I know this might seem like a knee jerk reaction, but i'm curious about what level of support Wenger has at the moment. I still admire Wenger, and think he has been fantastic for the club, but over the past year, i've lost faith that he can take the club forward. He's had the chance, and hasn't delivered. Personally, i don't want to see him sacked, but at this point, i wouldn't mind if left on his own. Either now or after the season.
like i said in another thread, he probably should have stepped aside at least 1 year ago, maybe even 2, but most of us wanted to see him shake himself out of his rut. i've seen a hell of a lot of managers come and go, mostly at my local team(!) and i have to be honest, all the signs have been there for quite a long while now. if he's not going now (which is unlikely) then he better have this team right up there and fighting in all comps by xmas. if not, then i really can't see how he should get any more chances or why the club should waste another 6 months with him in charge until the summer. there's no point really, except to keep the seat warm for someone who is set in stone as a replacement but unavailable until next summer. what i can say for certain is that extending his contract right now would be certifiably insane.
The last few years I was concerned but behind the boss. At this point I genuinely think he has completely lost it. He has to go in order for us to truly move forward.
I've been moving towards Wenger out since 8-2. He's done an excellent job salvaging 4th place finishes, but it's the same pattern over and over again and I don't think he can get out of it.
I'm not fully behind either answer in the poll, so I can't decide which way to vote yet. I'm somewhere in between the two, but that fact I'm willing to entertain the thought of him leaving is a strong indicator of which way I'm leaning at the moment. My faith in Wenger has certainly started to waiver over the last couple years, but if the remainder of the transfer window is a bust, then I'll fully move toward the Wenger out side... What's concerning is that players used to run to us saying they wanted to play for Wenger. I can't remember the last time I read a quote from a player stating that. To me, I think that means he's lost his mojo in that area.
The fact that this is even a legitimate discussion speaks volumes about the state of the club right now.
I'm not sure I follow? I have to say I feel stupid for going back on my earlier Wenger out stance at the end of last season - the fight backs in 11/12 and 12/13 to scrape a CL place were impressive, but only meaningful if they were used as a platform for something better. Clearly, they have not been. As such, Wenger needs to go. At this point, the longer he stays, the harder it will be to recover when he leaves.
He will clearly be known as our best manager for many years to come. I will always remember him fondly for all the many goods no matter recent events. I can honestly see flashes of change in him lately, making tough decisions that did not seem to fall easily to him, whether it was benching Vermaelen, or cleaning house this off-season. But these changes occur too slowly and only in fits and starts. I strongly believe Wenger is calling the shots, I do not see the Board driving this bus; perhaps I am naive. This bus, Wenger, is stuck in third gear in an Autobahn world. I do not relish saying any of this. I am well aware of the risks involved with this drastic a change. Let the man finish the season.
i still feel wenger could be doing a very good job if their was a competent chief executive in place that could actually land transfer targets. the way he has guided the team to fourth the past couple of seasons after some very rough patches has been impressive. that still isn't good enough though. as the guy on arsenalfantv said, "either the board or wenger must go, if not both."
AW will always be considered an AFC great, but his time is up. He is stubborn, and fails to adapt to the opponents strengths and weaknesses. Time to go. He never recovered mentally from his screwed up substitution of Pires in the CL final vs Barca and I am sure his veteran cleanout of the invisibles still haunts him too. Some things he continues to do that I cannot stand anymore... Plays high line vs fast passing teams...cant do that to risky Continues to play with one solo forward up top, even when losing or playing weak teams... Unwilling to change formation to confront situation at hand Unable to convince superstar transfers to make the move Not willing to retain veteran talent, and blend in youth Fails to make early substitutions when player are under preforming or formation is not working! We all get more stubborn as we get older...he has climaxed in that area AW on his way to PSG or Monaco to retire in his homeland next year. As for me waiting for Klinssman to take over AFC after the WC2014 is over!
I repped rasta till he said klinsman then unrepped The guy is a legend and the debate has always been over wengers stubborness or is the board using him as a human shield and not giving him money. Witb gazidis around I blame all 3. Its time for wenger to leave, gazidis to fcuk off and kroenke to sell the club to someone who actually has an interest in football. The guy shows up twice a year and has other interests/sports teams. Inuding the nuggets who have recently been ruined. Wengers advantages are gone. Everyone has worldwide scouting networks. Everyone has state of the art training centres. Wenger is inferior to ferguson because he cant adapt his tactics and players. Our youth system is a shambles too for all the hype. A handfull of players even made it to shit prem teams, let alone our first team Fcuk knows who u replace him with but his time is up. He should go for a big payday with the french nt or psg etc
I've had it with him, he's made my club a laughing stock, stupid statements like'I will only buy better than we have' is he ********ing mental? I dont want an accountant at the helm of my club, the minute he started getting involved in that bollocks was the minute it started going wrong As for being a Legend, he could have been, should have been, but as it stands hes lost that right in my eyes. My throat still hurts from yesterday, but do any of those cigar puffing ********wits still have the hump today, I don't ********ing think so, probably still discussing the merits of the boardroom fare ! Poison cunts, the lot of em! ******** off all of you
My concern is as much for the board and the people Wenger has hired around him. He is charge of the footballing side of the team, stubbernly you could argue and deluded in what he believes. But the board allow this and either Wenger is being made a scapegoat for the clubs lack of monies, he is being told what NOT to spend it on or Wenger has to carry the can.
