Not trying to stir up a debate or anything but I have been saying this for around 3 years now (all my best mates are Gunners supporters and actually agree with me)
Wegner needs to go! You need to get a new manager in there with fresh idea's, long gone are the days you have Pires/Henry/Bergkamp/Ljunberg which could allow you to play the type of football Wegner did (which was great to watch, Henry is probably my favourite striker of all time) you cannot play it now, Giroud is an old fashioned CF type player (yes he is ok with ball at his feet as well) but you need him to attack the ball in the air from crosses out wide.. not this intricate passing etc around the box with Arteta/Diaby (who I rate quite highly as well) Ramsey etc...
I think Moyes would be a great manager for you! To my knowledge he has not renewed his contract with Everton
'Stupid wage budget is removed'?
Sigh, please don't tell me you'd be okay just bringing in players on massive £150,000 a week contracts because we're struggling at the moment. Yes, we want the team to do well, but in my opinion we should want the team to do well under certain circumstances, and paying over the top wages isn't the only way of achieving success.
I'm not pretending our wage system is great (Because it isn't, we're paying good money for dead-wood at the moment basically, but as soon as we cross that line and start being retarded with our transfer fees and wage distribution, that's when we can say goodbye to a unique identity that is all too rare in football these days.
Might not mean much to you, but it certainly does to me, as well as many other Arsenal fans out there.
This is nice to see, however it also seems to be reason Arsenal are going downhill rather than improving,
you have lovely finances, one of the best teams in terms of doing things the right way, however this attitude will only aid the other bigger spending teams..
you have one of the richest owners in the league in Usmanov and until you spend some money, not stupid amounts, but some, i cant see the situation improving anytime soon
Without over-spending I think Wenger has done a good job!
He consistently qualifies for the Champions League, and they always at least get out of the group stages. Say what you want about not winning trophies etc but he has kept Arsenal consistently up there with the rest even after losing his best players.
I know Arsenal need to be winning more trophies but I believe keeping the club stable in the long run is very important.
Also, Wenger needs a bit of luck, the poor old goat
But transfers are one thing, my concern is Wenger seems to lost his touch with new talents. Ramsey was supposed to be next big thing and he's *****. Szczesny was supposed to be next big thing and he's *****. A lot of other guys arent playing on the level they used to few years back. And for a club that's supposed to be so frugal, there's far too much overpayed deadwood in the squad.
The most disappointing thing is Arsenal's lack of a solid defence. Bayern were very average by their standards tonight and all three of their goals were preventable. Yet Arsenal have conceded three goals at home and the tie is practically all over.
Funny, the progressive and profitable attitude doesn't seem to have done Bayern any harm.
Also, Usmanov doesn't own Arsenal. He's the second biggest shareholder after Kroenke.
This is nice to see, however it also seems to be reason Arsenal are going downhill rather than improving,
you have lovely finances, one of the best teams in terms of doing things the right way, however this attitude will only aid the other bigger spending teams..
you have some of the richest owners in the league in Usmanov and Kroenke and until you spend some money, not stupid amounts, but some, i cant see the situation improving anytime soon
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the owning of Arsenal Football Club and Kroenke is the majority shareholder after effectively telling the selling shareholders to sell to him and not Usmanov because he claimed Usmanov was a 'pirate' and just wanted to make money off of Arsenal and not help them. Ironically this is actually what Kroenke is doing. Usmanov during January released many statements to the press in interviews claiming he wants to be Arsenal and that Henry texts and calls him along with other un-named ex/current club players telling him to buy the club. He said "I don't know what will happen in the future" but he wants to buy the club and invest copious amounts of money into it. But as we've seen from Liverpool (no offence just a good example) and QPR spending ridiculous amounts of money on players doesn't guarantee success.
I don't see this as Wenger's fault. All three goals were shocking defending. In fact most of the games thrown away this season were due to shocking defending. As has been said before, the team just isn't performing in the first half of games, and in the second half the performances are much improved. Wenger could be argued to be the cause of this decrease in first half form just as much as he could be argued as the cause of the increase in second half form.
If you think about it clearly, the teams ahead of us are City, United and Chelsea with their vastly superior funding; and a resurgent Spurs with a quality first XI. Despite this season and its horrific defending, we're managing to still chase for a spot in the CL and have actually invested in some players this season in the form of Giroud, Podolski and Monreal - all good players who have been making an impact. Perhaps for those supporting "big" teams like Barcelona this is difficult to grasp, but at the knock out stage this is a zero sum game. A team must lose.
If the investment in players continues then the intention would be to swap the money going on 'dead wood' (currently around £15m per season on wages) for decent players. As has been said on this thread, Bendtner, Denilson, Djourou and Santos etc represent the players who you can buy for 'cut price deals' which arn't competitive any more at the top end of the game but "will do". Slowly filter those guys out, re invest in players and perhaps we'll get somewhere. It's worth adding that the Emirates with the new sponsorship deal will advance some of the money for this coming summer so we can actually start to buy players of quality and do it often. The sponsor obviously wants their money to buy them positive publicity so this works well for both parties, so I certainly see this as being a change in the way the club will buy considering the club still has significant revenues.
The problem right now is the team is throwing away results like they do not give a ****, and the fans deserve better than that. The easy option is to blame the manager, pull out the old 'they arn't playing for the manager' nonsense. Perhaps that is what happens when you sell consecutive club captains (Fabregas and Van Persie) and have an inconsistent and swashbuckling club captain in Vermaelen who is a liability to the team and needs to rediscover his decision making from his first season. The leadership has to be there on the pitch as well as in the back rooms, and on the pitch the team looks all at sea.
Would they really though? Really?