but there's something as well deeper and stronger in the way we play, the policy we have. The fact we do not only inject money is hugely respected all over the world." Oh dear.
Re: Interview with Wenger Not judging him as a manager of people (as you say there are some great ones out there), but as someone who understands the the big picture. Remember who revolutionized the game. He's a student of culture as much as he's a student of the game. For me, if there's a guy who understands how all the pieces fit together, it's him. As he says in the interview, Arsenal's financial standing is down to his philosophy. I know as fans we always want to make it about the table and trophies, but I'd take our place over any other club in the world. He saw this day coming a long time ago. Clearly others didn't.
Re: Interview with Wenger Saw what coming? Not winning trophies after the move? Ya, I don't think any of the fans saw that coming. No doubt that Wenger revolutionized the game and the Arsenal, I don't think anyone is asking him to go crazy and spend insane money, but selective investment to balance the youth policy would have resulted in trophies. I don't understand the stubborn attitude of being that close but refusing to take it to the next level. From a business side, everyone respects him because Wenger has been able to get maximum profits from no investment. Every owners wet dream.
Re: Interview with Wenger So true. It's like he's been doing everyone else's job when, in theory, he just should be coaching a team.
Re: Interview with Wenger I know. I'm not "in the know" about these thing, so this comment could be as ignorant as they come, but I dont understand what Gazidis does. I thought he was brought in to run the business and to leave Wenger time to run the team, but it seems like this huge club still is run by one man. There is too much power in one man's hands. I used to worry about that one man being the owner of the club (I've always advocated plurality), but it seems like Wenger has managed it without putting his own money up.
Re: Interview with Wenger Arsene's a legend, but it's his own fault we've won shit since 2005. 2006, Champions League final notwithstanding was always a transitional season. The same was true with 06/07. But 07/08, he as the manager had the means to instill more mental strength in the players. 08/09, he himself admitted his youth only policy wouldn't work. 09/10, more mental strength and a lack of signing experience (Vermaelen aside) cost us.
Re: Interview with Wenger Unless a miracle happens and we win something this year, I think Arsene is pretty much done. He is a great coach and has done well over the last 14 years or so but we need to move on. I hear USMNT needs a development minded coach ;-)
Re: Interview with Wenger Wenger & Bergkamp are the reasons I fell in love with Arsenal. I can't even imagine the day without that man at the helm. Love our club, would love a CB and GK but all in all, i still see us finishing in the top 3/4 and securing CL football for next year. The eternal optimist in me, sees us finally maturing and Fabregas playing balls to the wall for a title so he can leave on top, with Wilshere and Ramsey waiting in the wings to take up his mantle.
Re: Interview with Wenger With all due respect Wenger is an amazing coach but I think he would be best suited as sporting director. He has been key in implementing various activities in the club from highbury flats, new stadium. However I think he has lost his competitive edge, he used to buy targets based on talent but I think his transfers are now based on who he can work with. Surely we could have signed several central defenders but despite wenger having the funds and resources which he claimed were substantial. he has resisted making big money signings but every coach from mourinho, fergie and ancelotti knows it is is necessary to spend big to win big. Man city are just one of the competitiors making the epl more competitive without a winning mentality and desire to invest in the squad can we compete for a title next season?
Re: Interview with Wenger Also his fault that you got so spoiled from his massive successes over his first 8 years that you are complaining now. Prior to Wenger, our longest run of success was five straight years in the top four. That was 1930-1935. We are now on our 14th straight year in the top 4. Has he made mistakes? Sure. But to throw away a fourteen year run of success because we haven't kept up that stream of silverware that we only learned to expect because of Wenger seems like a lesson Icarus already learned for us. We are in a new world now. The Chelsea's and Man City's changed the balance of power and money isn't going to save us now. We need to have the smartest guy leading us and I think that's what we have. Sure you can point to a couple of seasons where a buy to two might gotten us over the hump but how do we know any other manager would have even gotten us close enough that such things are debated?
Re: Interview with Wenger How have I become spoilt? Times change in football, and what is wrong with consistent success? I think the idea of being "grateful" of success is a redundant one, and it is the biggest clubs with the most resources will become successful. We certainly meet that criterion. In the pre-BSkyB/EPL era, the pressures and rewards of winning trophies was not as high as it is now.
Re: Interview with Wenger You have become spoiled because you think that winning silverware every year is a realistic expectation. The reason you think that is because your Arsenal support has been during an outrageously un-Arsenal period under Wenger. Were it not for him, you wouldn't have that expectation. "...biggest clubs with the most resources will become successful." We are only one of the biggest clubs because of Wenger. Chelsea is only one of the biggest clubs because of the rubles and Man City because of oil. Our success, like it or not, is down one man and not because of his bank account. Winning trophies has become a bigger deal in selling a brand in the new world order but it doesn't change the fact that Real Madrid, Barca, Man Utd, Chelsea, and Citeah have more money than us. If you have a few billion sitting around to even up the odds, great, we'll take it. But otherwise, the only way to compete, as I see it, is Wenger's brains and long-term planning.
