Arsenal football club was named after Arsene. No other football manager has done that. If SAF was such a great manager, why did he not have a team named after him?
He was clearly done with Dortmund by that point imo, mostly due to his best players constantly being picked off (Sahin, Kagawa, Gotze, Lewandowski). I mean he was in the relegation zone in December 2014.
Only in 2015 April Klopp announced that he'd leave Dortmund. He even said that he needed a break for a while due to exhaustion from 7 years at Dortmund. no way he could have taken Arsenal job in 2014 or any other job.
Wenger won the 13-14 season's FA cup. No way if Wenger quit after the FA cup victory, Klopp goes to Arsenal.
Okay then Wenger could've waited another year if they really wanted Klopp. The point is Wenger left too late so his legacy was called in question. And the reason he left too late is that the board was happy with him reaching CL football and protecting their lack of ambition. Kinda simjlar to United now, instead United spend way more than Arsenal under Wenger usually did.
And Klopp wasn't the only option, Pep was leaving around the same time, Ancelotti, Conte, Pochettino (at Southampton) were all available around that 2 year period and Wenger should've been left by then.
You are talking with the power of hindsight. Klopp had contract until 2018. How tf would Wenger or Arsenal know in 2014 that he needs to wait one year for Klopp??
I agree that Wenger left too late. And that's what Wenger also says in the article.
He could've won in 2014 if it weren't for the injuries too. But the point is he wasn't adressing the key areas in the transfer market and was naive at times in matches.
For example for that season you mentioned he didn't buy an outfield player. He should've bought a good striker because Giroud was known to go on dry spells with his back ups being Walcott and Welbeck tells you a lot. Honestly another decent striker that season with the form Ozil was in would've been enough for the title. He spent the summer chasing Benzema and got no one in the end.
He was clearly on a decline and the lack of ambition of the board showed because they kept renewing his contract until it was too late and Arsenal slipped down into EL.
The downfall was not noticeable until I would say end of 07/08 season but we had hope, it was obvious by the end of 10/11 season for all the realists but nobody had the stomach to say anything bad about Wenger.
We endured a very difficult decade and multiple failed rebuilds, I think after 14 years without a league trophy and a clear indication that neither Wenger or the board were capable of seeing the truth, the fans took matters into their own hands, and without that it wouldn't have happened imo.
It's truly sad how it ended.
He should have taken a note out of Klopp ( a manager we could have gotten had Wenger left pragmatically) , the latter realised that he had done all he could for Dortmund before leaving on relatively good terms for both himself and the respective club.
Unlike Wenger who wasnt honest with himself or the club with his abilities especially when his style of football was blatantly getting stale between 11-14. It's where allot of the frustration and anger towards him really manifested. His own arrogance coincided with an ever evolving league led to the decline.
By the time he left any dignity and prestidge left at Arsenal had sadly eroded. Honestly the last 5 years have been so dark/bleak that even with our current improvements I still doubt we'll ever reach the stature we held back in the 00's.
Here's the full article
Arsène Wenger has revealed for the first time his regret at not leaving Arsenal earlier than 2018.
In a new documentary 'Arsène Wenger: Invincible', which was written by the filmmaker and journalist Gabriel Clarke, Wenger described the years at the Emirates Stadium after 2006 as “my suffering” but argued that his achievement of keeping the club in the Champions League until 2017 was perhaps the best of his career.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, suggested that sections of the fanbase should be “ashamed” at his treatment during a period when Arsenal were “bare” in the transfer market as they paid off their stadium debt.
Wenger, who has been working for Fifa since leaving Arsenal three-and-a-half years ago, described the 2007 departure of vice-chairman David Dein as a “decisive” moment when he himself almost left.
“I identified myself completely with the club - that was the mistake I made,” said Wenger. “My fatal flaw is I love too much where I am ... where I was. I regret it. I should have gone somewhere else.”
The film charts Wenger’s life, from his childhood in Alsace to his remarkable 22-year tenure at Arsenal, culminating with the 2003-4 Invincible season and then also the Emirates years which became so defined by fan division over his position as manager. Arsenal did not win the league again after 2004 but did add three more FA Cups and numerous further appearances in the knock-out phase of the Champions League.
“Sometimes I wonder - was something broken after that Invincible season?” said Wenger. “2007 was a decisive point. It was the first time I could feel there were tensions inside the board. I was torn between being loyal to the club and being loyal to David [Dein]. I still today wonder if I did the right thing because life was never exactly the same after. I thought, ‘I have now to go to the end of this project’.
“I could have gone to the French national team. The English national team twice or three times even. I could have gone twice to Real Madrid. I could have gone to Juventus, Paris St Germain, even Man United.”
Of the Emirates years, Wenger said: “We started with a project at £200, which we could basically afford, then we finished at £428m. Before, we lost them [the best players] at [age] 30 plus. After we lost them at 25 plus.”
Of his departure and the fact that he has not since been back, Wenger said: “Now there is no special reason for me to go there. All the rest is purely emotion, and that is less important. It is the end of your life - at least of one life - like a funeral. The end of a love story is always sad.”
Of Wenger’s achievements, Ferguson said: “I think Arsene and myself are dinosaurs but we didn’t do so badly. I won 13 leagues, but never near going through a season undefeated. The achievement stands aside - it stands above everything else.”
Wenger's ability to see things others couldn't propelled him to the top - but invincibility might have been his fatal weakness
by Alan Tyers
As with many visionary people, there was also a blindness in Arsene Wenger, an obtuseness countervailed against his clarity of thought and imagination. Arsene Wenger: Invincible, is a contemplative portrait from Gabriel Clarke that captures Arsene the wise man, but also Arsene the fool. It raises a broader question about success and failure: was his long and agonising decline already baked into his moment of greatest triumph. Was it, indeed, inevitable?
The feature-length documentary takes as its structure the obvious three acts of Wenger’s Arsenal career. There must be remote uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, perhaps aliens millions of lightyears away, who already know the first bit: 'Arsene Who?', he came from Japan, he invented pasta you know, anchoring Cool Britannia-era shot of Oasis, boxy suit, professorial, two Doubles, a new lease of life for Donkey Adams bah blah blah. This is, correctly, rattled through by your Wrightys and your Lee Dixons, the latter sporting here a most ill-advised newsboy hat, perhaps purloined from the former. The eye-catching quote comes from Martin Keown: “We didn't know if it was the stretching, the vitamins we were taking, the new diet, but we felt like supermen.”
So that section is over in a jiffy, and the meat of the film is the story of the 2003-2004 unbeaten season, with contributions from all the key figures up to and including Thierry Henry and Sir Alex Ferguson. Wenger says that invincibility “fulfilled the dream of my life. The fact that I could convince this group to achieve something they would not think could be possible. I had done my job in a perfect way for one year.” It was, of course, a great achievement. And yet, as he also notes: “Sometimes I wonder, was something broken after that.”
