Arsène Wenger

im not sure its fair to say hes run out of ideas at all.

I’ve watched the video just there and Wenger’s analogy of standing out in a road and directing traffic is very facile indeed, this is a guy who rarely loses his cool but you can see he’s just bristling on the inside about being challenged in any way.

If he had some common sense he’d either be a lot more accepting to the club management structure evolving, or just walk away and find a new job if he can’t handle that. The fact he seems unwilling to do either - coupled with this absurd cat and mouse game - suggests an ego out of control. I can’t wait to see the back of him.

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I think its completely fair for Wenger to want to run things as he describes but if the club has decided that a dof is the way forward then the solution is quite clear. Like any job offer there will be terms and conditions, if he doesn’t like them then he shouldn’t sign. Good luck to him finding any other job in a top European league where he won’t find the same set up though.

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I do think that if you have one ineffective person in charge, you don’t solve it by adding another person “in charge,” who effectively isn’t going to have any power with AW around anyway… but AW’s characterization of it is pretty funny and cringeworthy.

Yeah but the Board’s solution is a cop out that none of us believes will a) Solve the real problem OR b) change anything b/c as long as AW has ultimate decision-making authority, wtf is the point?

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/861925192158912512/pu/vid/1280x720/XHqRPlolOveGQxtu.mp4

:joy::joy::joy:

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Or you could hire a new manager and a new director of football who can work to improve the club on all levels. There is nothing stupid about moving in tune with modern football.

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I dont understand why you are taking issue with my really simple point. What is stupid is giving Wenger a contract and hiring a Director of football thinking that this is the solution to our problems. Which looks like the direction they are trying to go.

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The board, including Gazidis, can help the manager without sign a director of football. I don’t remember a direct of football when David Dein was in charge, because DD was intelligent and smart to be behind the manager without influence the technical decision because the lack of competence (and David Dein has an incredible football competence if we compare him with Gazidis).

Dein never scouted a player, but convinced players to join us or convinced AW to spend much more to sign someone. This is what we need.

Quite simple then isnt it then for the board (absolute fucking donkeys) if he is acting like this wont mend his ways and you dont like it…DONT GIVE HIM ANOTHER CONTRACT! What sorta fucked up monkey business is this, are they scared of him or something, who are the real owners and head of this club because i am sure it aint meant to be the manager!

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Maybe Wenger has more legal and contractual power at the club than we know about.

There’s a lot of stuff we don’t know anything about.

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I think it unlikely that we’d fall further than 6th place if Wenger stayed. Despite our flaws I just don’t see enough quality or financial power in the remaining fourteen teams for any of them to overtake us.

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with his quote of “As long as i am manager i decide what happens” no one can any longer question the board or Arsenal in general we are in this state because if a power hungry dithering old man!

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Everton look good for the future, tbh. We run the risk of becoming a team permanently fighting for the Europa League :facepalm:

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It’s true that it’s unlikely we’ll fall further than sixth, but I also remember last season being told that we would never finish outside the top four and spurs wouldn’t finish above us, after I had suggested this could happen.

The problem isn’t so much the league position but the fact we could see the clubs above us strengthen, which we rarely do, and then pull away from us.

Make no mistake, after the next transfer window I fully expect us to be the losers.
Man City, Man U and Chelsea are going to outspend us by some margin.
Liverpool and spurs will strengthen the positions that need strengthening, and we will still be waiting for a world class striker and winger, after losing at least one of our best players.

I’ve seen it before.
Wenger is not going to all of a sudden turn round and say, “I was wrong” and then go on and spend 200m on three world class players, he will do what he always does, which is the bare minimum.

Disagree.

We need a new manager most of all but, barring that and assuming Wenger stays, then a Director of Football would be a clear improvement over the one man dictatorship.

We need a DoF for three simple reasons. First, Wenger and his team of scouts has shown little ability in recent years to successfully scout senior level players. Convincing players to join us or convincing Wenger to spend more money doesn’t go far enough if Wenger has lost his touch in player selection. Second, Wenger will leave eventually and putting in a Director of Football beforehand will ease that transition as there will be some kind of footballing vision within the club. Third, the youth system at Arsenal has been a mess for a while now and part of the reason seems to be the lack of somebody whose job is to see how all the footballing operations of the club are supposed to fit together and support each other.

The one man dictatorship is a thing of the past, but lives on at Arsenal. Every big club in the world has a Director of Football (or some similar person(s) who is not the manager but has great responsibility for footballing decisions and operations) except us and Manchester United, who have been totally dysfunctional post-Ferguson in substantial part because of this very issue. That should tell us something.

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with Klopp, Mourinho, Pep and Conte being in the league, as well as Poch’s rise to prominence; falling out of the top 4 was always a possibility.

It’s the nature of the league we operate in and i welcome the wake up call, regardless of its ramifications.

It’s far from ideal but not a catastrophy.

Tottenham don’t have a director of football do they? Nor Manchester United.

Telegraph states about half the clubs in the division have someone appointed as ‘director of football’ or words to that effect

The club which have a DOF haven’t a manager on the bench, but only a trainer not interested about the wages, not interested about the youth prospects, not interested about the scouting, incoming players and the players which want to leave.

Allegri isn’t interested about the transfer window. He asks role and a strategy, but are Marotta and Paratici the people with the role to scout, open a talk with agent and rival team, to sign the players which play into the role requested by the trainer.

We don’t need a direct or football (never had in Arsenal history), but a strong people into the board. When Wenger will leave, Arsenal will need of the presence of a director of football if the next manager will not be a manager.

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This is precisely the problem. In the contemporary game, it has become too much for one individual to handle all this in general and, in our specific case, there is a growing mountain of evidence that the individual in question is simply incapable of competently handling these responsibilities. To take each of the areas you mention in turn, Wenger has an anachronistic wage policy, our youth system is falling behind that of our competitors the scouting has been mediocre, too many of the incoming players have been flops, and we have had a terrible track record of moving on players who should probably leave the club. What more evidence do you want? Wenger-as-dictator is literally failing on every single count.

The status quo is suicide. The evidence is overwhelming that this is a terrible, terrible way to run the club. We are the last of the dinosaurs (along with United, as mentioned) and, predictably, we’re dying while other clubs are thriving.

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