bbc.comPosted Mar 26, 2021, 12:56 PM UTC
In hindsight, it’s as much a dig at Gazidis and the board as it is a reflection on Wenger himself.
The power struggle between Gazidis and Wenger is the main reason we are where we are at this point in time. Gazidis won the battle but then fucked off, the trouble he has brought to our door should never be forgotten.
"I've won the power battle... Now what? Screw it I'm outta here"
As much as Gazidis was an incompetent and a fool, Wenger also refused to make the required changes at the club. When you look at how much control Wenger had in the technical side of the club, he called pretty much all the shots - though Gazidis didn't support him enough.
Oh yeah, not saying Wenger is innocent but we aren’t acute to the internal rumblings that took place over the years. All the while though the non football side of Arsenal was slipping further behind our rivals. Then you read things like player x, y and z were signed and Wenger didn’t want them, etc.
Except Gazidis has gone on to do very well at Milan. So the question is what exactly is it about this club that makes management as well as players underperform? Is it this culture of comfort? This misplaced sense of superiority that "We're Arsenal and we deserve it"? Is it a lack of ambition?
How many league titles has Gazidis won at Milan? How many times has he qualified for the champions league? Gazidis hasn't done shit at Milan yet.
I would argue Wenger was at least in part responsible for the culture of comfort. The way he seemed to give preferential treatment to players like Özil has a bigger impact on a club than people think.
The way he seemed to give preferential treatment to players like Özil has a bigger impact on a club than people think
Not unlike this current manager does with his favorites? Say what you will about pre renewal Ozil, he atleast delivered the goods on the pitch regularly. Here we had Willian and Xhaka start game after game despite underperforming and costing the team points. And now we have Aubameyang whose onfield attitude is that of a player who got his last big contract and has checked out. So where is this supposed culture change? We still have players getting preferential treatment at the expense of others. We still have management making boneheaded decisions.
Didn't the manager drop the captain last week for being late?
xhaka is playing because he doesn't have any competition. Now you might say ceballos. But he has also been costing us with his mistakes. And willian really hasn't been playing all that often since christmas.
Ozil delivered the goods on the pitch for like 1 season, beyond that he has been a mixed bag and delivered no more regularly than the likes of Walcott or Giroud.
Very well is a bit flattering. They continued to be Europa League quality his first two seasons, and are now taking advantage of Juve’s over-spending catching up with them due to covid.
Also they have the 5th best goal difference and are somehow 2nd in points.
Very well is a bit flattering
Compared to how hard he sucked ass here is what I meant.
A huge (citation needed) on that first sentence lol. You're not going to see the effects of Gazidis before a couple more years. Current "success" has nothing to do with him.
gazadis isn’t involved in the footballing side of things anymore in milan
He wasn't wrong, things just didn't go as well as they could have. Plenty of reasons why, some in Wenger's control some outside of his control.
Plus, we did go on to win 3 of the next 4 FA Cups after he made this statement. Arsenal from the 2013/14 season to the end of the 2016/17 season, all in all was a good stretch for the club in terms of results, with the massive missed opportunity to win the league.
In the end we seemed consistently 1 or 2 pieces away from being able to challenge for the league, mainly due to a lack of quality depth as we would go on very hot and cold streaks throughout the seasons. It just always seemed like, regardless of the business we did, we ended up needing just one more piece. So very frustrating.
Two missed opportunities to win the league. We should have won the league in 13/14 as well.
That is also true.
I know there was at least a couple years where we would have been calendar year champions. Either have a great first half of the season or second half. And then get brutalized by bayern in the champions league regardless.
Wenger shares half the blame, IMO
I’ll give a quarter of it.
For the club sacking and failing to replace him?
He definitely shares blame in squad planning. He had money in 15/16 and spent nothing, and if he didn't want Perez or mustafi he should have identified at least one player who could fill a spot for their combined fee(almost 50 mill)
We don't know what was going on with transfers those last couple of years. The whole statDNA debacle.
Wenger bought into StatDNA. Nobody forced that on him.
Even the board said publicly we had money to spend in 2015, and he didn't do it.
Wenger always had the backing. Gazidis signed players Wenger didn't want, sure, but Wenger didn't have any achievable target, that's why those players were signed.
Downside of not wanting a dof is that the blame for this falls on Arsene
Summer 2015, never forget
Give it a rest superwenger.
Wenger sugarcoating it again
hleb legend
if only Cesc had stayed.
And you failed
Spoiler: it was mismanaged badly
[deleted]
Wenger with Pepe would be so fun to watch plus the rest of the youngsters. If we had to have a manager for a season with no extension it’d be Wenger no doubt.
We saw Wenger with Pepe. It was Wenger with Gervinho.
I don't think Wenger ever really liked Lacazette in the end. I would have liked to have seen him have more time with Aubamayang though.
Laca never really became the striker he was made out to be. Like he’s been fine and great in certain periods but he was the striker to bag 15-20 per season but has never got more than 14
We'd still have gotten nowhere. Complacency and weak mentality was what defined arsenal throughout the later 2000s and it still hasn't been erased till today. Our record against the top teams show that. Maybe we'd get top 4 but it wouldn't matter because we'd just get humiliated in the round of 16 each year. We're not in the top 4 now and we're in 10th but at least I still feel like there's a chance of something better. I still have hope that we can develop into a competitive team. We can at least hold our own against good sides. We're worse off now in terms of league position and stature but I still have hope that things will get better. That wasn't the case for me in Wenger's final few years. Emery last season made me feel like shit , our earlier season form did too but and this maybe just me but the last two years of his reign is probably the worst I've felt as an arsenal fan.
We’d never have the squad we have with Wenger. We’d still have Iwobi playing on the wing
And we'd be doing better.
Nah.
It was just a hypothetical. Of course he’d never sanction 72m on Pepe. But I have no doubts Wenger would accept 30m+ for a player like iwobi, mans trusted youth but be serious
Wenger biggest fraud
The Gang Doesn't Manage It Well
Raul Sanehi coming in and spending close to £100 million on Saliba and Pepe given our squads needs at the time was criminal. Wenger made mistakes but his hard work was also flushed down the toilet by a Barca reject in about 12 months.
70m on Xhaka and Mustafi was much much worse. We get those two signings right and a lot of things are different right now IMO.
In fairness on Saliba had Corona not happened and Saliba got a full season at Saint Ettiene then had a full preseason with Arteta then things might have gone differently.
Frank Reynolds for Manager!