LDB wrote:Clash wrote:
But Wenger has done things that cannot be undone. Under him we have changed forever and not for the better. Without the success he had to begin with he wouldnt have been allowed to do those things he has changed about us.
I can only imagine you're talking about the stadium move. Wenger clearly had a role in it but it was far from him alone that made it happen. I'm going to get roasted for this (

)but the simple truth is that life moves on and the number of people with highbury nostalgia will dwindle over time and future generations will see the grove as our home. Imagine how Arsenal fans must have felt in 1913 when the club upped sticks to the other side of London. Imo be thankful that we're not playing our home games at fucking Wembley like the peoples-champion David Dein wanted us to.
If however you're talking about the state of the team then I'm afraid you're overreacting. Average teams are transformed by good managers all the time without having to move the earth. There are plenty of good things at Arsenal for a new manager to work with I just hope we don't have to sink too low before we see the back of Wenger.
There is very little that I like about the current Arsenal regime but the stadium move is something that I still think is in the long term interests of the club.
A lot of what I meant was just my personal preference, stuff about the club that I always liked which we don’t have anymore.
But yes I’d say about 50% was to do with the stadium move which is obviously a permanent thing. Around 40% is how the ethos of the club was changed at the same time as the move happened. Its like we are a different club altogether now rather than the same club just playing in a different stadium. This is hugely down to Wenger and the people he has brought or attracted to the club
The remaining 10% is my fear that the football side of things has been manipulated by Wenger so that it will remain like that for the rest of our lifetimes. He couldn’t wait to fast track his youth policy and clear out the old guard. He did this far too quickly and it was an unnatural transition. Even if that Invincible side were past their best he lost so much experience and knowledge when he replaced them so quickly. A criminal piece of management that did long term damage.
Only time will tell whether the football side of things has changed forever. I just worry that even though a new manager can change the way we play, pick different players and spend more money, I can only see the club going for a Wenger type manager from now on. That’s because they have been led to believe (mainly by Wenger) that this is the right way to do things.
Wenger has also set this nauseating ‘culture’ in place that in many ways opposes the tradition the club had before he arrived. I know he is arrogant but was it too much to ask of him that he respected what we were and worked around it? I think will take years to rectify this and it will take a strong and brave man (again not the type the club will go for) to rid the club of the mentality Wenger has infected it with. Can anyone ever see our club reverting back to a professional, defensive and disciplined outfit in say the next 10-15 years? One that plays with drive, pride and passion? I know football can go in cycles but I fear we will be forever under Wenger’s spell from now on, even long after he’s gone.
Personally I don’t much like Wenger’s philosophy on the game or his vision. I liked it when it was mixed with Grahams philosophy but on its own it is passionless, defeatist and predictable.
One man’s utopia is another man’s hell.
I take your point that the stadium move was not all down to Wenger and I totally agree with you that Wembley would have been far worse. It really frustrates me that we moved when there was so much room to redevelop Highbury though. The Clock End could have been double in size at least, all 4 corners filled and the West Stand redeveloped. The club will tell us they tried but there were too many obstacles but I don’t believe them. They tell so many lies that I am assuming this was another of them. They wanted to move and probably overcame far more obstacles relocating dozens of business’s than whatever the obstacles were at Highbury. Personally I think Highbury was too special to lose. Liverpool have had problems but at least if they ever get things right they’ll still be at their real home (lucky for them their plans to move have fallen through). If we had gone to the Emirates and played the few seasons there with the set of players we all loved then it wouldn’t have been so bad. But that summer of 2006 saw more than just Highbury consigned to history and I think it was by design more than accident. Arsenal dress up the move as something noble. That they were trying to allow more fans to watch the team. But then they have priced a lot of these fans out anyway.
The club in 2012 are good at making money and making excuses but not good at respecting their supoorters and fulfilling their dreams.