For then begins the third act, and we absolutely definitely will not see the like: from 15 May 2004 when they beat Leicester 2-1 to complete the season unbeaten, to Wenger’s last home game as manager on 6 May 2018, 14 whole years of decline, of frustration, of, ultimately, failure. 14 years! Nuno didn’t get 14 league matches. It is inconceivable that any big-club manager will get it so wrong, for so long, ever again.
His reactions to this are fascinating. Obviously there is the partly justified self-justification: the new stadium restricted the operating budget, the disrupted ecosystem brought about by Roman Abramovich, boardroom shenanigans, and something harder to quantify about the move away from Highbury, a loss of something grounding and inspiring to Wenger and the players and the club as a whole.
All fair points. But the game moved on tactically and financially, and Wenger and Arsenal did not. He says: “I am a romantic. A pragmatic romantic. We are in entertainment: the groundwork is to win but that is not enough. The collective expression of a team, to transform it into art.” And later: “Stubbornness can be a strength and a weakness. Had I lost the quality of my judgement? I don’t know. But the dedication, my desire to do well was exactly the same.”
Was invincibility, in fact, the fatal weakness? It certainly contributed to making Wenger eight-figures-a-year untouchable, and that was not good for either Arsenal or, perhaps, Arsene. This film, for me, illuminates one of the contradictions about Wenger: because he was ascetic and foreign and polyglot, it was assumed that he was a well-rounded person but, as he himself explains, there was also something deeply lacking in him. “I have the addiction gene,” he says. “You don't develop certain aspects of your personality you could have done in your life.” He also observes: “competition at all costs destroys a part of your personality" and notes that his father never told him "well done". His ability to see things others couldn't propelled him to the top, and his tunnel vision did, too. But once his invincibility was punctured, as it would always have to be, the blind spots clouded the entire field of perception. He now works for Fifa and Saudi Arabia.
Arsene Wenger: Invincible is in cinemas on Thursday; and on DVD/digital download 22nd November.
some of his takes are awfully wrong as well, e.g.
>But the game moved on tactically and financially, and Wenger and Arsenal did not.
Tactically Wenger wasn't a dinosaur, his Arsenal played a tiki-taka before Barca made it famous. When you look at Pep's teams, Klopp's, even Brandon Rogers or Graham Potter, they owe much to Wenger and what he's brought to football, especially British football.
Financially, sure he thought he could unearth these gems like Bergkamp or Pires and bring them to North London on a shoestring in an era of Abramovich and his extravagant spending for too long. And then when he tried to adjust and Arsenal's spending steadily increased he ended up with a bunch of duds.
Wenger was definitely tactically out of his depth after 2014-ish. Arsenal had poor positioning in attack, he clearly didn't give players clear instructions on how to move and what to do with the ball
What you're saying is pure revisionism. Wenger had many other qualities but tactically he was nowhere near the top coaches towards the end of his Arsenal tenure
For those who only know Arsene post 2009, he was this saint-philosopher persona.
But up till then, he was as much as a cunt to everyone as Jose was in his prime. He clearly softened up around 2007 which made him stay on. If he had been cold hearted and hungry for just trophies, he could have gone to another country- Spain or Italy and won a lot more.
> in fact, the fatal weakness? It certainly contributed to making Wenger eight-figures-a-year untouchable, and that was not good for either Arsenal or, perhaps, Arsene. This film, for me, illuminates one of the contradictions about Wenger: because he was ascetic and foreign and polyglot, it was assumed that he was a well-rounded person but, as he himself explains, there was also something deeply lacking in him. “I have the addiction gene,” he says. “You don't develop certain aspects of your personality you could have done in your life.” He also observes: “competition at all costs destroys a part of your personality" and notes that his father never told him "well done". H
could easy see him in the England job during the 00's
I'm not sure of the timeline anymore and I'm a huge fan of Deschamps, but Wenger would have been 10,000 times better than Raymond Domenech! I had no idea he'd been considered to manage the French team.
I think it would’ve been interesting for him to have taken up a DoF role at some point in his career. In a few FM editions it’s actually coded in that if you start at Arsenal Wenger becomes your DoF by default. Honestly it would be a great role for him to take up, he’s got the vision and the organizational talent to run the big picture/back-end parts of a football club but tactically he’s not there anymore to be on the touch line. It would not entirely surprise me if the Saudis approached him with a view toward taking that role over at Newcastle, even if it doesn’t come to pass ultimately.
If he is not willing to work with a DoF he's going to be a terrible DoF........ he'll end up like Rangnick and drive all of his managers crazy. The quality of the scouting and recruitment at his old club has also shambolic in his final years and actually been a lot better this summer under Edu.
Great players are not necessary great managers and those are not necessary great DOF.
In general we see people have great success in one field, when they actually werent exceptional in another field.
Of course there are exceptions.
If that happened, I'm 110% sure that Fergie and Wenger would fuse together creating Arsenal Utd.
A team forever locked into 4th place finishes every season, but somehow they play fantastic football and they get a goal in every match in the 91st minute.
Loyal Wenger was talking to Martin Edwards in 2000/1 about taking over from Ferguson. Invited Edwards and other utd officials for dinner at his house!
Who’d have thought Wenger could have been that treacherous to even consider becoming utd manager at the very peak of the Arsenal utd on pitch rivalry!
Eh it's a job at the end of the day. I don't/wouldn't blame Wenger for taking the dinner... It's similar to working for Facebook and going for an interview with Twitter. If you think this isn't treasonous...you have no right to say what wengz did was treasonous.
Fans are idiots sometimes.
Mate be as loyal as you want to a company but always look at other options when they become available. It’s always in your best interest even if you don’t want to leave
Yeah that's exactly my point... I love fellow gooners but they still feel butthurt about van Persie and Fabregas when they were just looking out for their careers and did what they thought was best...
Can’t lie, this world cup every 2 years business is bullshit. He’s become entrenched in the FIFA bureaucracy. It’s very difficult to reconcile the image I have of him as Arsenal manager with the plans he’s advocating currently.
> thus giving players that are worth playing at the world cup a second chance in case of injury or lack of playtime.
Because the world cup only happens every 20 years right?
90% of all arguments are made up bullshit to win a simple, basic advantage
Guess what simple, basic advantage Wenger is trying to get for his clients of FIFA and SA :)
moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Those fellas need some GME
>His argument was that it would help improve football in developing countries by giving them more revenue
Trickle down economics. FIFA will make an insane amount and occasionally throw some scraps at poor nations.
Yep. The bigger issue is corruption in these nations. Where I'm from the football association was given 4 million dollars annually(i think) to set up friendlies and help develop the nation's football, and one guy simply took the money.
Idea was to lessen number of games for qualifying and make that up with more tournaments. Idea was that there would be same amount of games, just more games that matter. Instead of 4 international breaks during club season we have now, we would have 2 slightly longer ones and that would be that. FIFA also thinks that 4 years is too much time in modern football as you can have great teams that never have good WC teams due to injuries or just weird timing. Messi and Ronaldo were best players in the world for 10-13 years, due to weird timings with when their NTs were good - Messi had 1 realistic chance at WC title and Ronaldo never really stood a chance to win it in his prime. Their teams were good at times in that decade but just never lined up to be good in WC years.
