Wenger and his European Dreams by Sumo
“I can’t imagine finishing my life(career) without winning the European Cup”
-Arséne Wenger, to L’Equipe in 2003.
What is the most disappointing portfolio Arsenal has which makes you go mad and want to bite them when fans of other club mentions/taunts you with it-
A) Selling best players. [Thank god we can put it to rest now]
B) One(two) trophy in 9 years.
C) No UEFA Champions League.
For me, the last one generally does it. When its mentioned by rival fans, I get bitter and most of the time walk away.
If that’s my state, can you imagine our manager? Yes, Mangers are professionals and masters of emotions, and sentiments can’t supersede their judgements. But listening to our manager week in week out, I feel I can comprehend some of the things said. I strongly believe that UEFA Champions League is the only trophy that Wenger wants the most, yes, even more than the Premier League.
Now I don’t claim to be a face reader, but believe in a pattern. Many of you may already know this but let me show you a pattern today.
To distinguish lets make assumption of Highbury Days(1996-2006)and Emirates Days(2006-present).
We will only talk of European results.
Highbury Days:
1996-97: UEFA Cup, went out in 1st round.
1997-98: UEFA Cup, went out in 1st round.
1998-99: Failed to make it out of the group stage in the UEFA Champions’ League.
1999-00: Failed to make it out of the group stage in the UEFA Champions’ League(UCL). But Runners Up in the subsequent UEFA Cup losing to Galatasray in penalties.
2000-01: UCL Quarter Finals
2001-02: UCL 2nd group stage
2002-03: UCL 2nd group stage
2003-04: UCL Quarter Finals
2004-05: UCL Quarter Finals
2005-06: UCL Runners Up
So in 10years (1996-2006) despite being domestic champions thrice
Quarter Finals- 3times
Finals- Only once
Not getting out of group- 6times
Emirates Model:
2006-07: UCL Round of 16
2007-08: UCL Quarter Finals
2008-09: UCL Semi Finals
2009-10: UCL Quarter Finals
2010-11: UCL Round of 16
2011-12: UCL Round of 16
2012-13: UCL Round of 16
2013-14: UCL Round of 16
So in 8years (2006-2014) despite doing badly in domestic competition and not finishing in the top two
Round of 16- five times
Quarter Finals- twice
Semi Finals- once
Not getting out of the group- Zero
Now for the tuff explaining part:
During the Highbury days the players were generally characterized by Strength and Power. And very loyal bunch of players.
But i feel Wenger understood that Strength and Physicality cannot win you the UCL as characterized by our final in 2006 [we were leading 1-0 despite being a man down] and poor showing in Europe during the Highbury days.
Even during our Invincible year we didn’t have a good showing in Europe.
Today Arsene Wenger is 64. After his three years contract expires, he will be 67. And I have a hunch this is his last contract. I feel in this 3 years, he will put full effort to win the UCL. And i believe our team shows exactly that. If you pick each and every attacking player from our team, you will see that they are all very technical players.
Mikel Arteta signifies the importance of my saying. Like how many times in a day do we say we need a beast of a DM. Yet Wenger persists with Arteta due to his technical abilities.
I think in this 3years Wenger will win us the UCL with his brilliant collection of Technical midfielder.
Wenger had already made the team ready in 2008-09 when a bunch of school boys reached the semifinals of the UCL until the players slowly started showing their gritty faces to the boss. Of that team not even one player plays in our squad today.
-Sumo
ill trade the emirates stadium for the champions league title but im dont own the emirates stadium im afraid the real owner will report me to the cops 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
and ive been so busy fixin my bike ive no time to do research for the conspiracy theory#34 im so sorry guys im a disappointment 🙁 🙁 🙁
and i just dont understand the pedals of my bike always broken i think their made in chine i dont know and when i think bout the money ive spent to buy new pedals im kinda worried cuz ive dedicated myself to go to london someday and saving money and i dont wanna spend more money moreover ive spent a lot of bucks for my now i month old arsenal puma jacket 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Its a very tall ask, but what the heck! “We are arsenal”! Coyg!
and when i heard that the new iphone 6 will cost more than 1000 bucks i became even more worried im confused 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
There are plenty of other options….
