While Arsenal, despite the fact that the last few years has seen the financial shackles loosened a bit and some big transfers have come into the club, are still not up with the biggest spending clubs in the Premier League or Europe, there is an argument that the squad that Arsene Wenger has assembled has the quality to challenge for the title.
The Frenchman himself seems to think so, as reported by Sky Sports, so perhaps he has realised that for whatever reason he is not getting the best out of the Gunners we have got.
Le Prof appears fairly confident that the next manager in charge of Arsenal will have thw tools to compete once again with the likes of Man City and Manchester United, and I think that most of us expect to at least some improvement from the disappoint way that this season and the last have panned out.
Wenger said, “It’s a big job. The club has gone through the most difficult period in the last 10 years, building the stadium.
“I always felt that after 2016 that the club would be in a financial situation where we would compete again.
“What I could not predict is that clubs would move up another level financially that makes it more difficult now.
“But I still think Arsenal will come back and compete for the championship.”
Arsenal fans will expect more money to be spent on transfers this summer but you could argue that merely getting the best out of players like Koscielny, Lacazette, Aubameyang and all should be enough to get the Gunners back in contention for the EPL trophy. Do you believe that Wenger will be handing over an Arsenal squad with the right tools for the next boss to succeed with?
Bob.
This squad needs a lot of rebuilding
If anybody thinks having a midfield with Ramsay and xhaka in it is going to get you close to a title then think again ,and that’s just 1 area which needs an overall ,but for me that’s the main place to start
We need half of the team gone including Wilshere and Ramsey
Agreed the spine is simply too weak in this team … A new GK strong CH a strong DM and a creative M are essential … As well as swaps for bellerin and Monreal .. I don’t mind trying Kolasinac in place of Monreal and bringing in a young understudy .. I would like to see a genuine winger as we should sell Iwobi and welbeck … Ditto a clear out is essential
Arsenal needs more than rebuilding they also need rebranding completely. Arsen Wenger’s brand of football collapsed before all of us and could not stand a chance against top teams in the premiership and Europe.
He’s been manager at Arsenal for 22 years Okey Onwuagha, you’d have thought that someone who follows Arsenal and obviously feels they have a say in the club’s future plans would get his name right wouldn’t you. Unbelievable.
Ramsey would play for City not regularly but he’d play. He’d start for Liverpool, Chelsea, United, Spurs without a 2nd thought. Maybe Spurs he’d rotate but he’d play there too. If he doesn’t sign this summer watch him go to a big club.
Are you serious with this headline?The whole Club needs sorting top to bottom the minute he’s out of that door and a new era can begin.I trust Ivan Gazidis.Why? I’m not sure but we must trust someone and to be fair to Ivan it is he who wanted Wenger removed before this season and he has won a mighty battle to have Raul Sven and others come in that totally undermined Wenger.
We can only trust this new team to get the right manager in and get the players in AND OUT of the club.
Arsenal Football Club is left in a stronger position the second Wenger is out the door
Agree Phil when Gazidis came out and say “catalyst for change “ I knew something good was coming. Wenger loves power than any human being I know the infrastructure Gazidis was talking about that was needed badly you can’t have a manager do scouting,contracts,transfers and also commenting on French tv was just too much and wait also on transfers deadline to buy players man was pretty strange I am having my day today Mugabe is leaving
With you all the way with this @Armold.
The buck stops with Ivan G now.He wanted the control to bring about the change we so desperately needed and now he’s got it.He has a big job on his hands and the first is to get the right Manager in place to rebuild Wengers crumbling Empiire and start moving this Club forward. The second is to beat the living S**T out of Kronke and get the cheque book out for the new man.
Tough job and we can only wait and see but we must support Ivan G and trust him to get it right
What you guys don’t realise is that sometimes tactics can make a team look good or bad.
Arsene wengers tactics are what makes our players look so bad.
we have very good players.
if you don’t believe me consider this scenarios:
1.Chelsea under mourinho number 15.the same team under antonio conte wins premiership the following year.
2.Man united win the epl under sir alex fergueson.Next season the same team under moyes doesn’t even make top 4.
3.Mauricio pochettino takes over a lethargic spurs side and makes it competitive with inferior players he bought such as dele alli from championship.kane from the academy.
4.The same liverpool team klopp inherited is now in the champions league final (vandijk and salah excluded) but they lost countinho.
5.More recenlty carlo ancelotti suffering big losses at bayern munich.Jupp henyneckles takes over..team performs better.
Modern day football is more about tactics and that is where arsenal has been lagging behind because wenger is a tactical dinosaur.
If you have watched arsenal carefully you will notice the fullbacks are told to bomb forwad, the two centerbacks are left exposed with a large ground to conver hence why mistakes occur.
The midfielders such as ramsey and wilshere are also encouraged to go forwad and this leaves xhaka too exposed and due to his lack of pace,we get exposed.
If arsenal do get a tactician like max allegri or leonardo jardim,our players can get the tactical discipline they lack and we will be a good team next season.
