Everything is hindsight on September 1st (or Septembers 2nd midnight).
I can’t judge a student to make a late effort to study in the last few days before the exam. Most likely he will fail but there is still a chance he may pass it.
My question is, why didn’t he start studying earlier? It won’t guarantee you success, guarantee you make a good grade, but it gives you a better chance to make it.
To prepare the team earlier and better, to put yourself in a better chance to win the season opener, and to start the season good is not as important as saving a million or two??
When the season is getting to the end, and we are a few points off, a few millions can’t get back the points that you have lost/dropped because you did not have good preparation and do the business late.
It’s painful enough at the moment without you lot deciding to discuss the biggest cunting disappointment in a generation of supporting Arsenal…what is Barca 06 doing in here? Jesus fucking Christ.
Fucks sake I feel like sticking a fork in a plug socket.
Obviously you cant always get the players you want pre season.
To pursue this tactic that has not lead to any major league or european success seems a bit of a nonsense though.
It just looks more and more of a manager totally uncomfortable with a huge part of the modern day game.
I often wonder that is there anyone at the club, who would dare say to Wenger, sometimes you say things that infuriate the supporters.
More frequently he is coming out with statements that are insulting to our intelligence, as well as being arrogant and often making no sense.
It’s as if he thinks that because he has said it, then the supporters must believe it.
For instance the line about having to pay for 600 staff at the club.
The fact we have so many staff would indicate we are a massive club and that most of those staff are actually making the club a massive profit.
I would be more worried if we only had a few staff, because that would mean we aren’t selling much stuff.
He also seems to forget that all big clubs have a lot of people working for them, and that we are somehow unique, when obviously we aren’t.
Also his examples of using certain players to prove we don’t have to spend big to get the quality we need.
He used Holding to illustrate this, just because he had a decent game against Leicester, conveniently forgetting the game against Liverpool.
He also forgets the amount of cheap players he has bought that have been useless.
When he has bought world class talent like Ozil, Sanchez and Cech, they have all proved they are quality, so why not buy more proven talent, even if i does cost more?
The fact he has almost unquestioned control over all aspects of the club, has turned him into a megalomaniac, and an unwavering belief that he is never wrong.
Question on that, and this may be a big big stretch here. But do you think Arsene is a bit worried that if he did sign that top class striker and top class defender and still ended up finishing 3rd or 4th what would it say about him?
Supporters are already at wits end with his game management, tactics, substitutions, transfer policy, and some are well past the fact that he has taken Arsenal as far as he can.
The finger is already pointed at him, the blame mostly on him, so if he couldn’t deliver with a better squad, what’s left?
I think you’re probably right.
He knows that if he does spend big it will make him look as if he has bowed to pressure from the supporters and the media.
Ironically if he does buy and we still get third or fourth, it will actually make him look as if he was right.
But if we do happen to do a lot better, then he will be made to look as if not buying for all those seasons was wrong.
Also, if we don’t do that well this season, and he doesn’t buy any players, he has got a ready made excuse when the inevitable injuries start happening.[quote=“LoTheGooner, post:995, topic:125”]
Supporters are already at wits end with his game management, tactics, substitutions, transfer policy, and some are well past the fact that he has taken Arsenal as far as he can.
The finger is already pointed at him, the blame mostly on him, so if he couldn’t deliver with a better squad, what’s left?
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This is what he might be worried about, although, as I said, if he does buy, and we are no higher in the league or don’t go further in the CL, then he will look at that and say he was right not to buy…
He is in a difficult situation, which was avoidable, but his stubbornness and arrogance have turned a lot of people against him.
I think he may be too scared to make the wrong signing, if his recent statements are anything to go by. He has somehow convinced himself that gambles are a bad thing to do and going by our recent history of moving on players he probably feels more than ever that it does have to be the right player.
The thing is, Vieira is just the latest in a long line of ex players to say what we have been saying for ages.
The media say it, football pundits say it, football experts say it and even supporters of other clubs say it.
We all know we lack quality in depth, we need a few more world class players, and we lack true leaders, but Wenger won’t listen.
It’s as if the more people say it, the more he will dig his heels in and keep repeating the same mistakes.
In a sense but the “right player” to him is always going to be a midfielder. We didn’t really need Ozil, he bought him because that is who he could get to placate the fans. We didn’t really need Alexis, but he bought him because it was a no fuss, the player wants to come here situation because the other option is Liverpool. Now we have Xhaka in after just buying what appears to be the same player in Elneny because again, it was easy, Xhaka wanted Arsenal and only Arsenal.
Honestly I’d probably trade all of them for Suarez.
Why? The two biggest transfers in the history of the club have both been absolute hits with Ozil and Alexis. He’s had plenty of misses that has been well documented in all areas as well.
But EVERYONE would give him the benefit of the doubt on a high priced signing, do we think Lacazette is worth 50million pounds? Probably not. But we can’t even say if the player is right for the squad or not since he won’t pull the trigger.
A lot of truth in this I reckon, John Cross seemingly knows the in and outs of what goes on in Arsenal more than some people, all are saying the like Wenger etc but it is him and not the board that is causing the problem it is him that dithers even when the find a target that he is too indecisive and because of this people don’t really want to deal with us in the Transfer market because he makes things so unnecessarily difficult for negotiations
I don’t really agree with all of this. We needed the players he bought as you always need upgrades on what you got if you want to improve as a football club. Our left wing option was Podolski with a little bit of Gervinho over the years and the right side was a mixture of a lot of injuries. It’s hard to argue that we didn’t need them at the time they were bought.
What I mean is the right player in terms of quality, which both Alexis and Özil were. They’re worth their wages and they don’t need to be moved on.
Yeah, both were hits, but that’s because they have the quality to be successful. If he’s now going to spend 50-60-70m on a striker this summer he’ll be looking to spend it on similar quality to Alexis and Özil and not on a gamble that may or may not work.
Yeah, us as fans would, but I’d imagine that it’s more a case of taking a high priced gamble and not getting enough in return if it doesn’t work. Wenger’s simply too deep into the finances of the club to take such a gamble and he’ll probably think that if it doesn’t work he won’t have a second or third chance to make up for it. There’s just been too much talk about money and wages in the last 1-2 weeks for this not at least being part of the reason why he’s so reluctant to do business.
tbf the board doesn’t care that much. Making money hand over fist and what board doesn’t like a management philosphy of not spending any money? I’d say Wenger is the real problem, but the board is complicit and accepting.
HOWEVER, I feel like a new manager could awaken the sleeping giant and get the board excited to become a football club again if they put out a nice plan in front of them and show that this isn’t American sport and spending money truly does mean making money in football.
I see where your going and maybe your on to something. However what if he did buy say 3 WC players, and they didn’t perform? Either he could lighten the weight on his own shoulders, knowing he has done all possible but the players haven’t performed. And I sincerely believe that the fans would see this too. I think it comes mainly down to his stubbornness, he has his ways and he does not fear upsetting anyone in what he believes in.
Yes it is true, John Cross also said this…he said that the board should be standing over him and telling him you MUST get this done but they allow him to control too much and allow him to swap and change his mind and wait for him to sort his mind out without forcing his hand. But i think once he is gone they will NEVER allow a manager to fuck around like this (unless they are really stupid) when does a manager get to dictate to a club how much they should pay etc for a player, he has too much power and surely people must be sick and tired of him medalling in their jobs. Imagine being a negotiator and trying to get a deal done then Wenger comes in and tells you I don’t want you to pay much more than XYZ for a player…or hold on squash that deal I have someone else in mind or you start going for a player and then he starts wavering on them being like uuummmi am not sure let me sleep on it.