No Hafiz! Buy, Buy, Buy!
I would love champions league but right now I need money, got scammed 600 quid earlier today. Should change my name to stupidandangryblackman-3
were a way off from being close to winning the champions league, lets be honest. We are barley capable of topping our group anymore…
Who would’ve predicted Atletico Madrid getting to the final last season? Anything’s possible in a cup competition.
One good way to ensure you are prepared to compete in the CL is to have enough depth at each position. Carrying only 6 defenders does not seem like a good way to get started on that journey.
Can we stop complaining abt dis Six defender Ish… Is not like the entire 6 defenders will be playing at the same time…
Was that not the same number of defenders we used last season??? Why using six defenders as an excuse???
We are Arsenal, and will only get better…
#coyg
Last season we had 7 and the only reason that was acceptable is because sagna could play CB and Vermalean could play LB and frankly we were lucky last season and never had more than 2 defenders out at a time we’ve had 5 defenders injured at one time in previous seasons.
You do realise if 2 defenders get injured e.g Debuchy and Mert or Chambers and Kos We’ll be seeing monreal playing CB.
Also one of our 6 Defenders Gibbs is made out of glass and will definitely be injured a number of times this season.
I have got an obsession with UCL I want the Arsenal wining it It’s my dream
Sadly the Arsenal seem to always chock in the last quarter this season we have an interesting bunch the key for me is to be able to take the ball of our opponents and score we got some well capable runners with skill alexi wellbeck Campbell arteta diaby rosciky podolski giroud wallcott flamini ozil ramsey carzola sanagoo ganabry willshire chambers oxlade with a back 4 with 2 spare and that is a major concern providing we have a functioning defence it is all ours to take but for now i want us to beat mancity
We need to get in shape
Yeah….we barely beat Besiktas. Tied Leicester and barely tied Everton. Borussia Dortmund looks amazing so far. They be worried about qualifying for next year
there is no substitute on the pitch for speed, it trumps everything, this arsenal squad with danny on top, walcott, sanchez, ox in support, will shred defenses, we need to let this team gel on the pitch, trust me, we cant look at current football, there will be no stopping this attack, insert rams and ozil, oh my! maybe a powerhouse for years to come, incredible whats been built!
If we want to win the CL we have to beat clubs like
-Madrid
-Bayern
-Barca
-Atletico
-Juve
Just don’t see that happening this season but I hope I’m wrong. I’d rather we focus everything into the league. That’s gonna be the stepping stone for us to continue on and go for the CL next season.
Hey, Walcott was in our squad then and is now.
I see how much you like Arsene and trust in him, good for you.
If we bought a DM, Wilshere and other players would have no chance to play. It is that simple.
No way is Ramsey being benched, so the only slot for central midfield is curently coveted by Wilshere, Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky and Diaby as partners of Ramsey.
Injury list generally determines who plays.
With the addition of Sanchez and the retention of Campbell, the availability of Podolski and Chamberlain, the wing option is not there now …. so now you know why we have not bought a superstar DM who cannot be benched. If we had and there was no injury to Ramsey or the DM, Wilshere, Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky and Diaby would be season long bench warmers, reserves.
Wilshere and rosicky cant play DM, diabys never fit arteta 33 and flamini is sh*t.
We need a DM asap.
Did you complain about podolski or gnabry being a bench warmers when we signed sanchez??
Actually it’s a mountain too high to climb. Expect anything though… Henry couldn’t win it for us…and he’s a legend?
I love Henry, but he wasnt a “final” man in many of them (including with the French National team), not even with Barcelona.
Get rid of weneger than we will succeed. His date has expired, 7 millions a year just to finish 4th not good enough.
10 years without out mojor trophy, he had enough time.i now all the akb lickers will all over me but thats the sad truth.support the club u morrons not ur lord weneger.his stoping us from succeeding. We should be aiming for number 1 not 4th.
You might have a valid point there, it could happen in three years, though we might need to strengthen at a faster rate as the champions each year also seem to strengthen also. I can see the man being committed to winning the one trophy that evaded him, i’m hopeful.