THE WENGER THREAD

[REB]

#WOBARMY

[gunner_ace]

sorry hows that a 'pearler'? makes perfect sense
Wenger is not a great big money chequebook manager - always surprised when RealMadrid were linked (although maybe that was mostly to strengthen Wenger's contract negotiating position)
but he is indisputably good at building players confidence and improving players (if not holding on to them)
if you have a high wage, low fee model Wenger's as good as there is out there
even if leProf gets kidnapped my aliens/hit by a bus/joins a convent there's no reason to think Kroenke, Gazidis et all will look to change the model
the longer Wenger runs a balanced books CL club the better a position the next manager will be in

Brilliant. and the longer we can stay trophyless. wenger may know how to balance the books but he clearly cant install the winning mentality that it takes to err, win things.

A new manager with a greater hunger for sucess can do this.

[highburyJD]

personally I think phrases like

install the winning mentality

and

greater hunger for sucess

are meaningless codswallop
its a recurring trope, sports people just need to 'try harder', and IMO its plain BS
no matter how hard you try or how mentally prepared you are 99/100 you ain't beating somebody faster stronger or better at your sport
its about tactics and ability

by all means criticise Wengers tactical dogma - we could go out and play as a far more solid/defensive/negative team
he chooses a possession based positive way to play and doesn't sway from it
I can see why, plan b just undermines plan a - no point in exhausting the opposition mentally and physically by keeping the ball then giving up on it for the last 5-10 when they're at their most exposed

by all means criticise personnel choices - most on here don't think Song is good enough, I hope and believe he can prove you wrong. But when people suggest the manager doesnt want to win enough I just think its silly

[mikeyb772001]

Wenger is a deluded fool , who is 85% a great manager. It’s common knowledge by many people within the club that Wenger decides everything at the club and money was available to him in the past. Alex Flynn who with help via the club wrote a book about arsenal and is a key influential inside figure of the club. He claims all true many of our views on the old man. Listen to his interviews and you will be shocked to hear his inside views of wonger.

Now if we do go out and sign this Cazorla and Sahin it will be a huge back track by Wonger and A BIG example of him admitting he has been been wrong the last 7 years.

However, my view is that we won’t sign Cazorla or Sahin and wenger will in my mind continue to be *word censored*

[highburyJD]

Now if we do go out and sign this Cazorla and Sahin it will be a huge back track by Wonger and A BIG example of him admitting he has been been wrong the last 7 years.

I don't understand this point at all? how is signing players we've had a long time interest in a 'huge track back'?
I think you try and improve on the sesason before so have to look at that squad
but dont really see what this years signings would have to do with 2 years ago let alone 7...

[mikeyb772001]

Now if we do go out and sign this Cazorla and Sahin it will be a huge back track by Wonger and A BIG example of him admitting he has been been wrong the last 7 years.

I don't understand this point at all? how is signing players we've had a long time interest in a 'huge track back'?
I think you try and improve on the sesason before so have to look at that squad
but dont really see what this years signings would have to do with 2 years ago let alone 7...

Because of the kind of signings we have made JD. It’s not like Wenger and from what I can remember the only time he did anything like this was in his early days of managing us.

Giroud, Podolski, Cazorla, Sahin are already made stars. The kind of players he never makes and avoids.

I think he knows his “project” has failed and the only way we can push forward as a club is by making quality signings that will make the team stronger and ambitious.

Saying that I could be wrong and Cazorla / Sahin won’t happen.

100% certain if RVP goes and we pull of the 2 new signings it will be an incredible upgrade to the squad and that hasn’t happen in the last 7 years.

[officepest]

Now if we do go out and sign this Cazorla and Sahin it will be a huge back track by Wonger and A BIG example of him admitting he has been been wrong the last 7 years.

I don't understand this point at all? how is signing players we've had a long time interest in a 'huge track back'?
I think you try and improve on the sesason before so have to look at that squad
but dont really see what this years signings would have to do with 2 years ago let alone 7...

Sorry JD but this is guff. If Wenger had a long term interest in Santi then he should have signed the fucker at the time Malaga went for him. Now, one year later, he'll have to pay more for him, which doesn't make sense.

Sahin, again, we could've bid for at the time he went to Real as he was in his last year of contract (of course there's no guarantee he would chosen Arsenal) but again, we didn't.

[officepest]

Rather than start another Wenegr thread I'll add this thought here.

Thats the point of this thread mate

Cheers Flash, my 'Special Educational Helper' helped me work out where to post it and she says I'm the bestest and I got a gold star and everything

[mikeyb772001]

Now if we do go out and sign this Cazorla and Sahin it will be a huge back track by Wonger and A BIG example of him admitting he has been been wrong the last 7 years.

I don't understand this point at all? how is signing players we've had a long time interest in a 'huge track back'?
I think you try and improve on the sesason before so have to look at that squad
but dont really see what this years signings would have to do with 2 years ago let alone 7...

Sorry JD but this is guff. If Wenger had a long term interest in Santi then he should have signed the fucker at the time Malaga went for him. Now, one year later, he'll have to pay more for him, which doesn't make sense.

Sahin, again, we could've bid for at the time he went to Real as he was in his last year of contract (of course there's no guarantee he would chosen Arsenal) but again, we didn't.

Exactly right!

