Underachievement under Wenger

Red Carpet · Post by **Red Carpet** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:04 am

It strikes me that Wenger has always fallen short when it comes to winning when winning wasn't expected/probable.
Even when we were winning silverware, we arguably underachieved given how good a team he had.
The trophies that we have won under his leadership have nearly all been won as a result of us being miles better than the opposition. We all enjoyed those immensely but its the trophies that we didn't win that tell us a story of where we have fallen short and Wenger has underacieved given the players at his disposal and how much he got out of them (a gift that Ferguson annoyingly has in abundance).

Trophies we SHOULD have won

UEFA Cup Final 2000
FA Cup Final 2001
Premiership 2003
Champions League 2004
FA Cup 2004
League Cup 2011

Thats SIX

Trophies we COULD have won

Premiership 1999 (lost by 1 point)
FA Cup 1999 (missed last min pen to knock out Man U)
Premiership 2008 (When Eduardo got injured at Birmingham that would have
sent us 8 points clear)

Thats another 3 !!

Trophies we won but SHOULDN'T have

FA Cup Final 2005 (outplayed funnily enough by Man U)

So there were 10 trophies on the cards for us to win that were in the balance and we won only 1 of them!!.

Is it any great surprise then that this team have no idea of how to get over the finishing line??.

Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:08 am

Red

It's been an Achilles heel of Arsene since he took over.....the bridesmaid scenario.....

Fergie invested heavily in areas that needed strengthening......wenger hasn't replaced Vieira.....six years on...we still search

MEDINABOY · Post by **MEDINABOY** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:13 am

ah yes but he did say judge me at the end of the season.bet he's watching the clock now

Post by **DB10GOONER** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:19 am

I've always felt that for all the great things Wenger has done and the trophies he has won that there should have been more. Too many lost finals, especially given the players we had from 98 - 2006. But then, you can't win them all, can you?

Red Carpet · Post by **Red Carpet** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:23 am

Gordon Strachen was on Goals on Sunday yesterday talking about playing under Fergie. He said the players dreaded making a mistake just before half time as they would get the hairdryer treatment and would sit in the dressing room looking at the floor waiting for his polished shoes to stop in front of them before delivering one of his rockets. Do you think Eboue was worried about that yesterday ?!?

Sutch · Post by **Sutch** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:53 am

I remember reading an article in the gooner, it went over the team's nervousness/underachievement not only under Wenger, but under Graham and before. The league cup finals of '68, '69 and '88, fa cup finals of '72, '78 and '80, and the cup winners cup finals of '80 and '95 - we were super favourites for how many of those finals? This doesn't just exist under Wenger, it lives on today from decades ago.

goonersid · Post by **goonersid** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:56 am

Wenger is a bastard, end of

TheCook · Post by **TheCook** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:32 pm

Well, if you are gonna compare him to Fergie it is hard to disagree ; That guy is like the Terminator, he just goes on and on and on.

I can't help but admire him.

Although I do hate him with a passion.

donaldo · Post by **donaldo** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:21 pm

Sutch wrote:I remember reading an article in the gooner, it went over the team's nervousness/underachievement not only under Wenger, but under Graham and before. The league cup finals of '68, '69 and '88, fa cup finals of '72, '78 and '80, and the cup winners cup finals of '80 and '95 - we were super favourites for how many of those finals? This doesn't just exist under Wenger, it lives on today from decades ago.

George lost 1 out of 5 finals.I wouldnt call that under achievement

Arsenal Rich · Post by **Arsenal Rich** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:45 pm

Red Carpet wrote:Gordon Strachen was on Goals on Sunday yesterday talking about playing under Fergie. He said the players dreaded making a mistake just before half time as they would get the hairdryer treatment and would sit in the dressing room looking at the floor waiting for his polished shoes to stop in front of them before delivering one of his rockets. Do you think Eboue was worried about that yesterday ?!?

This season more than any other highlights the difference between Fergie and Wenger. Fergie just will not accept anything less then 100% from his squad and second place means nothing. In return he has proved season after season if the players buy into this they will win trophies. As for Arsene, he has built a harmonious youth club rather then a winning football club, where all his little puplils play XBox and PS3 together while taking pictures of each other and posting them on twitter. With quotes like "success is a top 4 finish" and " 2nd place is fine" from the manager its no surprised our players stroll around like its a Sunday morning kick about with their mates.

Down the years i have hated Fergie and his antics, but now i admire him and i want some of that at our club, because winning is every thing to him and surely thats why we pay some of the highest prices in football, to see our team win, not come second, third or fourth..

highburyJD · Post by **highburyJD** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:45 pm

GG was an absolutely brilliant Cup Manager
and put together two amazing champion winning sides
its more annoying to fall at the last hurdle as we have done so many times under Wenger
but isn't it better to always be there of there abouts?
Isn't it more of an achivement to build sides that ALWAYS challenge than to just win it or be mid table?

Boomer · Post by **Boomer** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:53 pm

Red Carpet wrote:Gordon Strachen was on Goals on Sunday yesterday talking about playing under Fergie. He said the players dreaded making a mistake just before half time as they would get the hairdryer treatment and would sit in the dressing room looking at the floor waiting for his polished shoes to stop in front of them before delivering one of his rockets. Do you think Eboue was worried about that yesterday ?!?

I can picture the scene....

As Wenger walks in at FT Eboue dives to the floor to hide.
Jacks tries to silently tweet away but gets away with it as Almunia, realising what's going on, rushes out of the toilet late only to collide into Squaillaci.
Cesc and Theo stop there talks of tattoo's as Wenger moves into the room more slowly.
Djourou gets distracted from his new body location as Andrei taps his knee for attention. Andrei now has a cut to his forehead.
Denilson cuts a sideways look to Bendtner who's busy onhis phone getting himself on tonightâ€™s guess list.
RVP's looks up and finishes rubbing the rest of the Windowlean into his knees and Rosicky places his medical weekly magazine to one side.

Wenger scans the dressing room. But before he can speak Diaby finally decides to turn just as Jens rips a new one into Eboue........

Red Carpet · Post by **Red Carpet** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:30 pm

[I can picture the scene....

As Wenger walks in at FT Eboue dives to the floor to hide.
Jacks tries to silently tweet away but gets away with it as Almunia, realising what's going on, rushes out of the toilet late only to collide into Squaillaci.
Cesc and Theo stop there talks of tattoo's as Wenger moves into the room more slowly.
Djourou gets distracted from his new body location as Andrei taps his knee for attention. Andrei now has a cut to his forehead.
Denilson cuts a sideways look to Bendtner who's busy onhis phone getting himself on tonightâ€™s guess list.
RVP's looks up and finishes rubbing the rest of the Windowlean into his knees and Rosicky places his medical weekly magazine to one side.

Wenger scans the dressing room. But before he can speak Diaby finally decides to turn just as Jens rips a new one into Eboue........[/quote]

hahaha .. I would suggest that is exactly what happened.

woots82 · Post by **woots82** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:34 pm

"Judge me in May" With fucking pleasure Wenger

OnlyGotOneSong · Post by **OnlyGotOneSong** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:41 pm

Woots, that avatar is shocking.