LET US WAIT FOR NEXT SEASON AND EVERYONE WILL SEE WHAT HAS BEEN WRONG WITH ARSENAL ALL ALONG-wengers tactics.
Feel free to disagree.
don nayr
I do not disagree at all.Its obviously Wenger and his outdated and tired old methods that caught up with him at least 8-10 years ago and he was too foolish blind and stubborn to accept this. He was sacked because even our Board and Owner realised this.
He’s gone.We should celebrate and rejoice in that.
What good players do we have .??
I prob count 4 and 1 of them is Santi .If you want to see iowbi ,xhaka,Ramsey ,ballerina ,welbeck ,elneny in the squad then maybe don’t aim so high in the league ,cause them lot are guff players -and there’s more in there also .
But Ramsey is one of the best midfielder we have, covering a lot of space and also scoring
Exactly my point .you say Ramsey is our best midfielder,that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the team does it
Agree … But the same manager brings in players based on his tactics and perceptions … Too many are simply not good enough though am sure some can be salvaged … But not xhaka welbeck Iwobi and bellerin in my opinion
You need quality players to get tactics right and work you can’t play one two football with Walcott’s brain
Feel free to correct me when the next manager wins 3 fa cups in 5 years, get cl 3/5 and finishes 2nd once. I’ll be surprised if completes any of the free but feel free to correct me when it happens. Guessing the foolish will then blame Wenger for the squad that he did better with than Kronke for the money but again feel free to correct me when it happens lol. We’ll be better next year purely on the fact we obviously looked worse this year than we actually were. Still won’t win the league or a cup but maybe we’ll get top 4
Not if they stick in a rookie manager like the owners son wants, this isn’t the time for experimenting with rookies. We need a manager that can attract the best player as we’re not in the champions league, I can’t believe the club can’t agree on a manager for arsenal, with on week left until Wenger leaves, what a shambles.
Wenger is leaving the club in crisis both from a roster point of view and from an identity point of view.
In addition, we have more work to do for the squad that can be done in one window on our budget.
We need to replace Kos, we need to fix our midfield, we need to replace Monreal and maybe Cech and we need to bring some character into the squad.
Having said that, a good manager could do a lot in the next 2-3 years. But anyone who expects Arsenal to be competing for the PL in the next 3 years is dreaming if you ask me. In fact, even if we manage to sign Allegri or Jardim (my two preferred choices) we probably won’t make it back to the top 4 on our own strength next season or the following season.
This rebuild is going to take a lot of time. We should have changed manager 3 seasons ago before we wasted good money on the likes of Xhaka, Gabriel, Mustafi etc.
So when will we start challenging again? After 5 years? 6 years? Do you realize by then we will have gone for 20 years without winning the league? The new coach MUST be challenging for the league after the 3rd year. If not fire him and give the £8M a year to somebody else who can get results before we are all in our graves.
@ quantic haha I’m will not go to the grave,heaven will meet me here,well and alive
Wtf does that even mean
Weirdo fans like you is why we are in this mess
He is a member of the wenger cult .. All cult members are weird whether the guru is French football manager an american science fiction writer or an Indian mystic
I quite like Iain M Banks…..
Rkw get back to me in 10 years. See what we’ve won as club then although by then you’ll be foaming at someone else in charge and Kronke will be rubbing his hands lol
New managers need time. We have an aging squad and are miles behind Liverpool, Man U, and City. I don’t see us bridge that gap in 3 years to the extent that we win the PL.
We can break back into the top 4 in the next 3 years but expectations of winning the PL seems naive to me.
ppl keep blaming this squid bt its tactics that r wrong,under manager that has ryt tactics ppl will sing abt mustafi fast.we r nt too far, lets calculate….
ryt now we have 60 points–
lets say we had won 5 more away game …thoz r 15 point
60 plus 15 is 75
from the table 75 points you pick it at no.3 cos no 2 has 77
under more tactical coach lets say even with this squid this season would have won atlist 5-6 more away game and drawn mayb 3 calculate where we would b with this squid.
squad…….sorry pals
We didn’t waste money on Gabriel. We received almost the same amount for Gabriel as we spent on him £10-11 mil
For me, it is wasted money for a club as cash-strapped as we have been to, to buy a perfectly capable defender like Gabriel only to sell him in no time and not utilize him properly. For the same money we could have bought Wanyama and God knows we could have used him as a defensive midfielder.
Real Betis have a very good DM player his name Ruiz even Barcelona and Madrid are sniffing around or we should try to get Kovacic from Madrid who is going to be shown the door
By the time we get another Coach, a good one before we can compete again
Wenger wasnt bad he just had his own beliefs, he knew everything better than any body else around him and is paying a price now for that kind stance
I agree a new manager could make this team tick, but we do need defenders without a doubt.
We also need a midfield. Xhaka is unlikely to be the guy that will make us tick. Ozil is not really a midfield player, Ramsey and Wilshire are below par and Elneney is a squad player. We need a true DM and a creative midfield player.
