Should Wenger be sacked?

Should Arsenal sack Wenger


  • Total voters
    1,424
He's spent 20 years being the boss at arsenal. You think he'd accept going to a place where he has to work under a GM, DOF and President who are very much involved in running the first team? You think he'd go to a club where if he has a problem with a star player(say, verratti) he'd be told by his bosses to make sure he keeps the player happy?
Another reason he will stay.
 
I'm no Wenger apologist but watching the likes of Soccer Saturday and MOTD, you'd think Arsenal were fighting relegation - words thrown around like "disgrace" and "shambolic". Even if you take away Wenger's historic achievements, they continually finish in the top 4, make the CL knockout stages every year and have recently won the FA Cup twice, all of this whilst spending far less than the likes of Chelsea, City and us.

Arsenal can afford just as much as current Chelsea. In fact if you look at the numbers, if Wenger had spent the transfer kitty that was available to him in summer 2015, Arsenal squad cost and wages would been right around Chelsea maybe even slightly more. And its Chelsea walking the league. So Arsenal do have enough money to compete especially as its been Chelsea, Leicester, Chelsea the last few years not United and City walking the league.

And this isn't even taking into account all the inefficiencies in how Wenger spends. Extending contracts to players who contribute nothing on the pitch for years. Heavily overpaying dross in wages and thus being unable to move them on. So we get locked into overpaying mediocre players. Wenger not moving players along that he doesn't rate - Joel Campbell just the most recent example but look how long we were overpaying dross like Bentdner and Squillaci.

In short 1) Wenger could spend more but choose not to and 2) Wenger is not spending the money he has nearly as efficiently as he could.


As for the 'misery' of being an Arsenal fan, they are potentially 2 points from 4th, ahead of us and only 2 wins away from second place - they've played entertaining football over the years and fans are generally able to see some world class players on a weekly basis, albeit at high cost. I get that fans want to win the league every year and in honesty, Arsenal haven't really gone gone close in recent years but only 6 teams have ever won the PL in 25 years (and football didn't exist before then) - if you discount the Leicester anomaly then the top teams across Europe spend huge sums of money - it's not very romantic and a sad indication of modern corporate football but Wenger is a board's dream - somebody who generates big revenue whilst spending less than the competition.

This really misses the point. Its not about end results really although I am not sure how backing into 2nd place by Tottenham bottling it while still finishing on less points than the year before is anything to brag about.

The point we are seeing the exact same mistakes across several completely different sets players going on 7-8 years now. Thats the groundhog day. Its not about "finishing fourth", its about seeing the exact same mistakes year after year and nothing done to fix those mistakes. The only consistent is the manager. We have seen Wenger rush players back from injury too soon for a decade. We have seen Wenger insist on a certain injury time for a player only for it turn into 2-3 times as long. We see weird problems like this that simply don't happen to other clubs. Even my friends of lower league teams have commented on how bizarre and confused our medical department seems to be.

And we have seen a lack of mental toughness across every side for the last 7 years. Its not about losing, its about the way we lose where we just get played off the pitch and capitulate at the first sign of trouble. Can't blame the players when I seen this with literally dozens of different players all under Wenger.

Oh and I haven't really been entertained by Arsenal football for about 5-6 years now.

Ultimately I think Arsenal fans have had it pretty fecking good under Wenger. If the board are willing to give a new manager £150m a season for the next 3 years, then fair enough, maybe a fresh approach could be good and Wenger should probably step down but if not, it's a huge risk, which could backfire massively.

I have already listed the immediate issues that a new manager could start to fix that Wenger has already proven incapable of fixing. So the risk is FAR less than you imagine and the rewards for changing manager now make it a necessity to start fixing the slow rot that has settled in over 7 years


A) Completely modernizing outdated socialist wage structure that Wenger has championed for decades
B) Audit and Review the medical and training staff that have literally kept Arsenal as 1st or 2nd most injured team in the last 15 years
C) Stop handing out charity contracts to players well past it (Diaby, Arteta last years, Per and Santi this year)
D) Stop molly coddling favorite players that have not improved in 5 years. More ruthless management is needed to not let the squad get complacent and lazy.
 
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Amy Lawrence who's quite close to Wenger think he will stay. The rumour doing the rounds is that it will be announced after the season and the delay is due to season tickets renewals. Sounds far fetched but I wouldn't put it past that money obsessed club.
R.I.P Arsenal so.
 
Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.
 
Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.