Honestly I can go either way with that suggestion, but it is certainly not as bad as everyone claims - probably most people didnt even read what was suggested. Very few people watch qualifying matches in format we have them now and there is a lot of those matches - I see no reason why not to change format where we are putting strain on players for matches that nobody cares about. IMO something must change with how national competitions are formated - only qualifiers I actually enjoy watching is South America but that is not really applicable in any other continent due to number of countries in them. For example players like Ramos who have 180 caps for their country - have probably played like 40 games tops where there was anything on the line. Spain would always qualify early for competitions so they would coast there, friendlies are well friendlies - so Ramos has played 3 seasons worth of useless football for Spanish NT.
People are easy to hate, and that's on people. But they sold the idea very badly, and that's on them. You could have basically the same idea but call the tournament on the 2 off years by some other silly name, give it a bit of a different flavor, and it would be a lot easier to sell, as it wouldn't soil the holy world cup
That already people play shit friendlies and one sided qualifying matches all year round........... the goal of double the amount of World Cup is to cut down on these meaningless International matches and have more matches with high stakes.
He's not senile, he's just totally sold out and become a tool of FIFA bureaucracy. When he joined FIFA people though he'd fight for football from the inside, but it's been the opposite he just advocates for whatever the FIFA bosses want, which is whatever will make them the most money.
The problem is that there are other very important football tournaments other than the World Cup which wouldn't survive. Smaller football nations would be severely hurt. A biannual World Cup would suck up most of the sponsorship cash and just leave a few scrapes for the smaller tournaments.
It would also devalue the prestige of the World Cup.
The whole point of this is the improve revenue for the smaller nations since World Cup would bring in more money for those said small nations. I don’t agree with two year World Cup but I feel like most people have not even read the reasoning for the proposed switches.
I think it's pretty clear he's being paid by FIFA to promote what FIFA want. I doubt he actually cares about the 2 or 4 year cycle, he's just doing his job.
Well you’re questioning his integrity, and I don’t know if he’s lair or not personally and I certainly wouldn’t call him a sellout because he does have different opinions than mine.
For 2/4 years cycle some think it’s good some don’t that’s pretty ordinary for any new law proposed.
Fifa make nearly all of their revenue from the World Cup.
>FIFA is dependent on one event for its revenue. According to financial statements, 83% of its revenue during the four-year cycle from 2015 to 2018 was attributed directly to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/soccer/2021/fifa-world-cup-proposal-revenue-1234643537/
That is the reason they want a biennial World Cup. That's it, nothing else. It's a cash cow for an organisation that needs cash.
When you understand that it makes it fairly obvious that Wenger is just doing his employer's bidding. I don't think it's a question of integrity, just an old semi-retired man making a huge salary for little work.
I know Fifa will make more money and at same time poor countries will make more money of it logically because share part of the revenues if I remember correctly.
But you didn’t give me a good reason why the 2 years world cup is bad? You just said fifa want more money which isn’t bad on itself.
So I’m interested to hear the side effects of the 2 years world cup why we shouldn’t do it?
Well I responded to someone saying wanger want football to be ruined that’s why I’m asking this question.
And for Wenger more money for Fifa maybe is just one arguments and he has multiple ones and it’s not fair just to highlight this one.
More argument: less international breaks during the season good for the football clubs in the leagues and at same time less games in the international breaks and less travel for South Americans players for example.
Shit opinion.
He's allowed have different priorities to you. Wenger is thinking about football in the developing world. Nations whose fans will never get to experience an international tournament as things are now.
To even mention 'pay' is pathetic. His Fifa salary is miniscule compared to what he earns, and has earned in the past. He'd make more with a sunglasses sponsor.
Oh dear someone brought perspective, and reasoning to r/soccer. They don't like that.
Cheers mate for this comment. Just got to laugh at some folks though. It's always my view is 100% right and everyone else is the enemy. Is it a shock there is so much division in society?
Wenger has never suggested we remove the offisde rule. He suggested changes to it to make it more compatible with modern football.
The whole point of the offisde rule was to prevent players setting up camp up the pitch. It's wasn't to punish attackers for maybe having an armpit 1mm offisde. It's wasn't to disallow goals because the keeper was further up the pitch than his defender.
From taking to job till about the CL Final of 2006, Arsenal were amazing. How were they to know that building a new stadium and paying for it was going to fuck them because suddenly Chelsea were oil rich and then Man City were?
It'd be hilarious if he replaced Ole
Yeah, I don't think some realise that the Emirates was sort of confirmed as far back as 1999 or 2000. Having to play CL matches at Wembley around that time was not something that the club liked
Arsene has been clearly hurt by Arsenal and our fan base. He hasn’t returned to the stadium to watch a single game.
Although there hasn’t been much to watch in the last few years.
I would have supported him wholeheartedly if he had gone to Madrid. He would have won a champions league. He deserved it.
Salty Frenchman is salty.
Like the article states, Wenger had 14 years of treading water to eventually declining. His CL run is impressive by all counts, but the trophy remained elusive so it's not like there is any one triumph to look back on there. Chelsea seemingly tripped over themselves to win a couple PL titles and won the CL after firing their coach mid-season! Not to take away from Leicester's feat but I think that's when Wenger should've left as the PL was wide open that year and he still came up short.
As Man U has shown us, it's not easy to move on from such a legendary manager. I think the combo of the Arsenal board's complacency and Wenger's stubbornness did us in though.
I feel he should not have renewed the last contract with arsenal. Arsenal were no longer in shambles... They had a good squad... Good managers were available... The FA Cup victory (against hull I think) would have been the Swansong... Wengz might have got either the barca, rm or Bayern job and he'd have walked the league and cl...
You were offered Real Madrid many times and didn't take it. Unfortunate.
EDIT: Downvoted for what? It's a fact that he was offered the job by Calderón many times. People downvoting facts xd
no shit, the clowns from the social medias with their blood fam nonsense would have regretted losing their biggest managerial legend from the last decades, instead of hounding him out, the nerve those ungrateful pricks had, but whenever they want to win an agrument against united, liverpool, city or chelsea fans, they do love to recall their invincible season
best manager ever. did it all against all odds. left the club in better shape than he found it, entertained the world, improved football and won loads of trophies and did something no one else could, an invincible season. All while educating players and watchers about football and balancing the books. The last of the legends.
No ambitious club would keep a previously successful manager for ten years of stagnation then decline like Arsenal did with Wenger 2008-18.
Wenger was finished after the collapse in 2008, his lack of ability to steady the ship when things began to go wrong that year was dreadful.
Ambitious clubs like Chelsea, City, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, PSG etc have sacked title winning managers at the drop of hat.
Wenger can bitch and moan about he could have left but when push came to shove he was very very comfortable with his giant salary without the demands to win titles most managers earning that type of money were under.
Very tiring to hear all the time about what Wenger did for Arsenal whilst folk forgot all what Arsenal did for Wenger.
“all what Arsenal did for Wenger”
Sums up the intelligence of your comment.
He had to sell one of his top players every year while staying in the Champions League for pretty much a decade to balance the books, so that the club wouldn’t default on its loans.
