There is little doubt that the debate among Arsenal fans over Arsene Wenger being given another contract extension will rumble on, and surely flare up again after the first sign of trouble next season, but for now it has died down to a minimum with Arsenal fans simply hoping that the Arsenal board has made the right decision.
Most of us are, as usual, waiting and hoping for some encouragement from the summer transfer window but perhaps we are looking in the wrong place. Of course we are focused on the possible transfer and the amount of money that will be spent, as that is the nature of modern football, but a few things in the football media this week have suggested to me that keeping Wenger could prove invaluable to our transfer success.
Whereas I thought Arsenal had no chance at all of signing Kylian Mbappe, the media reports suggest that Wenger’s reputation could actually swing it for us. We have a Metro claiming that Le Prof is the reason that Riyad Mahrez would choose us over the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool.
Big players like Bellerin, Ozil, Ramsey and more have all stated the influence that Wenger has on them wanting to play for Arsenal. Fans must surely think differently to players and while our manager is under fire from the fans, or some of us, do the players still see him as the football genius we used to and perhaps still should?
Sam P.
He may have a good effect on transfers as proof both Özil & Sanchez chose Arsenal. But so far except Kolasinac he has had little to show. We are 3 weeks away or so from pre-season a time for which you would like to have all your targets in to acclimate them to the squad more than anything and see how your going to play them, basically testing. Also unlike last season be ready for game 1 of the season.
Honestly speaking I would be happy if and realistic we get those:
ST-Aubameyang
RW-Mahrez
MF-Goretzka/Renato Sanchez/Danilo
I would like a defender but we’re stacked and appart from Debuchy and Jenkinson it doesn’t seem like Wenger wants to offload anybody.
wow what a list, I like the idea of renato Sanchez thing, I have always think about it as he isn’t playing there and he is really good and quite young, but with current formation we cannot be able to accommodate all of auba, fake Sanchez, real Sanchez , Mahrez and Ozil at once. may be we have to revert to default.
Maybe not but that will create genuine competition up top. Also playing 4 competition will allow rotation without big drop off in quality and with some Europa League games followed by big EPL games our ability to deal with that will directly be link to how the squad is managed and it’s quality.
Our right wing play isn’t as strong and Mahrez would be an upgrade over Walcott and less predictable. He can create for himself and others and give Wenger tactical flexibility.
Aubameyang would bring the game of Walcott, Giroud and Welbeck by himself: no need to waste a sub late in game because now you want to play the long ball/crosses into the box for headers. Also having him and Sanchez both on the field is a nightmare for defences and may bring Özil game to another level.
Finally for the DM it depends if you want a rock that doesn’t move but offers more than Coquelin/Elneny you go for Danilo but if you want someone to take over Cazorla, Ox can be tried in there otherwise Renato Sanchez or Goretzka can fill in that role perfectly.
That is my thinking and based on the rumour 150-165m pounds + the likely sale of 3-4 players we are looking at 200-215m pounds. Enough for such overhaul.
When people mahrez will replace walcott on the right wing, I don’t understand, he doesn’t play at all in our new formation, except we bench ozil or Alexis, mahrez won’t start…
Ozil and Sanchez were surpluses to requirements at Real and Barca hardly pried away by the lure of playing for Wenger.
Woah!
He hasn’t bought anyone yet
His only signing has been a free transfer so far
Let’s wait till we see new signings before we compliment him. Mbappe is far from a done deal. We need more players too
Let’s wait until announcements are made on Arsenal website before coming to conclusions
Looks like we are getting Mbappe and Lemar/Lacazette. We will be saying goodbye to Giroud, Wilshire, Ospina, Debuchy, and others. Perhaps goodbye to Sanchez. But if we get Mbappe, Lacazette and someone else, I’d be happy to say goodbye to Alexis. However, perhaps he will stay?
Let’s see what happens. But with Mbappe, Mharez, Bellerin, Ramsey, Ox, and Ozil all saying that Arsene is the reason they want to stay or come, there is clearly a disconnect between what the fans see and what players see.
The players are human,and the first law of nature is self preservation.If you are a player, fans say you are underperforming, statistics confirm that but the manager comes out to defend you or put you on the team sheet every week at the expense of better players , what will be your stand ?
You definitely will support the manager to stay based on self interest ,nothing more! That is what is playing out in Arsenal FC .
