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They say, “You never miss your water till your river runs dry”. This is exactly the feeling I experienced at the end of the ninety minutes at Bramall Lane in the steel city of Sheffield. I never imagined that I would find myself cursing the day Wenger left my beloved Arsenal. It is a fact that towards the unexpected end of Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal the club’s performances had taken a nosedive. I am among those Arsenal faithful who felt Wenger had overstayed as the manager of Arsenal football club. However, I never thought I would witness boring football at Arsenal so son and start missing Arsene Wenger.
Wenger’s name had become synonymous with everything that happens at Arsenal. After guiding Arsenal to three titles Wenger had the difficult task to manage the club under serious austerity measures brought by the club’s ambitious project to build a world class Stadium. It is not a secret that the club had to borrow to finance the construction project. This meant the club had commitments to service the credit facility and resorted to selling some of the stars who made Arsenal tick. It was during the years of austerity that Wenger proved that he was a financial genius, as he managed to keep the club in the Champions league and in the process helped the club broaden its revenue sources.
The years of austerity and after were a mixture of disaster and happiness. Many will remember the 8-2 disaster in what was once called a Theatre of Dreams, now becoming just an ordinary Venue of Old Trafford. Some will remember the 6-0 loss at the hands of Chelsea when Salah was still a Chelsea player. The Anfield losses will be remembered too as a part of the disaster that the legendary professor presided over. On the other hand, all gooners and goonerettes will remember the 3 FA cup successes in four years before Arsene finally succumbed to pressure and resigned.
Wenger’s departure was certainly a chance to start a new chapter in the history of Arsenal. The club appointed Unai Emery as Wenger’s successor. Maybe they looked at his success in the Europa league in three successive seasons with Sevilla of Spain. Maybe they considered his success with the cash rich and Star studied PSG in Ligue One. His appointment was a source of hope and after enduring two defeats in the first two games of the 18/19 season Unai managed to achieve a 22 match Unbeaten run. It was really refreshing to see how he went about his business. However, he failed to take back the club back into the elite Champions League and in the process failed to erase memories of Wenger relegating the club to the unfashionable Europa League.
In my case I attributed the failure to secure Champions league to Unai’s inexperience in the EPL and I made a decision to give him the benefit of doubt. In the end, his first season ended with the club languishing in the Europa league where Wenger had left the club.
During the off season Unai offloaded some of the players whom Wenger had trusted as he focused on shrugging off Wenger’s shadow. It was an opportunity for Unai to establish his own style, as Wenger’s philosophy was still engraved in the majority of the players at his disposal in his first season. I am tempted to think that Wenger’s touch influenced some of the results in 18/19 season.
Unai seemed to be a shrewd tactician in his maiden season but his second season is raising doubts. I have watched Arsenal play this season and I am struggling to understand the Unai style of play. With Wenger at the helm,, we knew the team had a unique way of playing which involved passing and possession, though in the later stages of his managerial position at Arsenal Wenger had lost the touch of flair which helped Arsenal play well both in victory and defeat.
A look at the latest defeat against Sheffield will point and attribute the defeat to none other than Unai himself. His team selection is becoming a joke. One wonders how on earth Ceballos started on the bench; questions will be asked why the bench seemed to be stronger than the selected first eleven let alone the absence of Ozil who is the highest paid player at Arsenal. Yes, Ozil is not a consistent player but his intelligence and creativity would certainly have helped the team against Sheffield. All due respect to Sheffield’s defensive organization but someone of Ozil’s vision could certainly help unlock that defence with his eye for the perfect pass.
Unai must do away with emotionalism when picking the team to do duty. Ozil may not be his favourite but there is a reason why the club is paying him 350k per week. I must admit I am not a great fan of Ozil’s, but his stats are there for all to see how useful he can be. May someone please remove Unai’s blinkers so that at least he picks Ozil.
Loud Thoughts!!
Amagore
Oh my ozil,i miss you so much..all this will soon become a story
i , for one, do not miss mr. wenger. yes, i know he had wonderful success during the first half of his reign, but, he became greedy , and hung on to power like a jack russell hanging onto a ham bone . so , i do not miss him one bit .
