Damning indictment of Arsene Wenger

When one of your most experienced players says this, you know there is trouble:

Petr Cech: Wenger was more concerned about playing style than winning

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...sene-wenger-style-arsenal-unai-emery-football

How many games did we fail to compete in in the past because we always prioritized our own gameplan over proper preparation, planning and tactics?

I am convinced if we work hard under Emery, we will eventually see the results. But our overall mentality as a football club needs to change.

 

We all know this.

That was pretty obvious for the last 10-12 years of his tenure.

Well a big difference with Emery is that he doesnt seem to care at all about possession. Offensively he is alot more direct. But we need big defensive improvements if we are going to win things under the Spaniard.

 

Well, Wenger had a system that worked for him early on. He concentrated on playing "The Arsenal/Wenger Way" and determined that no matter what the opposition did they couldn't win. In some ways that was the Barcelona way too.

Obviously time marches on and someone eventually comes up with a way to defeat any tactical system. Eventually the high press will be undone spectacularly. Will Pep change when that happens and go to a long ball, probably not. Mourinho has not changed since his cautious overly defensive game has been undone.

We can piss and moan about the Wenger era as long as we like but it is over and done with. I think we should wait and see before we get too critical, because those FA cups he won at the end may be a fond memory, if things don't go well for us from now on.

Personally, I think we are far too down on our team still. We can see a real change in tactics. We are winning away games. The chances we are giving up are nowhere near as clear-cut as the chances we used to give up and we see improvements game after game.

I don't know whether Wenger caused the strange mentality of the Arsenal fans, but now he is gone, I do wish we would be more like other teams supporters and be a bit more positive about our players. Even after we win, we seem to have endless numbers of people saying certain players are crap. I just don't get it.

If there is one thing I hate from the Wenger era, it was this negative habit that seems to be ingrained in our supporters. It makes supporting Arsenal so much less fun than it should be. It doesn't help that the press feed this tendency like a two year old feeding ducks, but we need to get back to feeling it is OK to be positive and hopeful, instead of depressed and imagining the worst.

 

I have often wondered if winning the FA Cup in 2005 against Man Utd on penalties mentally messed with Wenger.
United completely out played Arsenal who barely got out of their own half and should have battered you but were terrible at finishing on the day.
Ever since then he has never played pragmatically (apart from once away to city) whereas before his team's did at times.
Just a thought

 

I just think that we had a team then who had battlers in it back then. Vieira, Henry, Bergkamp, Lauren, Lehmann, Ljungberg etc. The year after that we moved to the Emirates and the break up of the invincibles started. (Although we did get to the CL final in 2006) Wenger replaced them with youth and cheap players because we had to balance the books, yet he still stuck to his 'philosophy' when he probably should have adopted a bit more of a siege mentality with the players he had.

That said, his teams did okay during that period. They probably should have won the league in 2008, but it all fell apart with Eduardo getting butchered and Gallas' infamous half way line sit in strop.

They were also unlucky to lose the League cup final to Brum in 201, and then of course Wenger won another 3 FA cups in 2014, 2015, and 2017, so his record overall cannot be faulted.

It will be interesting to see how Spurs manage this transition into the new stadium (if it ever opens) and how you try to balance the books whilst paying for it and the improved contracts that players at the top level now demand.

 

The biggest factor is Chelsea and City.
you lot were 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st between 1998 and 2004 and then Roman happened and in 2008 City were taken over.

The problem Arsenal had was they were excellent before the move. Arsenal fans expected to continue winning titles and this has led to fans dismissing winning 3 FA Cups as no big deal.

We ain't won **** so do not have anywhere as many entitled plastic tourist fans who whine when ever something doesn't go right.

 

We had to deal with Chelsea and City being pumped full of cash at the same time we had the skids put on our spending. But yeah, those two chancers skewed the whole market out of proportion and changed the game forever.

I've got no truck with the fans who denigrate our achievements, and as you know it's brought me loads of flack on here for backing Wenger and the club through those days. Even when he wasn't winning anything, Wenger still managed to keep us in the top 4, and whilst I didn't agree with his 'top 4 trophy' analogy, it was still a good achievement.

But yeah, our days of winning league titles, FA cups and doubles brought with it a load of plastic glory boys. So I guess they were always going to kick up a stink when things went awry.

 

I also think a huge factor was actually a change in style.

Around 2010 on the back of Peps success with Barca and Spains World Cup win. Wenger changed his style.

1998-06. Wengers success was initially built on a 4-4-1-1 formation - Quick, counter attacking, pace down the wings power in the middle. A side full of big athletic players. Ferguson also used a similar formation and style until that point.
On the back of Mourinhos first success in 2005 - many teams started to crowd the midfield as a counter the the 442.
Defensive 4-5-1 became fashionable for a few years.
Wenger took a few years to catch on. We even adopted a 451 from a while.(although a more attacking variation)

In around 2010 Wenger started to copy the tikka/takka approach made soo successful by Pep at Barcelona and then Spain in 2010 when they finally won the World Cup.

Arsene had been signing players Hleb, Rosicky, Fabregas, Denilson, Arshavin, Nasri etc.. favouring technical ability over everything else. On the whole Wenger stopped looking big powerful/alpha male type players and focused all his efforts on playing style. He seemed obsessed with defenders who could 'play out from the back' and didnt seem to care if they could actually defend.

We played some some good football but never quite got this style to work. In fact it was the longest period under Wenger without any silverware. In his final few years he did get a little less offensive and it wielded 3 x FA Cup trophies.
Wengers last two Seasons felt like he didnt know wether to completely abanddon this approach all together or stick with it.

 

Arsene was top top class(to quote his own catchphrase) manager until the last 4 years of his reign at Arsenal.

