in fairness, though, they've not left benitez in charge all this time. i mean, the issue, it seems to me, isn't so much that arsenal haven't won anything in seven years as much as that wenger's arsenal haven't won in seven years, and yet they keep on with him. and if you'll remember back when rafa got the sack, he was getting plenty of 'drought grief' - and it wasn't anywhere near seven years. woy got grief from theirs in no time (not that he had standing, of course) ... and i think we'll even see king kenny (who's got plenty of standing - and now silverware) come under severe pressure within a year or two if they continue at their current level. in other words, if they'd gone seven years with no trophies under any single manager, the calls for his head would dwarf what wenger gets ... in my opinion, of course. as an aside, the example of liverpool and benitez, then, doesn't exactly augur well for the 'wenger out' crowd, it may be worth noting.
Rafa got fired because Liverpool finished 7th and he and the owners had a falling out. I think 7th would have been ok, but when he fell out with those cowboys that was it for him. I think Rafa would still be in charge of Liverpool were it not for those parties falling out because the fans still love him.
Yup, they fired him for finishing seventh. Nearly two years and millions later, they're still in seventh.
wow! do you know the definition of fickle? i have to say you really embarrassed yourself with that post. way to put forward a cogent and persuasive argument.
Do you really believe the narrative that the man is sitting on a pile of cash but is too stubborn to use any of it? Do you believe he truly wants to spend the final years of his career undermining his own legacy?
Rewinder: you could easily argue that in terms of pure talent, Wenger lost two of his three best players last Summer. And he got nothing remotely in the same class back in return. How would your rivals have fared if the same had happened to them? Would City be king of the hill if they had lost Silva and Yaya Touré last Summer? Had Modric left, would Spurs currently find them in third position?
The issue with wenger this year imo is mainly transfers and too many injury prone players if we had signed our newbs pre season we would be a fair few points better off and wouldn't have that shameful 8 to 2 loss on our record. wenger desperately needed a playmaker this season as ramsey is too young and inconsistent, imagine we had signed someone like willian? We are desperate for wing depth, chambo addressed that but then we let arshavin go with no replacement! madness! rvp getting injured would mean no top 4 for us too, after him we have chamakh and park lol I will judge wenger in may, I do love the guy but we still have a lot to do to finish top 4 and the Milan result was sickening. I really hope we bring in more experience andat least one world class player in august, otherwise its groundhog day
You say the select few, I say the few he selected. I'd say Wenger's biggest mistake was Cesc, but I know many won't agree with me. He was never going to be here for long, even my mum figured this out one night over dinner while me an my dads discussed football, so why make him such a huge piece of the Arsenal puzzle. Short of some uninspired play combined with a shit formation in Milan, a slip by Verm, and no Mert organizing the a back for thats played together what 3- 4 times in 2 calender years, the team has been pretty good since Chelsea away. We're not going to have runaway victories every game. Sometimes you just don't win. The invincibles choked, arguably the best team in modern history, the kind of team that comes about one every decade choked, and lost the title. That we've managed to do so well in a more competitive league with players of drastically different backgrounds coming building during a season speaks volumes about the work that they and Wenger have put in. As we can see at Chelsea a good team won't cover for a poor manager and a poor manager won't cover for a shit team. We're finally playing at around this teams potential. We have a healthy mix of experience, talent, work ethic, and youthful energy. If Bendtner doesn't suck we go through against Barca. No body else remembers that shit what they rememeber is Barca won and we lost. The best team of the last 3 -4 years was one shitty striker away from going out to Arsenal. What happened today is we won, with our players and Wenger as manager. Against a Liverpool team playing desperately for the chance to play for 4th, having the same difficulties we had a few years ago, when you were also critizing Arsene for being shit. (Hitting post, missing shots, goal keepers having good games, etc) So we were shit then and they great but unlucky now? Give me a break. This is the characteristic I've critizied Arsene's teams for not having the ability to go behind, and still win. I'm quite happy to congratulate Arsene and the team for finding the pride in themselves they should have had years ago. That pride and self belief will take this team far, and will have a trickle down effect through the youth ranks. "We are the GUNNERS and we won't be beat by the likes of you!"
