THE WENGER THREAD

[northbank123]

I wouldn't say by any means our "strikeforce" hasn't been weakened much. We've scored not many fewer goals but this is largely because of Cazorla, having Wilshere fit for a few months and playing very well and also despite the disappointment around him the improvement that Podolski has offered on the left wing compared to Arshavin and Gervinho.

I think we're more balanced as a team than last year. I think we could go out and sign one or two players and it would really transform us - I'm not sure I would have said the same at this point last year, even with van Judas. The difference that a world class striker would make would be phenomenal.

Unfortunately I don't hold any hope of any such spending spree, and in any event I don't believe that Wenger is the right man to be given a huge budget as he will be reticent to spend it and I'm not convinced he'd buy the right players anyway. Although I do agree there has been a slight shift in us actually defending properly on occasions, it's still not consistent enough and we are also still so unbelievably one-dimensional and predictable tactical and as long as this continues we'll continue to get picked off by the likes of United, City, Chelsea, Bayern etc.

[Kieranp97]

Yesterday, I celebrated Like a looney, To be fair I settled for that mediocrity for a few moments.

The only reason I celebrated so much is because we finished above Spuds.
Yeah I agree,Champions league is important to us, we need that in order to attract players. And I also feel that stability in what money comes away from the club is very important.

However... Arsenal Football Club should never settle for fourth place.
It baffles me how we even got it,and for the life of me- I don't understand why Wenger doesn't realise that a trophy is VITAL to us, We desperatley need one, As fans, To just renew our hope of being successful again, Win something!

He needs to spend some bloody Money and stop selling our key players, Its obvious! I don't see how Wenger doesn't know this. The arrogant knob.

Put it this way- If We didn't sell our best players over the last few years, Our team would look a bit like this-

Sczchezney

Clichy
Koscielny
Toure or Mertesacker or Vermalen
Sagna

Song
Wilshire

Fabregas
Cazorla
Nasri

RVP

I mean- Look at that attack.

So this would be my message to wenger, SPEND not SELL

[northbank123]

So I guess we're completely ignoring the fact that Clichy and Song were utter liabilities defensively (and appear to have continued that at their new clubs)? Also Toure has been unable to control his weight/fitness for the last 5 years or so - I remember watching us at Villa Park on Boxing Day 2008 and I couldn't believe the size on the bloke. No wonder he can get away with posing as a car salesman

I genuinely would not take any of those 3 as squad players and think that getting a combined £40m for them is one of the only bright spots on Wenger's record on transfers over the last few years. I think there are far better and easier ways of pointing out that our transfer policy is a failure fella!

[DB10GOONER]

Song instead of Arteta? Is you ill?

But seriously, Song was shite. Arteta is light years ahead of him as a footballer. And Nasri was great for what? 3 months?

[goonersid]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

[augie]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

Sid, for jesus sake that run of "form" coincided with a run of fixtures against teams that would struggle in the scottish league ffs

[northbank123]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

Sid, for jesus sake that run of "form" coincided with a run of fixtures against teams that would struggle in the scottish league ffs

Being able to win week in week out against average opposition is just as important as being able to win the games against the big teams. You can't win a league without doing both.

[Brady's left peg]

Yesterday, I celebrated Like a looney, To be fair I settled for that mediocrity for a few moments.

The only reason I celebrated so much is because we finished above Spuds.
Yeah I agree,Champions league is important to us, we need that in order to attract players. And I also feel that stability in what money comes away from the club is very important.

However... Arsenal Football Club should never settle for fourth place.
It baffles me how we even got it,and for the life of me- I don't understand why Wenger doesn't realise that a trophy is VITAL to us, We desperatley need one, As fans, To just renew our hope of being successful again, Win something!

He needs to spend some bloody Money and stop selling our key players, Its obvious! I don't see how Wenger doesn't know this. The arrogant knob.

Put it this way- If We didn't sell our best players over the last few years, Our team would look a bit like this-

Sczchezney

Clichy
Koscielny
Toure or Mertesacker or Vermalen
Sagna

Song
Wilshire

Fabregas
Cazorla
Nasri

RVP

I mean- Look at that attack.

So this would be my message to wenger, SPEND not SELL

There is no way I can agree with the above........ Clichy, Toure, Song and Na$ri were shit and I have lost no sleep whatsoever at the sale of these 4 players.

