Do Arsenal fans need ‘perspective’ or is Wenger stuck in the past?

In some ways it is hard to disagree with Arsene Wenger when he talks about what he has done for Arsenal Football Club. I can also see his point about some Arsenal fans forgetting about that, because as well as the first 10 years of his reign being a time of amazing achievement on the pitch, the years of transition after moving to a new stadium were much better than could reasonably have been hoped for.

There would always have been plenty of managers willing to take on the job, even though the club’s transfer budget was a fraction of those being spent by our direct rivals, but I do not think any other top manager would have stuck with us, especially with big spending clubs such as Real Madrid and PSG after them.

In that sense we Arsenal fans should remember what the Frenchman has done for us and to give him the respect he deserves, but in the interview reported by The Mirror in which he suggests that more Gooners need to have this ‘perspective’ it seems to me that the boss himself is too focused on this aspect of his time as our manager,

He said, “My job is to make 100% of people happy and if you look at where the club was when I arrived and where the club is today, I think I am quite proud of what I did for the club.

“Today we live in a period where people are very demanding and I can understand that but I know as well that I have guided this club through very difficult periods with very, very, very limited resources.

“I managed to always get the best out of the team and that’s what I will do as long as I am at Arsenal Football Club.

“At the moment we are going through a difficult period on the results and so I think it’s much more important to focus to get it right again.

“We suffer a lot at the moment but it’s not, when you take a little bit distance and put things into perspective, you know, we are two games in hand, we are in the semi-finals of the cup to prepare against City. Our season will be decided how well we respond now to the difficult period we have.”

The problem for me is that Wenger seems to be losing perspective with all this looking back. He has said many times that he would only stay on if he thought it was best for the future, not the past, and right now it is easy to understand why the fans think it is time for a change.

We seem to be going backwards rather than forwards and that was not the plan when we left Highbury. The plan was for short term pain to be followed by long term gain. 13 years without a decent crack at the title is long term pain and no amount of looking back is going to change that. We need to look forard as well as back don’t you think?

Bob.

15 Comments

  1. I don”t like when he brings up how the club has grown in a financial way. With new TV deals breaking records and even scaring Europe’s top clubs and the federations, with more global advertising than ever, there’s more investment, and the highest ticket prices, I think football in general has grown on the financial front. I’m not sure how much credit he deserves, he did get the CL money each season which helped us out with bills but it has also stagnated the club, it’s almost a new identity that fourth place thing. When Tott move to their ground I feel it will be said all of a sudden that they got lucky with timing and we done it the hard way. This wont wash, for Wenger and board to have a leg to stand on we need to see Tott lose their players and fall into difficulty, anything other than that would leave me feeling lied to and let down.

  2. When building the Emirates became a reality we were told that transfer issues would not be affected, as building the new stadium would be funded separately. The whole point ultimately was that extra revenue would bring us alongside the top clubs in Europe. It is the building and not the club that has become Wenger’s love and consequent obsession. If we look back he’s spent vast rafts of money buying average players and paying top wages. I’ve lost count of signings who’ve played only a handful of games and couldn’t earn half their wages elsewhere. Gross mismanagement. I will be interested to see how Spurs cope with their new stadium and how Daniel Levy manages finances.

    1. Bollacks! ‘Gross mismanagement’ that goes way too far. Have you had a look at the players who didnt make it in other teams, and some of them cost 60m plus ‘cough’ United! , I suspect that it if had a look at the players of other top teams over the last few years you would see a fair few failureson on high wages too. Tosic 9m Bebe 7m, anderson 27 mil to name a few more of uniteds expensive flops. and they’ve been paying rooney 250,000 plus for what exactly, sweinsteiger 200,000. Ashley youngs on 100,000 plus.

      1. Just remind us how many titles Utd. won or even how many they contested. Oh and we must show gratitude for letting us prise Silvestre away. Whoops you’ve just dropped one!

    2. I would like to see a new Manager at arsenal too, but I’m not going start being over the top about how awful Arsene’s last few years have been.

