When Thierry Henry was experiencing a difficult time at Barcelona he was asked if he left, where would be his preferred destination? He replied: ‘You always go back where you belong.’ When pressed if he was referring to Arsenal, he smiled and said:’You always go back where you belong.’
That’s what came to my mind this week when it was suggested Arsene Wenger could be invited back to the club. It’s also reassuring that good things happen to good people.
It’s been so refreshing that I have read mostly positive feedback, that the section of our fan base trying to rewrite history and educated a younger generation wrongly, all for the sake of subscribers or views, these people don’t get to win.
I’ll never forget some grown men running to social media high fiving themselves for refusing to stay behind and applaud Mr Wenger in his final game.
Not that he is certain to say yes to any job offer.
Not just is he working with FIFA, but he’s a very intelligent man.
There’s a reason he hasn’t attended a home match since he left. He was genuninely hurt by how some fans treated him in his final years, warning them they were in danger of ruining the club’s values.
Being in the boardroom or behind the scenes would only leave him open to accusations of undermining his replacement by hanging around. The juice might not be worth the squeeze. What he’s done is keep his dignity and allowed the facts to speak for themselves.
The reality is the grass has not turned out greener, not even close. Where he was mocked for two seasons not being able to finish in the top 4, we are currently 7 points above relegation in February. We would now bite your hand off to ‘only qualify for the Champions League’, a stick he was beaten with.
If anything, the work of Emery clarified what I always said, only when he left would we realise how good a job he did, how hard it is to work with owners with zero ambition.
He’s smart enough to know that even his biggest critic 2 years later can’t keep blaming him for the mess we are in.
When Emery went on a 22-match unbeaten run I remember how he got applauded for all of these changes.
You can’t have it both ways, when Emery did well it was all him, when things went wrong, let’s go back to blaming the old regime.
Is it the Frenchman’s fault that we only loaned players in January, that Ramsey was allowed to leave, that Koscielny was replaced by Luiz, that Auba and Laca are being allowed to run down their contracts?
He left us in fifth place, not in a relegation scrap.
I even had to argue with readers on here for labelling him the greatest manager in our history. They thought it was a debate. It wasn’t, it was a factual statement. No man in our history has won more, simple as that. The football he played made us famous around the world. The credit Klopp is getting for potentially winning the Prem unbeaten is a barrier set by Arsene Wenger.
In our whole history we have won 13 FA Cups, one man contributing to 7 of them. In 22 years, he took us to 13 finals including the Champions League.
He brought some of the greatest talent to ever wear our shirt, usually on the cheap.
All of the above with limited money. If he failed to keep up those standards, it was only the standards he had set.
How we were before and how he left us were better in every way. How we play, the diet, training facilities, stadium, trophy cabinet, bank balance, etc.
In a game short of loyalty, he’s one of the few who means it when he says he loves the club. For that alone Arsenal will always be your home.
Like someone once said: “You always go back where you belong”….
Dan Smith
No doubt he is our best manager in history, he has won the most trophies for us but his problem came first from Kroenke and the fact that he refused to evolve with the modern football changes.
He kept working on his tactics and system. The world is changing so fast
Wenger fall began when he evolved with modern football
He suddenly change to use playmaker when fabregas is rise, trying to copy tiki taka barcelona.
Later he copy conte to using 3 cb and wingback
Using deeplyingplamaker, and almost eliminate the role of dm.
Now we see city and liverpool dominated premier using what wenger used in his past glory.
Wenger started tiki taka because there was wenger as a coach before Guardiola.
No, there was Barca’s tiki taka before Wenger. Wenger’s invincible was a great combination of beauty and beast. They were a joy to watch. They won with brawl as much as with breathtaking football. One would have thought Wenger would replace the invincible with similar players and stick to the winning formula. But he settled for a team with the likes of Denilson protecting the defence. A team that was too much to handle for the whole league was then constantly bullied by Bolton, stoke, and the likes.
With that said, Wenger’s method of management is revolutionary in England. I felt he was unlucky in Europe. I still figure out how arsenal were eliminated by Chelsea in 2004.
