I did, in fact this thread started off with myself preferring Carlo over Simeone as his football is more attractive, then it just became a whole Wenger v Graham debate
Yeah we really should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque… at this point who cares where AW stands in relation to his legacy, we have bigger fish to fry - he is certainly the greatest manager in our history (or at least belongs in the discussion), but he is past it now and it is way past the point when we need a replacement. Frankly, I’d take either Ancellotti OR Simeone, but I happen to prefer Simeone… I’d even be willing to take a chance on Phoebica - she assures us she would even be better and right now we need a change.
Lets say I agree with Arsenal being a big club in English football pre Wenger. And I mostly do agree with that.
But English football or football in general was not so popular in 80s & 90s. So the status of being a ‘big club’ was quite localised.
It is similar to Ajax being a big club in Netherlands right now but I don’t think Ajax holds similar stature in world football. (It once did but not in last decade or so before someone points me to 90s)
Celtic & Rangers fans will argue they are a big club and for most parts it is true but their big club status is local.
Dinamo Zagreb, Shaktar, Fenerbahce etc. are all big clubs similar to what Arsenal were.
More rubbish. Historically speaking, the English league had always been admired. The 60s, 70s and early 80s were fantastic times for English football. The only downside was the Heyael disaster which prevented English teams from continuing their European dominance.
So fucking what?
Arsenal didn’t do shit in Europe. Arsenal winning PL was not consistent for world to take notice.
Arsenal never had players who would attract global fanfare.
The status of being a big club was confined within English football.
As has been mentioned, it was a different era - most footballers weren’t celebrities in the old days. But we had some fantastic players pre Wenger who I have no doubt would have been known by some outside of England.
And actually, one example would be Juventus buying Liam Brady from us. I remember reading Brady say he was shocked that there were so fans waiting for him at the airport in Turin.