Arsene Wenger: Arsenal’s best ever manager but he didn’t keep up with modern tactics

Arsene Wenger: A Legendary Manager Hindered by His Reluctance to Adapt by Jack

Arsene Wenger will forever be remembered as a legendary manager who achieved great things during his tenure at Arsenal. His early years at the club were marked by success, as he built a team of talented young players who went on to achieve the remarkable feat of winning the Premier League unbeaten in the 2003-2004 season. Wenger’s ability to develop and nurture young talent was unparalleled, and he played a significant role in changing the way football was played in England.

However, as time went on, Wenger’s transfer policy and reluctance to spend big money on established stars began to hinder Arsenal’s progress. In the modern era of football, where financial powerhouses dominate the transfer market, clubs need to invest significant sums to compete for top trophies. Wenger’s steadfast adherence to his philosophy of developing young players and seeking out undervalued talents started to show its limitations.

Wenger’s failure to adapt to the changing landscape of football ultimately proved to be his downfall. His reluctance to spend big money on transfers left Arsenal falling behind their rivals who were making significant investments in their squads. The club’s inability to consistently challenge for major honors led to growing frustrations among fans and a decline in Wenger’s popularity.

In 2018, after more than two decades in charge, Wenger was sacked by Arsenal. While his achievements cannot be understated, his legacy is also tarnished by his failure to evolve with the ever-changing football world. Wenger’s reluctance to adapt his strategies and tactics to match the advancements in the game became increasingly apparent and left Arsenal struggling to compete at the highest level.

Critics argue that Wenger’s refusal to spend big money was a significant hindrance to Arsenal’s success in the later years. It is believed that he missed out on signing top-quality players due to his hesitations over transfer fees. While some point to his involvement in signings like Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette, Shkodran Mustafi, and Granit Xhaka, there is a general consensus that Wenger’s approach limited the club’s ability to assemble a squad capable of challenging for major honors.

As an Arsenal fan, it can be frustrating to reflect on Wenger’s unwillingness to adapt to the game. His commitment to his footballing philosophy, even when it became outdated and exploited by opponents, hindered the club’s progress during his final years in charge. The sight of protests, empty seats, and fans booing the man who had dedicated over 20 years of service to the club was painful for many supporters.

Ultimately, Arsene Wenger’s legacy is a complex one. He will forever be remembered as one of the greatest managers in Arsenal’s history, having transformed the club into a global giant and brought immense success in the early years of his tenure. However, his failure to adapt to the modern era of football leaves a bittersweet taste. Wenger’s unwillingness to adjust his strategies to match the changing game ultimately led to his departure from the club and a sense of missed opportunities for Arsenal.

While it is important to acknowledge Wenger’s contributions and respect his legacy, it is also crucial to recognize the flaws in his approach. The game of football is constantly evolving, and managers must be willing to adapt if they want to remain successful. Arsene Wenger’s refusal to embrace change ultimately hindered his ability to lead Arsenal to greater heights in the modern era of football.

Jack Anderson

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56 Comments

    1. But when he did spend, it was almost never to fix the squad’s deficiencys.

      Signing Cech, and no one else during one summer, when you already had Szcheny and Ospina, and were at least 4/5 players short in other positions, was the most delusional transfer window I’ve ever seen.

      Also, we had one of the biggest wage bills in Europe, and were buying players, so Wenger was spending plenty of money, just in the wrong places most of the time.

      1. After 2011/12 when RVP left, it feels everything just went downhill.. I believe that was when wenger burned out and never fully recovered. You can almost feel the team’s energy just went downhill from there.

        Except for a few players, like Cazorla, Sanchez, Auba, Wenger’s team don’t have the same energy and excitement anymore most of the time.

        Had RVP stayed, I believe we would see a different Arsenal, a different Wilshere, Ramsey, etc. Slowly we are replacing players with those who don’t care about the badge.

        Sure the wrong players bought worsen the situations. But pity the old man who burns out and just seem to buy to survive and desperately try to mend a sinking ship.. To build a new squad you need huge energy but le prof don’t seem to have it anymore after his squad keep getting plucked off..

    2. spot on , also as the kronke’s didn’t fully own The Arsenal , they didn’t invest like they are now.

      1. They didn’t invest at all… not one dollar of their own money was invested in the playing staff and, in fact, clawed money back during the covid shut down.