*can’t figure out
It will take 5years to realize that Wenger was the greatest manager we have ever had. I am mentioning 5years because no coach (in those 5yrs) will even perform at the standard of Wenger’s last 2years
It will take 10/12 years to recover from the damage done by AW, up to ten years he was excellent but the world and other coaches worked him out and he was unable to evolve and move on.
So for the first 10/12 years it’s thank you Arsene, after then he should have known that it was time to move on for both the team and himself.
Nice guy, but blinkered at the end.(13/22) years.
One thing people don’t realize was those coaches were given tools and money to do what they did but Wenger was made to do it with little money and the academy players. We all know how much Mourinho spent at chealsea and of course we know how much klopp has spent at liverpool. The truth is wenger is being punished for being a man that was always protecting the board by always coming out to say there’s money to spend but we always end up selling the good players.
Technically Wenger is based on trophies won, but Graham would have easily been our greatest ever if had 22 years in charge, and it’s a decent debate to be had about those two.
8 trophies in just 9 years, including two league titles, European success, and a clean sweep of domestic trophies, is not to be sniffed at.
Wenger didn’t win everything domestically, and never won in Europe. He also had extremely long periods of not winning, including a lot of thrashings. One also has to consider the state Wenger left the club in, on, and off the pitch. Wenger inherited Graham’s fantastic defence, yet what did Wenger leave for his successor?
I am not trying to bash Wenger, I just feel it’s an interesting conversation to have. Just because someone has the most of something, doesn’t always mean they are the best. E.g. A club’s record goal scorer may have 200 goals from 400 games, and the clubs second highest scorer may have 199 goals from 200 games…so who is the best?
Agree totally.
Sorry the last post wasn’t sent under this post, i totally disagree with that.
Ha ha forget the last post, i must be drunk. Third man, i totally agree.
ThirdManJW – read your comments and couldn’t disagree on any point raised . So, would like to add that Arséne inherited a top notch defence that knew what to do and then went on to put that knowledge into practice . Once they were gone no one one coached their successors .
Mikel has taken that coaching role on now and from his short time at the helm I’m seeing actual progress.
All I’m saying is that Stroller should be given credit for giving a solid foundation. Hopefully we won’t see utter humiliation like the 8-2 6-0 hammerings we got because Arsene obviously gave up on the coaching side . Did you ever wonder what was Steve Bould doing in all this ? Or anyone on the staff during the last 12 years or so?
One thing i will add, wenger couldn’t get a tune out of a poor team. One thing GG and fergie were good at was getting average players and teams playing beyond what they should have. They were very good at setting structure in teams that were not blessed with great players but produced great performances.
But what AW was good at, it seems, was getting dross players (not average but dross) to finish in the top four, win fa cups and reach CL quarter finals – without, it seems once again, no defence, no tactics, no plan B and not moving forward with the new coaches that were leaving him behind.
Quite incredible really when one thinks about it.
Yes ken he did but in the end he couldn’t. And by dross i suppose you mean, Fabregas rvp cazorla cliche henry Walcott Adebayor sanya edu reyes hleb Arteta. Etc. Lol
Reggie, if you are talking about AW’s last two seasons then I agree with you.
Funny when one puts ones mind to it, just what great players AW did sign though isn’t it?
Your etc’s would include many many more of course, Petit, Vieria, Campbell, Pires, Freddie, Gilberto and of course, our current crop of younger players coming through LOL!!!
As for the names you mentioned, interesting to realize how many he had to sell while The Emirates was being built or because of persistent injuries or even players greed.
So what players were you referring to, when saying he couldn’t get a tune out of a poor team?Obviously none of the above!?
Ken when he couldn’t field his first 11 shall we say, he couldn’t set us up to dig in and scrap for a point. Just one instance a few years ago, i remember fergie rocking up to the Emirates with players like evans, fletcher,brown, oshea and park ji sung, he beat us 2-1 and we didn’t have a bad side out either, they had loads of injuries and ground out a win, they won the league that year playing not great football because they didn’t have a great team. Wenger for me could only get a great result even in his pomp with a great team. One of his weaknesses was if we were down to the bare bones we couldn’t do the same. When GG won the cup winners cup, our team was limited and not as good man for man as Parma, he set the team up and ground out a result. Thats what i mean.
Reggie, a good point with GG and Parma – how would you judge AW and chelsea in the cup final, when we had BFG playing his first game of the season alongside Holding?