  3. I see why fans are unhappy. It seems that Wenger does well in getting mediocre players to punch above their weight, but now that he has given the funds to invest in stars the underdog team spirit has dwindled away. The money spent demands that we see trophies in return or at least some improvement year-on-year, but we’re simply not getting that…

  4. From Arsene’s perspective
    things are very rosy.
    A 36 year managerial career
    including 7 years at glittering Monaco
    and 20 years in London at Arsenal.
    4 League titles and a raft of Domestic cups .
    20 years successive ECL campaigns at Arsenal.
    Over the last decade he has received in excess
    of 7mil pound salary with no pressure to win the title.
    What 67 year old man would not be happy with his life.
    Owner Stan Kroenke is very happy too as the value
    of his 66% share in the club climbs every season.
    Players cruise through the seasons collecting 3-7 mill salaries
    at a club where top 4 is a guarantee for a new contract.
    90% of the paying Arsenal fans are happy with top 4.
    Arsenal where not winning is a winning formula for success 🙂

  5. It dose not help when you know Man-U Ciy and may be even Chelsea will be splashing a further 200 million this summer on transfer when we Arsenal fans are hearing is that we will lose our two top players and a few others

    i say to you Arsen Consider all the amazing things you’ve done in your life and club. Regardless of what you’re facing, remember your earlier miracles and know you’re entirely capable of working it, the seemingly impossible is, in fact, possible. Learn to change your mindset and that will allow you to see all those amazing things like wining a major trophies, BUT FIRST YOU MUST SPLASH THE CASH 🙂

  6. Having the same arguement , the same debate , the same recurring debacle day in and day out.. even the same articles without a final resolution, only suggests.. Mr POTATO HEAD & HIS ARSENAL IS STUCK IN THE PAST!
    .
    Wake up!

  7. The way I see it is that the players are not playing for Wenger.There has only been one game this season where the team has performed and that was Chelsea at home.That was the Arsenal we all love.A lot of the games we have been very fortunate to get a result.People go on about we had 75% of the match but most of that was spent passing it along the back 4 this team has gone very stale lacklustre and very predictable.

  8. I get the fact that Wenger has one three titles, two of which doubles and obviously the unbeaten season but to be to be perfectly honest its now that matters and the reality is not only have we done nothing for the last decade in the league we’ve managed to do even less in the champions league. He’s had the time now to set a team up for a sustained challenge in all competitions but we are no better than when we had no money. I personally believe Wenger has nothing without Arsenal and all these interviews he and the players do are to soften the blow for when they announce he’s signed for another 2 years. I’m not saying Wenger hasn’t been good for us because of course he has but pretending we were nothing before he turned up as arsene who straight from Japan, we gave him the chance to manage a team which had won the league six years prior with a fantastic defence and goalkeeper, a newly arrived Dutchman and the second best goal scorer in our history. I feel no sympathy for him, he’s been paid handsomely for his efforts yet has lied and blamed other factors including us fans for his failure. Times up arsene, I wish you could see that.

  9. Does this website need perspective – you keep regurgitating the same old argument for the sake of clicks – or am I just stuck in the past?

    All I know after being an avid fan for 36 years is that Wenger is a selfish, stubborn cancer – milking our club for his own personal gratification. He has zero respect or consideration for the fans. WENGER OUT!

  10. I do think fans need to keep in mind what Wenger has done, I also think fans need to keep in mind how much he does now compared to how much he done in his 1st 10 years with us…

    I also think the fans need to learn about the politics of the club they support, politics of the club control our club… understanding that will help us unite and push for Arsenal FC to improve in aspects rather than QQ about the manager, remember a lot of what we hear is from the media and they only want viewers so investigate stuff for yourself.

    From what I see from Arsenal fans, the ones who learn what is happening tend to want Arsenal to improve while the fans who get all their info from papers blame Wenger.

    I want ARSENAL to get the staff in to make transfers happen.
    Listen to the sheer volume who blame Wenger for all of ARSENALS transfer failings.
    If ARSENAL was better at signings then it wouldn’t matter about the manager, we could aim to get top managers in by convincing them we can sign who they want!
    QQing about Wenger doesn’t fix this, it hasn’t for how many years already… Are Arsenal fans going to be insane and try a failing method over and over or will they unite to try something new? Like SUPPORT the club???

    The way Arsenal fans have split because of the image of Wenger is another reason why we shouldn’t be listened to, we can not even support when being supporters… half of us are being a hinderance.

    Think about how our actions might convince players NOT to join, how we turn on people who was loyal to us… Like a pack of animals!

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