I would be interested in Jardim taking over AMN and Mov would be starters and we would buy young promising players maybe a year or two top 4 will be a possibility
If not Jardim, i’d still like to see someone like Benitez with Henry or some other ex-player/future manager. Get Benitez to stabilise the team, probably take some flak whilst we rebuild over the next 2 years then start really competing, ready to hand over the Henry or whoever.
The issue I would like to raise regarding the condition Arsene Wenger has left Arsenal in, is the player squad to be inherited by the new manager. I ask people to compare the current squad with that inherited by Wenger from Bruce Rioch in 1996. How many players from the current squad would make the starting 11 in 1996?
Very true! I think a few of them would make it into the 1996 squad, but I could only see Aubameyang getting into the starting XI. Arsenal is in a far worse state now, than what it was in 1996 when Wenger took over. I think we need a very experienced manager to sort the mess out.
The same squad which include the fame Arsenal back 4 fnished 12th in the season before Rioch, which also was George Graham final season in charged. One could also argue 5th and 6th spot were just two of the worst placing for Arsene Wenger in his 22 season in charged so whoever is coming over, arguably have more than a competitive squad to begin with. Arsene, when he first came over bought among others Petit, Viera and Henry and blended them with the existing squad and within 18 months he won his first title, and similarly history can be repeated with a few good impactful additions. However, first Gazidis need to really loosen the purse string without resorting to selling useful players like he did with Giroud recently. I did not remember the last time we need to sell so many key squad players in an ongoing season i.e coquelin, giroud, walcott plus a few others just to fund purchase for one top qualty player Auba, although i am really glad with his purchase. We are strenghtening and weakening the overall squad at the same time and this is just not the mentality of a club intent on winning titles. In the matches against Athletico recently, with them defending the way they did in both matches, I was wishing then that we have Giroud as our plan A or B .And I am amazed that the club let Giroud go, knowing in advance that Auba is not going to be eligible for the Europa comp. At one point we have Welbeck as our sole senior striksr in the comp. To me, this just point to the club lacking in ambition to win titles.
Anyway, my point is Arsenal should just buy to strengthen the team without being preoccupied to make profit on in/out sale all the time if we are really an ambitious club. Secondly Gazidis and his technical team need to identify a few rough diamond like wenger did with Henry and Viera when he first arrived. Yes, Arsene have not spot a steal for sometime now after Fab and Van Persie purchases in 2006, but his replacement or Sven must be able to spot bargains like Kante, Mahrez, Mane and Salah.because these bargains are indeed still around.
Now with Arsene gone, I am sure there is no more hindrance to the club winning titles, and I am sure we would be able to win the title in 2 years if we have the right people owning and managing the club. A few managers at man city had already won in less than two years, maureen won at Chelsea in his second season, Conte won in his first season having inherited a squad that fnishes 10 or 12th the season before, and Ranieri won in his first season in charged, so no lame excuses PLS.
Bottom line, if key decision makers now at the club made all their decision based on wanting to win titles rather than wanting to make profit, I am sure we can win titles again within 2 years like MC, Chelsea and LC did in recent seasons.
Clearly Wenger is NOT handing over an Arsenal fit to succeed again! Enormous change of the whole ethos and of about 80% of the first team squad is first needed. I am , however, confident that given time, any decent manager chosen will make a big improvement on Wenger, even as soon as next season. Reason? Well , he will actually COACH! NOW THERE’S A NOVELTY WE HAVE NOT SEEN IN A DECADE OR MORE.
I think the only place wenger has let us down with respect to first team squad is the central defenders and defensive midfielder. Our full backs are good enough. With Monreal being as solid and consistent I think he can still do the job for at least one season. Belerin on the other hand is still very young playing in a system that has no leaders to look up to. Did any body notice how Godin shouted at Petey when he attempted to do too much in the box. That’s the type of leaders young players need. I believe with better coaching and leadership he will be as good as we thought he was going to get. I think xhaka is better than most people think. I can’t remember the last time he has caused us a game. I think he has been stock in a stereotype the media has created about him. If we get a manager in the mold of klopp, we will see better things from this same squad. Am a Nigerian but I don’t believe iwobi is though enough mentally for a club like arsenal,so he needs to go along with mustafi( not technically intelligent ) and wilshere (not productive and little end product his time on loan showed it.)
Left us with good strikers, and some good young defenders. Everything else is essentially a disaster
Agreed the top 4 are pretty good miki ozil auba laca
And miles looks a beast along with nelson who hasnt been used right
Niles *
In my opinion AW has left us in a dreadful state. I have said over and over that in a squad of 25 with a top level life expectancy of 5 years on average then you need 5 new players a year in the squad just to stand still. Instead AW has boosted his own performance related pay by buying cheap or free has beens. PC was once the world’s best goalie, as an example. Now he struggles with back passes, cannot save a penalty or a decent free kick. And we are supposed to say merci to AW for this!! Thank you to a man with 100 million in the bank while hard working season ticket holders pay the top prices in the world. A vrai dire, c’est incroyable!