From Chris Cotton : Given up
No point watching anymore. It’ll never change.
Wenger just looks ridiculous now.
From William : Painful part of an Arsenal defeat
It’s not the defeat that annoys me, as I’ve come to expect the worst from this bunch of sissies, who’ll keep flattering to deceive for as long as the emperor is on the throne.
What makes me lose my sanity is the reason the emperor adduces for the defeat which only serves to make us more and more of a laughing stock.
Now he says his over-pampered kids are tired having played 3 games in a week.
So the Spurs players didn’t get to play mid-week? God help us in December when the games come thick and fast.
From truegunner: Clowns!!!
Well that is what you get when Wenger can’t pump a sense of “Urgency+ ruthlessness+killer instinct” in some clowns heads for 5 years.
No injuries, no inexperience but same old, same old, same old story….
From Rob Green : Wenger’s lost little boys
We can sit here and debate all day long about tactics, formations, which players Wenger should sign and which players aren’t good enough. But ultimately, none of that matters.
This team has no mental strength; no guts, no balls and no fight.
Wenger has assembled a team of losers, whose brains shut down when you put a challenge in front of them, when you asked them to deliver when its really necessary.
Wenger built a dynasty on having players who were not only technically good but also had the character, the leadership, the experience, the intelligence and supreme athleticism. And then he decided to change it. Inexplicably, he took everything that made his teams great, and threw it in the bin. He bought short players instead of tall ones. He bought teenagers instead of 25 year-olds. And he bought players who grinned gormlessly like Denilson and Vela, rather than players who roared and snarled like Vieira and Henry. No wonder his team look so lost every time you put them into a big game.
In the past four years, without getting even close to winning anything, the team has lurched from disaster to humiliation. Football fans know that supporting a team brings both ecstacy and agony, and the misery is worth it for those moments of triumph. But in these last four years how many moments of agony versus moments of ecstacy? From the 5-1 demolition at WHL to the seemingly impossible 4-4 at the Emirates. The routine footballing lessons by Chelsea and Man United. The miserable defeats up North in the rain and the cold when we were outmuscled and outfought on countless occasions. The last minute goals we conceded when everyone in the stadium and watching on TV knew we wouldn’t be strong enough to old on.
And for all this, how many great moments that make it ‘all worth it’? That prove Wenger is the ‘genius’ that everyone says he is?
From Richard M : Defensive midfielder
Gilberto? Anyone other than Denilson or Diaby.
Not a clue how to hold the midfield or track back. Obviously no idea how to play the position. It was a shameful day because we were 2-0 up. The world saw all of AFC’s weaknesses in 1 game.
Arsene out, it’s time for a new start.
He is not going to change now and the strangest thing is that he is the manager who put together the Invincibles, who had Vieira and Petit, up there with our hardest midfielders ever. So he must have seen that defence and attack win trophies. It’s all very, very strange.
From Niall in Dublin: I’ve had enough
Hi Myles,
I’ve had enough and I’m off!
On Sunday I unsubscribed from all my football-related podcasts (including the Arsenal specific ones I religiously downloaded) and I’ve stopped reading The Guardian and BBC football sites that I have been reading since I first came ‘on-line’ all those years ago!
I’ve had enough of the pantomime that is modern football and I will not miss the hype.
I just don’t care anymore. I don’t care about the players and I don’t care about the manager who I once absolutely revered. I get annoyed every time I hear what he has to say. I don’t like being lied to or told the nonsense that he comes out with after every game….and not just the drivel after the games we’ve lost. I don’t care about the sagas anymore and I don’t care that we don’t have a keeper, a central defender, a ball winning…zzzzzzzzzzz…Christ…I just don’t care.
Quite simply, in this day and age I’ve other things I should be devoting my time and emotion energy towards.
Hopefully things can change for the team that I’ve followed all my life but…I just don’t care
Good-bye Arsenal and good riddance EPL!
From Sam : Apology
I always thought that if Wenger won another trophy, League or CL especially, with Arsenal you would have to apologise to him for some of the things you have written.
The flip side of that coin is that if he doesn’t then I owe you an apology for some of the things I have written to you. After the home defeats this season, which are a result of the complacency that Wenger is fully responsible for, I have completely lost faith in Wenger and his methods.
You are correct, he won’t win another trophy with Arsenal. You can print that in bold.
So, I am sorry.
Alex Darby : Wenger the laptop lover
Wenger may love his laptop and all the data it gives him on his players, but he’s missing something fundamental.
It’s not just about feeling a game, making the right substitutions or picking the right team, even though these are important facets.
It’s about realising that sometimes stopping a goal is as important and valuable as scoring another.
How can we stop goals? Defend better. How much does a world class defender or goalkeeper cost? I’ll bet a lot less on average than a world class striker or midfielder. Surely the thrifty Mr Wenger can appreciate that?