On transfers, I advise that nobody should jubilate until those players being linked to Arsenal FC reports to the club .Almost all good players are linked to us every summer when those in charge know that it is media hype and nothing more.
Before we go overboard with this expectation that Arsenal should have done all of its transfer business way before pre-season starts, we need to realize that hardly any other top team has done great business either; in addition, there are some tournaments (FIFA Confederation cup and Euro U-21 championships) going on, which slows things down as far as transfers go.
I believe Arsenal do not need any more than 2-3 quality player additions to challenge and win some, next season.
The issue of Arsene Wenger is a polarising one. Whereas some vocal fans including Journalist Piers Morgan are vehemently opposed to Wenger, the majority of the fans still support him as do the overwhelming number of both the current and former Arsenal players. Perhaps the one prominent former player openly opposed to Wenger is Tony Adams. Otherwise most of them have openly expressed support for Wenger including Ian Wright who at times gets furious when Arsenal lose a game he expected them to win.
Why is there such a strong divide between pro and anti Wenger Arsenal supporters? The first category which is the majority comprises of a cross section of people including the long time Arsenal supporters who have seen and followed the fantastic job Wenger has done Arsenal including the following: construction of an ultra modern stadium, winning three EPL trophies in his first six years, keeping Arsenal in Champions League for 20 consecutive seasons, winning 7 FA trophies, introducing the Arsenal brand of football which is admired world wide, making Arsenal one of the economic giants of European football and giving Arsenal a global fan base.
Wenger’s opponents are mainly from the young generation who are impatient for success in the big competitions such as EPL and Champions League. Many of them were too young to appreciate Wenger’s great achievements between 1998-2005. They also wish to see such success in vain. The fact that Arsenal went 9 years without a single trophy did not help matters. Many of these people only saw the Wenger who was struggling for top four spot with no ambition of winning. They did not appreciate that there were big money magnates who had taken over the likes of Chelsea and Man City and could afford to spend colossal sums of money in the transfer market. Hence power shifted from North London to West London and Manchester. In the meantime Arsenal was not only busy repaying the Stadium loan but also building a self sustaining and income generating Club which has now reached a stage where it can compete with the best in Europe.
So in light of the above scenario what is projected for the future? One can only come to one conclusion that based on what is happening at Emirates today Arsenal is destined to achieve even more success and become a power house of European football as well as global football.. Much of the credit goes to Arsene Wenger for sacrificing his personal interests for the good of the Club that he came to love so much and identify with. It is sometimes sad to see some of our fans quoting the huge sum of money Wenger gers without appreciating his contribution in the generation of that money. Wenger is not going to be at Arsenal forever. In fact this could be his last contract or at most his second last. Thus it is in good taste to give him the benefit of the doubt so as to let him accomplish his mission and thereafter retire peacefully.
I hope you are proved right.
We all want Arsenal to be successful
Hopefully this summer Wenger can make the necessary signings to turn things around
What you have said seems very true but when you incorporate some things done in Arsenal by Arsene Wenger which does not necessarily involve money you then start questioning his capabiities. For example,
1. The late signings that happen some few seconds before the window shuts down (who doesn’t know new players need to be incorporated before pre-season). the problem is not that it has happened once but the fact that it happens every season.
2. Late substitutions (no need to explain)
3. Not buying the right players in terms of position, when we need a striker he buys a midfielder.
4. There are times in a game that you see the players are playing as if it’s a friendly game (laxity). this is the time the manager should push them from the touch line or substitute some, but what does he do, he sits and struggles with his zip and when he stands up is to talk with the forth officials.
5.keeping players/renewing contracts of players who are past it.
6. etc
Finally, Wenger has done a good job for some time and he has raised the bar so high but there are times he has done/made bad decisions and that is the reason some fans are disappointed when he performs dismally on occasions he shouldn’t eg the Watford game and Everton.
The above reasons plus many more have nothing to do with the availability or lack there of money but the manager and it doesn’t matter whether you are an old fan or not for you to see this things.
1.
Happens every season, prove it. Go back to Wengers 1st season and look at signing dates. All started off with Wenger telling Dein to sign Vieira if he wants Wenger to work at AFC, Dein done it and then Wenger came.
2.
When Wenger gets it wrong, he is at fault, when he gets it right then you lot never mention it. Wenger makes mistakes, he is human.
3.
