The Arsenal players must take some responsibility for Wenger’s demise

Arsene Wenger will lead his Arsenal side on to the pitch for tomorrow’s Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid in which will be his penultimate match at the Emirates before he leaves for pastures new.

Our captain Per Mertesacker said that the players were not expecting the Boss’ announcement last week. The BFG said: “We were surprised, first of all, and then then emotional and sad. You can feel that he has got a lot left in him in terms of the power he gave to the team. The message he gave to the team was that we want to win every single game and leave in style. We, as players, gave immediate feedback that we feel the responsibility to fight for him every time we step on the field.”

But the fact is that the players did not fight for him in many games this season, which is ultimately the reason why Wenger felt he couldn’t give any more, but the German says they will do their very best until the end of the season. “The team responded to his announcement fairly quickly. Everyone was surprised and sad. We had an atmosphere of, ‘We want to do it for you to send you off in the best possible way’. It is not about a single person, this club is built on a lot of people who worked here for a long time and he was one of those. His story is unique so we want to give him the best possible send off because in one way we are responsible for the situation as well.

“We sit here in one boat and we have not been that successful over the past couple of years. We won trophies, we won the FA Cup, but in terms of achieving Champions League football every season we have not done it. In terms of top-four finishes, we are not able to achieve it this season. We have been outperformed by other teams and you have to admit that. There are a lot of people responsible, not only the manager. It has not sunk in enough to say we are guilty, but we are as well responsible for the situation.”

Outperformed by a LOT of other teams is right, espècially away from home where we have lost all five League games so far this year. The players certainly weren’t fighting for wenger in those games and they should shoulder a lot of the blame for those abysmal performances. But as usual Le Prof took it all upon himself….

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14 Comments

  1. Maybe, but he wants them to play a certain way, and he sticks to that, no matter the opposition or venue,
    He also gets the players and tells them what to do which they must obey.

    If its not working, then the manager takes the blame.

  2. Fans might hate or dislike Wenger but deep inside we know the relationship he has always had with his players. he is a father to them.he on personal level have never had it heated with the players. He is exceptional in the aspect of player-manager relationship. They all feel that they are going to miss him.Every player who has played under him knows he is 100% human.
    He is a mentor to them and gives everyone an opportunity. Wenger is leaving arsenal but he is a real Gentleman. He is a man of great heart and personality.
    The reason he is leaving is because he wanted to balance results and books but it gotten to a point when books started getting more heavy.All in all, he single Handley built Emirates stadium.That is his stadium.no manager in the world has done that. He managed a team which was paying stadium construction loans with absolutely no money to spend and kepylt us at top level football. I respect this man.

    1. True.

      If any other manager had to build the stadium, we would have been out of the top 4 for years and our current and future prospects would now be worse.

      Also, you can see from what everyone says about him, that Arsene is probably too good a human being for a top premier league club nowadays. Even for the likes of PSG and Real. But he would be a good bet for Monaco or Borussia Dortmund where they would be happy with a ‘top-3’ trophy (since 3 enter the CL from those leagues).

  3. The new coach, whoever that will be, must be a no-nonsense person, experienced in man management & widely known for getting the best out of players so that slackers within the team will know that they either put in their best in every game or sit on the bench. Wenger also shares some of the blame in his continuous fielding of underperforming players but the players themselves should be ashamed of themselves a great deal.

  4. The players we have now aren’t like Henry, Vieira, Campbel and co. Those players didn’t need tactical coaching because they were better than most players in the league at the time and they had character, winning mentality. These current players need a firmer hand, more tactical coaching, i think this was one of wenger’s failures, he just tells them to go and play believing they would perform. He had too much belief in average players and at the had the players failed him leading to him leaving. Wenger’s minimalistic way of coaching doesn’t fit in the modern game because somehow over years he stopped buying big characters that could do it on their own. The players did fail him but he allowed it to happened by his blind faith. I still can’t believe that year when we were the only team in the top five leagues not to buy an outfield player and we bought only cech..Lol. Wenger caused his own downfall.