Is that the kind of game you mean, but can’t remember AW doing?
If I remember correctly, we were given no chance whatsoever and yet Wenger set up the side to win in such a way, one of our own supporters claimed on here that we won because chelsea had been out the night before celebrating their title as champions!!!
Some fans can never be satisfied, I even remember Wenger being just 13 minutes from the CL title after having our keeper sent off and setting up the side to defend for approx. 70 minutes against Barcelona, with Henry missing a sitter to make it 2-0…just another example of his capabilities that, because of his final two years seem to have been forgotten completely.
Ok ken you have come up with a reply to counter my reply and you are right about Chelsea but they were down to 10 men but that was there fault for that and our advantage. The Cl final, i cant accept because we still lost but let me guess, you will counter with, we were down to 10 men.
I got example
I remember winning title at Old Trafford with the likes of Henry , Bergkamp , Pires, Adams all injured
We won 1-0
We beat Saints in cup final with so many injuries and suspensions we played luzhny as a makeshift defender
United batter us in cup final ,we found a way to dig in and win
Three examples where we dug in and won without best players
So again just made up
Lemmy, have you forgotten the Luton and Swindon league cup final humiliations?
Or the fa cup knockouts against millwall and walsall – the 8-2 and 6-0 were thrashings against premier league sides, while the above were all against much lower opposition.
As for saying that once the old back four went, no one coached the defence, perhaps you can explain how we became the Invicibles under AW?
Unless, of course, you believe that Wenger signed such great players, he let them get on with it?
I do agree that MA has changed the defence, but that goes for the complete team doesn’t it?
Your right that Bouldy was non-existent as a defensive coach, how he survived UE new regime I will never know.
Finally, when Bruce Rioch took over from GG, he actually improved that defence by a total of seventeen less goals conceded in his one season, so if anyone should get the praise for handing AW that defence, it should be him, because they were going downhill under GG.
Simply not true
Your counting a charity shield and a centenary trophy
If we are counting them , I’ll count Wenger charity shields as well
So now we are talking that Wenger won 17 trophies , double George Graham
If we go by your 9 year theory , it’s 13 -8
You boast Graham won more Leauge Cups but In same period Wenger won more titles and FA Cups
Then the argument.if Graham only have 9 years ?
He was sacked , for some bad things , did that not leave us in a mess ?
He finished 12 th that season So hardly left amazing team.
You say back 4 , did Wenger not prolong their time by dietrty training methods , changing the drinking culture
Think most have admitted he had
So one leaves us in 12th , a scandal , drinking culture
The other leaves us in 5th , beautiful stadium , richer then we were before
Wenger won double his amount , going by you counting community shield
You then ask to break it down to only 9 years Wenger wins
Charity shield is not a major trophy, never was and never is.
So Graham won only 6 trophies then in 9 years compared to Wengers 7
As a footnote to the community Shield Dan, you either had to be champions or have won the fa cup to compete in it – the fact that Arsene won it outright seven times and lost twice, while GG shared it once and lost it once backs up the theme of your article once again…or to put it another way…a humiliating 9-2!!!
Wengers plus was his first 12 years and his combative team structure. His minuses were his trying to change our style to tika taka football and his failure to win a European trophy when we had the best team we probably ever had. I just think as he got older and his downfall was he lost his ability to influence teams and players. Yes our best manager but in his time GG was as effective but what happened to George was obviously his downfall.
Hi Reggie,
You and ThirdManJW make valid points about George Graham. I have just read a resume of his career as a manager and had forgotten just how much he won, not only at Arsenal but elsewhere. A European trophy too and a season where the Gunners only lost one match.
Sue, what people say about wenger, is he had Arsenal running through his viens, which he did and it clouded his judgement. GG had Arsenal in his veins too, thats why he let it cloud his judgement also. Both in very different ways but both ultimately cost them their demi god status.
While they are both entitled to their opinion
They kind of twisted stats
And you haven’t tried to twist stats in the previous post?
All facts
Wenger winning more fact
Dan, GG’s win rate was less than 49% while at The Arsenal with a great defence – would love to see you print AW’s win rate, with a dross non existent defence, I just can’t do it!!!!
Oh o.k. then.