Last season we needed a CB, CM and a CF. 1st signing was done quick, Xhaka. Took a while to adapt but starting to show his class in the new formation. CB came in after our loss to Liverpool and we went unbeaten for a respectable period, keeping around 50% clean sheets till Cazorla got injured. Last was Perez who was not wanted by Wenger by reports, Wenger wanted Lacazette and AFC bid what Wenger had left on him, the board failed Wenger and us fans.
Wenger was addressing the issues.
4.
Players need to take the blame for their actions. Wenger has never been the type to stand on the touchline and yell at his players, he didn’t need to do such things to go unbeaten. Blame the players when they do not perform! When Wenger has more quality options he does make those changes, he does drop players… He will send them away from AFC. Ask Szcz and Wilshere. They was always getting the Wenger trust and I do recall the general opinion is that Wenger would never drop them… Where are they now???
5.
You forgot how when it was a joke about how Wenger never kept players past 30? Short term fan? You a 10 year old? Kinda supports what David Rusa said.
“The above reasons plus many more have nothing to do with the availability or lack there of money”
Bullsh*t.
Wenger missed out on Lacazette due to money and you moaned like a little girl about Wenger not getting the players we need like a CF.
entire article is based on couple of rumours in the papers. Only after some concrete action we can say that wenger has effect on arsenal transfers in a good way or else it’s just rumours.
Apart from the fact that Wenger has been doing it for over 20 years at AFC so we can look at all the transfers back to day 1 and we can look at the results of time!
Seems Wenger was not having the difficulty in obtaining his desired players when he had Dein with AFC, at the same time Wenger didn’t like to keep players over 30. AFC was not known for being tight fisted and we even beat RM to sign Pires and Pires has said it was due to Wenger.
Fast forward many years and Ozil has said there was only 1 person he wanted to speak to when he decided to leave RM and that was Wenger because Wenger really wanted him before he joined RM.
Alexis said it was Wenger who convinced him to join AFC over Liverpool.
We hear rumors of MBappe saying it would be Wenger…
Over 20 years and the pattern has stayed the same, players respect Wenger.
How much time do you want?
“As long as it takes for Wenger to fail and prove me right”?
Saying big player and Ramsey in the same sentence makes me giggle like a school girl.
I’m sick of everyone moaning about our free transfer signing. Kolasinac was the best left back in Germany, had he been in contract he would certainly have cost £25m or even more.
Perhaps if he was as good as kyle Walker he would have cost us £50m, perhaps then everyone would be happy?
For me we have signed one of the best defenders in the world and it is an absolute master stroke. If it helps us keep alexis or ozil, bellerin or ox or all 4? Remains to be seen. If saving that money helps us sign lacazette, Mbappe or aubemyang I will dance round the local.
I bet you’ve never seen him play. Btw no body is complaining about Kolasinac’s free transfer. They are complaing about the lack of transfers and the players’ contracts situation
Read around, the comments of Wenger being a cheap tight fisted git because all he has got so far is some freebie is not uncommon.
Top of my head, on justarsenal I can point to fatboi, many more on just this one site alone if you care to read.
Why are ppl so happy about mbappe? We need far more than that but as usual akbs are out in force claiming wenger is God. This kid won’t win us the champions league or league. Wenger should’ve gone years ago
If we are going to listen to players, perhaps the one’s we should listen to are ex-players who don’t have face Wenger about their comments. The Henry’s, Keown’s and others have all come out this season saying it might be time for Wenger to hang it up.
Let’s try to stay away from the “Wenger is great” “Wenger has lost it” type of posts, they will only underline our divided fans base and promote negativity.
Hopefully was can be united in hoping Sanchez stays, we sign 2 or three top quality players and we manage to sneak back into the top 4 next season. Anything better than that is upside.
So far the “Wenger effect” has been one free transfer of a left-back. Looks like a good signing, but doesn’t exactly make you think “We’re winning a big trophy next season” does it?
Get Ozil & Sanchez on new contracts, get a top quality striker, then a world-class replacement for Santi Cazorla, try to keep them all fit for more than 5 minutes, and then maybe we can start discussing the “Wenger effect” in a positive light again
Kolasinac the best left back in Germany???
I am German and look Bundesliga every week and I can tell you that he is a absolutely nobody. I never hear that he is good. It is a surprise for every German that he is going to Arsenal.