Been ready for a fresh start for about 2 years now. The RVP sale was the absolute straw that broke the camel's back. He brought us so high and I love him for it, but rather than spend a little money to help us compete again, he seems to have accepted defeat to the big spenders. Frustrating too because I honestly think we were 1-2 signings away from being title contenders when we had cesc and rvp. Those days are gone though. I'm concerned that his stature, stubbornness and legacy will make for a difficult transition though, unless he decides to step down.
For me, he must go but not because I 'hate' him or 'he doesn't know what he's doing', it's because I want him to be known as a legend. I want his lasting memory to be of the Invincibles, Bergkamp, Henry and out-thinking his rivals. These debacles, the 8-2, '4th place trophy' and losses to Bradford, etc. are just too sad an end for a man who did so much. Also, its not just Wenger that needs to go. You could bring in Mourinho and still have the same slack-jawed board and owner moving glacially along on every decision. The entire back room staff needs to be re-structured and re-vamped. Scouting (honestly whoever has been in France for us should be tarred and feathered for Park alone...), transfers and even the commercial partnerships departments need a serious clear-out. We have a long way to go before we're back in the sunshine and letting Wenger go to PSG or the French NT would be a nice start, IMO.
Wenger has to go at the end of the season, and has been needing to leave for a while. What ever passion he had for building teams, unearthing stars and proving his philosophy can work disappeared a long time ago, and he has spent the last 3 years playing whack-a-mole trying to fix the squad. He has looked like he is out of energy, out of ideas, and just defeated in general for some time. A change of scenery would do him some good, and I wouldn't be surprised if he returns to the Wenger of old at PSG (and I get the sense this summer debacle was a deliberate attempt to head back to France at the end of the season). Replacing Wenger and rebuilding will probably take a few years, and probably a change of ownership and the entire back office, but it needs to be done. This is a colossal screw up that will probably go down in history as one of the worst cases of mismanagement in the sport. This was supposed to be the easy part too. 3+ months, 80m, and a squad that has had the slate wiped clean of all the deadwood - not even Rafa or the wheeler dealer could have screwed that up.
At this point I am raging so badly hat I don't know who to blame. How about these questions first? Who is responsible for the fact that we signed just one player this close season? What players were we actually negotiating for? Why is the squad now dangerously small? Some good points made about Wenger. Past his best?..,. probably. The cause of the problem?.... don't know Part of the solution?... maybe How many years would it take a new guy to fix the problems. Eveeryone happy with that?
yep, despite maybe having to get rid of a manager or 2 after wenger before we find the right one. there's nothing to gain by keeping someone who can't or doesn't want to try to win anymore. i'll live with actually trying but failing before i'll live with just not trying.
Wenger is also more control-freakish in ways that have hurt us. SAF was a paranoid control freak to the extent that the players and a large part of the football support staff, had to acknowledge that he was in charge and submit themselves to him, but when push came to shove could delegate things if he had to. Wenger is worse in that he actually insists on doing x, y, and z personally. I don't think that our fan base has any appreciation to the extent which, as things stand, the progress of the club is constrained by logistics. We think we're constrained by money and to some extent we are, but we shouldn't reflexively assume that the problems we're having now are the same ones as the ones we had five years ago, or fifteen years ago. Military geeks have an acronym called the OODA loop, standing for Orient, Observe, Decide, and Act (part of the War on Terror was described as "getting inside the terrorists' OODA loop"). That diversion aside, that's exactly the problem we're facing at Arsenal at the moment. It's not that we don't have the money, or the stadium, or the history, or the squad or the fanbase to do this or that. We have those things. What we're really missing is the capability at the management level to create a plan to improve the club and complete the execution of that plan before some other club (probably with significantly less resources than us) outmaneuvers us and beats us to the punch. And for those of us who want Wenger fired, we should appreciate that even if that's the right move (and I think that it is), it's not a cure-all by any means and might very well make things worse in the short term. We are going to have to rely on people with more responsibility than they have heretofore exercised. And we are also going to have to figure out an organization of the club that is not dependent on Wenger being there. That latter one especially is going to be very difficult, since Wenger has integrated himself into the functioning of the club in ways that we'll only figure out when he's gone.
Wenger out. Preferably bring in Keown now as front office exec with the intent of easing Wenger out of the club at the end of the season with minimal disruption. Btw Anti, when some of us use the word "incompetent" to describe a particular person, we're not trying to play cute word games. It just means that the relevant person is incompetent.
Gazidis out too, though it's not all his fault, or even mostly his fault. It's like Vito Corleone explained in The Godfather, "Gazidis wasn't a bad consigliere, Kroenke was a bad don."