PL. 823 games-473wins-199draws-151 losses % win rate 57.5% = loss rate of 18.3%
In total:
Pl. 1235 – 707wins-280draws-248 losses %win rate 57.2% = loss rate of 20%
Not bad for a team with no defence or tactics.
Like i said ken GG wasnt bad winning the league, cups and a European trophy with a bunch of pub dwellers.
Thanks Ken for pointing out his win record
So we have proven he won more
Then broke it down to first 9 years , he won more
Proved he did in fact buy some great players not just inherit them
And now had better win record
Think we covered the basics ?
Anything other lies to break down ?
Without doubt AW was Arsenal’s greatest manager. It is well documented that his methods were copied by those coming through after. Men like him and Ferguson were rarities.
When supporters were calling for him to go, I was very much a ‘be careful what you wish for’ person. However, everyone has his or her day and this was the case with AW in the end. New coaches with new ideas were coming through and the reality was that he didn’t know when to bow out on a high. Fergie did, but it still didn’t mean that success followed on at ManU. There is no guarantee.
The grass is not necessarily greener. Wenger would have gone at some point so we might have just been putting off an almost inevitable ‘post-club legend’ slump in fortunes anyway.
Sue, im not sure the phrase ” the grass is always greener ” fit our situation. If wenger had gone while we were still in a great shape, still getting regular CL football and not already sliding and dropping down at a steady rate, then we could use that. It isn’t relevant in our circumstance because the grass had gone brown before he left.
And might i just add Arteta doesn’t need all this irrelevant stuff resurfacing while he is trying to get on with resurrecting our fortunes. Wenger is gone, Emery is gone, now lets see the Arteta era.
On this point I can agree with you 100% and said so in a previous article.
Statues, naming stands, ambassadors etc etc should be done by the owner and the board and announced at the start of next season.
Let Mikel Arteta get on with it – however, when our history is being denied, it has to be defended.
Yeah
Me writing an article pointing out Mr Wenger was good at his job might cost us three points at home to Newcastle
Reggie, please tell that to the fellow below this comment. Laughing? And he had the nerves to doubt thirdman as a fan…smh
De ra, people are entitled to their opinion but we all dont have to see it the same way.
Dude was not even confident in his comments Deleted them all..lol
Yh people are entitled to their opinions, but name calling?
Clever analogy and you’re right too.
I’ve supported our Great Club a long time and really admired Arséne as an innovater and fundamentally a decent loyal man. But he’s 70 now so how long do you hold off before realising that blimey yeah we have to get his successor in and not put this pressure on to Arsene until he’s 90.
All the grass is always greener because many thought the change would make us better
We have gotten worse since he left
That’s a fact , just not want you want to hear
But we are in this state because he left us in a poor state, we were out of the CL places for two seasons, contract renewals was a joke, he split the fan base, how can the grass and green even come into it. It wasn’t all green when he left, he left a poor excuse of a football team behind that wanted a total rebuild.
So is it his fault we are now 13th ?
No Dan, it must be Artetas, is that what you are saying.
And Dan twisting facts again we are 10th.
Sorry we are on same points as 13
But your right we are 10th , that proves we have got better since he left lol
Excellent article, Dan Smith 👍👍
Of course. Nobody would deny that. But his last dozen years he gave up trying to win the Premier League or forgot how to win it
It also helped that he inherited a lot of top players
The back 4 who have all admitted benefited from.his dietary requirements and training methods ?
Give me a list of players he inherited
Let’s make it quicker
How many players in untouchable reign did he inherit ?
Made a list of great players he didn’t inherit
Henry , Pires , Ljungberg, Cole., Campbell , Lauren , Toure , Silva , Abelka , Overmars ,Petit , Kanu , Fabrega s , Ozil., Sanchez , Vanpersie…….I’ll stop now lol
Clever analogy and you’re right too.
I’ve supported our Great Club a long time and really admired Arséne as an innovater and fundamentally a decent loyal man. But he’s 70 now so how long do you hold off before realising that blimey yeah we have to get his successor in and not put this pressure on to Arsene until he’s 90.
Nah! The greatest Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman. He turned Arsenal from a non entity into serial winners.
Also, the great Brian Clough and even Malcolm Alinson referred back to him when they were managing in the seventies.
