Im sure most supporters are willing to take a year or two just to sigh in relief as a new manager takes hold and has time to work. I know I would. If nothing else it changes the atmosphere if temporarily.
Simply saying that, over the course of a year, success usually aligns with wages. Unless the club spend more for better players, 4th place, knockout rounds of CL and the occasional FA Cup win is about where the team should end up.
If the right manager is appointed, I think all of us will be very okay with what happens the following season. If we win, great. If we don't? S'okay, we're building to bigger things.
Sam@samuelJayC Following More Arsenal board believe Wenger will finish season strongly with #afc & can take the club forward next season, @guardian_sport reporting. Sam@samuelJayC 40m40 minutes ago More Arsenal board does not see an adequate replacement manager for Wenger available. Board is calm & 2-year deal is still on table for Wenger. Sam@samuelJayC 40m40 minutes ago More Contracts for Ozil, Sanchez, Gibbs, Wilshere & Chamberlain all end in 2018 & no sign that any of them will stay as it stands. #afc 4 replies65 retweets24 likes Yeah but hey, Top 4 is awesome, CL yearly is awesome. Balance sheets baby!!!
Yeah maybe, if that's the tradeoff. I'm working on the assumption that we're going to be in the CL next year, with or without Wenger. I expect us to better in the short term without Wenger. In the last six weeks or so, there have been the clubs who have sacked managers: Hull, Swansea and Leicester. All of the old managers were well-regarded even for the clubs they were at, except Bradley. But even so, all of them have got a burst of energy and won some crucial games after replacing the manager. But nothing would really change in my mind as far as getting rid of Wenger even if we weren't in the CL. The real reason we need to get rid of Wenger as an immediate priority is to stabilize the squad. When you get down to it, I can't think of too many players who are in or close to the prime of their career, who aren't looking to leave (or be gotten rid of by the club). Really I can think of less than a half dozen out of our whole senior squad. The new manager will have to at least attempt to repair some relationships. Some players may have to be kept against their will. We will have to make intelligent purchases in the transfer market. We have to start moving on this as soon as possible.
He's not a great judge of talent. We needed a new dm for YEARS and either he still hasn't addressed it or he didn't until just now signing Xhaka, depending on your opinion. We needed a new cb for YEARS and it wasn't addressed until Mustafi. We have needed a new cf and a real, actual winger for YEARS and it's still not addressed. Then we can go on over the litany of players he hung on to and trusted for way too long. He has been done for awhile now.
Nothing would make him capable of taking us where we need and want to go. Nothing would make me happy for him to stay.
In the past this has been one of the items that has held me back. Not that I was fully supporting Wenger but rather accepting of the devil I know, as it were. (Let's be perfectly honest - Things could be FAR worse for Arsenal.) However, lately I've come to second guess myself based on one notion: If they're sitting around waiting for the right person then they're a) not focusing on making things right at the moment, and b) assuming the right person will be available soon and wanting to come to Arsenal (as opposed to something bigger/better). Are they wanting someone to keep grooming themselves before being deemed worthy of the crest? (Koeman? Howe?) Are they expecting someone to magically become available and interested? (Ancelotti?) I concede I don't see a perfect answer ready and waiting at the moment, but I think there are some that not only could rise to the occasion but that at the least the change would hit the "refresh" button that everyone needs. Players, coaching staff, board, fans, transfer targets. Especially the latter, for whom the better targets will look at the team now and be turned off by what they see and know to expect. Change for change's sake isn't always good, but in this instance it would force more people to be vested instead of relying on and/or placing all the blame on Wenger. Again, I'm not wishing the guy ill, I simply have lost all empathy for his plight because it's one of his own making. Arsenal will have to move on from him eventually. Waiting only puts off the inevitable and means we're stuck in purgatory till it finally happens.
IMO The club already missed the boat for a good time to transition. We are deep into decline and Wenger is not capable of rebuilding in any way that is advantageous for a new to the club future manager. His indecision and inflexibility only makes the situation worse because he does not adapt the system and play style to the players we have. it is much like cloning. Each subsequent clone is less of the sum of the previous one. The same goes for replacing a great player with a "cheaper" one. Your brand image and business can only take so much. After that threshold is crossed you are left with bad stigma.
I really hate the way the knives come out in threads like this. Should Arsenal be better than they are? Absolutely. Should Arsenal move on from Wenger? Yes. He's taken this team as far as it can go, and the time is right to move on. Is the sky falling? Absolutely not. Some of you guys (and you know who you are) act like we're Derby County ~ 2008. It's as if it's all you can do to avoid celebrating when we lose.
We could be Derby County 2020... I for one don't celebrate when we lose, but I do celebrate that it is another potential reason to move the club towards a different path regardless of the actors in the show. I don't give a damn who owns, overseas, runs, or manages Arsenal Football Club as long as we make a serious effort to compete and be successful on the football pitch. You can't compete or win anything you don't wholeheartedly try to.
No one's happy about the losses, but that's exactly the issue. The current Arsenal model is broken, a fact to which even you agree. Failure to recognize and tout that is akin to acceptance. Who wants to accept being unhappy?
I think it's broken, but it's broken in the sense that we've reached the ceiling at Arsenal, and we need to do something differently to get even better. The reality, though, is that Arsenal are a consistent good to very good, and we're upset because we expect excellence.
I'm not expecting excellence, I'm not even demanding it. I expect competence; in the last few years against European sides (hello Monaco, Anderlecht, Bayern, Olympiakos, etc.), they seem to FUBAR games in ways they shouldn't be if they were properly set-up and coached. This has been the repeat pattern of Wenger every single year in Europe: Wenger sets Arsenal up in a certain way and he expects his opponents to just lay down and accept that. When their opponents don't, Wenger throws up his arms in despair. He's had this mindset for too long of not considering how the other may play Arsenal and set up a plan B to counter that. That's bad coaching, that's a coach that doesn't do his proper homework against an opponent. You see how the press is murdering Unai Emery for how he set-up PSG v. Barca? They've been doing that on a smaller scale to Wenger every single year Arsenal play someone that sweeps the rug out from under them. It's sickening.
The fact that Arsenal board is offering wenger deal irrespective of what happens - is clear evidence that this club does not have ambition as the likes of united or Chelsea This goes beyond wenger
We have the funds to expect excellence. We have the ticket prices to expect excellence. We have enough of a global brand and marketing to expect excellence. We have the history that should expect excellence. Why should we not expect excellence?
I'm not saying we shouldn't expect excellence. We should. I'm saying let's have some perspective at the same time. One can be upset at the state of affairs and still realize that Arsenal are in pretty good shape moving forward.