    3. Remember the 40 million plus 1? THAT was because we didn’t have the money? We woulda won the league!

  1. Yes. I remember Monreal whipping crosses from the left byline and Sanchez cutting inside from the left wing to shoot, which was similar to how Cole and Henry played

    His left overload tactic with attacking LB was revolutionary, but many teams have been familiar with that tactic nowadays

    However, Wenger has surely been watching Guardiola’s and Arteta’s unorthodox tactics last season. If he has an opportunity to manage another big team, I think he’d try something new

  2. I don’t think that approach was wrong – we started getting out manoeuvred in the transfer market as many teams followed his example, and we didn’t have a David dein to get deals over the line. Maybe he, for whatever reason, lost the ability to identify the best prospects in Europe as well – I can’t say on that. We could have persisted with the same approach, but done it better, imo. Eg Newcastle signing cabeye from lille and tiote from twente after they’d just won their respective leagues was eye opening for me – those are exactly the kinds of players wenger would have gone after in the early days imo.
    For me, the biggest issue he had was that he couldn’t impose a disciplined and focused ethos onto the young dressing room. I think his style was always to largely treat the players like adults and let them sort themselves from that perspective, but as time went on, we lacked the characters like Adams, keown, Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg etc who would lead by example and drag others along when needed and really input that winning mentality into the team.
    Wenger was more (too) focused on protecting the players and making sure they had everything they needed imo – I always thought this was to the detriment of talented players like Walcott, denilson, song, even ones like djourou who maybe could have gone a lot further with a bit more of that presence in the dressing room. I think it caused the one or two self starters like RVP and fabregas to become frustrated, which further disrupted our chances once they left.

  3. This is preposterous! It shows that you’re not in touch with the history and dynamics that bind Wenger and Arsenal together. Read his comments on the acquisition of Declan Rice and what went down during the lean years. He simply didn’t have the money to spend until 2013, when he bought Ozil.

  4. Also, he did try to adapt his playing style to the times – he was very aware of Barcelona taking over football and wanted to emulate it. Again, I thought that was to our detriment at times because we had players who were brought up on 442 – eg Walcott was made to be a Michael Owen type of striker, but had to play on the right because he was too small to play up front alone, and wilshere could have been a brilliant parlour like rm, and it could have taken him out of the firing line in CM, which may have prolonged his career – my opinion, anyway.

  5. I am sorry Jack but this is one of the weakest articles I have ever read in here. Approximately 600+ words and nine paragraphs just to say he refused to spend and did not evolve tactically.

    You have stressed he refused to spend but was the money available? You have to come in the comments and defend that argument if you are sure of what you wrote.

    Another point you have stressed is he did not evolve tactically and I put it you that he had an extraordinary ability to get the most out of average and mediocre players. The fact that is backed up by the reality their mediocrity was apparent before they joined Arsenal and after they left Arsenal. Not when they were at Arsenal.

  6. He’s not one of the greatest managers In our history ….he simply is
    Consider this …..what we mocked him for doing in his final years , only finishing 4th and winning the odd FA Cup , is considered success today among some Gooners
    Many argued 5th was progress last season
    You want to know how many times Mr Wenger did better then 5th ?
    Can’t be a coincidence he leaves and we finish in our worse position in quarter of a century and don’t qualify for Europe , something he always did
    Simply as his worse ….he achieved things that many have struggled to do

    1. He wasn’t mocked for coming 4th, he was mocked for saying that finishing in the top 4 was a trophy, ranking it above winning the domestic Cups

      1. In that case, the likes of Pep, Mourinho and Klopp should also be mocked, as they have all been quoted as saying that their first requirement was to finish in the top four and be involved in the CL.
        As we have found out to our cost, they were absolutely correct and it’s the fans who cannot see why that is so true who should be mocked for their nievity, especially when those same fans then refer to the domestic cups as “minor achievements”!!!

        1. Did any of those managers you mentioned say this on their clubs website ?
          “At the start of the season there are 4 trophies.
          1, The Premier League.
          2, The Champions League.
          3, Finish in the top four
          4, The domestic Cups.”

          That’s what Wenger wrote on Arsenal.com.

          Now as far as I’m aware, there has never been an open top bus parade for finishing in the top four, nor is it highlighted on the inside of the Emirates stadium along with the trophies that we’ve won.

          Give me the FA Cup and the League Cup all day long.