Mr Chapman created the Huddersfield team to be the first to win three consecutive First division titles and then achieved that with Arsenal, even though he sadly passed away after the secind title. There are Also many other accolades laid at his feet.
Mr Wenger has recently admitted that taking Arsenal away from Highbury, that the club Aldo left their soul behind.
A great manager knows when to quit.
Nope , Wenger won More at Arsenal then Chapman
Funny how do many fans struggle to say that , it’s a fact
And quit he did, when he gave the club six months notice in order that they found a suitable successor – he even suggested Mikel Arteta and the club…. employed Unai Emery.
Eighteen months later, they did a u turn, sacked UE overnight, then dithered again, before, once again, relying on Wenger’s judgement, employed Mikel Arteta.
As for taking our club away from Highbury, the move had been muted long before AW arrived – he took on board the fact that we would never compete financially with the likes of manure, barca or real with a capacity of 38,000 fans…the fact that kronkie and gazidis arrived made all this sound thinking irrelevant and we still don’t compete – is that Wenger’s fault?
The soul of our club is its supporters/fans, not a brick and mortar building and I believe that is what Arsene means when he says we left our soul at Highbury – we now have a prawn sandwich section of fans who demand success as a right, abuse our players and club, but cry “foul” when they respond back. Complete Snowflakes who give it out but can’t take it back!!
When AW left, we did indeed get “Our Arsenal back”, the one that had crowds of 4,000 for a game against Leeds and one that found the players “scared” of playing Watford.
Humiliation? What about GG losing to Wrexham 2-1 in the fa cup 91/92 or Millwall 2-0 in 94/95?His win % at The Arsenal was less than 49% and yet he is lauded as a defensive master coach
Even Herbert Chapman lost 2-0 in the third round away to Walsall.
Then there is the league cup final defeats by both luton and Swindon and a home defeat by Tranmere in 73/74 by 1-0.
It has always been so at The Arsenal – not just under one manager. Why do we have fans who always want to bring up negatives rather than successes?
“Dropping down at a steady rate?” 4th-3rd-2nd- 5th-6th jeez I feel giddy at the depth of the decline…did anyone mention relegation in those five seasons, let alone fa cup wins?
With you 100% on this article Dan, perhaps you should do one on George Graham that contain his humiliations and transfer dealings, including selling David Rocastle.
Good idea lol.
So Dan and Ken, when he left, did he leave this club in a healthy state. Were we going up or were we going down. Was our team challenging for the top four or was it failing to challenge top 4. Was the squad he left behind capable of challenging for top 4. My answers would be No, Down, failing, No.
Reggie, let me answer your question “Did he leave this club in a healthy state”?
Well, let’s be clear, in my opinion, his last two years were not acceptable for him or the club and that’s why he left.
We had never finished below sixth, so in terms of player ability, that was where we were seen in the world.
There was never a hint or suggestion that the club was in any way in danger of relegation.
We had just become the most successful team in the history of the worlds oldest cup competition.
We had reached the semi-final of a european cup.
We had paid all but the interest owing for the Emirates (that goes on until 2030).
We had agreed the biggest ever shirt deal in our history, along with numerous other sponsorship deals that would only be feasible if said sponsors were able to see a well run club that fitted in with their own ideals of promoting themselves.
(As an example, I’m sure you will know that the banks, it was reported, when loaning the money for the Emirates, had to be assured that AW would be there for the duration).
Top Four – last five years positions were 4th-3rd-2nd-*5th-6th only finishing one point from fourth spot* as was the case with UE the year after these figures.
Of course we were challenging, the outcome on the * season, final places not being known until the final day.
My answers would be Yes, Stable and Yes. Opinions of course.
Ok ken, i thought you would say that. I suppose that the next season finishing 5th and final of the Europa league, was an improvement on the previous season but then the trust in Emery wasn’t there either because he got sacked without seeing where he would of finished this season. I do find it strange you think we had a team that could finish top four when wenger left, when he had failed 2 years top 4 and Emery one year. Thats 3 years outside top 4.
Reggie, but you ignore the fact that both AW and UE failed by one point in reaching the top four, so they were, quite obviously, challenging for it were they not?
if they were 17th and 17 points behind fourth spot, you would have a point that one couldn’t dispute, as they wouldn’t be challenging…simple deduction
As for UE and his first season, if he hadn’t messed up in the league run in, played his best four players game after game (when available) and hadn’t got his tactics and team completely wrong in the final, he would still be here, we would have CL money to buy CL players and the club would be in a better position.