[augie]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

Sid, for jesus sake that run of "form" coincided with a run of fixtures against teams that would struggle in the scottish league ffs

Being able to win week in week out against average opposition is just as important as being able to win the games against the big teams. You can't win a league without doing both.

And I am not disagreeing with you on that BUT an improved run of form requires you to beat the good teams and not just the shite ones and we havent beaten a team from the top 7 since November 17th last

[northbank123]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

Sid, for jesus sake that run of "form" coincided with a run of fixtures against teams that would struggle in the scottish league ffs

Being able to win week in week out against average opposition is just as important as being able to win the games against the big teams. You can't win a league without doing both.

And I am not disagreeing with you on that BUT an improved run of form requires you to beat the good teams and not just the shite ones and we havent beaten a team from the top 7 since November 17th last

And I think nearly everyone here (Steve_I and afcforever need not reply) acknowledges that we're still nowhere near good/organised enough to regularly pick up wins at Old Trafford, Etihad, Stamford Bridge and WHL. I wasn't saying and I'll go out on a limb here and say that Sid wasn't saying it shows we're capable of winning the league or anything like that.

But that doesn't mean a run of 26 points in 30 games against whatever PL teams isn't impressive. As shocking a stat as that is, the fact we've not dropped points against a side outside the top 7 since New Year's Day at Southampton - 12 games - which massively exceeds any other team.

[SteveO 35]

Despite being a critic of Wenger, I do think he deserves some credit for the recent run of form, and that form would suggest that the old codger still has it in him, somewhere, in that deluded old mind.
What can never be forgiven however, is how he has got us into the position, where our season is measured by finishing above those spud bastards, years of poor management, selling star players, lying to and treating the fans with contempt.
He will no doubt see out his contract, the question is can he go some way to redeeming himself? I fear his arrogance will once again put paid to that.

Sid, for jesus sake that run of "form" coincided with a run of fixtures against teams that would struggle in the scottish league ffs

The last 3 games that we DIDN'T win during that fantastic run of form - Spurs, Everton and Man United.

1 win against the top six, absolutely fucking pathetic.

Wenger deserves the credit for the recent run as much as he deserves the blame for the depressing form against the other top sides.

[Wengerball]

I noticed that Arsenes biggest fans have crawled out of the woodwork on the latest Online Gooner article, praising their master (theres also a notable contribution from a certain famous WOB member ) and demanding that he stay forever more.

Now I can respect those that have been consistent with that opinion (the likes of Steve I spring to mind) in what has been a pretty partisan crowd on here but the way they wax lyrical you would have thought we had actually won a trophy...

I can understand the initial euphoria (especially because of the chimp and the spuds) and believe me I was delighted but if you look at it logically the net end result for this season is almost exactly the same as last season- we get 4th place on the last day of the season and not anywhere near any trophies.

This season was a failure as a whole, from where we were after the spuds game yeah its been great but theres a reason that we were in this situation in the first place and a lot of Wengerites seem to forget that our spectacular capitulation at the start of the season meant that this great run has accounted for the square root of fuck all.

Maybe its just me being a miserable git but we've had 8 seasons of this now and it just feels like Groundhog day from last year

[northbank123]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzYPN3igOX4

Clough on the Invincibles. Despite how his career fizzled out (not unlike our own manager) it is quite humbling to hear one of the biggest legends of English football talking about the team as he does given how begrudgingly he parts with praise and how disappointed he was to lose the record.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Just a question.....

IF Wenger went into the transfer market and bought all the players we need (I know highly unlikely but IF) and went on to win the PL would everyone who wants him to resign now be in favour of him signing a contract extension at the end of the 2013/2014 season.

Anyhow just a question.....

[DB10GOONER]

Just a question.....

IF Wenger went into the transfer market and bought all the players we need (I know highly unlikely but IF) and went on to win the PL would everyone who wants him to resign now be in favour of him signing a contract extension at the end of the 2013/2014 season.

Anyhow just a question.....

The problem is that the question is so hypothetical that I feel sick reading it!

We all KNOW he never will admit he got it wrong and change the system and add the true quality we need. But, unlike a few on here, I don't hate the man, and if he somehow miraculously turned it round and won the PL again then yep sure as fuck I'd want him to stay. I have no personal issues here, I want someone, anyone, in charge that will win trophies for Arsenal. If it's Arsene or if it's Steve Bould or if it's Joe Bloggs I don't care. Arsenal first, everything else second.