Biggest Waste of Talent in Wenger Era

[AkneyGooner]

Maybe the biggest waste of talent in Wenger Era was Wenger, if he would not have tried to re-invent himself as Guardiola light, and kept on more of his aging players as stalwarts like ferguson did, and bought some competative stronger athelitic players and mixed them with some smallers ones he might have won a lot more.

[StuartL]

Gonna suggest the very unpopular Ashley Cole into the mix. Wenger should've agreed to the extra £5k and we would've won a couple of more league titles, 2007/08 springs to mind. In my mind there is no doubt when he left Arsenal he was the best left back in the world. Given the contracts wenger gave to much lesser talented players it was criminal letting him go. Wenger thought Clichy was as good as Cole and I think history has proven that decision to be wrong. But I guess that's moving away from the theme of the thread as without doubt Cole went on to fulfil his potential at club and international level, just not with us.
It was unfortunate for Upson that he still had Adams, Bould, Keown and then Sol Campbell to contend with. He didn't waste his talent he just had too much competition. Had he stayed from 2006 he would've been captain but he had departed by then.
I don't think under wenger many players talents was wasted, I would say he wasted a lot of time on talentless players. Wenger maximised the talent they did have but they just weren't good enough. I'm not talking about the players he brought in who were already established like Arshavin and Podolski, I'm talking about players like Walcott, bendtner, denilson, chamakh, wilshere. that were given ample opportunity and contracts but never got to the heights we thought they could get to.
Nasri is a player who was a talented but did wenger maximise it? Maybe not but did Nasri perform better at City than at Arsenal? Not really.

To be fair to Wenker, which I’m often not, the extra £5k a week wasn’t down to him- Dein had agreed the deal , but the board wouldn’t sanction it.
It was only after Devin departure that Wenker ruled over all aspects of transfers / wages / contracts.

[1989]

Fabregas? The guy should have been threading them through to top tier class strikers all through his Arsenal career, but ended up supplying Bendtner, Baptista, Walcott, Chamack and Adebayor to shank into row z!

Fabregas was far from a waste of talent. He produced unbelievable numbers for us in terms of goals and assists from midfield. Yes we could have supplemented him with better players but it's quite a stretch to say he was a talent wasted at Arsenal.

[DB10GOONER]

Fabregas? The guy should have been threading them through to top tier class strikers all through his Arsenal career, but ended up supplying Bendtner, Baptista, Walcott, Chamack and Adebayor to shank into row z!

Fabregas was far from a waste of talent. He produced unbelievable numbers for us in terms of goals and assists from midfield. Yes we could have supplemented him with better players but it's quite a stretch to say he was a talent wasted at Arsenal.

What did Fabregas win with us mate? One FA Cup on the shirt tails of the Invincibles. He should have had a team built around him and he should have won the PL and CL with us given his talent. I'd say that Wenger wasted that talent with Project Ego. Sickens me he won the PL with the chav.

[StuartL]

Fabregas? The guy should have been threading them through to top tier class strikers all through his Arsenal career, but ended up supplying Bendtner, Baptista, Walcott, Chamack and Adebayor to shank into row z!

Fabregas was far from a waste of talent. He produced unbelievable numbers for us in terms of goals and assists from midfield. Yes we could have supplemented him with better players but it's quite a stretch to say he was a talent wasted at Arsenal.

I think the argument is that WENKER wasted the opportunity to uses Cesc’s ability to the full by surrounding him with dross, supplemented by the odd diamond in the rough - RVP, Arshavin, Nasri for a season etc. For 3 or so seasons he was the best midfield player in the league and we could / should have built the team that got the most out of his undoubted talent.

[flash gunner]

Arshavin for me

Same.... Arshavin followed by Podolski both were proven international footballers and went drastically backwards under Wenger

[Herd]

Waste was a byword for Arsenal after 2006 so its difficult to know where to start !
I still have visions of him as a child endlessly trying to bang square pegs into round holes !

[clockender1]

Waste was a byword for Arsenal after 2006 so its difficult to know where to start !
I still have visions of him as a child endlessly trying to bang square pegs into round holes !

talking of wastes - David Ospina made the FIFA World team of the Week, he is #1 at Napoli now.

And Chesney has taken over as #1 at Juve from Buffon.

so the top two's keepers in Serie A came from The Arsenal.

remember richard wright before the ex-manager had him - exceptional for Ipswich, in the Euro 2000 squad for England.....

[DB10GOONER]

Waste was a byword for Arsenal after 2006 so its difficult to know where to start !
I still have visions of him as a child endlessly trying to bang square pegs into round holes !

talking of wastes - David Ospina made the FIFA World team of the Week, he is #1 at Napoli now.

And Chesney has taken over as #1 at Juve from Buffon.

so the top two's keepers in Serie A came from The Arsenal.

remember richard wright before the ex-manager had him - exceptional for Ipswich, in the Euro 2000 squad for England.....

The key qualifier there is "Serie A". That league is famous for the quality of the defenders. It's a far easier league for keepers than the PL.

Ospina and Chesney were never good enough for a top PL team unless you put the best back 4 in the history of English football in front of them.

[clockender1]

Ospina and Chesney were never good enough for a top PL team unless you put the best back 4 in the history of English football in front of them.

so a good as Seaman then.

Italy is also famous for the quality of its (often lone) centreforwards.

[DB10GOONER]

Ospina and Chesney were never good enough for a top PL team unless you put the best back 4 in the history of English football in front of them.

so a good as Seaman then.

Italy is also famous for the quality of its (often lone) centreforwards.

A tad unfair on Seamo because he was part of a solid unit and all those lads rated him for his calm presence and his control of his box. But yeah it's debatable how good he would have looked with a shit back 4 in front of him. Who knows?

I'd also say not every team in Italy has a top lone centreforward.

[Jock Gooner]

Waste was a byword for Arsenal after 2006 so its difficult to know where to start !
I still have visions of him as a child endlessly trying to bang square pegs into round holes !

talking of wastes - David Ospina made the FIFA World team of the Week, he is #1 at Napoli now.

And Chesney has taken over as #1 at Juve from Buffon.

so the top two's keepers in Serie A came from The Arsenal.

remember richard wright before the ex-manager had him - exceptional for Ipswich, in the Euro 2000 squad for England.....

The whole Richard Wright thing was a weird one wasn't it.

Personally I think it all went wrong when he refused to play wide left for wenker

[goonersid]

Can’t believe people still delusional over wilshere!!
He’s shite!!!!

[clockender1]

Can’t believe people still delusional over wilshere!!
He’s shite!!!!

and injured again. his ankle again.

he is too slow on the ball to release it, that's why he is constantly on the floor clutching his ankle or shin.

[DB10GOONER]

Can’t believe people still delusional over wilshere!!
He’s shite!!!!

and injured again. his ankle again.

he is too slow on the ball to release it, that's why he is constantly on the floor clutching his ankle or shin.

This 100% ^^.

He always looks to take that last late touch inviting the tackle / foul. The lad is his own worst enemy.