          1. Good for you HD, but perhaps that’s why the managers we have both quoted are managers of the very cream of English and PL football, while you and I are not.
            I guess Arsene wrote that because that’s what he believes, as does Pep, Klopp etc etc

            If it floats your boat to see an open top parade, then you must have loved those you were able to attend during Wenger’s reign.
            Me personally?
            I would rather see our club in a financial situation that sees CL contribute a minimum of £40,000,000 as a starter – after all, what did beating us at Wembley do for Birmingham City?
            Relegated and stoney broke it seems.
            Each to their own though.

            1. Yep, seen many town hall celebrations and not just with Wenger. Plenty with the only man in the history of English football to win the League, the FA Cup and a European trophy as a player and manager of the same club 😁

      1. Finishing three places lower than the previous coach was not progress as was the next season by not improving on the lowest position in two decades.
        Starting from such a low position and failing to improve on it, is not something to be used to justify anything, let alone future progress.

        1. Surely you didn’t expect an overnight turn around, considering the job everyone at the club had to do ? The last 2 seasons would say that progress is indeed being made. But then again it would seem that some people expect a novice manager to perform miracles.

          1. Nevertheless, the progress was from a starting point that was of the managers (coach) doing.

            I didn’t expect to see 8th place twice in a row and that’s what happened.
            There’s no doubt that MA will continue to improve, but let’s remember the situation as it was.

            1. Err, we were 11th in the league when Arteta took over. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the old saying goes.

  7. The stadium project also meant that Wenger was shoved into the business side of things as he was seen as essential to the project and this got worse after David Dein left. He was far more effective earlier on when he focused purely on football.

    The set up now makes mich more sense with Edu playing a crucial role with transfers.

  8. Yes the legendary Frenchman could be considered Arsenal best manager date, What had he not lost the appetite and failed to adapt to the changing landscape halfway through his tenure.

    In my opinion he would no doubt be in the conversation of the greatest manager of all time.

  9. If he had got a defensive midfielder which he was against and a reliable striker we could have beaten Leicester to the premier league trophy

    He openly admitted that he didn’t believe in defensive midfielders

    Also his transfers were mostly bad in his later years 2007- when he lost his job

  10. A great manager than was limited financially by the Emirates move, no doubt to it’s significance.

    I would also say he didn’t upgrade on players or bring in competition. Imagine if he replaced Silva with another DM! Instead we had that hole for over a decade.

    Imagine if we had another winger like Sanchez, two players like that on the wings. Instead we had Ramsey shoe horned in as a winger, or Ozil on the wing.

    Easy to find fault and mistakes after the fact. I think Dein leaving did the most damage of all.

  11. A few people mentioning if only David Dein hadn’t have left. Just think of the turmoil the club would be in if DD had got his way with Usmanov and his R&W Holdings taking over.

  12. the article fails to separate the different scenarios that happened in the latter part in wenger reign. From 06-12 he was still one of the best but was operating on a terrible financial situation on which little to no manager would have been able to achieve what he did. Wenger supreme ability to spot great talents was wasted. David dein departure was a massive set back.

    But from 2013 onwards when we had more funds available, he struggled to make use of it either due to a decline in his ability to spot talents or a reluctance to pay what the market demanded. Other clubs also caught up with the scouting which nullified his advantage. Still great at spoting attacking talent but a Refusal to buy a decent dm and terrible defensive signings.

    There was also his coaching style, the supportive father who put his arm around players worked great with players like Fabregas but was abused by the like of ozil. Creative freedom works great for attacking but the Defensive side of the game requires discipline and a strict approach which reflected on our defence and work rate. That why we saw many attacking players decline when they left the club.

    I also believe something broke inside Wenger when the supremely talented young team with the likes of fabregas, hleb, nasri, van persie left him high and dry after he molded them into world class players. We never really recovered from that.

    1. But how come he constantly refused to address our problem areas season in season out? It was not because of lack of money. How many times each transfer window were we all saying “We need an experienced keeper, some commading CB’s, and a DM or two to hold the team together etc?

      But what would wenger do instead? Buy more smaller / diminutive attacking midfielders etc..

      Or when he bought a CB it was the wrong type or Midfielder it was to convert them into a some sort of hybrid player..

      You can’t tell me that all the correct type of Keepers, CB’s or DM’s were all too expensive for Arsenal when even the smaller teams could afford them back then.

      Lets be honest, wenger had a philosophy that he was firmly planted into and it was absolutely difficult to change him..

      And our wage bill was one of the highest in the league consistently. Hence we found it difficult to shift some of our young and sqaud players as they were on too much money.