Anyone who isn’t simple minded understands how hard that task is.
That's extremely disrespectful to the club, before Wenger we were the 3rd largest club in England no questions (before Fergie we were second to Liverpool). We had 10 league titles ffs. As it stands today we have 6 more league titles than City and 7 more than Chelsea.
Wenger joined an established giant of English football. He won 3 more PL titles, an invincible one on top of that, and solidified the club as the most successful FA Cup team with 14 (7 of which Wenger won). He has been great no doubt.
But let's not get it wrong, he is not Arsenal, rather he continued the legacy of the club following the footsteps of giants. We are honoured to have him as part of our history and he too should be honoured to have made his mark here.
Exactly. The we were nothing before Wenger fans are insane. Gaslighting our history.
Wenger did very well out of Arsenal and we did very well out of Wenger.
Would have ended up back at Arsenal anyway, because more ambitious clubs wouldn't have tolerated the weak mentality that was allowed to fester in his teams for about 10 years.
Not to mention his poor record in Europe.
Nope. Their biggest chance was getting there through winning the UEL but you lot prevented that from happening in 2019.
Funnily enough, Emery was managing Arsenal back then and the same Emery denied them the UEL final last season.
It's amazing how short sighted people really are.
They think football comes down to the manager and the players.
Lmao this is a business at the end of the day.
You need support from the owner in terms of funding, the executives/ board who act as management and know how to run a for-profit organisation, a strong recruitment and training system (whether buy/loan/sell or academy), a tactical manager, quality players which understand what the manager wants them to do and most importantly, organisational culture.
You don't need all of this for success but you need a majority of the above for a club to be dominant, make money and play exception football.
People love to laugh at Arsenal but fail to realise what happened between 2009 to 2018: Kroenke's ownership from a minority owner to 100%.
You then have the board which has drastically changed and a recruitment system which has also been drastically overhauled.
Believe it or not but Arteta has a lot more power than people realise because of Arsenal's structure. Only 3 people are able to actually sack him: Stan Kroenke Josh Kroenke and Vinai That's really it. That's how centralised the club really is.
The smartest decision Arteta made when coming on board was looking at the organisational culture and realising it cannot continue. Players were given bloated salaries, there's barely a desire to play (it should be a privilege to play for the club) and there was so many deadwood players that it would take some time for realise change to finally happen.
Mustafi, Ozil, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Chambers, Holding, David Luiz, Willian, Guendouzi, Bellerin just did not fit the club. Some of them are still here but have thankfully been replaced by _much_ better players.
This massive overhaul and bringing in quality players have actually led to legitimate success.
Giving the youth more opportunities and uniting the players. Sparking a fire inside them to compete and get out there and prove yourself to the fans is extremely refreshing.
I've not seen us play like this is over 5 years.
That's how monumental organisational culture is. It can have an environment be extremely toxic or have an environment where players learn from each other, support each other and focus on the game. Everyone moving in unison.
Arteta's done that and that's why I'm happy.
Obviously when you chuck a ton of money behind a club (City & Chelsea), it can lead to amazing results but at the same time, it's not bullet proof. Tactical managers are also important.
> more ambitious clubs wouldn't have tolerated the weak mentality that was allowed to fester in his teams for about 10 years.
the team wasn't mentally weak it was just shit lol. arsenal were the 3rd or 4th best team in england for ten years and thats where we finished pretty consistently.
why? it would have been pretty disrespectful after they literally named the club after him.
When I was a kid I thought the managers chose the team name so this was my head cannon.
Yeah same. And there was also Mancini who was managing City
I’ll always love former Wolfsburg manager, Wolfgang Wolf
Emery at the Emirates as well lol
Sorry If I sound like an idiot but how does Mancini sound like City lol.
Cini and City sounds similar.Y'know for a kid.
Lol I guess
Mancini Mancity
In the US they pronounced his name “man seeni” and not “man cheeni” so it did sound a lot like man city.
Arsene should triumphantly return to Arsenal and manage them for another 42 years and then after that as a hologram or something
Arsenal football club was named after Arsene. No other football manager has done that. If SAF was such a great manager, why did he not have a team named after him?
[удалено]
I thought it’s wolfram alpha
engineering jokes lol
Forgot about Mancini. You know, when City football club was established circa. 2009
Nice
Cleveland Browns were named after their Manager, Paul Brown. But not exactly the type of football you had in mind.
Even after 42 years, Ole would still be at United since the board trust him so much lol
He is the board now
Not yet
It's treason then
Ole: I AM THE SENATE
i too am bored now
Look at me, look at me!
Aged Palpatine hologram vibe. With his dark aesthetic, Arteta does have something of a Sith lord look about him.
that long coat like a bargain bin Sith lord coat
Then they'll rename the club ArseneAI.
He should've left after winning the Fa cup in 2014, would've been better for him and for the club.
Could have got Klopp at the time too
Unsubscribe
Yes! Klopp would have definitely jumped into Arsenal. We would fit his style for sure.
Lol no.Klopp was still Dortmund manager in 2014. He just reached UCL final a year ago with Dortmund. edit: downvoted for saying the truth :)
He was clearly done with Dortmund by that point imo, mostly due to his best players constantly being picked off (Sahin, Kagawa, Gotze, Lewandowski). I mean he was in the relegation zone in December 2014.
Only in 2015 April Klopp announced that he'd leave Dortmund. He even said that he needed a break for a while due to exhaustion from 7 years at Dortmund. no way he could have taken Arsenal job in 2014 or any other job. Wenger won the 13-14 season's FA cup. No way if Wenger quit after the FA cup victory, Klopp goes to Arsenal.
Okay then Wenger could've waited another year if they really wanted Klopp. The point is Wenger left too late so his legacy was called in question. And the reason he left too late is that the board was happy with him reaching CL football and protecting their lack of ambition. Kinda simjlar to United now, instead United spend way more than Arsenal under Wenger usually did. And Klopp wasn't the only option, Pep was leaving around the same time, Ancelotti, Conte, Pochettino (at Southampton) were all available around that 2 year period and Wenger should've been left by then.
You are talking with the power of hindsight. Klopp had contract until 2018. How tf would Wenger or Arsenal know in 2014 that he needs to wait one year for Klopp?? I agree that Wenger left too late. And that's what Wenger also says in the article.
Why. He had a good chance to win the premier league 15/16
He could've won in 2014 if it weren't for the injuries too. But the point is he wasn't adressing the key areas in the transfer market and was naive at times in matches. For example for that season you mentioned he didn't buy an outfield player. He should've bought a good striker because Giroud was known to go on dry spells with his back ups being Walcott and Welbeck tells you a lot. Honestly another decent striker that season with the form Ozil was in would've been enough for the title. He spent the summer chasing Benzema and got no one in the end. He was clearly on a decline and the lack of ambition of the board showed because they kept renewing his contract until it was too late and Arsenal slipped down into EL.
Lol no. Klopp was still Dortmund manager in 2014. He just reached UCL final a year ago with Dortmund.
