Lay off

[g88ner]

yes if we 'just' bought a keeper this year we would prob have won the league
but if we had 'just' bought a def mid (which was the consensus position we needed to strengthen in) we wouldnt have seen Song push on to be the class player he is now

its easy to be right with hindsight

Nice post, and I agree with most of it, but the bit above about "hindsight" doesn't sit right with me.

The goalkeeper issue has been an issue amongst MANY MANY fans for 3 years now, and still we're sat here watching the same old shit... in fact, they seem to be getting worse as their confidence is erroded away by mistake after mistake. So, in this case, it's not about hindsight at all - it's just plain incompetence on Wenger's part.

The striker issue is much the same. It was a CHOICE to sell Adebayor as he was only 12 months into a long contract. It was also a CHOICE not to replace him even though our current crop were made up of an injury prone Van Persie, a one legged Eduardo and a bunch of understudies who have never scored goals before (Bendtner, Theo & Vela)

It seemed ridiculous to many that no striker was signed, and it surely didn't surprise many that Van persie and Eduardo have spent much of the season injured - after all, that's what they do best! - so again, it's not about hindsight.... it was an oversight, and a foolish one at that!

There's been many positives this season, but there shouldn't need to be 'hindsight' when every man and his dog could see the problem BEFORE the season began!
- in any case, Wenger gets paid £millions every year to notice these problems, whereas many of us pay £1000+ a season to not only notice the problems, but then have to watch them become reality over the course of 9 months

[VforVictory]

I am a HUGE Arsene Wenger fan.

In my book, the day he leaves Arsenal will be a very sad day indeed.

The man has not only brought us success. He has brought us style.

He also has faults. Who doesn't?

I don't understand why he persists in picking players who most of us consider to be mediocre, or worse. (Although Song has proved us all wrong, and Eboue has now become worthy of respect)

I don't understand why he didn't bring in a couple of experieced players when he had the opportunity. (Forget Sylvestre, that was another mistake)

I don't understand why we don't have a better than average goalkeeper.

What I do understand is that Arsene has never had a huge chequebook to play with. So he has persisted with a plan of reliance on youth, and excellent coaching. It nearly worked, too. We ought to have won at least one more title. But the wheels came off after Eduardo had his leg smashed at Birmingham.

Managers are ultimately judged on results.

Therefor, Ferguson is a far better manager than Wenger.

Except that he was, at one point, only one bad result away from being sacked as incompetent. And except that he had the fattest chequebook in the land for many years. There is no way he would have won so much, if he had limited resources.

So. Let's cut Arsene some slack.

He's got one year left of his contract. And will probably choose to leave after that.

There is no point in calling for his head.

Top post.

Though if he fails to buy a goalkeeper and central defender this summer he is either bonkers or the club is broke and we have been given fake accounts!

[highburyJD]

yes if we 'just' bought a keeper this year we would prob have won the league
but if we had 'just' bought a def mid (which was the consensus position we needed to strengthen in) we wouldnt have seen Song push on to be the class player he is now

its easy to be right with hindsight

Nice post, and I agree with most of it, but the bit above about "hindsight" doesn't sit right with me.

The goalkeeper issue has been an issue amongst MANY MANY fans for 3 years now, and still we're sat here watching the same old shit... in fact, they seem to be getting worse as their confidence is erroded away by mistake after mistake. So, in this case, it's not about hindsight at all - it's just plain incompetence on Wenger's part.

The striker issue is much the same. It was a CHOICE to sell Adebayor as he was only 12 months into a long contract. It was also a CHOICE not to replace him even though our current crop were made up of an injury prone Van Persie, a one legged Eduardo and a bunch of understudies who have never scored goals before (Bendtner, Theo & Vela)

It seemed ridiculous to many that no striker was signed, and it surely didn't surprise many that Van persie and Eduardo have spent much of the season injured - after all, that's what they do best! - so again, it's not about hindsight.... it was an oversight, and a foolish one at that!

There's been many positives this season, but there shouldn't need to be 'hindsight' when every man and his dog could see the problem BEFORE the season began!
- in any case, Wenger gets paid £millions every year to notice these problems, whereas many of us pay £1000+ a season to not only notice the problems, but then have to watch them become reality over the course of 9 months

I agree with your post
and prob didn't express myself very well

what I was trying to say about hindsight was
yes we all agreed we needed a new keeper
but we all agreed we needed a new defMid and Wenger was actually right about Song

we cant go back and expect our manager to have just done what the consensus was right about
I saw blogs going crazy for Melo who has been much worse at Juve than he was in Florence or Cana who has committed 100s of fouls; if he played for us he would have prob been sent off every week (Song always gets booked 1st foul)

I personally wanted Suker to play ahead of Henry for half a season and hated seing TH step up for FKs for two seasons
ended up being totally wrong on those as well

Wenger is stubborn - its prob his greatest strength and his greatest weakness

[Magic Hat]

I thought most were not calling for a Song replacement but a Song rival/deputy because only one dm was asking for trouble.

Wenger will always be a legend to me, though if we drop out the top 4 it will be horribly tarnished. Like the others, I have my doubts he can take us from a good side into a winning one but that he has one more season to convince me otherwise.

[FOXYARSENAL]

love arsene wenger but as has been said on other posts he is not the be all end all of arsenal. i personally think this is his last year either through his own choice or being let go at last by the board.i honestly dont think the success we have had with wenger has been all that great either considering how long he has been with us i know what he has brought us with his style of play and great to watch football but trophys for me is far more important,we have yet to win premiership twice in a row still hasnt won champions league hasnt won a major trophy in 6 years(fa.cup is not a major trophy in his own eyes)so if you take the fa.cup out what has he won??3 league titles in 13 years not that impressive is it,guardiola won 5 major trophys in his 1st season with barcelona and i think he is the perfect replacement for wenger as he is not happy at barca if obvious signings are not made now in the summer i hope he is sacked cuz i am sick of the same dribble year after year now from wenger

[digger]

Did some say the last 5 years have been a DISGRACE ?

Investment wise, it's been a massive disgrace.

We've spent absolutely fuck all, net. If anything, we've made a profit in transfers, and that hasn't been reinvested into the team. We've sold Vieira, Henry, Adebayor and C**e simply for monetary gain. We allowed Diarra, Gilberto and Flamini to all leave at the same time. We have negligently ignored key areas of the team (Goalkeeper) for at least three years (I would have replaced Jens a year before he went).

The board have always claimed there is money to spend, so the blame unfortunately lies at the feet of Wenger.


I agree, Wenger is a legend and has achieved a lot. Clough was also a legend, and achieved a whole lot more than Wenger. One of them became a stubborn mule, refused to be told how to do his job, and basically dragged his club from the top (where, admittedly, he had put them himself), right to the bottom. Who wants to see that happen?

[highburyJD]

I thought most were not calling for a Song replacement but a Song rival/deputy because only one dm was asking for trouble.

I wasn't
I simply thought Song wasn't good enough
and I was wrong