02 Jan 2018 13:02:44
I fear that poor performance at West Brom is sadly a taste of what is to come once we lose both Sanchez and Ozil. I admit that I have been one of the many who has bemoaned Ozil's lack of effort at times during his stay, but I realized how much we are going to miss him as we were completely devoid of attacking ideas against West Brom. Take him and Sanchez away and you realise were totally lacking the talent required to win those games. let's hope we manage to sort out some decent replacements otherwise were facing life as a dull team going forward. Also, we might as well allocate the wings of the pitch at the Emirates to sponsorships as we never bother to play any football along them. Watching us with every player trying to go straight through the middle is like watching schoolboy football where every player ends up in the same part of the pitch. How many times do you see Arsenal players creating an overlap past the ball player, i suspect you can count on one finger! No wonder teams find it so easy to defend against us, with our slow play in front of them. Just defend deep and narrow and hit us on the break, works wonders virtually every time! Whoever eventually replaces Wenger, let's hope he likes to play across the full width of the pitch, with pace and skill, in fact, just like our manager used to like playing many years ago when he actually won major trophies.
02 Jan 2018 14:54:28
We have slipped into a situation where the manager we have is making decisions that are taking this club to the point of no return. He has controlled this club, its transfers, its players, the wages and their contracts. He is strangling this club with his misguided idea he is still capable of running a team/ club to challenge for the top honours and the honours that make you a top team. By the time he actually goes, we could be at the point where he has bled this club dry with poor management decisions and the guy that comes in has very little to work with. I personally don't see this club in a better position than the last two years and i can only see that what is going on, we can only be in an even worse position in the next two years. Progression is not happening but regression is. How far down is this deluded person going to be allowed to take us. We are in a very real situation, where we could fall too far and too much that we won't ever recover. I think we have become complacent.
02 Jan 2018 15:26:07
Another problem we have is the money available to any new manager that steps up! Its blatant that the board do not wish to go down the road that every other 'major' top flight club is heading down by spending obscene amounts of money! People can go on all they like about the £92m bid for Lemar but the 2 clubs knew it was never going to happen but it keeps the fans happy.
A new manager will sit in that boardroom and demand £200m with their own backroom staff and be laughed off. Someone like Eddie Howe though will love the fact that he gets £30m and a pay rise! Football is now solely dominated on how much you want to spend and unless we match everyone else, we will be a mid-table club for a long time!
02 Jan 2018 17:15:35
disagree on lemar. we would of taken him had he not turned us down.
02 Jan 2018 17:49:35
Thats true Glen, we have never found out who really controls the spending at the Club, and perhaps when we finally do get a new manager we will perhaps get more of a clue. I have never complained at our spending when compared to the likes of Chelsea and Man City, as its clearly not fair or a level playing field in the premiership when comparing to these sugar daddy clubs. Man City seem able to be able to sign whoever they want, irrespective of the so called financial fair play. They already can't fit all their talent in the first 11, with players like Sane and Jesus frequently having to start on the bench, and yet if rumours are to be believed, they may well sign Sanchez as well. Why, to play or to just deny a rival from getting him? I also don't have major issues with our squad, as i think a new manager will get much more out of it than Wenger is coming up with currently. However, what i do have an issue with is our overall squad, spending and ambition when you compare us to our main global rivals (away from the premiership) who are of a similar size to us. Considering we are a top 10 club in the world by revenue and value, where we sit approximately 2 places behind Bayern Munich, and 3 ahead of Juventus, I would say we fall well behind both when comparing squads, top players, prospects and mostly, ambition. For example Juve not getting through to the later stages of the CL would be considered a disaster for them, and yet we are almost double their size financially. Its time we started to act like the 6th biggest club in the world with our actions and ambition, with the aim of climbing that table through success, and yet we continue to act more like we are happy to slip outside the top 10, as long as we make money.
03 Jan 2018 10:26:07
Love that response Epping. Couldn't agree more! I think a lot of it lies with the board rather than Wenger in regards to transfers and what he's willing to spend, but Wengers management style is old news and trying to take on every role at the club isn't working!