THE WENGER THREAD

[the playing mantis]

A bit difficult to gauge, seeing as AW's going to have at most three seasons (including this one) with the current squad (or thereabouts). More to the point, Martinez's usual tactics with Everton aren't all that dissimilar to AW's - narrow possession play with a tendency for the full-backs to run forward - in fact Martinez is something of an admirer of AW.

Arguably having Lukaku on loan has boosted Everton's ability to punch above their weight somewhat, but we only lost one of three matches against them (during the injury crisis) and beat them 4-1 in the FA Cup quarters.

Passing for the sake of passing can get tiresome, but I have to wonder if some of you guys aren't just wanting to replace Wenger for the sake of replacing Wenger.

@StuartL - with respect, that's one of the daftest theories I've heard yet. It could just be that the guy's getting on a bit, and, as he has stated several times, he intends to finish his management career at Arsenal. He's most likely going to Brazil to do a bit of personal scouting.



@northbank123 - I think he was more worried about losing players of the calibre of Walcott, Wilshere and Ramsey the way he lost Nasri, Clichy, Adebayor, etc. (I mention those three because money was more of a factor - notably they all went to Man City).

yep thats it, its not for the years of standing still, not correcting the obvious ills in the squad, and handing out payrises and extensions to the likes of djorou then promptly sending them on loan, or sign a midfield crock when everyone knew we need a striker inclusing the manager, hence his embarrasing 11th hour ba bids

[turricaned]

@playing mantis:

Careful with the reply technique - you'll give poor Augie an aneurysm!

Fixture list - I seem to recall us beating Liverpool 2-0 in November, not to mention beating Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Marseille (twice) in the CL before December and Walcott's crocking. To say we'd only faced second-string opposition before the away loss to Man City is completely untrue.

Penny-pinching board/"Standing still" - They hold the purse strings, and more crucially had AW commit to an indefinite limited transfer fee spend in 2003, until such time as the new stadium costs balanced out. According to David Conn's book, we also had to sell Anelka, Overmars and Petit a few years before that just to get the ball rolling. Do you think AW would have let players like that go if he had a real choice in the matter? This all happened before Abramovich bought Chelsea, let alone before Sheikh Mansour bought Man City - back then, unless you had Man U's money, building a new stadium was always going to be a long-term project which would have a massive financial impact on the club, and as with any executive board - it's never them that has to take a pay cut.

Why the new stadium? Because as beloved as Highbury was and is, the ground simply didn't have the capacity to generate enough income to maintain us in the top flight.

One result : Real are fairly ruthless, sure. But so are Chelsea - Mou's come away empty-handed this season and he's not out on his ear.

"Effective against sterner opposition" : Just watch the frickin' highlights already - we were dancing around their defence. Chelsea's defence is still fairly strong, but Liverpool's was frequently horrendously sloppy this season, and as Wigan proved, Man City have chinks in the armour that can be exploited too.

[QuartzGooner]

Penny-pinching board/"Standing still" - They hold the purse strings, and more crucially had AW commit to an indefinite limited transfer fee spend in 2003, until such time as the new stadium costs balanced out. According to David Conn's book, we also had to sell Anelka, Overmars and Petit a few years before that just to get the ball rolling. Do you think AW would have let players like that go if he had a real choice in the matter?

Really?
Budget constraints in 1999?

Anelka and his brothers publicly agitated for a move in a number of ways and got one.
Nasty pieces of work.
We then spent more than that hefty transfer fee on Henry, Suker and a year later, Wiltord.

Overmars likewise wanted out, he was quite unpopular in his last six months with some fans for this.

Petit's knee had gone, he was shipped out sharpish bundled along with the Overmars deal.
His replacement Pires cost less, so we did make a profit that time.

Belt-tightening by the board was 2005 onwards when we saw experienced players readily let go in what seemed a season or two too early...Edu, Gilberto etc.

The club's off field administrative and travel procedures certainly underwent a budget cut in these years, and a further one when Kroenke came in.

It is quite clear that Wenger was careful with the transfer budget in these years, he has gone on record to say that and the club's publicly available accounts show this.
Our spending plans were agreed alongside the merchant banks that funded the new stadium.

But as many on here would agree, it is not so much how much we have spent, as how we have spent it that rankles.

[VAVAVOOM 14]

Passing for the sake of passing can get tiresome, but I have to wonder if some of you guys aren't just wanting to replace Wenger for the sake of replacing Wenger.

Yes, the fact we haven't won anything for 9 years has nothing to do with it...

[turricaned]

20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Admittedly I'm having to resort to books and other sources for the turn of the millennium, as those were my Uni years and football events are the least of the things I have trouble remembering from that period (because I was so busy, of course!)...

Gilberto I think fell foul of the policy where younger players (in this case Flamini) were prioritised, and possibly it might have just been that Flamini and Wenger had a better rapport.

Losing Edu was painful, but looking at it from the point of view of the time, he never seemed to fully get his mojo back after that bloody injury (I feared similar with Ramsey), and I think the strike force was therefore rejigged around RVP. I'm certain AW was blindsided by RVP walking as soon as he did and in the way he did (I was pretty shocked at the time) - perhaps if he hadn't have been he might have thought differently over Edu.

On the other hand, it's always going to be more of a gamble when it comes to deciding who goes and who stays in a squad reshuffle if you don't have the luxury of a virtually unlimited transfer budget. AW stuck with Ramsey when some fans feared his crocking was permanent, and that's been repaid very well this season. He's also stood by Theo, was right to bring Flamini back when the opportunity presented itself - it isn't all one way by any stretch of the imagination.

[the playing mantis]

@playing mantis:

Careful with the reply technique - you'll give poor Augie an aneurysm!