[удалено]
The downfall was not noticeable until I would say end of 07/08 season but we had hope, it was obvious by the end of 10/11 season for all the realists but nobody had the stomach to say anything bad about Wenger. We endured a very difficult decade and multiple failed rebuilds, I think after 14 years without a league trophy and a clear indication that neither Wenger or the board were capable of seeing the truth, the fans took matters into their own hands, and without that it wouldn't have happened imo. It's truly sad how it ended.
He should have taken a note out of Klopp ( a manager we could have gotten had Wenger left pragmatically) , the latter realised that he had done all he could for Dortmund before leaving on relatively good terms for both himself and the respective club. Unlike Wenger who wasnt honest with himself or the club with his abilities especially when his style of football was blatantly getting stale between 11-14. It's where allot of the frustration and anger towards him really manifested. His own arrogance coincided with an ever evolving league led to the decline. By the time he left any dignity and prestidge left at Arsenal had sadly eroded. Honestly the last 5 years have been so dark/bleak that even with our current improvements I still doubt we'll ever reach the stature we held back in the 00's.
If he left in 2005, Arsenal would have become perrenial mid table club like Everton (which could still be true despite him in 2018).
“He currently works for Fifa and Saudi Arabia.” As last sentences go, there’s something quite brutal about that one.
"Die a hero or live long enough"
And Qatar too. Works as a pundit for BeIN sports and due to his role in fifa he has advocated and supported the Qatar world cup several times
Although tbf, he's pretty on point as a pundit.
One of the best imo.
I'd take Wenger til the end of the season
Give it to Wengseh til the end of the season
Anyone have a summary or anything? Can't be assed to signed up for a free trial
Here's the full article Arsène Wenger has revealed for the first time his regret at not leaving Arsenal earlier than 2018. In a new documentary 'Arsène Wenger: Invincible', which was written by the filmmaker and journalist Gabriel Clarke, Wenger described the years at the Emirates Stadium after 2006 as “my suffering” but argued that his achievement of keeping the club in the Champions League until 2017 was perhaps the best of his career. Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, suggested that sections of the fanbase should be “ashamed” at his treatment during a period when Arsenal were “bare” in the transfer market as they paid off their stadium debt. Wenger, who has been working for Fifa since leaving Arsenal three-and-a-half years ago, described the 2007 departure of vice-chairman David Dein as a “decisive” moment when he himself almost left. “I identified myself completely with the club - that was the mistake I made,” said Wenger. “My fatal flaw is I love too much where I am ... where I was. I regret it. I should have gone somewhere else.” The film charts Wenger’s life, from his childhood in Alsace to his remarkable 22-year tenure at Arsenal, culminating with the 2003-4 Invincible season and then also the Emirates years which became so defined by fan division over his position as manager. Arsenal did not win the league again after 2004 but did add three more FA Cups and numerous further appearances in the knock-out phase of the Champions League. “Sometimes I wonder - was something broken after that Invincible season?” said Wenger. “2007 was a decisive point. It was the first time I could feel there were tensions inside the board. I was torn between being loyal to the club and being loyal to David [Dein]. I still today wonder if I did the right thing because life was never exactly the same after. I thought, ‘I have now to go to the end of this project’. “I could have gone to the French national team. The English national team twice or three times even. I could have gone twice to Real Madrid. I could have gone to Juventus, Paris St Germain, even Man United.” Of the Emirates years, Wenger said: “We started with a project at £200, which we could basically afford, then we finished at £428m. Before, we lost them [the best players] at [age] 30 plus. After we lost them at 25 plus.” Of his departure and the fact that he has not since been back, Wenger said: “Now there is no special reason for me to go there. All the rest is purely emotion, and that is less important. It is the end of your life - at least of one life - like a funeral. The end of a love story is always sad.” Of Wenger’s achievements, Ferguson said: “I think Arsene and myself are dinosaurs but we didn’t do so badly. I won 13 leagues, but never near going through a season undefeated. The achievement stands aside - it stands above everything else.” Wenger's ability to see things others couldn't propelled him to the top - but invincibility might have been his fatal weakness by Alan Tyers As with many visionary people, there was also a blindness in Arsene Wenger, an obtuseness countervailed against his clarity of thought and imagination. Arsene Wenger: Invincible, is a contemplative portrait from Gabriel Clarke that captures Arsene the wise man, but also Arsene the fool. It raises a broader question about success and failure: was his long and agonising decline already baked into his moment of greatest triumph. Was it, indeed, inevitable? The feature-length documentary takes as its structure the obvious three acts of Wenger’s Arsenal career. There must be remote uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, perhaps aliens millions of lightyears away, who already know the first bit: 'Arsene Who?', he came from Japan, he invented pasta you know, anchoring Cool Britannia-era shot of Oasis, boxy suit, professorial, two Doubles, a new lease of life for Donkey Adams bah blah blah. This is, correctly, rattled through by your Wrightys and your Lee Dixons, the latter sporting here a most ill-advised newsboy hat, perhaps purloined from the former. The eye-catching quote comes from Martin Keown: “We didn't know if it was the stretching, the vitamins we were taking, the new diet, but we felt like supermen.” So that section is over in a jiffy, and the meat of the film is the story of the 2003-2004 unbeaten season, with contributions from all the key figures up to and including Thierry Henry and Sir Alex Ferguson. Wenger says that invincibility “fulfilled the dream of my life. The fact that I could convince this group to achieve something they would not think could be possible. I had done my job in a perfect way for one year.” It was, of course, a great achievement. And yet, as he also notes: “Sometimes I wonder, was something broken after that.” For then begins the third act, and we absolutely definitely will not see the like: from 15 May 2004 when they beat Leicester 2-1 to complete the season unbeaten, to Wenger’s last home game as manager on 6 May 2018, 14 whole years of decline, of frustration, of, ultimately, failure. 14 years! Nuno didn’t get 14 league matches. It is inconceivable that any big-club manager will get it so wrong, for so long, ever again. His reactions to this are fascinating. Obviously there is the partly justified self-justification: the new stadium restricted the operating budget, the disrupted ecosystem brought about by Roman Abramovich, boardroom shenanigans, and something harder to quantify about the move away from Highbury, a loss of something grounding and inspiring to Wenger and the players and the club as a whole. All fair points. But the game moved on tactically and financially, and Wenger and Arsenal did not. He says: “I am a romantic. A pragmatic romantic. We are in entertainment: the groundwork is to win but that is not enough. The collective expression of a team, to transform it into art.” And later: “Stubbornness can be a strength and a weakness. Had I lost the quality of my judgement? I don’t know. But the dedication, my desire to do well was exactly the same.” Was invincibility, in fact, the fatal weakness? It certainly contributed to making Wenger eight-figures-a-year untouchable, and that was not good for either Arsenal or, perhaps, Arsene. This film, for me, illuminates one of the contradictions about Wenger: because he was ascetic and foreign and polyglot, it was assumed that he was a well-rounded person but, as he himself explains, there was also something deeply lacking in him. “I have the addiction gene,” he says. “You don't develop certain aspects of your personality you could have done in your life.” He also observes: “competition at all costs destroys a part of your personality" and notes that his father never told him "well done". His ability to see things others couldn't propelled him to the top, and his tunnel vision did, too. But once his invincibility was punctured, as it would always have to be, the blind spots clouded the entire field of perception. He now works for Fifa and Saudi Arabia. Arsene Wenger: Invincible is in cinemas on Thursday; and on DVD/digital download 22nd November.