Don't be fooled by his style of play. Tevez MKII
 
Arsenal players doing the Ranieri defense. Nevermind the players looking at the ball, wth is Bellerin doing? Top defensive organization

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I'm laughing really hard at this, somehow I find it hilarious. :D
 
I can't think of a more boring club to talk about.

We're about to find out if Wenger was some mad genius who did well churning top four places, or he was holding them back. I think he, the board are just a cut from the same cloth.

If they finish in the top four, I wonder if he signs a new deal. Good ol' euphoria. :lol:
 
Its not even a point of should he be sacked or walk away, its he should have been gone 6/7 years ago. They have done the grand total of feckall and someone needs to answer for that given the prestigue and pull that club
Used to have.
 
Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.

The only one to blame for that is Wenger. Wenger is the one who bought all of them and in summer2015 chose to stick with all of them by not even adding when we had 50-70M available for him to spend.

Wenger is the only manager in the league managing a squad that is 100% of his own choosing. So if the players are consistently not performing, thats on Wenger.
 
Well according to the poll; Wenger shouldnt blame it on the Sanchez, shouldnt blame it on the Giroud, blame it on Eboue
 
Well according to the poll; Wenger shouldnt blame it on the Sanchez, shouldnt blame it on the Giroud, blame it on Eboue

Very good. Credit to someone on Twitter, I'm sure.
 
Arsenal board have a huge problem: They don't have the funds required to genuinely take their team to the next level, yet their fans demand better than what Wenger has delivered.

Im not sure there are many managers in world football who can do better the Wenger with these resources.
 
So he knows his decision already, eh?

If he were staying, then I think he would just announce it in order to strengthen his hand with the team.

So I conclude that he must be leaving, but he is afraid that by announcing it he will end up with a lame duck situation like when SAF announced and then changed his mind.
 
So he knows his decision already, eh?

If he were staying, then I think he would just announce it in order to strengthen his hand with the team.

So I conclude that he must be leaving, but he is afraid that by announcing it he will end up with a lame duck situation like when SAF announced and then changed his mind.

Or the players can man up and play out their skins for him. Just like Bayern did for Jupp and even Pep.
 
So he knows his decision already, eh?

If he were staying, then I think he would just announce it in order to strengthen his hand with the team.

So I conclude that he must be leaving, but he is afraid that by announcing it he will end up with a lame duck situation like when SAF announced and then changed his mind.

Or they want to announce it with a signing/Sanchez contract extension to avoid any rioting.
 
Arsene: "I know what I will do in my future, you will soon know."
Translation: "We have lost 4 out of the last 5 league games, so I cannot announce the contract extension. Once we get 2-3 wins, I shall make the announcement."


The only reason why he is staying tight lipped is because he knows it will cause an uproar if he announced the contract extension today.
The deal has already been done (lucky for us MUFC fans). ;)
 
Arsene: "I know what I will do in my future, you will soon know."
Translation: "We have lost 4 out of the last 5 league games, so I cannot announce the contract extension. Once we get 2-3 wins, I shall make the announcement."


The only reason why he is staying tight lipped is because he knows it will cause an uproar if he announced the contract extension today.
The deal has already been done.
this would be amazing
 
Wengrr* will sign a one-year extension, according to the Express...so that probably means he's off to manage in Mexico.

*Apt typo there, folks.
 
I think he will stay. Why stay so tight lipped about it if you are leaving? Could put an end to the protests etc straight away if he said he was going.

He's just waiting for a good moment to announce it.

If he does leave I can't really see which club he would go to. It would probably have to be a step down from Arsenal
 
I'll have massive respect for him if he stays and signs a new contract. To have such thick skin is truly commendable.
 
Im not sure there are many managers in world football who can do better the Wenger with these resources.

I think that's a bit of a myth.

He's spent a decent amount of money on the wrong players. Xhaka Perez and Mustafi must have cost 80 odd million and that's just this season.

He's been building squad for 20 years.
 
I think that's a bit of a myth.

He's spent a decent amount of money on the wrong players. Xhaka Perez and Mustafi must have cost 80 odd million and that's just this season.

He's been building squad for 20 years.

Totally agree, half the squad (much like Utd's) is of lesser quality than they used to be.

Coquelin, Xhaka, Elneny at DM? That's 3 who are close to rubbish competing for one place & quite often 2 of them get to play, :eek:.
 
I think that's a bit of a myth.

He's spent a decent amount of money on the wrong players. Xhaka Perez and Mustafi must have cost 80 odd million and that's just this season.