Fixture list - I seem to recall us beating Liverpool 2-0 in November, not to mention beating Borussia Dortmund, Napoli and Marseille (twice) in the CL before December and Walcott's crocking. To say we'd only faced second-string opposition before the away loss to Man City is completely untrue.

Penny-pinching board/"Standing still" - They hold the purse strings, and more crucially had AW commit to an indefinite limited transfer fee spend in 2003, until such time as the new stadium costs balanced out. According to David Conn's book, we also had to sell Anelka, Overmars and Petit a few years before that just to get the ball rolling. Do you think AW would have let players like that go if he had a real choice in the matter? This all happened before Abramovich bought Chelsea, let alone before Sheikh Mansour bought Man City - back then, unless you had Man U's money, building a new stadium was always going to be a long-term project which would have a massive financial impact on the club, and as with any executive board - it's never them that has to take a pay cut.

Why the new stadium? Because as beloved as Highbury was and is, the ground simply didn't have the capacity to generate enough income to maintain us in the top flight.

One result : Real are fairly ruthless, sure. But so are Chelsea - Mou's come away empty-handed this season and he's not out on his ear.

"Effective against sterner opposition" : Just watch the frickin' highlights already - we were dancing around their defence. Chelsea's defence is still fairly strong, but Liverpool's was frequently horrendously sloppy this season, and as Wigan proved, Man City have chinks in the armour that can be exploited too.

o shit i forgot those teams played in the english league and thus results against them helped make us top as you state....facking hell...as said please try harder with this wumming

as for financial constraints, the wage bill is proff otherwise and likewise AW's response to the question, what would you do if your chariman gave you 100million, his answer said it all about who was doing the penny pinching, yet rewarding no mark, unproven never will eb good enough players with long term improved deals.

[the playing mantis]

20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Admittedly I'm having to resort to books and other sources for the turn of the millennium, as those were my Uni years and football events are the least of the things I have trouble remembering from that period (because I was so busy, of course!)...
Gilberto I think fell foul of the policy where younger players (in this case Flamini) were prioritised, and possibly it might have just been that Flamini and Wenger had a better rapport.

Losing Edu was painful, but looking at it from the point of view of the time, he never seemed to fully get his mojo back after that bloody injury (I feared similar with Ramsey), and I think the strike force was therefore rejigged around RVP. I'm certain AW was blindsided by RVP walking as soon as he did and in the way he did (I was pretty shocked at the time) - perhaps if he hadn't have been he might have thought differently over Edu.

On the other hand, it's always going to be more of a gamble when it comes to deciding who goes and who stays in a squad reshuffle if you don't have the luxury of a virtually unlimited transfer budget. AW stuck with Ramsey when some fans feared his crocking was permanent, and that's been repaid very well this season. He's also stood by Theo, was right to bring Flamini back when the opportunity presented itself - it isn't all one way by any stretch of the imagination.

more likely you hadnt chosen which team to support then...

edu? rvp walking? wtf has edu got to do with rvp leaving. the timings were years off....

do you even know who edu was? a bloke with a dodgy passport but very good player.

then as you probably hadnt chosen us then, i imagine your meant to refer to eduardo....a player i have never heard in any circles referred to as edu by any gooner, most likely because of the aforementoned proper edu and to avoid confusion.

you really are letting you mask slip here

[Sam59]

another day, another question mark over Our Great Leader's coaching ability - Guardian interview with Wilshere, in which he states he rang up Paul Scholes to ask why he'd been so rude about him and genuinely wanted advice from Scholes on how to improve his game.
Presumably Wenger has just been telling him to go out and play his natural game, and that he's world class etc etc.
For the record, I thought Scholes is right, that Jack isn't any better than he was at 17.
Maybe Arsene can pay over a % of his bloated management fee for the help
http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... -cup-final

[augie]

Whether scholes is right or wrong is irrelevant imo.............wilshere asking that dirty ginger c*nt for advice after he stabbed him in the back on national media, is quite pathetic in my opinion. If he cares so much about jack's progression then why didn't he picked up the phone and offer him some advice instead of doing what he did ?

[goonersid]

Scholes may be a *word censored*, but that doesn't stop him being spot on about the over rated powder puff Jackie.

[rodders999]

Edu's passport was kosher, it was Silvinho that bought his off ebay

[the playing mantis]

Edu's passport was kosher, it was Silvinho that bought his off ebay

was sure edus debut was delayed by dodgy passport too!

[rodders999]

Edu's passport was kosher, it was Silvinho that bought his off ebay

was sure edus debut was delayed by dodgy passport too!

You're probably right, threre was a time there that all our Brazilians got their passports off Arfur Daly

[OneBardGooner]

Whether scholes is right or wrong is irrelevant imo.............wilshere asking that dirty ginger c*nt for advice after he stabbed him in the back on national media, is quite pathetic in my opinion. If he cares so much about jack's progression then why didn't he picked up the phone and offer him some advice instead of doing what he did ?

Because retards like scholes think phones are for jamming up one's rectum - just like cashley - he doesn't have the intelligence or social skills to be able to make a thought out decision like that and then act on it.

Many footballers have natural footballing skills we would all love to have, but when it comes to everday 'Common Sense' things...they can be greatly lacking..

Common sense isn't so common - as they say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27420637

[OneBardGooner]

Edu's passport was kosher, it was Silvinho that bought his off ebay

was sure edus debut was delayed by dodgy passport too!

You're probably right, threre was a time there that all our Brazilian's got there passports off Arfur Daly

If Arfur Daly woz in cahrge of our 'dealings' we'd have better players for lesser moolaah that's one fing fer sure my son.