No talk of relegation, no sacking, but as it did happen, you think it was Arsene Wenger’s fault? lol
Yes but ken, were we challenging or just finishing 5th because we weren’t good enough. When Leicester won the league and we were second, did we challenge them? Or did we just finish second. That year we were challenging top 4 but we were not challenging the top spot. Finishing and challenging are two different things. If a horse wins a race by 15 lengths the second horse isn’t challenging. Are city challenging Liverpool this year? No
Well he finished 5th , so that suggests he challenged for top 4 ?
We are now 7 points above relegation so we havn t got better have we ?
How are you not seeing that ?
Reggie, so now your changing your initial “challenging” to “finishing” – talk about moving the goalposts when confronted with facts, so much so, that I’m not sure if your arguing about where we finished or if we challenged for the position we finished in.
So, by your definition, we were actually in a downward spiral under Wenger, but we finished 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, 6th.
Are you saying that was because we didn’t challenge for
3rd, 2nd, 1st, 4th and 5th or even the no. 1 spot?
If that’s your case, why bother playing and challenging for any finish – why are city challenging leicester etc to finish in second place?
The same reason we challenged everyone else to be second to Leicester, who of course we beat home and away that season season.
I will just rely on the facts as laid out by Dan on AW and GG’s time as managers and my facts in comparing the win/draw/lose percentage ratio regarding AW and GG. I’m off to bed!!!
Arsenal needed him to go to director position and it would have gave him a good balance between everyday loaded job and retirement but he did not accept it. And that is the only position he can return for. It is inevitable that one day he would ve left for any reason. Arsenal should be able to deal with it.
He is probably the greatest of all time for us and I respect him for that. but I don’t miss him even now because I have no doubt in my mind that his departure was long overdue. The team might be struggling now but it was still embarrassing during his last nine or so years. The heartache we have endured under Wenger for years has made me develop some sort of immunity that even our current position doesn’t affect me. my only hope is that the change from Wenger to Emery and now Arteta will hopefully bring some needed change. only time will tell.
@vims you have said the truth. there has to come a time when the club has to move on despite the golden years under a good manager like AW. it is like we are building afresh. The problem currently is to have good recruitment of hardworking and talented players as well as talented managers with good judgement as well as decision making and we will be back.
Reggie- you asked me is it Wengers fault we are 13th or Arteta ?
Giving that Arteta been in charge for 7 prem games this season and Wenger 0
I dont get how Wenger responsible for that ?
If Emery had taken us top of prem would you have said Wenger did that ?
I was being pedantic, like you said we are 10th not 13th. You wrote an article and you seem to want to attack everyone who wants to counter it or throw some debating material in. I will ask you a question, would we be in this position if we hadn’t dropped out of the top four 3 years on the trot?
I will say this this debate has gone off track. Yes wenger is the best manager we have had because he was here 20 odd years. The rest is probably on the wrong page.
And his win ratio and trophies won and style of football and creating stars with little money
Also the likes of George Graham didn’t get 20 years because they got sacked
Not attacking , just argue with facts who has done better then Wenger at Arsenal ?
You argue George Graham won more in 9 years , not true
You said he only inherited good players , not true
You said he never won with out his best players or dug out a result
So your current argument to why Arsene Wenger is not our greatest manager is……since he left we are 10th
Ok ?
Dan, you are arguing, i didn’t say Gg had won more trophies or anything of the sort, i never said he inherited only good players. You really have list the plot. My very first post was to recognize wenger as the best manager. I also happened to mention Ggs achievements, from there the debate went in a different tangent, mainly because like now posters accuse people and twist things said that go off topic. Dan you wrote an article and now you are just fighting every one who isnt 100 % on board with your opinion. And twice in this debate i have acknowledged your point. Are you on drugs or something. Lol
And Dan, calm down, no wenger didn’t get sacked because due to respect, he was asked to leave with grace, so that we didn’t sack him. Wenger wanted to stop on but it was in the end, shall we call it, a mutual agreement. It would not have been good for both sides for Arsenal to sack Wenger and the sensible decision was reached for all.