Re: Interview with Wenger Again, times change, as do general expectations of success. I think most larger clubs expect continuous success, it's simply part of modern football. The whole point of us moving to the new stadium was to gain the money to compete better. In terms of revenue, we rival the other big European clubs. Once the debt levels fall, then we would have more funds to buy players. Besides, you talk of Wenger's brains, but his most successful periods as manager with us were when he bought experience and melded it with youth. Overmars, Henry, Pires, etc. were all players at the top level before joining us. Since 2005, he largely had abandoned that, and saying that the stadium cost us is false. how come he was able to buy Arshavin for around 10 million pounds? How come Vermaelen has come good, and didn't cost much in the grand scheme? Arshavin's signing saved his hide in 08/09; he himself must know that.
Re: Interview with Wenger How is that not a realistic expectation? That's why they play the game. Period. Winning drives all the revenues and ultimately the brand. It's as if they've plateaued, and gotten complacent with just finishing in the same spot year after year. While I'm sure that satisfies the boardroom, it sure as hell doesn't satisfy the players or fans. I think we'd all be happy with a compromise on Wenger's spending habits. I personally have the utmost respect for his fiscal responsibilty, but at what point is he just being stingy or cheap? He has done a tremendous job building a club that consistantly competes for silverware, but a couple quality signings could easily push them over the top. Nobody is asking for them to drop Madrid-like cash...just do SOMETHING to improve those glaringly obvious holes in your team.
Re: Interview with Wenger sorry, your second sentence put this in my head... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMk5sMHj58I"]YouTube- Herm Edwards- Greatest Coach Ever!‎[/ame]
Re: Interview with Wenger well, to be fair, 4th isn't really success, it's just a lesser failure. in terms of silverware, during my lifetime (i'm 41 btw) we have went from exactly 1 trophy every 3 years pre-wenger era to exactly 1 trophy every 2 years during wenger's era, all of them in his first 9 years it should be noted, so in some respect we are more spoilt but not astonishingly so. surprisingly enough, this is currently the 3rd longest period of not making any final in my lifetime, another season without a final and it becomes equal 2nd longest. we shouldn't be looking back at this period with regret in, say, another 20 years just because our manager refused to slightly strengthen the squad that could have been, but ultimately failed at, winning silverware. not for the sake of a couple of players. wenger's pride and fiscal prudence isn't worth that. the frustrating thing is that most of us agree that the squad IS close to winning something, but yet at the same time most of us also think it likely won't, purely because it seems to need a couple of positions strengthened.
Re: Interview with Wenger Wenger's main problem is his stubbornness. We are two players away from a legitimate shot at any trophy and he is probably trying to nickel and dime until the end when we have money to spend. While I like the guy tremendously, I believe he has a huge problem "overpaying" for players. I wish once he would just sack up, overpay for a world class goalie and CB, and realize its not the end of his well-principled world.
Re: Interview with Wenger When you say we have gone from winning one every 3 years to winning one ever 2 years, I think you miss how great a difference that is. From 1970-1996, we won 9 trophies in 26 years for a trophy per year average of .35 or about 1 every three. Since 1996, we have won 7 trophies in 14 years or .5 trophies per year for the 1 trophy every two years number you mentioned. If we went trophiless for another 6 years under Wenger, only then would we have a rate that reaches the same as before he arrived (7/20 = .35). That is a measure of how great the early Wenger era was that we could go without a trophy for 10 straight years and still have the same success rate in the Wenger years as we had before he arrived. Yes, we have had a bad run of five years without a trophy and it sucks. But we don't have Man Utd's brand, we don't have Roman's billions and they are the only clubs that have out performed us. And we can say that we were a player or two away from winning something and blame Wenger for not buying those players but let me ask a question: whose genius was it that got us within a player or two? Would be be better off trading him in for someone who would have placed us three or four players away? Five or six? We are financially stable, we play great football, and we are putting together a team and a club built for long-term success. Only because Wenger has been so great can we afford to nit-pick a thing here and there. Not saying we shouldn't criticize Wenger, just saying that stories of his death have been greatly exaggerated.
Re: Interview with Wenger And Lamb, I think you make excellent points. I have no issue with criticisms of his lack of buying and wishing that perhaps a move here or there would have made a serious difference. It was more the calls for Wenger's dismissal than I question not points about the mistakes that he has made (and he has made mistakes, no doubt).
Re: Interview with Wenger Well, when you in a financial debt and you have a guy with an economics degree around...