Yeah I know people gloss over it and act like Arsene kept us afloat but the truth is he was a massive part of our decline because he never allowed the club structure to change and modernise. He was very much the alpha and omega. He never recovered from losing Dein. I think if Dein stayed (or was adequately replaced), we win major trophies and the 9 year drought never happens.
Fergie was so successful because he always had others around him that did so much for him. Gill was so important to him as were the coaches he surrounded himself by that allowed Fergie to always adapt.
Wenger should really have been let go at least half a decade before he eventually left and no amount of FA Cup trophies changes that.
I think if Wenger left around 09 or so he leaves with a huge reputation and walks into a major European job with ease. And a reputation intact. He left almost being a parody to opposition fans who laughed at him for at least the last 7/8 years of his tenure.
I love Arsene and he’ll always be the greatest Arsenal manager for me but he really damaged his legacy by overstaying his welcome. His FA Cup record may never be broken but his shambolic European record and the fact he never built on the 3 titles in his first 7 seasons will always be a stain on his record. We ended up winning nothing and not even challenging for the next 13 years.
It’s the most overdone topic ever but I really do wish Arsene left the club at a better time.
While I generally agree with this sentiment, there is also the other side of the argument that it was the stability that Wenger bought during the years of austerity that helped us remain competitive near the top of the table in the later half of his reign here. The slump we are in now would have arrived much earlier as the owners have demonstrated that they literally have no nous of how to create a stable hierarchy/ structure to efficiently run the club. Over the last 3-4 years they have handed over the keys to a bunch of chumps who have only looked after their self interest rather than at the greater good of the club, which was always at Wenger’s heart.
One example that I keep going back to time and again is that of Valencia. Both Arsenal and Valencia enjoyed their best phases in recent history around the same time, Valencia would probably even shade the comparison. Both embarked on building new stadiums at the same time. The key difference was we had a top manager who was committed to the project, whereas Valencia had a merry-go-round at the top with Cuper, Benitez, Ranieri in charge with none of them were interested in/ capable of operating within limited means. The results are clearly out there to see. They couldn’t even finish building their stadium, have been inconsistent in terms of league finishes and are in a financial mess today. There are other examples of stable, well run clubs in complete runs after building new stadium. Isn’t it also now well known that the loan for our stadium was secured on the condition that Wenger remains the manager of the club for the foreseeable future .
While he regressed a lot in the final 3-4 seasons, you can’t deny the fact that he was producing minor miracles for 6-7 seasons by staying in the top 4 with the kind of money and squad at his disposal. He had immense self belief and was principled guy almost to a flaw. After seeing the condition of the club after he has left, I don’t begrudge him the final few years of tying to reinvent the club with his methods no matter how flawed they felt at the time.
I dunno about that. I look at what he left behind squad and coaching wise and it’s not pretty compared with the defensive unit left him by Graham, the culture of scrapping for a result etc. Plus he also inherited Parlour, Wright and Bergkamp who were complete Arsenal legends compared with the pile of shit he left Dick Emery
Great post and it’s hard to disagree with any of it.
Wenger was arguably the best manager in Europe when he took over and won so much playing such great football in his first few seasons with us.
But as soon as we moved to the Emirates it all starting falling apart and we gradually got overtaken, not just by the big spenders but similar size clubs to us.
I also agree with this.
Wenger didn’t seem to be backed by the club and he did a great job, considering he had such a small budget.
All our problems started with having to pay for the new stadium and then, when Kroenke bought the club, he dragged us down even further but Wenger still should have left earlier.
His job was safe and he was under no real pressure which meant there was a level of complacency that was unacceptable, which is still here.
This is true, Wenger left us with one of the worst squads we’ve had, with very little defensive coaching and players that were taking it far too easily.
When he took over from Graham he was left with the best defensive unit in the league, as well as Wright, Parlour and Bergkamp and he built on that.
When he left us we were out of Europe and behind spurs so when Emery took over, he actually did pretty well to achieve the same, with Wenger’s players.
Wenger out stayed his welcome and, just because we are now a mid table club, doesn’t mean that it was Wenger being a genius.
The board choosing an average manager, followed by a complete novice, is the reason we’ve been dragged down so far.
If they had chosen a top manager to replace him we would be challenging for the title rather than drifting around in mid table.