He's been building squad for 20 years.
Their wages are also at a level where they should be able to compete for the title. Cities number is artificially lower by like £30m apparently as they pay the non playing staff separately for FFP

Tottenham are doing an amazing job
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Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.
He bought every single one of those players.

Even the teams before this were described as having a lack of winning mentality. Different players, same lack of mentality.

And yes managers do affect winning mentality. Look at our players under Sir Alex vs David Moyes. A United fan would know this more than most.
 
Arsenal board have a huge problem: They don't have the funds required to genuinely take their team to the next level, yet their fans demand better than what Wenger has delivered.

Im not sure there are many managers in world football who can do better the Wenger with these resources.

To be fair here, the fans pay for the most expensive seaon tickets in Europe, Arsene Wenger is one of the highest paid managers in the world, and Arsenal are consistently near the top of the Delloite football rich-list thing; the fans are right to demand more than Wenger has delivered. To say they don't have the resources is a lie.

And they've even spent money recently. As someone's already pointed out, they signed Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez at a cost of around 90m. Bar perhaps Mustafi (who Wenger insisted at the start of the season wasn't needed because they had Rob Holding in reserve and Mertesacker and Koscielny to play in the first team, only signed Mustafi after the post-Liverpool uproar) none of these players has proved to be a success. This is not to mention all the money Wenger has wasted in recent years in wages to players like Arteta, Diaby, Sanogo, and recently Cazorla and Mertesacker- players who aren't contributing nearly enough to the squad. They could've saved up that money for better talent.

Arsenal have 8 points in away games against the current top 6 in the last 4 years, there's no way you think their squad is SO far behind United, City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool that they can't even be expected to compete with these teams in head to head games? I'm sure all of these teams would gladly take Sanchez, Ozil, Koscielny, Bellerin, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Cech. They are not performing beyond their means IMO. In fact, they should be doing better.
 
Hard to believe that there are still actual people who argue that he has done what he could do with the meagre resources available, this has to be the biggest myth in football.
 
At every under-performing club in the league right now, a variant of 'needs to make his own stamp' is being used to defend the manager. 'Needs time', 'needs another couple of windows', 'needs to ship out the dead wood the previous guy left' etc. None of these excuses apply to him. In terms of team morale and mentality, nothing is as important as stability and continuity. He has all that. At a time when there's so much upheaval and fluctuation, managers getting sacked left and right, he should be the one person that has the edge.

I'd love for him to stay, now that the dissatisfaction among arses has reached critical mass, but I fear it's goodbye old friend.

As for 'where he would manage next' - it's a bit of a contrived talking point. He's 67, who cares where the sun sets on his career. The legend of football's Calimero will live on.
 
Based on that, I think he's gone at the end of the season. His demeanour, the assurance he know's what he's going to do...

Think he's gone.

what would be the point in not telling the fans, if he'd really made up his mind? It could liberate the team and would take all the negativity towards him away. Personally I always had the impression that he stays, but if things continue to really go tits up, he might call it a day.
 
Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.

I couldn't disagree more. That is exactly what a manager does and that was probably Fergie's greatest strength (keeping a winning mentality for so long at United).

There is not a team in world football currently where the mentality of the team mirrors the manager more than Arsenal.
 
Their problem is much more than Wenger, no manager would be able to win anything with this lot. Their mentality is just shite, apart from Alexis none of them look like they give a feck, win, lose or draw.

A manager can't make a player want to win, that's got to be in their dna. He can support, can push them on but if it's not in their character it just won't happen. You could argue they're not playing because they want Wenger out or whatever, but player power is never the right way to run a club, because they'll just throw their toys out the pram every-time things aren't going their way. If that were true, speaks volumes about the players that they can't even be arsed to put in a few more performances until the end of the season for a manager who has done nothing but shield them from criticism despite like 15 years of mediocrity.


As long as their board treats top 4 as a trophy that won't change. They need a culture change. They need to aspire to be the best not to be one of a 4 elite teams in England. Their club is broken in this regard.
 
I couldn't disagree more. That is exactly what a manager does and that was probably Fergie's greatest strength (keeping a winning mentality for so long at United).

There is not a team in world football currently where the mentality of the team mirrors the manager more than Arsenal.

As I've said, managers can improve a player's mentality but if they don't have it, they don't have it. SAF couldn't manage to straighten out Ravel for eg, some could argue he couldn't get Nani to fulfill his potential, couldn't get Ando off the chips etc.
 
I predict that Wenger will not want to leave Arsenal in this state so he will likely announce a 1-year contract extension.