@gerry burke
How exactly did he become greedy and held on to power? Seems like you’re reading from some pre written twitter script, since you don’t have any clue as to the behind the scenes of what transpired. You have not an inkling of any idea of the man’s passion for the club and its players, as well as the fans.
Well said NY_Gunner
NY GUNNER, are you intimating that you have a clue as to what went on ?. i gave my honest opinion, and thats all it is , okay buddy ?.
It would be interesting to see who will leave first, Emery or Ozil.
While I’m not a believer in Emery.
Do I miss Arsene Wenger?
Depends on the Wenger you asking me of, The Wenger that showed up in his first ten years? Sure I miss that man a lot, I wish we could get him back.
Or the Wenger that ran out of ideas in his last two years? I don’t miss him.
I’m a supporter of Arsenal football club, I don’t believe Emery is the solution but it doesn’t mean I miss Wenger.
I prefer speaking the truth.
Forget all of this, I won’t accept Wenger that showed up in his last two years and I won’t accept Emery right now.
I’d rather we give the job to a young and hungry coach like either Freddie or Arteta. I don’t care, as long as they both play good football and win without putting pressure on us and letting us fans lose hope.
Pep was an academy coach before he became a star.
I swear I’d rather see Freddie or Arteta take over us someday.
Let’s see what the young guys with new ideas have to offer
Its really quite sad how things are at arsenal. I do hope the board look at emry and tell him to sort it out or else.
Wenger’s arsenal would not be doing this bad even in his final season Wengers arsenal was not this poor. We have quality all over the pitch but terrible tactics.
People rubbish xaka and luiz including myself but in reality both those players could get into other premier teams. So what is missing what is the problem. You have to start looking at the manager.
If we are not impressing by xmas I say we do away with emry. Grab allegri for another 2 years then maybe let freddie take over. I do still think the club has repairs to do and it is too soon for freddie
Allegri is being lined-up to replace OGS at Man U apparently.
we don’t.
Yes I do share that against ShefU our bench excels our 11 players on the pitch.I can see this from a far distance of 3663 miles / 5895.03 kms. But am I missing Wenger?…well Eddie Hoyte put it exactly the way I wanted it….Thank you Eddie….Now it looks like that Unai’s time is over.
I certainly would not miss referee Mike Dean if he decided to quit!
Nor Mike Reilly!
Miss who? Wenger in his early years not of his last five year. Not that am a fan of a stubborn Emery. Only that I feel we deserve a better deal.
Any version of Wenger is better than unia emery
Hahahaha..
Wenger with this crop of players will do far better. Remember that Arsenal FC have spent over 200 million pounds on players since the arrival of Emery
I didn’t miss wenger for once, the problem we are facing today are cause by him, he put Arsenal in a mocking stage before he left, though Emery is not the right person but a foundation for the right person to continue
Let’s be honest any coach/manager would have had difficulty living up to expectations at Arsenal after Arsene Wenger departed after 22 seasons. One only has to look at the trials and tribulations, revolving door of managers at Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson.
Arsenal hasn’t sunk so far yet, but after one and a bit seasons, the major concern is the continuation of previous season’s defeatest attitude and inability to gain points away from home.
I recall at the height of the debate on whether to retain or sacked Wenger, I wrote on this site that sacking anyone has never been difficult but replacing him with the right person certainly is. I believe nobody is against Emery and nobody misses Wenger per se. What people are indirectly saying is that Emery has abused their trust so far this season. How? His judgement has been poor which causes him not to properly analyse his opponents. This leads him to select players that are unequal to the task. Anyone who saw how Sheffield United disturbed Liverpool would have expected Emery to select his strongest team. This means that he should have picked Holding in place of either Sokratis or Luiz, Tierney instead of Kolasinac, Ceballos in place of Willock and Martinelli in place of Saka. This team would have won us the game without doubt. Like somebody pointed out, Emery doesn’t seem to know his best players which is very unfortunate. It is time he began to select the best players or else risk the wrath of the fans.
Correction sack not sacked.
Wenger would come back if you sing his name loud enough and pressure the board into bringing him home, send as much fan-male as you can to anyone who will listen. Use your powers of persuasion for the good for a change.