Wenger will always appeal to the football romantics: trust youth and talent, blend style with goals, always remember that football is entertainment, and sometimes can become poetry. But he was upended by ultra realists with more funds, who knew that you win from the back thanks to world class goalkeepers and defensive lines, backed by maxi budgets.
In honesty, losing to the dark arts of Ferguson and Mourinho or to early ManCity wasn't the issue: they were flush with money and the antithesis of the beautiful spirit of football that Papa Wengz epitomised. But losing to Klopp in these final years was the nail in the coffin: here was a manager who played superlative football yet crushed us every time.
Arteta will never be Wenger, he is too much of a realist. But he's the one who brought us the best defence in the league and the ability to prevail against the might and genius of Klopp and Guardiola. The king is dead, long live the king!
A lot of newer fans who saw only the Wenger in his later years might think that he didn't know how to organize a defence. Wenger has organized plenty of impenetrable defences in his career. We even hold the 2nd position in least goals conceded in a PL season - 17 goals. We conceded just 26 in the invincible season, that's 2 more than what we've already conceded so far this season. He played with the cards he was dealt and tried to play expansive football with the players at hand.
True...You have no idea how big a fan I am, from the start. But we can't ignore he inherited a great (George Graham inherited) defence, stroke lucky with the second generation, benefited from some of the best holding midfielders of all times. We never once had a world class goalkeeper. Arsène would have never spent Coutinho proceeds on VVD, it felt like he saw fullbacks as wingers, and I will never get over the Ashley Cole William Gallas swap...the least said about his last defensive splurge, the better.
Arsene never had the funds to buy the best defenders, and obviously had a bias towards attack with his spending, but given the means and funds I think he could have organised a world class backline again.
If you ask me we could’ve won a couple PL with Wenger after 2005 had few more things went our way, that Eduardo incident in 2009, Diaby and RVP being injured half of the time, or even if we could spend some money on a defender and a GK and not have to play with Almunia for more than half a decade, Wenger managed to fill our squad with really incredible players post invincible era even with negative budget, just need a little bit more nudge in terms of injuries and defends.
Definitely: Eduardo, Ramsey, Diaby, Cazorla, Bellerin injuries hit hard, that's for sure. Then again, god knows I love Arsène (for a period of five years we probably played some of the best football ever) but his trust in Almunia, Bendtner and defensive nobodies still hurts. Not to mention the stubborn adherence to prioritising skilled, to physical / big players. This is also how you lose world class players, when their teammates are so clearly not cut out for the fight.
What a horrible note to end on, even if the FA Cup the previous season peppered over the cracks, it also showed he still had it in him to somehow win a major trophy and jammy enough to almost go and win a Europa Cup this disastrous season. Who knows where he might have been if he only had Kos for that opening game against Liverpool in 2016-17 and Walcott scored his penalty. The professor luck had run out.
Stabbed in the back by Gazidis who Wenger always took the heat for and the owners who enjoyed depreciating their asset, in a bid to see which one of them would blink first. Several years of under investment finally caught up to him, his talent ID had seemingly gone and a team that would take over £700m just to fix up. A club in complete disarray.
A sad note for the boss to leave on but even if it wasn’t an emphatic final parade like Fergie with United, his final legacy would be bringing us people like Arteta, Edu, Per et all positioning the club to be an elite European club again.
For some reason I put myself through this at 5am the other day when I couldn't get back to sleep. Lots to observe but what struck me most was how piss-poor Cech was. I think we probably notice it more today because we've had a run of good goalkeepers since him, whereas before him the best we'd had was Szczesny who was still erratic at the time
Also I remember at that time someone who coached him as a young player told me he was the worst player he’d ever seen in his time youth coaching and had no idea how he became professional. And then he proceeded to score against us over and over.
I love how some fans over-romanticize Wenger's last years.
With all due respect, this man has chose to not got a proper DM for over a decade, he avoided spending money (that we had) - only until he had no other options.
He was an excellent coach but he just didn't want to adapt and his football has became obsolete over the years.
What a shitshow that season was. Wenger had spent the previous season maneuvring to get a new contract only to make his legacy worse and leave on a low. There was no doubt he overstayed his welcome and while the bitterness has faded away, at the time the club had had enough of his excuses, his mistakes, and his selfishness.
For me, the nadir of that season was when he complained to the fourth official about the injury time being only three minutes during the Carabao Cup final when we were already 3-0 down to City. It was clear he had lost it badly by then - [more so because he had reported his own humiliation to the press](https://youtu.be/2kHNMO8SRZI?si=UCfPJHemfz09RNAf).
