As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Judging by wenkers comments this morning, I have a feeling that I am gonna suffer one of the most crushing disappointments that I have felt in recent seasons......the contract renewal is imminent
I tried to save myself this agony but I really got my hopes up more with each passing day that he wasn't going to renew Now this season he will have done enough to convince the flipflop crew that he has indeed change his mindset, so there will be no widespread backlash at the 3 year extension (unless he totally balls'd up the fa cup).
It seems that the 8 years of torment and frustration is about to be extended to 11 and it looks like he saved the most painful kick in the bollox until the end by letting us get our hopes up that he would be departing
I believe the only reason the contract isn't signed is down to Wenger.
The impresssion i have he want's to see how the this season finishes for Arsenal, silverware, league position and most importantly the reaction of the fans.
Following the opening day defeat and on other occassions, i think he has been genuinely surprised at the level of critisism, especially following the Villa defeat.
If there is no Cup Final win and possibly a bad end to the league compaign, combined with the fans turning on him again, i believe he will walk away.
Whatever you think of the man, he could sign up right now for say £21m-£24m over the next 3 seasons, he chooses not to.
Seems we are to take on Mourinho without Rosicky as well. What was that about having too many midfielders?! I doubt we can even put together a full bench. Kallstrom anyone? help.
The jammy chav bastards have drawn PSG and with Mou's luck, Ibra will probably be injured. Moyes is doing a Wenger - they've got Bayern.
"I acted always with three things in my mind: first, every decision I make is like I own the club; second, I am in a job where you need to have a clear perception of your ideas and have the courage to transform them into actions; the third thing I am guided by is to make this club grow and make sure the club is bigger when I leave than when I arrived.
The first one being the big issue. Rather than see himself as an employee whose job it is to bring success to the club, he sees himself as the owner, cutting costs where possible, being frugal with transfer funds, looking for stability within a budget and putting finances before anything else.
This is Arsenal, mediocrity should NOT be an ambition.
Chips and Chocolate wrote:Any British manager you feel would be up to the task?
Can't think of many
None. Rodgers in a year or two maybe.
Bouldy ?
GG didn't have much of record when he joined us either though - 4 years at Millwall...
maybe Nigel Pearson at Leceister or Billy Davies at Forest ?
imho the best manager down there right now is Uwe Rosler.
Billy Davies? He'll be out of a job come the summer, he can add that to his sackings by Motherwell, Derby and Forest already to his resume along with his "job done" announcement to the media after a play-off first leg win that was overturned in the second leg. Makes Nigel Pearson seem like a reasonable suggestion in comparison...
1989 wrote:Wenger is a legend. 1000 games at this level is incredible.
I agree, it's just a shame he has spent the last few seasons pissing around with poor players and making poor tactical decisions.
Saw an article online (Telegraph I think) on Wenger's worst XI but was annoyed by the fluctuating selection criteria. So I spent quite a lot of the working day trying to come up with three teams for Wenger - worst value (i.e. biggest wastes of money), worst players (e.g. Park) and most damaging (i.e. ones who played miles too long). For the last team nearly all of my selections were playing in 2009-10
Massive achievement for Wenger. Over the last few years I have personally been torn between wanting to get rid of Arsene and wanting him to bring back the good times.
No doubting, this team are a massive improvement on last year but still way short of the class of 2004. Just registering a trophy this year is a must, I cant even think of the pressure that will be heaped on the manager if we don't win the FA cup.
Regardless of what has happened over the last few years, I for one can still appreciate Wenger for what he is, his values and what he has done for the club and english football. I don't think any right minded football fan can deny that.
1989 wrote:
Wenger is a legend. 1000 games at this level is incredible.
1,000 games at a big club is incredible ... but that's because to remain that long in charge of a big club would normally mean having to have sustained success for 1,000 games. Wenger hasn't done that so the fact he has got to 1,000 games is a poor reflection on Arsenal's standards and ambitions.
Wenger shouldn't have been able to get much beyond 750 games as manager of Arsenal. Still an impressive number but more crucially I would see him as more of a legend if he'd gone 5 years ago than I do now.
1989 wrote:
Wenger is a legend. 1000 games at this level is incredible.
1,000 games at a big club is incredible ... but that's because to remain that long in charge of a big club would normally mean having to have sustained success for 1,000 games. Wenger hasn't done that so the fact he has got to 1,000 games is a poor reflection on Arsenal's standards and ambitions.
Wenger shouldn't have been able to get much beyond 750 games as manager of Arsenal. Still an impressive number but more crucially I would see him as more of a legend if he'd gone 5 years ago than I do now.
Absolutely agree with that - for ferguscum to reach 1000 games and to be still winning trophies was a massive achievement but for wenker to reach 1000 games mainly because he is making the club money and because the club have zero ambitions, makes it a lesser achievement in my book. That is not meant as a swipe at wenker cos it is more aimed at the board/owner - I dont think that there is another big club in the world that would have allowed their manager to continue freely for 7 years making the same mistakes year after year that has resulted in a huge decline in the standard of the team It saddens, frustrates and angers me that we have a board that are happy to see our club drift aimlessly along without a willingness to change things
1989 wrote:
Wenger is a legend. 1000 games at this level is incredible.
1,000 games at a big club is incredible ... but that's because to remain that long in charge of a big club would normally mean having to have sustained success for 1,000 games. Wenger hasn't done that so the fact he has got to 1,000 games is a poor reflection on Arsenal's standards and ambitions.
Wenger shouldn't have been able to get much beyond 750 games as manager of Arsenal. Still an impressive number but more crucially I would see him as more of a legend if he'd gone 5 years ago than I do now.
That is the problem with football...you can simply destroy yourself by not knowing when it's time to go. I want Wenger out as much as most here and yet I look at what he brought to Arsenal and football and that is contradictory to what I feel now. Wenger has destroyed his place in Arsenal history for Arsenal fans (only) by the way he has overseen the demise of a club from winners to also rans. He deserves credit for reaching today's milestone but in reality he shouldn't have been allowed reach it based on the last one third of his reign. In a similar way I never wanted Tony Adams to become Arsenal manager , failure would have tainted his legendary status.
Now this season he will have done enough to convince the flipflop crew that he has indeed change his mindset, so there will be no widespread backlash at the 3 year extension (unless he totally balls'd up the fa cup).
It saddens, frustrates and angers me that we have a board that are happy to see our club drift aimlessly along without a willingness to change things 