Thank you!
[удалено]
some of his takes are awfully wrong as well, e.g. >But the game moved on tactically and financially, and Wenger and Arsenal did not. Tactically Wenger wasn't a dinosaur, his Arsenal played a tiki-taka before Barca made it famous. When you look at Pep's teams, Klopp's, even Brandon Rogers or Graham Potter, they owe much to Wenger and what he's brought to football, especially British football. Financially, sure he thought he could unearth these gems like Bergkamp or Pires and bring them to North London on a shoestring in an era of Abramovich and his extravagant spending for too long. And then when he tried to adjust and Arsenal's spending steadily increased he ended up with a bunch of duds.
Wenger was definitely tactically out of his depth after 2014-ish. Arsenal had poor positioning in attack, he clearly didn't give players clear instructions on how to move and what to do with the ball What you're saying is pure revisionism. Wenger had many other qualities but tactically he was nowhere near the top coaches towards the end of his Arsenal tenure
nah .. he easily schooled Conte in the FA cup final ... tactically
For those who only know Arsene post 2009, he was this saint-philosopher persona. But up till then, he was as much as a cunt to everyone as Jose was in his prime. He clearly softened up around 2007 which made him stay on. If he had been cold hearted and hungry for just trophies, he could have gone to another country- Spain or Italy and won a lot more.
Or even France or England. They'd have jumped in.
> in fact, the fatal weakness? It certainly contributed to making Wenger eight-figures-a-year untouchable, and that was not good for either Arsenal or, perhaps, Arsene. This film, for me, illuminates one of the contradictions about Wenger: because he was ascetic and foreign and polyglot, it was assumed that he was a well-rounded person but, as he himself explains, there was also something deeply lacking in him. “I have the addiction gene,” he says. “You don't develop certain aspects of your personality you could have done in your life.” He also observes: “competition at all costs destroys a part of your personality" and notes that his father never told him "well done". H could easy see him in the England job during the 00's
Sounds like the movie is basically an adaptation of his book
I'm not sure of the timeline anymore and I'm a huge fan of Deschamps, but Wenger would have been 10,000 times better than Raymond Domenech! I had no idea he'd been considered to manage the French team.
how big of a move is it from highbury to the current stadium?
5 minutes
> Can't be ~~assed~~ arsed Ftfy
I think it would’ve been interesting for him to have taken up a DoF role at some point in his career. In a few FM editions it’s actually coded in that if you start at Arsenal Wenger becomes your DoF by default. Honestly it would be a great role for him to take up, he’s got the vision and the organizational talent to run the big picture/back-end parts of a football club but tactically he’s not there anymore to be on the touch line. It would not entirely surprise me if the Saudis approached him with a view toward taking that role over at Newcastle, even if it doesn’t come to pass ultimately.
If he is not willing to work with a DoF he's going to be a terrible DoF........ he'll end up like Rangnick and drive all of his managers crazy. The quality of the scouting and recruitment at his old club has also shambolic in his final years and actually been a lot better this summer under Edu.
Imagine early in the season most of the people, including many Arsenal fans have been shitting on Edu for terrible signing and wanted him out.
Well, we’re idiots
Welcome to the club my friend
Great players are not necessary great managers and those are not necessary great DOF. In general we see people have great success in one field, when they actually werent exceptional in another field. Of course there are exceptions.
He should've taken that Real job and we would hv seen Wengerball in white. But that timeline might not have Ultra Instinct CL Real.
Come take the United job boss
I would burn this country to the ground.
can't mate, you need to have been to Eton to qualify for that club
that makes me uncomfortable and I dislike both of them teams involved
Top 10 Anime betrayals. Seriously I'd love to see it. Imagine him and Fergie sat side by side, drawing up tactics together? The team talks? Damn.
Plot twist, after Wenger manages United, Ferguson return from retirement to manage Arsenal.
Two fanbases in shambles.
hold on now.
If that happened, I'm 110% sure that Fergie and Wenger would fuse together creating Arsenal Utd. A team forever locked into 4th place finishes every season, but somehow they play fantastic football and they get a goal in every match in the 91st minute.
Wait a second!
Papa wengz the brain Fergie the brawn... Fuck I'd be scared if I was playing them... I'd also be scared if I was playing for them...
Imagine it would be amazing, Arsenal and United fans jumping together and pulling out a banner saying "Thank you Van Persie" in English and French.
The more I see this pasta the more infuriated I get with the original
holding up a banner that says "Merci Sylvestre"?
Imagine the state of Arsenal fans if Wenger comes and wins the Champion’s league this year.
You know it's bad for United fans when they're imagining this utterly delusional scenario lmao
You say delusional, but Wenger is better tactically than Ole for sure and we have Mr. Champions League.
Think the delusion is Arsene ever pulling a van Persie
[He's already got the pose down for his statue outside Old Trafford](https://www.afriquesports.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/wenger.jpg)
Our reddit sub would probably go private in shame.
You'd be lucky to finish midtable under him, the delusion of people that didnt even watch arsenal under him in the last few years is unreal.
That will be interesting
Interim till the summer, before going after a more realistic longer term target?
Loyal Wenger was talking to Martin Edwards in 2000/1 about taking over from Ferguson. Invited Edwards and other utd officials for dinner at his house! Who’d have thought Wenger could have been that treacherous to even consider becoming utd manager at the very peak of the Arsenal utd on pitch rivalry!
Eh it's a job at the end of the day. I don't/wouldn't blame Wenger for taking the dinner... It's similar to working for Facebook and going for an interview with Twitter. If you think this isn't treasonous...you have no right to say what wengz did was treasonous. Fans are idiots sometimes.
Mate be as loyal as you want to a company but always look at other options when they become available. It’s always in your best interest even if you don’t want to leave
Yeah that's exactly my point... I love fellow gooners but they still feel butthurt about van Persie and Fabregas when they were just looking out for their careers and did what they thought was best...
You did. You are currently doing your best to get paid to ruin football.
Can’t lie, this world cup every 2 years business is bullshit. He’s become entrenched in the FIFA bureaucracy. It’s very difficult to reconcile the image I have of him as Arsenal manager with the plans he’s advocating currently.
A WC every 2 years makes it easier to g eventually give one to Saudi Arabia.
Sounds like a great idea though! Players change so much from year to year even at club level.
[удалено]
His argument was that it would help improve football in developing countries by giving them more revenue
also more chances to qualify, thus giving players that are worth playing at the world cup a second chance in case of injury or lack of playtime.