Essentially, yes. Certainly that's the line management has told us. If Arsene Wenger wants a player, there are funds available, etc., &c. And in fact it's his own ego and judgment of his legacy that keeps him from doing it. If Theo Walcott or Denilson are successful at Arsenal, then Wenger gets the credit because those players were nothing before Arsenal. If Juan Mata, Scott Parker, or Grant Holt come here and do well, then they are just good players.
We should should have acquired Juan Mata in July but didn't. Barring that, we had a great summer transfer-wise. Even the misfires won't cost us very much if they are circulated out of the club appropriately. I give Wenger credit for that. It's everything else that Wenger's fkkked up.
Yep. No caprice here. It took a long time for me to want Wenger gone, it will take a lot more than this to want him to stay. Fire at will, Gunners. Beat Liverpool, beat Tottenham. Wenger out.
Always remember, we do NOT have a divine right to success, silverware & sunny days. The Arsenal is for Life, NOT just for Glory.
well, if wenger got the sack and his successors did no better than rafa's, you can bet arsenal fans would 'still love wenger' a few years down the line. at the time, liverpool supporters were really starting to split on benitez ... not entirely unlike what's happening at yours. i don't think there's any way he'd still be there without having won something, but hey, neither of us knows, so your position's as good as mine. regardless, my only point was in response to anti's claim that there didn't seem to have been as much criticism of liverpool going 6 or 7 years without silverware as there has been for arsenal. and fair enough, maybe there hasn't been ... but it's not been the same manager/strategy in place there the whole time, so it's not the duration of a single structure's shortcomings that draws attention. liverpool's been stuggling in alot of ways for a long time now, and everybody knows it - and criticizes it. but you can't point a finger at anyone there and say "it's been seven years!", because no one there has been there seven years. so the criticism just takes different forms. i'm just guessing arsenal gets the 'seven years' stick because it's the same strategy that's failing to pay off over and over, unlike liverpool (and most every other club), who get it wrong in a wider variety of ways.
Yup. The fact that we've managed to actually be in contention for trophies throughout the seven year stretch (Champions League final, Carling Cup Final, first place in the Premier League) only serves to magnify the disappointment. Analyzing the situation rationally shows Arsenal over-performing. However, Arsenal fans are paying more money than almost everyone else have nothing to show for it. I guess it's just unfair.
Because last season's team was a complete disgrace? And the first time we played like we are Spurs? I think whether or not last season's team is "stronger" talent wise is highly debeatable, we made a lot of good buys in the summer and to me we have more than made up for the lost of Cesc, Nasri and Clichy. But we have achieved nothing and even a 3rd or 4th place is at best trending water. There's a limit to how far you can trend water before you lose your patience and ask why you aren't swimming to somewhere. If Wenger is to ever give us a 7th place finish you can be sure he will be packing his luggage too. Heck you could say the same about Fergie.
Just curious, but do you consider Redknapp a significant upgrade from Martin Jol? I see your point, but i don't see why switching managers every few years earns you a pass. Does the clock reset every time you fire a manager? If that were the case, you could go 50+ years without winning the league, and it would just be accepted. Nah, people were bitching as far back as 2006. True that the frustration level is much higher now, but i still think we are heading in the right direction. BTW, how are you feeling now? The league is gone obviously, and that 4 point lead has got to feel tenuous right now also. Not saying you jinxed it or anything, just saying...
if it were accepted then you wouldn't have managers fired in the first place. when managers get fired when reasonable targets for a club (each will have different reasonable expectations, some have unreasonable ones) are not met, then people can at least say they were trying to improve by removing a manager they had lost faith in to achieve those expectations. this isn't directly a "foam at the mouth" attack on wenger, but it is a fact that can't be disputed: arsene wenger has overseen the longest period without a trophy by a single arsenal manager since george morrell, who went just over 7 years between 1908 and 1915. can being continually "quite good but not quite good enough" really be seen as successful? is it a reasonable expectation for arsenal to go 7 years without a trophy and yet keep the same manager who hasn't taken them any further forward?
Why are you posting here Pook? Is it the total lack of humour on the People's Democratic Republic of Tottenham board - has Kim Jong Dribble banished you?
The only Scottish manager I would take is Billy Reid, but that is only so he could manage the U-18s when Bould and Co get promoted.