I’m gravy mate
Anyone is entitled to opinion , trust me not many agree with me lol.
but it has to be based on facts
You did agree t with Third Man who said GG won more in first 9/years
You wrote he can’t dig out results and performances been responsible for us being in a scrap
I’m just using facts to defend him
Cause you don’t like those facts isn’t my problem lol
“The king is dead, long live the king”. Without any doubt whatsoever, Arsene Wenger was Arsenal’s greatest manager. But as so many have said, he overstayed his welcome, because his methods/training/player acquisitions did not evolve as the game changed.
Let us forever credit him for the fantastic years he brought to Arsenal, erect a statue in his memory, name a stadium after him, blah blah, and wish him well. AND LEAVE IT THERE.
We are in a new era (how long have Liverpool been in the doldrums after their heyday years, look where ManUtd are since Fergie’s departure) and we need to give whoever is in charge the time and space to make changes, make mistakes like we all do from time to time and hopefully bring us to greatness again.
Having said that, we should all also recognise that getting back to the top of the pile is getting and will get more difficult every year, and throwing huge amounts of money after all the.best players around the world (like Barça, PSG and Real like to do) is not sustainable. Shrewed buying and player development is needed and we now have the team to do just that.
This debate is irrelevant and merely reinforced entrenched positions on both sides, UNLESS QWenger is indeed asked to return in a substantive club , though not team role and that he accepts. Unless boith those things hapopen and both are unlikely in my opinion, the dedta merely reopens old wounds.
As one of Wengers fiercest and most regular critics, I would welcome his return, though only as either CEO or director of footballl but deferring all incomings and outgoing transfer decisions entirely to Arteta . He should have no final decision on team matters, though could be consulted and asked to help, should Arteta wish it but ONLY in that case. Unless this happens , which I give no more than a 2% chance, it is pointless speculating further. THE TIME FOR POINT SCORING HAS LONG CEASED AND I WILL NOT REOPEN IT NOW!
A debate you don’t have to take part in
Guys getting a statue so natural time to pay respect to his achievements
Don’t get why that would bother you ?
Dan calm down! Lol
Im gravy lol
Dan, Who said it did bother me? Oh let me think, that’s right , it was you! Your words not mine , so criticise yourself then.
Like everyone, it was never disputed that he is undoubtedly our GOAT manager
His tactics unfortunately just became stale and didn’t adapt to the modern game.
Though after 20+ years, no one can blame him of those faults
It doesn’t really make a difference. Emery being a flop doesn’t reinforce anything either. If you really think we were going anywhere under AW those last few seasons then you were part of the reason the expectations of the club continued to crumble. Wenger had an amazing period of success, but couldn’t keep up with the demand and standards he had set, and so was able to prolong his career here by setting goals that did not include trophies. Change is necessary and constant. Enough of trying to make us fear it and try to go back to a time taht was not a glamorous as it was made out to be. We were all still on here arguing just at much, maybe even more when Wenger was coach.
No the club have announced they are building a statue ( how dare they ?)
So naturally people will then pay respect to his contribution+( like we did Henry , Adams statue )
If people are not comfortable having Wengers work.saluted then don’t read the article
Do think.It’ sad as fan base it’s okay to verbally abuse Xakha and Mustafi ( called a snowflake when I stuck up for them ) but don’t write that Wenger was good at his job ?
It’s a shame that this slanging match occurred. Wenger was our most successful manager and my admiration is fulsome. What cannot be denied is that he was in denial about his ability to take the club further. It became stale. Those on the terraces wanting Wenger to stand down did so because his high standards were slipping Or stagnating and other teams were getting better. You don’t want the club’s most successful manager to go unless there is something not quite right. I wish he had not penned a new deal and had left on a high. Somebody wrote here once that Wenger was addicted to football and that clouded his vision.
Correct Sue, every true.
dont read my post if you’re not comfortable with me talking about other parts of his legacy. Truth is that he had more mediocre years with us than amazing years. Im fine with him getting a statue, but that doesn’t stop anyone from being able to talk about the good and the bad. And your “grass isnt always greener” claim I see as fear-mongering and longing for the days of AW. I’d still rather be in this mess now than have Wenger still be around.