  13. Such a shame that Herbert Chapman died prematurely and that there was no European trophies in those days. A man that revolutionised world football with the introduction of massuers and physiotherapists and the WM formation, he would surely have been our greatest ever manager.

    1. Maybe, but he didn’t introduce dietary requirements, educate players on their drinking and drug habits, turn footballers into athletes as well, prolong their playing careers by using the above methods and recognising the talents of players outside of the UK.

      But I agree we will never know what he might have achieved, while we do know what others have achieved.
      Interesting to watch him in old pathe news segments or in films featuring Highbury and his players…. a great man indeed.

      1. Were there players on drugs in those days ? Were players drinking heavily in those days ?

        As for recognising talents of players outside of the UK, yes he did. He tried to sign a foreign goalkeeper, but wasn’t allowed. Iirc, he even took the players on European tours.

        1. Are you saying that alcoholics didn’t exist back then, or that drug addiction was not around the football arena?
          Of course they were, just as they are today, but both HC and AW were pioneers in their own rights, that’s the point I’m making.
          Times change and HC’s players were great footballers, who wouldn’t have a chance against the modern day footballing athlete.
          That’s not degrading anyone, just common sense.

          As for players outside of the UK, taking Arsenal on a tour hardly equates to finding and promoting foreign players to the english league.

          As I said, nothing but admiration for HC, but like President Kennedy, we will never know just what he might have achieved – while we do know what other managers have / are achieving.

          1. No, I’m not saying there wasn’t alcoholics or druggies in those days, I asked you if the was any playing for The Arsenal under Herbert Chapman.

            As I posted previously, if he was allowed to sign foreign players, then he would have signed them. The Ministry of Labour blocked him from signing the Austrian keeper, Rudy Hiden. I’m guessing it was blocked as Hiden was a professional footballer, as they didn’t stop Herbert signing the Dutch player Gerard Keyser as an amateur.

  14. You just projected my personal take on the Wenger tenure as a whole..

    Very successful in his first 10 years, then after the invincibles and into the Emirates era he became too stubborn, thick skinned and overly indulgent in his philosophy. It hurts us in other ways.. I do think that we could have done more, won more cups, gone farther in the CL or title challenge in a few of those seasons.. We seemed to just be aiming for the bare minimum.

    That’s what frustrates me to this day. Because I 100% do believe that had wenger pushed himself a bit harder then we could have been more than just a Top 4 is like winning a trophy club.

    Wenger got too comfortable in his own ways and it became difficult for anyone to convince or get in his ear..

  15. I would rather remember the joy of watching the most sensational football in Wenger’s early years with my two sons who didn’t have a gauge of what is was like before. (That is not to say that GG in particular, wasn’t a really good manager, just that over my lifetime there were spells in the doldrums)

    It is painful for me to accept the top4 trophy scenario. I did for years believe that this was the case; to a point it enabled the club to be at the top table, so to speak when money was tight after the Emirates was built.

    Others have mentioned his softly, softly approach when perhaps a metaphorical clip around the ear was required at times and an apparent unwillingness to splash the cash when we were being told that money was available to spend.

    When all is said and done, he was a great servant to the club and to football in general. However, I do believe that to keep harking back does no particular good at all, especially when there are so many mixed views of his latter years. This is now and we have a younger manager who is ambitious and supported by the Kroenke family. The club is in a much stronger place, even if it took a couple of years longer than expected to reach this position.

  16. Put simply what football style was played during the George days, how bad it was with Bruce in charge. Wenger is responsible for our footballing identity, structure and where we are today in large parts. He just stayed too long and the full role became too much and possibly a distraction. People need to remember the money spending isn’t one person, it’s the club. We played the best football of any team in the era of AW at times. Just no doubt over his legacy and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

  17. Wenger in my opinion, was a fabulous manager and I enjoyed watching his teams way of playing more than any other manager, (obviously including the doubles won and Invincibles) for most of his tenure, until it all went wrong, but Herbert Chapman winning three league titles on the trot takes a lot of beating.

  18. The neverending debate on whether Wenger refused to spend or was not allowed to spend money. I would personally have given him the benefit of the doubt from 06-13 with the whole pay off the stadium but after that period I became a bit more sceptical and the 2015 transfer window sticks out as I fail to believe that the board only allowed him to spend £10M on Petr Cech.

    Imho I believe his philosophy was centred around building winning sides by signing bargain unknown players or out of favor players i.e Henry at Juventus and turning them into top players and took great pride in doing it that way. I never got the impression that he liked the idea of buying ready-made stars and that is why he detested Mourinho.