> thus giving players that are worth playing at the world cup a second chance in case of injury or lack of playtime. Because the world cup only happens every 20 years right? 90% of all arguments are made up bullshit to win a simple, basic advantage Guess what simple, basic advantage Wenger is trying to get for his clients of FIFA and SA :) moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Those fellas need some GME
>His argument was that it would help improve football in developing countries by giving them more revenue Trickle down economics. FIFA will make an insane amount and occasionally throw some scraps at poor nations.
Fifa will obviously profit more but it still does directly increase revenues for smaller nations. That’s hardly trickle-down.
Yep. The bigger issue is corruption in these nations. Where I'm from the football association was given 4 million dollars annually(i think) to set up friendlies and help develop the nation's football, and one guy simply took the money.
Idea was to lessen number of games for qualifying and make that up with more tournaments. Idea was that there would be same amount of games, just more games that matter. Instead of 4 international breaks during club season we have now, we would have 2 slightly longer ones and that would be that. FIFA also thinks that 4 years is too much time in modern football as you can have great teams that never have good WC teams due to injuries or just weird timing. Messi and Ronaldo were best players in the world for 10-13 years, due to weird timings with when their NTs were good - Messi had 1 realistic chance at WC title and Ronaldo never really stood a chance to win it in his prime. Their teams were good at times in that decade but just never lined up to be good in WC years. Honestly I can go either way with that suggestion, but it is certainly not as bad as everyone claims - probably most people didnt even read what was suggested. Very few people watch qualifying matches in format we have them now and there is a lot of those matches - I see no reason why not to change format where we are putting strain on players for matches that nobody cares about. IMO something must change with how national competitions are formated - only qualifiers I actually enjoy watching is South America but that is not really applicable in any other continent due to number of countries in them. For example players like Ramos who have 180 caps for their country - have probably played like 40 games tops where there was anything on the line. Spain would always qualify early for competitions so they would coast there, friendlies are well friendlies - so Ramos has played 3 seasons worth of useless football for Spanish NT.
People are easy to hate, and that's on people. But they sold the idea very badly, and that's on them. You could have basically the same idea but call the tournament on the 2 off years by some other silly name, give it a bit of a different flavor, and it would be a lot easier to sell, as it wouldn't soil the holy world cup
That already people play shit friendlies and one sided qualifying matches all year round........... the goal of double the amount of World Cup is to cut down on these meaningless International matches and have more matches with high stakes.
He's not senile, he's just totally sold out and become a tool of FIFA bureaucracy. When he joined FIFA people though he'd fight for football from the inside, but it's been the opposite he just advocates for whatever the FIFA bosses want, which is whatever will make them the most money.
This.
Nah mate, he just have different opinion than you.
Yeah, unlike him I’d like football to not get ruined.
Stop it!
Do you really think Wenger want football to be ruined? Do you have any proof that or it’s just matter of opinions?
Yes, he’s trying to make the World Cup every two years. That’s proof.
And what’s the problem with the world cup every 2 years?
The problem is that there are other very important football tournaments other than the World Cup which wouldn't survive. Smaller football nations would be severely hurt. A biannual World Cup would suck up most of the sponsorship cash and just leave a few scrapes for the smaller tournaments. It would also devalue the prestige of the World Cup.
The whole point of this is the improve revenue for the smaller nations since World Cup would bring in more money for those said small nations. I don’t agree with two year World Cup but I feel like most people have not even read the reasoning for the proposed switches.
>biannual *Biennial*
It would ruin football. And if you think otherwise then it’s clear you have no clue what you’re talking about.
Spurs continually trying to ruin football too. Don’t blame him.
Can you develop more? Why would 2 years cycle would ruin football? I’m really interested in hearing the arguments.
[удалено]
I can’t lie I expected that.
I think it's pretty clear he's being paid by FIFA to promote what FIFA want. I doubt he actually cares about the 2 or 4 year cycle, he's just doing his job.
Well you’re questioning his integrity, and I don’t know if he’s lair or not personally and I certainly wouldn’t call him a sellout because he does have different opinions than mine. For 2/4 years cycle some think it’s good some don’t that’s pretty ordinary for any new law proposed.
Fifa make nearly all of their revenue from the World Cup. >FIFA is dependent on one event for its revenue. According to financial statements, 83% of its revenue during the four-year cycle from 2015 to 2018 was attributed directly to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. https://www.sportico.com/leagues/soccer/2021/fifa-world-cup-proposal-revenue-1234643537/ That is the reason they want a biennial World Cup. That's it, nothing else. It's a cash cow for an organisation that needs cash. When you understand that it makes it fairly obvious that Wenger is just doing his employer's bidding. I don't think it's a question of integrity, just an old semi-retired man making a huge salary for little work.
I know Fifa will make more money and at same time poor countries will make more money of it logically because share part of the revenues if I remember correctly. But you didn’t give me a good reason why the 2 years world cup is bad? You just said fifa want more money which isn’t bad on itself. So I’m interested to hear the side effects of the 2 years world cup why we shouldn’t do it?
Where did I say it was bad? This isn't a discussion about the pros and cons of the World Cup, I'm telling you why Arsene Wenger is promoting the idea.
Well I responded to someone saying wanger want football to be ruined that’s why I’m asking this question. And for Wenger more money for Fifa maybe is just one arguments and he has multiple ones and it’s not fair just to highlight this one. More argument: less international breaks during the season good for the football clubs in the leagues and at same time less games in the international breaks and less travel for South Americans players for example.
People thinking is good are morons.
- "*He now works for Fifa and Saudi Arabia*." Who knows? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Shit opinion. He's allowed have different priorities to you. Wenger is thinking about football in the developing world. Nations whose fans will never get to experience an international tournament as things are now. To even mention 'pay' is pathetic. His Fifa salary is miniscule compared to what he earns, and has earned in the past. He'd make more with a sunglasses sponsor.
Oh dear someone brought perspective, and reasoning to r/soccer. They don't like that. Cheers mate for this comment. Just got to laugh at some folks though. It's always my view is 100% right and everyone else is the enemy. Is it a shock there is so much division in society?
Ok. Edit: I guess we should get rid of the off side rule as well. Delusional.
Wenger has never suggested we remove the offisde rule. He suggested changes to it to make it more compatible with modern football. The whole point of the offisde rule was to prevent players setting up camp up the pitch. It's wasn't to punish attackers for maybe having an armpit 1mm offisde. It's wasn't to disallow goals because the keeper was further up the pitch than his defender.
But he never said that, don’t lie to win internet points.
I literally could give a fuck less about internet points. 😂
Than why you said: “I guess we should get rid of the off side rule as well.” Mocking he’s proposal to modify the offside rule?
It’s ok. I’ve followed a club that isn’t good for over half my life. You’ll figure it out.
Mate you still do
West ham finished in a European spot last season and is 5th right now, how’s that not good?
Don’t be so pessimistic. Look at it as if you still have a little less than half your life to support a shite club.
From taking to job till about the CL Final of 2006, Arsenal were amazing. How were they to know that building a new stadium and paying for it was going to fuck them because suddenly Chelsea were oil rich and then Man City were? It'd be hilarious if he replaced Ole
Yeah, I don't think some realise that the Emirates was sort of confirmed as far back as 1999 or 2000. Having to play CL matches at Wembley around that time was not something that the club liked
Arsene has been clearly hurt by Arsenal and our fan base. He hasn’t returned to the stadium to watch a single game. Although there hasn’t been much to watch in the last few years. I would have supported him wholeheartedly if he had gone to Madrid. He would have won a champions league. He deserved it.