Name me a time JD when Wonger improved the team by signing “Arsenal Quality players”

Every year we go into the season with a team weaker than the year before. Never stronger

So if these 2 signings come through it will be a huge back track by wonger

[highburyJD]

Sorry JD but this is guff. If Wenger had a long term interest in Santi then he should have signed the fucker at the time Malaga went for him. Now, one year later, he'll have to pay more for him, which doesn't make sense.

Sahin, again, we could've bid for at the time he went to Real as he was in his last year of contract (of course there's no guarantee he would chosen Arsenal) but again, we didn't.

Exactly right!

Name me a time JD when Wonger improved the team by signing “Arsenal Quality players”

Every year we go into the season with a team weaker than the year before. Never stronger

So if these 2 signings come through it will be a huge back track by wonger[/quote]
unsurprisingly I don't think this is 'exactly right'
we couldn't outbid Malaga (oil money/false promises) or RealMadrid (more more/bigger club)
we may well get Cazorla for less than Malaga paid (maybe even on lower wages than they promised him) and all this after he carried them into the CL
Sahin is only an option because injuries have stalled his progress in Madrid

as for when did we sign quality players - well we've obv had a mixed bag
the reason Wiltord, Reyes, Nasri, Hleb and Arshavin cost so much is that they were perceived to be top quality stars and there was competition for their signatures, didnt work out but thats pure hindsight

as it happens some cheap and free signings like Cesc, Vieira, Anelka, Toure, Clichy, RVP, Campbell have ended up being Wenger's better ones. Doesn't mean the others didnt happen...

[mikeyb772001]

so you avoid my point.

When is the last time wenger signed real quailty proven stars to make us stronger and improive from the year before.

The last 7 years we have gone into the new season weaker than the year before or just the same. We havent made key signings to make us stronger, to compete and show ambition.

Wenger will back tracking big time if we sign Cazorla and Sahin in addition to Giroud and Podolski. Goes against all his post 2005 views

Jesus thats 4 big names that could get in the starting 11 of most teams in europe.

[augie]

I don't understand what you're saying...

That you're factually wrong.

obviously I've lost track of this thread...
which fact did I state?

Can I make a wild guess and say everything ?

I'm obviously losing it, too big a weekend...
still don't know what "fact" I made a statement about
nor understand the "everything" joke

slightly hard of thinking[/quote]



You were basically asking which "fact" statement that you made was wrong and I jokingly said all of them. It was only meant as a light hearted bit of banter and no more than that so please dont go all defensive on me

[officepest]

JD,

Cazorla went to Malaga for £17M which is around the price we will have to pay now, how could we not compete?

[gunner_ace]

personally I think phrases like

install the winning mentality

and

greater hunger for sucess

are meaningless codswallop
its a recurring trope, sports people just need to 'try harder', and IMO its plain BS
no matter how hard you try or how mentally prepared you are 99/100 you ain't beating somebody faster stronger or better at your sport
its about tactics and ability

by all means criticise Wengers tactical dogma - we could go out and play as a far more solid/defensive/negative team
he chooses a possession based positive way to play and doesn't sway from it
I can see why, plan b just undermines plan a - no point in exhausting the opposition mentally and physically by keeping the ball then giving up on it for the last 5-10 when they're at their most exposed

by all means criticise personnel choices - most on here don't think Song is good enough, I hope and believe he can prove you wrong. But when people suggest the manager doesnt want to win enough I just think its silly

How so? How many times have we seen the team bottle it to your Swansea’s, Fulham’s, Hull City’s , Stokes, Blackburns………………I could go on but you catch my drift. In all of these games I refer to, the team more often then not surrenders possession from a leading position and goes on to lose giving away 3 silly points. Why does this always happen? Ill tell you why, because the manager doesn’t have a winning mentality.

He will give his post match interview and whine on about the ref, the pitch, rough-housing, the sun, celestial bodies not being in alignment and squirrels on the pitch. One thing he will never do is call it out how it is and berate his players for a lacklustre performance. Then the players can go into the next game thinking they have a free ride and put in an even more sedate performance then last time (a la the Sunderland cup game last season which was the most diabolical thing Ive ever seen in my life), and a vicious cycle (which is into its 6th or 7th year) begins.

As much as we hate Ferguson on this forum the guy is a pure winner. He doesn’t take mediocrity and even if your name is Rooney you’re on the bench if you’re not giving it 100%. That’s why they’ve won so many titles, and that’s why we’ve bottled it so many times. Every time you’ve seen manure go one down to the above teams I mention, you just know they are going to score 2 or 3 and every one of their 11 players will literally but a ball sweating to do this until it happens. Why? Because they have been taught how to be winners by ferguson , and they do not want to go back in that dressing room with a loss underneath them.

So getting back to my original point, yes I think its fair to say Wenger is squarely to blame for not instilling a ‘winners’ mentality in this frail team.

p.s. Christ even look back at this weekend, we drew that Hong Kong Jockey club cup game 2-2 and he decided to bottle out of a penalty shoot-out. Even though it was a mickey mouse friendly what message does that send to the players? That he’s a bottle.

[highburyJD]

You were basically asking which "fact" statement that you made was wrong and I jokingly said all of them. It was only meant as a light hearted bit of banter and no more than that so please dont go all defensive on me

not defensive just genuinely thick, now get it
and would like to dispute that
I'm pretty sure I must have got some fact right at some point
I post a lot