Wait if Wenger left a terrible squad, we wouldn’t be challenging for the title. You can’t have it both ways. Wenger finished in 6th with that squad and it’s had much investment since. Graham left a team that had finished both 10th and 12th
The truth is the damage was done over many years through the policy of being financially independent while paying off a huge stadium debt. It meant we had to become a selling club and didn’t invest. When Fabregas and Nasri left the damage was immense. When RVP left it was worsened. Arsene had to bring in ready made replacements who were cheap. So we got older players and players from ligue 1. The problem with this is when the old players are past their best you can’t sell them. So you have to rely on your new transfers being successes or you suddenly have a very big decline. This is what happened when we lost Kosceilny and Mertesacker and replaced them with Mustafi and co. It’s what happened when we lost Santi, Ozil, Alexis and replaced them with Xhaka and co. The last 3 seasons did the damage, but we should never have been in a situation where Xhaka and Mustafi being flops ruined our squad. It was the years of papering over the cracks that eventually came home to haunt us.
Compare to Liverpool who constantly looked to spend and invest in the transfer market. We laughed at them for years because they kept cocking it up with the likes of Andy Carroll and them probably getting better value by buying Southampton out right. But it saw them bring in Suarez, Countino, Salah, Mane and VVD. So eventually it all came together for them but it took about 2 decades of investment to get there.
Arteta is an inadequate manager and we should be higher than we are but the squad situation has been long in the making.
The squad Wenger left wasn’t challenging for the title we were challenging for the fourth place trophy.
But it wasn’t just the lack of quality it was the almost total lack of defensive organisation and a culture of complacency that was dragging is down.
It’s true that Graham had finished mid table in his last two seasons but he also won the FA Cup, the League Cup and won the European Cup Winners Cup final as well as getting to a final.
This is often used as an excuse but spurs have just paid twice what we paid for our stadium and they don’t seem to be using that as an excuse.
Wenger was always going on about “not being afraid to spend” and “we can compete with the biggest clubs in Europe” so he is either a liar or he didn’t want to spend.
I agree, Liverpool have proved that with urgency, ambition and acting decisively, any decent club can get success but we don’t have a board who possess any of those attributes.
I agree with this as well.
Choosing Arteta over all the top European managers we could have had, because he was cheap, has proved our board lack any ambition, other than to make money,
But Wenger left a team that played great attacking football, matching our invinsible home record. Where as Graham’s team was bereft of attacking quality. So it’s swings and roundabouts.
Spurs haven’t just paid for their stadium. They won’t pay any capital payments for about 20-30 years. Even still their ability to spend on players has been hampered and they’re reliant on a great youth generation, somewhat like our youth project. When Kane and Son drop off they will seriously struggle
Agreed, the structure and the board are a mess and whether they have the ability to recuit the right people from here on in is a real question mark.
Yeah thats cool then we coulda started our march down the table much sooner than we did. This club is a fucking clown show homeboy, Arsene did all he could to keep it relevant nobody knows what they are doing and every day that goes by shows that Arsene was a fucking prince for trying to keep the club relevant. You should really show more appreciation
But for Wenger it wasn’t about that, the man is Arsenal through and through and a much greater lover of this club than anyone around. His duty was to see Arsenal through a time where we needed him the most. Make no mistake if we did fire Arsene around the time you wanted to, we’d have been in deep shit. No money to spend, rudderless at the top, and most likely we’d have been relegated with serious stadium debt on our hands.
Anyone who says he damaged his reputation can’t see the forest through the trees. The man saved this clubs ass, and it probably only exists now because of Arsene Wenger.
U don’t have a 50m Partey walking through the door in 2010 homie, ur getting a free Chamakh, good luck without Wenger on that one lmaoooooooo I’m sure we’d have been fine tho lelelel
Wenger left behind a decent team with the future golden boot winner in Auba who has just arrived. He also left the club in a fantastic financial state, which allowed us to splash a looot of cash which Emery and now Arteta are wasting away.
He was asked these sorts of questions on Bein sport today, saying he would go into each season knowing he hasn’t got much to spend he needs top 4 and he will have to sell his players.
Interesting view. You mention Auba who was definitely a good player although the team needs 11 players on the pitch. Who else did you think was really good from the team he left behind?