    1. Lupe you are correct in your summation.
      Anyone who has managed staff knows that you cannot treat all people the same (the “Contingency Theory of Management” and “Situational Leadership”). Some people react well to the mild mannered non confrontationist father figure; others see this as a sign of weakness and need a “rocket up them” every now and again.
      Arsene Wenger’s approach worked well with champion highly skilled self motivated players, who he can tell to “just go out and play”. However over the last last 10 years or so this type of player has become rarer and the leadership within the team has been diluted.
      The Arsenal players need coaching and tactical adjustments depending on who they are playing. Given the quality of teams Arsenal are competing against, you cannot count on all out attack, you have to be more tactically pragmatic.
      Also Arsene Wenger has gone away from the hard nosed, physical, tall players he had in his first 10 years (eg Viera and Gilberto Silva in mid field), Arsenal no longer intimidates the oposition as they did in the past.

  5. I think our players tried their best but they aren’t good enough

    6th place refects the quality of the team. A lot of our players are very average to decent quality. We have very few “Top” players. Spurs, Liverpool, United, City and Chelsea have more players of higher quality.

    Also our coaching staff is probably sub-par too

    1. i don’t think so we actually have a lot of very good players, its our coaching and man management that is lacking, compare our player’s national form against their club form. That in itself tells a story

  6. Absolutely not! In the medium/long-term, the players are blameless. In the short-term (1.5 seasons of the manager working with that player in my opinion) you can let the manager off, because if you buy a player, you need to give them time to adapt, especially if they’re coming from a different country, culture, etc. New team mates, new way of playing, different style of personalty in regards to the manager, are all possible obstacles for the player to overcome. If the player is very expensive, again the manager is under a little pressure to use that player regularly.

    But in the medium/long-term (anything over 1.5 seasons of the manager working with that player), it’s then down to the manager. If that player is consistently under performing, then it’s no good having a go at him, the REAL question is, why is the manager still picking him? Why is this under performing player getting a new contract, pay raise? Why aren’t we selling him, and looking for someone better?

    Now about 99% of our squad falls into the medium/long-term category because of how long they’ve been at Arsenal. So how did Walcott get 12 years? Why haven’t Xhaka, and Mustafi been dropped? Why were Mertesacker, and Giroud constantly used, when they didn’t even fit the system? Why was Ramsey played so often as a winger? Why did we let Debuchy go, when Bellerin has been performing so badly?

    These are all mistakes of the manager, not the players! For example, Mustafi made a huge error for the first goal in the League Cup final, but we all knew there was a very good chance that was going to happen, so why was he picked?

    If you’re going to completely ignore ability, form, whether the players are in the correct positions, and whether they even fit your system, then as the manager of those players, it’s he that needs to be held accountable.

  7. It depends how you look at it.
    For several years, we have played a number of matches, where players looked like they weren’t 100% motivated. But ultimately, that is the managers responsibility. You can’t blame all the 30-40 players, that have been involved in those matches.
    The problem has also been growing (more matches each year) and not been addressed properly by the manager.
    He has not “taken it upon himself” before now. That is too little too late. and why we are miles behind the top of the PL.

  8. If Wenger bought players that we’re tactically incapable of playing to his system(s)you must question why the Manager bought them.
    If Wenger bought players that proved to be unable to perform at the required level expected(Xhaka and Mustafi good examples) again you question the Manager.
    If players arrive without the drive,ambition and determination to succeed as both an individual and team player then again questions of why we purchased them are directed at Wenger.
    Wenger insisted on complete control.He had this control.Therefore he must be held accountable.

  9. His favorite formation 4-5-1. Although it may not appear so clearly, in substance it’s always that formation. That is why he can t play 2 strikers together.

    He likes converting players. Some of these players just play like freak and it didn’t stop him from doing the same old thing over n over again. Few recovered from his ‘divine’ touch.

    I always believe it takes both hands to clap.

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