Wenger admits that contract issues derailed Arsenal’s season

Now that he has signed back on for another two years, Wenger is willing to admit that the uncertainty affected the results on the pitch, but he is hopeful that the same tensions won’t resurface during this campaign. “For me it will be a change because it was a bit eternal, a repetition of the press conferences about that,” Wenger said on Arsenal.com. “Maybe I made a mistake and allowed that to happen because I didn’t commit early enough.

“I think at some stage I did not think it would be a handicap for my commitment and it was not. But it was a bit of a handicap because it created a climate of insecurity and a lack of clarity about my person that maybe did not help at some stage.

“I believe everyone is focused on the new season and giving absolutely the best, so overall that is what we want as we go into it.

“We basically had three seasons last year: the first part was very positive, the second part was very negative, and the third part was very positive. I believe it is important that we analyse well what happened to us, and where we can improve – and then transfer the optimistic final part of the season into the new campaign and start in a very strong way.”

of course our third and final optimistic part of the season was also related to the tactical changes that Wenger finally made, which dragged us out of our depressing run of results. If we can carry on that form right the way through the coming season, then there is no reason why we can’t be serious challengers for the title again. The uncertainty over Wenger’s contract was quickly fixed at the end of last season. If only the contracts with Alexis, Ozil and the Ox were fixed just as quickly….

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11 Comments

  1. Apart from 1 point leading to us missing out on top-4, last season was exactly the same as every previous season for many years beforehand. Therefore I don’t think the “Contract issues” derailed it at all.

    The season was “Derailed” by not strengthening the team enough during previous transfer windows, not covering injuries adequately (EG. Cazorla) and not enough consistency throughout the season, just like it always is.

    Hopefully this season will be different. The new formation + a front 3 of Sanchez, Lacazette, and Ozil sounds very exciting. Need another top-quality central midfielder to partner Xhaka though, then we’ll look like proper title-contenders.

  2. I’m really hoping that this is the year we clean out the deadwood! It’s better to have one quality player instead of 5 mediocre players! This needs to be the start of a new arsenal with wenger getting his early 2000’s spirit out to play and with the new formation getting the best out of our key players we look better defensively and finally have a striker that actually scores for a living! Depending on the next signings coming in this could also be a our best window in years plus we have the best youngsters iv seen since cesc etc add that to us not having CL football if wenger players a second squad in the europa cup we really do have the best chance of winning the title in years! The last few teams that were out of CL either won the title or came second and with alexis staying I can’t see why arsenal can’t win the premier league at long last!

  3. Rumors about psg wants sanchez don’t sound to bad to me we can let him go with a very good price 80-90m € and then go and buy both Mahrez and lemar with about 110m €
    I know that real life differs from fifa career mode but this is very realistic business to do
    And lemar is a left winger so he can play in sanchez position

    1. We prob should have bought Draxler, even without Alexis’s itchy feet sure we needed someone on the other side. Thank you Theo Walcott, your 19 goals with about five of them meaning anything has made such a huge difference???

  4. If Wenger really believes that then he is in denial. It’s not about contract, it’s about not signing the right quality players and relying on average players

    Spurs, City, Liverpool and Chelsea were all better than us. Even United had a better season. They won two trophies

    It’s a hard pill to swallow but we need to be honest. Wenger is still in denial.

    Spurs had a better overall team. Defense, central midfielders, wingers, Kane. They weren’t far away from winning the Title. We finished 18 points below Chelsea and 11 points behind Spurs.

    I blame Wenger for not signing the right players.

    If we had signed Lacazette and Kante or another top central midfielder we would have finished in top 4.

    It had little to do with contract negotiations.

    1. Do you prefer a Cup or a CL place. Myself I preferred the Cup to any of our top four finishes. I didn’t scream so loud when we kept fourth place. Utd did have a better season, but it’s nit picking if people think Spu City and Liv did.

  5. then AW should leave by end of coming season because it would be same story in the season after

  6. He might be just taking the blame trying to get the players to put it all down to the same thing as he did, so that way they might not feel as inferior as they’d looked. We just folded, I don’t think it had anything to do with the contract. The contract thing was bad for the fans, the players had games and points to help keep their mind off of it. The fans are the ones who seem to have taken it badly, it left the door open for a huge push by fans at getting the board to not agree to a new contract.

  7. No matter how you slice it, this admission is reason enough for termination of both Wenger and Gazidis…this owner, who has personally poisoned every major sporting organization he currently owns in North America(Rams, Avalanche & Nuggets), has no regard for the concerns of the fans, just ask anyone in St. Louis, home of the once-vaunted “Greatest Show on Earth”…they had to endure numerous losing campaigns under his reign, before suffering the ultimate humiliation, as he moved the team to Los Angeles to quench his seemingly unending financial thirst…do you think it’s a coincidence that ever since his arrival both Wenger and Gazidis have made grand claims each and every May to secure season ticket sales then fail to live up to the billing…they will do anything to make money except the very things that would make the most sense from a soccer perspective: buying a world-class striker since RVP, a Viera-like boss in the midfield and a dominant, physical CB in the mold of Adams or Sol…let’s face it, they didn’t even try

  8. After a long time The First Four Comments have no Thumb Down…

    There is light at the end of the tunnel.

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