Yours sincerely from a long time reader and Gooner that has been in Birmingham too long, but is maybe thankful for the detachment.
Can I wish Fab4 all the best for the future when he finally gets to play in a team befitting of his abilities?
I hate that he doesn’t look like himself anymore.
From Stu : Management decisions
Your comment that Wenger can’t feel a game is the most astute one I’ve heard all year.
Within five minutes of conceeding the first goal on 50 minutes, the Arsenal midfield had regained some form of control. The problem was Chamakh couldn’t keep the ball, he looked out on his feet. At this point Wenger should have put on Van Persie.This was obvious to the three people I was watching the game with and myself. We all said that he would only make the change after an equaliser.
Guess what happened? Too late, the momentum had swung back towards the opposition.Wenger will not make a substitution before 60 minutes because the science says so. How can supporters who have never played professional football feel what to do but a guy who is paid £6 million a year does not get it?
Ivan Gazidis, this is not good enough.
From DavidAFC : Wenger should go
Myles,
I’m done with Wenger and his lies.
He speaks of ‘desire’ and ‘spirit’ yet I see none of this instilled into the players.
We’re a joke club, we charge fans the highest priced tickets in world football to watch brainless players who don’t understand the importance of a local derby.
The players aren’t learning, Song is making the same mistakes he did at 17. He gives away silly free kicks constantly. Clichy isn’t learning, he puts in terrible cross after terrible cross but no one shouts at him. No one tells him to work on his strengths and pass the ball to a winger who can cross. No one tells him to stick to his position and not roam as much. Why aren’t these players learning? They’re not kids anymore. Even Fabregas does brainless things like putting his hand up when in a wall, he did the same thing against Liverpool last season but wasn’t punished luckily. That should have been a warning.
The defence is awful, we clearly don’t work on defending because we continue to concede goals like it’s going out of fashion. Koscielny has no stature and Squillachi is average. Why didn’t we sign a Jagielka or a Cahill or a Mertesacker? Why must Wenger persist with average players? Note to Wenger – Almunia, Song, Clichy, Denilson, Rosicky, Walcott, Bendtner, Squillachi, Eboue = NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Can he not see that? Why did he drop our best player from the past 2 games – Djourou? That’s right Arsene, drop your most physically imposing defender against a big team.
How can we go from fast and skilful warriors like Henry, Vieira, Pires and Campbell to players who just don’t care like Song, Denilson and Clichy.
Is he mocking the fans? Does he think we don’t know these players aren’t good enough? Wenger has done all he can with the club. He doesn’t shout at the players, he doesn’t tell them where they’re going wrong, he focuses on the positives not the negatives. That’s why the players don’t learn. That’s why there’s no fight or spirit. Just go and let someone who will shout at these overpaid and delusional players and tell them that they’re not that good.
Let Cesc go and build the team around strong, hard-working players with lots of ability like Aaron Ramsey and Keiran Gibbs.
From Phill : Agreed …. But who?
Hi Myles,
I stood in the North Bank on Saturday and predicted a Spurs comeback at Half time….didn’t think we’d lose, but was sure Spurs couldn’t play that bad again. I agree with a lot of your comments, but the problem is who would you replace Wenger with? Say what you will but he is one of the world’s top managers and surely his current ‘project’ is borne of financial necessity rather than his preference?
Myles says :
What’s Ivan’s inbox like?
If my inbox is like this, what’s Ivan’s like?
What do the movers & shakers in the Diamond Club say about Wenger these days ?
I bet you a million dollars they don’t say, “We’re third in the table, I think we’ll win it!”
There is huge strategic vacuum at Arsenal and Wenger exploits that. About 45% of the club is owned by two people who are not in the board. Stan lives 4,000 miles away in the Midwest and Danny has been seriously ill for two years.
This manager is a workaholic, a polymath, an innovator, and a winner of seven trophies, but he is also a colossal egotist and a snob. In the last five years Wenger has finally succeeded in feminising an Ango-Saxon sport. Chamakh looked as if he was about to burst into tears on Saturday. The whole set-up is stale, stale, stale. He’s a control-freak who will only employ weak people around him. He doesn’t delegate and doesn’t share and he says, “Third is a trophy.”
Arsenal board : wake up! What the hell were you doing in August giving him an extension till 2014?
Another four years of this garbage? This team cannot do the basics. Arsenal is the biggest club in the biggest city in Europe but their team is a million miles from what it could be and should be. That’s why their best player wants to leave.
Give Wenger a golden handshake and replace him ASAP.
The next manager of Manchester United will be Owen Coyle.
Hire Owen Coyle before United get him.
GO AND GET OWEN COYLE NOW !