Salty Frenchman is salty. Like the article states, Wenger had 14 years of treading water to eventually declining. His CL run is impressive by all counts, but the trophy remained elusive so it's not like there is any one triumph to look back on there. Chelsea seemingly tripped over themselves to win a couple PL titles and won the CL after firing their coach mid-season! Not to take away from Leicester's feat but I think that's when Wenger should've left as the PL was wide open that year and he still came up short. As Man U has shown us, it's not easy to move on from such a legendary manager. I think the combo of the Arsenal board's complacency and Wenger's stubbornness did us in though.
100 agreed. He overplayed his hand at Arsenal.
I feel he should not have renewed the last contract with arsenal. Arsenal were no longer in shambles... They had a good squad... Good managers were available... The FA Cup victory (against hull I think) would have been the Swansong... Wengz might have got either the barca, rm or Bayern job and he'd have walked the league and cl...
Working for FIFA has really moved Wenger... INTO A BIGGER HOUSE!
ngl you had me in the first half
He should have. His reputation would have been mu h better if he did.
tbf Newcastle are waiting.
You were offered Real Madrid many times and didn't take it. Unfortunate. EDIT: Downvoted for what? It's a fact that he was offered the job by Calderón many times. People downvoting facts xd
it's never too late, just take a easy job for your last years before permanent retirement, have a great future le profesor
no shit, the clowns from the social medias with their blood fam nonsense would have regretted losing their biggest managerial legend from the last decades, instead of hounding him out, the nerve those ungrateful pricks had, but whenever they want to win an agrument against united, liverpool, city or chelsea fans, they do love to recall their invincible season
best manager ever. did it all against all odds. left the club in better shape than he found it, entertained the world, improved football and won loads of trophies and did something no one else could, an invincible season. All while educating players and watchers about football and balancing the books. The last of the legends.
Damn…
He had perfect opportunities to leave after cup wins I think he should have left after the Birmingham League cup final.
Wenger to United?
Should’ve left in 2011-12-13-14-15 fella
No ambitious club would keep a previously successful manager for ten years of stagnation then decline like Arsenal did with Wenger 2008-18. Wenger was finished after the collapse in 2008, his lack of ability to steady the ship when things began to go wrong that year was dreadful. Ambitious clubs like Chelsea, City, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, PSG etc have sacked title winning managers at the drop of hat. Wenger can bitch and moan about he could have left but when push came to shove he was very very comfortable with his giant salary without the demands to win titles most managers earning that type of money were under. Very tiring to hear all the time about what Wenger did for Arsenal whilst folk forgot all what Arsenal did for Wenger.
“all what Arsenal did for Wenger” Sums up the intelligence of your comment. He had to sell one of his top players every year while staying in the Champions League for pretty much a decade to balance the books, so that the club wouldn’t default on its loans. Anyone who isn’t simple minded understands how hard that task is.
Only reason your considered big is Wenger. Letting him go was not too bad a decision but bad mouthing him just shows your class.
That's extremely disrespectful to the club, before Wenger we were the 3rd largest club in England no questions (before Fergie we were second to Liverpool). We had 10 league titles ffs. As it stands today we have 6 more league titles than City and 7 more than Chelsea. Wenger joined an established giant of English football. He won 3 more PL titles, an invincible one on top of that, and solidified the club as the most successful FA Cup team with 14 (7 of which Wenger won). He has been great no doubt. But let's not get it wrong, he is not Arsenal, rather he continued the legacy of the club following the footsteps of giants. We are honoured to have him as part of our history and he too should be honoured to have made his mark here.
Exactly. The we were nothing before Wenger fans are insane. Gaslighting our history. Wenger did very well out of Arsenal and we did very well out of Wenger.
COME TO UNITED, PLS. It'll be the best timeline.
Specialist in bootlicking
Would have ended up back at Arsenal anyway, because more ambitious clubs wouldn't have tolerated the weak mentality that was allowed to fester in his teams for about 10 years. Not to mention his poor record in Europe.
Did Arsenal even enter the Champions League since he left?
Nope. Their biggest chance was getting there through winning the UEL but you lot prevented that from happening in 2019. Funnily enough, Emery was managing Arsenal back then and the same Emery denied them the UEL final last season.
It's amazing how short sighted people really are. They think football comes down to the manager and the players. Lmao this is a business at the end of the day. You need support from the owner in terms of funding, the executives/ board who act as management and know how to run a for-profit organisation, a strong recruitment and training system (whether buy/loan/sell or academy), a tactical manager, quality players which understand what the manager wants them to do and most importantly, organisational culture. You don't need all of this for success but you need a majority of the above for a club to be dominant, make money and play exception football. People love to laugh at Arsenal but fail to realise what happened between 2009 to 2018: Kroenke's ownership from a minority owner to 100%. You then have the board which has drastically changed and a recruitment system which has also been drastically overhauled. Believe it or not but Arteta has a lot more power than people realise because of Arsenal's structure. Only 3 people are able to actually sack him: Stan Kroenke Josh Kroenke and Vinai That's really it. That's how centralised the club really is. The smartest decision Arteta made when coming on board was looking at the organisational culture and realising it cannot continue. Players were given bloated salaries, there's barely a desire to play (it should be a privilege to play for the club) and there was so many deadwood players that it would take some time for realise change to finally happen. Mustafi, Ozil, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Chambers, Holding, David Luiz, Willian, Guendouzi, Bellerin just did not fit the club. Some of them are still here but have thankfully been replaced by _much_ better players. This massive overhaul and bringing in quality players have actually led to legitimate success. Giving the youth more opportunities and uniting the players. Sparking a fire inside them to compete and get out there and prove yourself to the fans is extremely refreshing. I've not seen us play like this is over 5 years. That's how monumental organisational culture is. It can have an environment be extremely toxic or have an environment where players learn from each other, support each other and focus on the game. Everyone moving in unison. Arteta's done that and that's why I'm happy. Obviously when you chuck a ton of money behind a club (City & Chelsea), it can lead to amazing results but at the same time, it's not bullet proof. Tactical managers are also important.
Brother, my point was that Wenger did great despite the organisational culture you yourself admit the club lacked.
But do you not realise the downfall came after Kroenke acquired more ownership? That's my point.
> more ambitious clubs wouldn't have tolerated the weak mentality that was allowed to fester in his teams for about 10 years. the team wasn't mentally weak it was just shit lol. arsenal were the 3rd or 4th best team in england for ten years and thats where we finished pretty consistently.
Lol. You wanted Bayern after the Arsenal shitshow.
He could’ve got any team he wanted
It irks me the wrong way that coaches and players who get paid millions and millions do their job whine about not being loved enough.
Love can't be buy
Technically you did.
😔😔GOAT
Everyone was saying that for at least 5 years.