If only mate. If only....That's a fair, well written post mate and hard to disagree with any of it.I've never bought this revisionist "Wenger was lucky - he did fuck all" rubbish. It's the thinking of people consumed with hatred.
I've also never bought the AKB "he is a genius" line either.
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
He was brilliant manager from 1996 - 2006 arguably still good until 2008..... you do not win what he did playing that style of football based purely on luck.
It's a myth that he didn't coach the defence. Romford, Ozil and a few other players have confirmed that Wenger did a lot of practicing set pieces in training, both attacking AND defensively.
The "he just told us to go out and play" comment has been a bit misconstrued. He didn't say that during training but rather as part of his prematch team talk as the work had been put in on the training pitch during the week. It was more a case of telling players if they saw the chance to try something then do it. Adams' goal against Everton at Highbury in 98 was a direct result of that freedom to take a chance according to Wrighty and had been practiced in training with the CH's.
Yes Wenger was lucky to have inherited the Back 5 and they were the foundation for his early success. But it is churlish and nonsensical to say he added nothing to that and was "lucky" to win what he won. Most successful managers have some form of luck at key junctures in their career. It does not make them lesser managers. Wenger had luck but he also had foresight and revolutionised the English game with the introduction of the two strong, powerful and technically adept central midfielders. That changed the game. Temporarily.....
What the AKB can't accept is that Wenger got it badly wrong in trying to adopt the Barca whore tikka takka style with lighter more mobile players. It didn't transfer from the slower less physical Spanish league to the PL and we ended up with the easily out muscled watered down tippy tappy.
Wenger then fell behind the rest of the top clubs because his ego could not let him accept he had got it so badly wrong and he persisted with The Project and keeping rubbish players long long past the point they were exposed as being not good enough.
He was a great manager but he was very past it in his last decade with us.
I think the problem is some of us respond badly (for want of a better word) to all the bullshit we get fed like ''Wenger built your club'' ... or ''Wenger was a genius'' ... and stuff like ''Wenger has integrity and values etc.''
If only we could swap things round so that in the summer of 2006 we stayed at Highbury and it was Wenger who went somewhere else. I am sure we would all be in a much better position right now!
Have to admit it boils my piss when I read stuff like "Wenger built Arsenal" as if legends like George Graham and Herbert Chapman never existed....