    1. ” I never got the impression that he liked the idea of buying ready-made stars and that is why he detested Mourinho.”
      That’s why I never understood the signings of Ozil and sanchez – it seemed out of character for the club. I’m not sure how much was his decision, but in those 2 cases, it at least seemed like he was on board.
      For me, the new stadium signaled that we were doing things to try to be an “elite” club like Liverpool or utd or real Madrid. I suppose it was right in the sense that our goal should be to become a great club, but it should never have come at the cost of performance and achievement on the pitch – that’s what made us look silly imo, we were trying to be big time, but couldn’t back it up on the pitch where it counts. It also took away some of the charm of supporting arsenal to me, made the business side of things too “in your face”.

  19. i found this ur article boring and meaningless and it has become the culture in ur country to look for other peoples flaw when it is not even necessary, trying to paint wenger in this way is boring when the issues surrounding his lack of spending is from the kroenkes who refuse to provide the money and they are only spending because their other franchise are winning and they want arsenal to do the same.

  20. An interesting article, well written and, of course, a personal view… as all articles and posts are on this great site.

    But I would like to ask Jack how he thinks AW managed to stay in the top four right up until his last two seasons, if he was not keeping up with the modern game?
    Surely, we would have been battling relegation at some point during his tenure, if this was the case?

    But of course that wasn’t the case, even when finishing 6th in his last season, we were nowhere near the relegation places that a club with a clueless manager who had lost his way should and would have been.
    I suggest that managers such as Sam Allardyce would be classed as dinosaurs and yet he has this aura of being able to rescue lost causes, while being relegated at least twice (I don’t know the actual amount)… while our club, under AW, became so used to finishing in the top four, playing CL right through to the KO stages in all but one season, it became an accepted occurance.

    Meanwhile Jack, you forgot to mention the Abramovitch and sheiks… forgot the cost of the new stadium… forgot the board selling out… forgot the fact that our best players were sold on a regular basis… and forgot that the Kronkies never put one single dollar of their own money in to support AW.

    What we get instead, is this classic statement that AW lived in a 90’s early 2000’s “bubble” while all around, other clubs were overtaking him… so let me ask this very simple question, apart from Abramovitch and the sheik, who else actually overtook him and our club right up until his last two seasons?

    Yet another classic statement is that he hindered the club’s progress in his final years – how far back are you going?
    I’m sure you’ll remember that, until his final two years, we had progressed in the previous three from 4th to 3rd to 2nd, was that not progress?

    Let’s see the proof in league positions… who were these dynamic forward thinking clubs and managers who ousted The Arsenal into,what can only be described, by the rhetoric of some, as a downward spiral into oblivion?

    Sadly it was some of our own fans who started to think that The Arsenal was entitled to be successful and had lost touch with the reality of football by blaming Arsene Wenger for every single setback.

    Here are two simple examples of why it was so difficult for AW to compete on an equal playing field :
    It’s taken city 16 odd years of untold spending (let alone over 100 charges of breaking the rules) to win the CL!!
    Remember chelsea were hours away from liquidation before Abramovitch wiped their debts away with a stroke of a pen and then proceeded to buy every player they could.

    I have no doubt whatsoever that Abramovitch and Sheik whatever his name is at city, arrived just at the wrong time when we moved from Highbury to The Emirates and kronkie became the majority shareholder.
    Kronkie stated he was not interested in winning trophies and the club had to be self sustaining, yet some fans expected Wenger to still perform miracles while all the above was going on.

    So I await with interest Jack, for you to reveal the clubs and managers who left Arsene behind from 2004 onwards.

    As you don’t give an actual date as to when this decline began, but do mention The Invincibles, I’ll also go back and list the clubs who finished in the top four from that date onwards and, if your correct and I’m wrong, we’ll see a complete changing of Arsenal appearing in the top four and I’ll revise my opinion of Arsene and eat humble pie.

    1. Sorry Ken, but you lost all respect suggesting that a club of Arsenal’s size would be in a relegation battle if Wenger had truely lost his way. Absolutely ridiculous thing to say!

      1. Jen, Manchester United, City, Chelsea, spuds and Liverpool have all been relegated, iso don’t think it would never happen to us, as it has so nearly been the case in our history.
        Being a club the size of The Arsenal means nothing if your not playing well… But you’ve just proved my point, it was because Arsene didn’t lose his way that we were never involved in a relegation battle.

