i was listening to a phone in today re: arsenal and wenger and, possibly surprisingly to some, there still seemed an almost 50/50 split on opinions of whether wenger should be given a new contract or got rid of. (ok, it's not the most representative data, i know, but there you go). one thing that struck me was just how far to either side of the middle the opinions were. i'd almost go as far as to say the 100% wenger out callers were creeping into the majority.
People will never be happy. I've said it a few times, but I think that we will look back upon this period in the Wenger era 15-20 years from now and be amazed with what he's been able to do with the financial constraints in place.
or people might look back at it, remember the squad being just a player or 2 short of a title and decry the level of austerity imposed by the club and/or wenger.
it doesn't matter what i think. there has been a (large) section of the supporters who, starting at various stages over the last few years, have had enough, want wenger out, don't trust the board and won't ever go back on that view.
or wrong.... but, you don't need to be right or wrong when talking about how history is viewed, so that's irrelevant.
to what exactly? to being right or wrong or to looking back on this period or to having a view now? my mention of it is "being right or wrong being irrelevant to how history is perceived". fact is, whether it bugs you or not, right now a lot of arsenal fans aren't arsene fans. a small example: many man utd fans think their club was always massive. it's complete bollox, but that's what many will believe. you might tell your kids about how arsene fought against all the odds and believe you are right, where some other arsenal fan will tell his kids arsene was allowed to stay far too long and wasted good chances to push for a title. each of those 2 kids will grow up believing what is told to them to be truth.
That will only happen if we never know who was behind the finacial restrains, the board/fanancial situation or Arsene. Because if we do then it's about facts, not parents telling their children their opinion. You give Man Utd as example, but you can prove with facts that they were not always what they are today.
you think facts dictated how history was written? those most influential dictated how history is portrayed to us now, not what the reality was. anyway, why am i being dragged into potential future opinions when i only stated a current observation?
i could reply, but it seems pointless to explain why a postulation isn't a black and white definite or why what is remembered as history may not fully convey or report what actually happened from all viewpoints. neither of these actually matter right at this moment in time.
I don't really find it that hard to believe. Wenger is clearly a man of ideals and it's not a stretch to think he had (has?) an ideal of building a team a certain way.
He certainly did. He talked years ago about building a team that would grow up together and have a special connection to each other and the club. But all those players f#cked off, and Wenger has had to go back to the drawing board. To be fair, it was an experiment, and probably a necessary one at the time, but it ultimately failed and i'm sure Wenger sees that. The only question is whether he is prepared to shell out big money, we've heard rumors of big bids in the last year or so, but he still hasn't closed a massive deal.
of what? being against wenger/board? actually it appeared to be generally the opposite. it seemed to be mostly longer term fans from the pre-wenger era who felt able to say we should change. of course it's all anecdotal, but i'd have to say i found the same.
I see no difference between the glory hunters and shall we say Graham or earlier days. Which fan of a club, after seeing his team succeed, would not want that to continue or question the competence of a manager who once brought that success? If people are saying the "Arsene out" view is unfounded, well that's bollocks. i think due to getting 4th, things have lightened slightly, but I suspect many remain sceptical.
Yes it is. The Fabregas, Van Persie, Flamini, Clichy, Senderos, Denilson, Djourou, Bendtner generation is over, and they didn't win shit for the club.