Let us not be revisionist,he was cash strapped and had to sell his players every year to make money to pay off the stadium debt during the banter era from 2005 to 2012.Look at the averages we would have made a profit of 20m a year atleast if you take the whole of these years.Then Chelsea and City came in and changed everything with their supersquads,Alex followed suit too..but still Wenger maintained the brand of football and finished either 3rd or 4th and will occasionally give a title challenge thought besides 07/08 not till the very end.All this while becoming a shield for our board and insisting we have money.

No other manager in the world bar Sir Alex could have made it better during that time while maintaing our good footballing brand and paying off 25m a year,we would have been sunk as a club,he sacrificed his best years for us.

We repaid him to an extent and gave him four extra seasons when he was past it.

Now now lets not be revisionist as hell shall we?

 

Wenger hasn't been top top class since 2004 and even then he had possibly the best team in Europe that year and still guffed up the CL.

£20m profit PER YEAR FOR SEVEN YEARS??? You got some figures to back that up?

We also played ****e football for a good long while before he left so not sure of his 'brand' that you're banging on about.

Suspect the nonsense you're spouting is all part of a troll account.

 

What are you kidding me?Sure i will back it up,im unable to attack pictures

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fxan-XeQ5-E/V_FjAY_1q1I/AAAAAAAALt4/KeLAIKDskAI3HXSLhkv1VmnAIKzKvwmsgCLcB/s1600/1+Arsenal+Player+Trading+2016.jpg

So check this link out,as you can see from 06 to 13 we made a net profit in the transfer window.We only spent in the last 4 seasons of his reign.

In his first 7 years from 1997 to 2004 atleast he had a net positive spend of 7-8m per season.

From 05 to 13,the net was he made a profit for the club,during the times when City and Chelsea were spending 200-300m to kick start their squad then sustaining it with 70m on average every season while Alex would do it with 50m and dont even get me started on wages please.


Wenger actually spent less than a relegation fighting team,say for example Wigan during the period of 2005 to 2013,played the best football over that period and finished 3rd 3 times and 4th 5 times,what more do you want on that budget?Its the height of over achievement.He only really underperformed in his final fours seasons,the final 2 were an absolute failure but thats about it.

Our football really wasnt pretty anymore after Cesc,nasri (2011)then consequently song,RVP all left in 2012,so only from 2012 did it deteriorate really badly.

 

So £41m profit in seven seasons averages out to £20m profit per season in your head??

And you think we played the best football between 05-13? Seriously?!

His last few years at the club prove that he wasn't limited by lack of funds, he'd just found his level. As soon as the new wave of better managers appeared and he didnt spend 36 games a season playing teams managed by inept ****e like Christian Gross et al. Wenger got found out.

You're so biased your posts have to be a windup

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o-jfsP1j2JM/UGr264flNnI/AAAAAAAAGXs/qgC7-7kOS_k/s1600/4 Arsenal Profit.jpg

This is from swiss ramble again showing out club making profit year after year but not spending it.

Wow.

Okay,i didnt have the exact figures but he still made a profit,he still had a smaller budget than a relegation fighting team against teams that could spend it all like Chelsea and City,the former which was the highest spender in world football during that time..

Who is biased here bro?Which other manager achieved 3rd and 4th for 8 seasons while making a profit in that period in the transfer window while facing commercial behemoths who could spend 100 times more like Chelsea and United?Why didnt anyone else manage it anywhere else?I repeat the net spend was below that of a regular RELEGATION FIGHTER IN THAT PERIOD.Stop the blind hate for Wenger please.

Its not me saying you will see most commentators,sports journalists saying we played the best footie from 2005 to 2011,SAF was far more pragamtic in his later years and we all know about chelsea who else are to dethrone our claim in that period?Or tell me who played the best football in England then?

His last few years were when he was past it,i agreed with it but he was punching far above his weight before that weather you like him or not thats the truth.

 

Making sure the company makes money is the job of the CFO, not the manager. Just saying.
The manager can contribute to that, by being successful on a pitch, but no self respecting football fan would cite profit made as anything to boast about, especially in terms of the manager.
NO profit should be made as long as the team isnt winning competitions.
If my teams potless with money in the bank, then my question is why is that money still in the bank when my teams sat there trophyless?
It should be invested into the team.

 

Agreed. What use is profit? Genuine profit means not even being used to pay off a loan as that's accounted for. Pointless profit money sitting in a bank account. Woo hoo. Wenger achieved something no football fan of a club achieving nothing should ask for or want.

 

Dude seriously i cant believe so many are missing the point here,do you think Arsene wanted to make profits instead of winning trophies?

He simply wasnt given the cash to spend,he was forced to work under such constraints to finance our world-class stadium,so he massively over achieved with a relegation fodders teams budget from 2005 to 2013

All is one and one is all of homosapiens

 

Its not like Wenger wanted that either,he was forced to do that from 2005 to 2013 to finance our stadium,he worked with the budget of a relegation fodder team and massively over achieved,if he had achieved according to the money he was given to spend like most managers during that time did we would have been regularly finishing 10th to 15th.

You talk as if Arsene wanted to shoot his own career down and make profits instead of winning trophies... nope he was forced to.

All is one and one is all of homosapiens

 

He was forced to make a profit? Not just make enough to fund our stadium but to ALSO make a profit on top of that? Bullshit. Why would anyone be forced to do that? And regardless, again you're proud of that? Pointless achievement that no football fan should care about apart from Wenger lovers.

 

Hahahahaha

Dude how will he fund the stadium if hes makong losses or breaking even?Obviously he made a profit to pay off the stadium,your blind hate is clear against him please give up.



All is one and one is all of homosapiens

 

You don't understand what profit is do you?