        Read the article, digest what is being said about Wenger losing his way, how he was being left behind and tell me why it is ridiculous to assume we wouldn’t have been overtaken by every other club, such was the desperation overtaking The Arsenal… if all that was true.

        By the way, without being rude in any way, I really don’t need your respect. Nevertheless I respect your views no matter how ridiculous they might seem to me.

        Let’s leave it at that shall we?

        1. Ken your reasoning is completely detached from objective reality. To suggest that clubs like Burnley, Palace, West Ham etc, would be finishing above if Wenger was truly finished is so propostous, that you must be trolling?

          Now I’ll let facts speak for themselves.

          First 8 years or so, very competitive in the league. Next 13 years we not competitive in the league at all! So Wenger had clearly dropped his standards.

          Of course there’s a multitude of reasons as to why we regressed so badly post Invincibles, but to say that Wenger (the most influential person at the club) had either no part in it, or only played a small role, is factually wrong.

          1. Take me to the part where I said Wenger played no part in the results of the club, let alone a small part please?

            What the article didn’t explain, was the other parts of the jigsaw puzzle that played more prominent roles in Arsene not being able to compete on a level playing field.
            You know what they were, so I won’t repeat myself.
            My point is though, that despite his weaknesses and mistakes, Arsene kept our club in the top four despite all these other influences and, it is being suggested, being overtaken by other more astute managers and clubs as he was losing his way.
            That just isn’t true and I will produce the article tomorrow that shows why it’s not true.
            That doesn’t mean, as you seem to think, that I am absolving him from all blame, far from it.

            1. You are wrong, factually!

              Yes, of course spending huge amounts of money does help, but it isn’t always the answer, and Utd have more than proven that over the last decade, with Chelsea catching up quickly in that respect.

              And on that point, when Wenger had the funds to spend big again, he either wasted them on bizarre signings and insane contract extensions, whilst we got even worse in the league and in Europe.

              “Take me to the part where I said Wenger played no part in the results of the club, let alone a small part please?” – very easy, look at all your comments. You constantly find excuse after excuse to defend Wenger. Blindly defending him. Just accept what the facts are, Arsenal nosedived post 2006, and NO manager would and should have survived, yet Wenger did, and it came at the expense of the club – with the results backing up my point.

              Yo u cannot keep denying the results. Top four is NOT a trophy, it’s an excuse!

              1. Results determine where a club finishes, correct?
                Tell me when the spiral downturn occurred?
                Pinpoint exactly when the results nosedived and we plummeted down the league.
                Top four isn’t a trophy as such, but it’s, according to managers like Pep, klopp and Mourinho, essential to be in.

                As for Wenger, perhaps you wasn’t on the site, when I wrote an article listing the faults of AW and I believe they reached double figures.

                At the expense of the club?
                Do me a favour!!!
                Have you no idea how much revenue participation in the CL brought to the club?
                For starters it paid his salary each year and then some just by qualification.
                You need to get a grip on the realities of running a club the size of Arsenal – it’s not just about winning trophies… ask Birmingham City and they’ll give you the reality check you need.

  21. A cheap article, if you can call it that, clickbait. It worked because it got me here, but what a shallow one-dimensional load of dross. You criticise AW, have a look at yourself and be more ambitious.

  22. I’m sorry, but I didn’t answer your first point about other clubs and trolling.
    Why do you think it is preposterous to even suggest the likes of Burnley, Palace or West Ham would finish above us… even without Wenger or Arteta at the helm?

    I guess you thought that Swindon Town, Birmingham , Luton Town, or West Ham would never beat us in a cup final then?
    Or that we would finish 17th in the league, or have a crowd of less than 6,000 at Highbury?

    I’m not 100 % certain, but I do believe Burnley, Palace and West Ham have ALL finished above us at one time or another, so it wouldn’t be that remarkable if, with Wenger failing on all fronts and in charge, it happened again would it?
    That’s not trolling, rather it’s not being so arrogant as to believe Arsenal could never suffer the same fate as every other club, bar Everton, that has played in the top tier of English football and be relegated….. especially if the manager had regressed in such a way, that other clubs were overtaking him.

    By the way, Wenger was not the most influential person at the club – the owner was, still is and always will be.

  23. In an article posted on 26/11/2021 written by Ken1945 it was said Wenger wasn’t fired bt instead STEPPED DOWN.

    How quickly ppl forgets leaves me dumpstruck.

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