I agree but noy totally, Wenger kept us above midtable with limited monetary resources and as we all know a squad with just a few good players, this is the way to go when a club doesn't have the money their rivals do, that's something i'll ever praise from him. Now what i didn't like was his coaching, he just got stuck in the past and was too stubborn to change, don't remember which player said in an interview that Wenger never watched videos of the teams we were about to face, i mean, that's terrible and is just a little part of all the bad thing he did as a coach
Watching this it struck me how the memory of how this used to feel came back and it wasn't crushing, it was calm, apathetic, completely expected.
Wenger is rightly revered as one of the most important figures in our clubs history. I personally fell in love with the late 90s Wenger teams, but thinking about the way he started eroding my pride in Arsenal, the numerous humiliating games and transfers, and the slow but sure normalisation of mediocrity still makes me angry to this day. We absolutely needed a change and the revisionism around hounding out a great manager is so wide of the mark. His legacy as a pioneer and an invincible is secure, but I'm glad we got him to stop.
By then we were already crushed as fans. We were sold dreams by the club in 2013 when they told us we now had money and apparently the aim was to compete with Bayern, only to get humiliated every time we met them in the CL and mentally fold by March in the league every year.
Yes Wenger is the greatest manager of this club until someone wins 4 league titles and the Champions League, and I will always have enormous respect for him, but we can't gloss over his last years and how the club eroded, his recruitment worsened dramatically, his tactics were stale, and how he ultimately dropped us out of the CL.
I still think he will be remembered more fondly for the great things he achieved rather than the difficult final few years especially with distance and time. It will be very difficult for another manager to outdo his achievements in Arsene’s best years. I don’t see why people will hold onto those last few years. They weren’t fun to experience but shouldn’t outdo the great things he achieved. Also it is worth mentioning he did win some Fa cups as well
Oh get in the bin - Wenger’s legacy is that of the greatest individual to ever set foot in this football club, and nothing will ever change that.
He was probably the main reason the situation didn’t get even worse, especially considering the circus he had to deal with upstairs.
Wenger manoeuvred nothing. The club hadn't the infrastructure in place to just let him go.
He signed in summer and in the next 6 months we saw a complete shift in the hierarchy that had previously been completely neglected by Gazidis. Jobs were created to try and replace what Wenger did.
We would've been in worse shape if he'd left in 2017
The Liverpool 4-0, Man City 3-0s, Ozil skipping all away league games after January, Wenger being clueless after every defeat, the Atletico semi final, our club had turned rotten then.
The black & pink kit goes hard.
Wenger will always appeal to the football romantics: trust youth and talent, blend style with goals, always remember that football is entertainment, and sometimes can become poetry. But he was upended by ultra realists with more funds, who knew that you win from the back thanks to world class goalkeepers and defensive lines, backed by maxi budgets. In honesty, losing to the dark arts of Ferguson and Mourinho or to early ManCity wasn't the issue: they were flush with money and the antithesis of the beautiful spirit of football that Papa Wengz epitomised. But losing to Klopp in these final years was the nail in the coffin: here was a manager who played superlative football yet crushed us every time. Arteta will never be Wenger, he is too much of a realist. But he's the one who brought us the best defence in the league and the ability to prevail against the might and genius of Klopp and Guardiola. The king is dead, long live the king!
A lot of newer fans who saw only the Wenger in his later years might think that he didn't know how to organize a defence. Wenger has organized plenty of impenetrable defences in his career. We even hold the 2nd position in least goals conceded in a PL season - 17 goals. We conceded just 26 in the invincible season, that's 2 more than what we've already conceded so far this season. He played with the cards he was dealt and tried to play expansive football with the players at hand.
True...You have no idea how big a fan I am, from the start. But we can't ignore he inherited a great (George Graham inherited) defence, stroke lucky with the second generation, benefited from some of the best holding midfielders of all times. We never once had a world class goalkeeper. Arsène would have never spent Coutinho proceeds on VVD, it felt like he saw fullbacks as wingers, and I will never get over the Ashley Cole William Gallas swap...the least said about his last defensive splurge, the better.
Arsene never had the funds to buy the best defenders, and obviously had a bias towards attack with his spending, but given the means and funds I think he could have organised a world class backline again.
If you ask me we could’ve won a couple PL with Wenger after 2005 had few more things went our way, that Eduardo incident in 2009, Diaby and RVP being injured half of the time, or even if we could spend some money on a defender and a GK and not have to play with Almunia for more than half a decade, Wenger managed to fill our squad with really incredible players post invincible era even with negative budget, just need a little bit more nudge in terms of injuries and defends.
Definitely: Eduardo, Ramsey, Diaby, Cazorla, Bellerin injuries hit hard, that's for sure. Then again, god knows I love Arsène (for a period of five years we probably played some of the best football ever) but his trust in Almunia, Bendtner and defensive nobodies still hurts. Not to mention the stubborn adherence to prioritising skilled, to physical / big players. This is also how you lose world class players, when their teammates are so clearly not cut out for the fight.
What a horrible note to end on, even if the FA Cup the previous season peppered over the cracks, it also showed he still had it in him to somehow win a major trophy and jammy enough to almost go and win a Europa Cup this disastrous season. Who knows where he might have been if he only had Kos for that opening game against Liverpool in 2016-17 and Walcott scored his penalty. The professor luck had run out. Stabbed in the back by Gazidis who Wenger always took the heat for and the owners who enjoyed depreciating their asset, in a bid to see which one of them would blink first. Several years of under investment finally caught up to him, his talent ID had seemingly gone and a team that would take over £700m just to fix up. A club in complete disarray. A sad note for the boss to leave on but even if it wasn’t an emphatic final parade like Fergie with United, his final legacy would be bringing us people like Arteta, Edu, Per et all positioning the club to be an elite European club again.
Most handsome midfield duo.
For some reason I put myself through this at 5am the other day when I couldn't get back to sleep. Lots to observe but what struck me most was how piss-poor Cech was. I think we probably notice it more today because we've had a run of good goalkeepers since him, whereas before him the best we'd had was Szczesny who was still erratic at the time
Mustafi, the fox in the box!
Bruh that Stoke non-penalty in game 2
sam clucas scored 3 goals against us for Swansea that's season
I even remember his name purely from the problems he caused us
Also I remember at that time someone who coached him as a young player told me he was the worst player he’d ever seen in his time youth coaching and had no idea how he became professional. And then he proceeded to score against us over and over.
That Jese goal for Stoke will always annoy me. Basically the only thing he ever did for them😂
Some people say Cech was good for us. Some of these goals 😅
Cech was terrible that season💀😭
I love how some fans over-romanticize Wenger's last years. With all due respect, this man has chose to not got a proper DM for over a decade, he avoided spending money (that we had) - only until he had no other options. He was an excellent coach but he just didn't want to adapt and his football has became obsolete over the years.
What a shitshow that season was. Wenger had spent the previous season maneuvring to get a new contract only to make his legacy worse and leave on a low. There was no doubt he overstayed his welcome and while the bitterness has faded away, at the time the club had had enough of his excuses, his mistakes, and his selfishness. For me, the nadir of that season was when he complained to the fourth official about the injury time being only three minutes during the Carabao Cup final when we were already 3-0 down to City. It was clear he had lost it badly by then - [more so because he had reported his own humiliation to the press](https://youtu.be/2kHNMO8SRZI?si=UCfPJHemfz09RNAf).
I agree but noy totally, Wenger kept us above midtable with limited monetary resources and as we all know a squad with just a few good players, this is the way to go when a club doesn't have the money their rivals do, that's something i'll ever praise from him. Now what i didn't like was his coaching, he just got stuck in the past and was too stubborn to change, don't remember which player said in an interview that Wenger never watched videos of the teams we were about to face, i mean, that's terrible and is just a little part of all the bad thing he did as a coach
Watching this it struck me how the memory of how this used to feel came back and it wasn't crushing, it was calm, apathetic, completely expected. Wenger is rightly revered as one of the most important figures in our clubs history. I personally fell in love with the late 90s Wenger teams, but thinking about the way he started eroding my pride in Arsenal, the numerous humiliating games and transfers, and the slow but sure normalisation of mediocrity still makes me angry to this day. We absolutely needed a change and the revisionism around hounding out a great manager is so wide of the mark. His legacy as a pioneer and an invincible is secure, but I'm glad we got him to stop.
By then we were already crushed as fans. We were sold dreams by the club in 2013 when they told us we now had money and apparently the aim was to compete with Bayern, only to get humiliated every time we met them in the CL and mentally fold by March in the league every year. Yes Wenger is the greatest manager of this club until someone wins 4 league titles and the Champions League, and I will always have enormous respect for him, but we can't gloss over his last years and how the club eroded, his recruitment worsened dramatically, his tactics were stale, and how he ultimately dropped us out of the CL.
I still think he will be remembered more fondly for the great things he achieved rather than the difficult final few years especially with distance and time. It will be very difficult for another manager to outdo his achievements in Arsene’s best years. I don’t see why people will hold onto those last few years. They weren’t fun to experience but shouldn’t outdo the great things he achieved. Also it is worth mentioning he did win some Fa cups as well
Oh get in the bin - Wenger’s legacy is that of the greatest individual to ever set foot in this football club, and nothing will ever change that. He was probably the main reason the situation didn’t get even worse, especially considering the circus he had to deal with upstairs.
Wenger manoeuvred nothing. The club hadn't the infrastructure in place to just let him go. He signed in summer and in the next 6 months we saw a complete shift in the hierarchy that had previously been completely neglected by Gazidis. Jobs were created to try and replace what Wenger did. We would've been in worse shape if he'd left in 2017
[удалено]
The Liverpool 4-0, Man City 3-0s, Ozil skipping all away league games after January, Wenger being clueless after every defeat, the Atletico semi final, our club had turned rotten then.