View From The Sphere

What to do with Arsene Wenger?

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From the outset, it is important not to be reactive and suggest that Arsenal need to reconsider the future of the man currently at the helm. He has brought the club much success and has completely re-invented the way in which Arsenal play; something which shall be his legacy, and shall never be forgotten at the North London club.

There are worries though, mainly linked with his state of mind. On the bench, he cuts a more and more anguished figure as the game progresses, and one fears for his health. Every game seems to be torture for him, and he has recently stated that he struggles sleeping at night as a result of the strain placed upon him by his job.

Whilst his role in the club is one which creates much stress naturally, one cannot help but feel that he places a lot of pressure on himself which only makes the situation worse. Wenger will never blame his team, only himself. Every obstacle the team fails to overcome is looked upon as a personal failure as opposed to a short-coming of the team. The Carling Cup howler between Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny was ignored by Wenger when another manager may well have just been up front and admitted that the culpability lay solely at their feet.

This is admirable in a way, but potentially damaging to the team. If the players persistently feel blameless, then will they ever up their game at crucial times? The answer to that would always appear to be negative. However, the biggest issue is how the manager acts on the side-line. Whilst it would seem essential to portray an image of confidence, Wenger is throwing water-bottles aside when decisions go the other way, and uses the fourth official as a verbal punching bag.

Confidence is hardly evoked by such behaviour, and as points slip away, Wenger’s reactions become more and more angry and extreme. He needs a break, and it is as simple as that. Whilst a man in his position needs to keep track of everything going on in the world game, he needs to complete his summer dealings early, and give himself two months off from the game. One could perhaps point to the lack of a tactician as an assistant as a reason for which Wenger is so unwilling to delegate, and this could be a position which is subtly strengthened in the summer.

Wenger is still the right man for the job, and any Arsenal fan of more than five years will be aware that clubs go through transition periods, and when such a time comes in which a new stadium is built and finances are scarce, the barren spell lasts longer than one would hope.

Change needs to come, but nothing too drastic. Wenger deserves more than that.

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12 comments

  • Bob says:

    he wont change mate, hes already said as much. he didnt change 2 seasons ago the blindingly obvious.

    why wait? if its for one more season then only to wait for Pep !

  • ne says:

    agree, one last chance for him to correct it. but he also need to make sure that he do it the rite way, or else i could see him regretting it for his whole life.

  • pritpal singh says:

    We only suffered bacause of our defensive lapses. our defenders repeatidly let us down in every competition. We are not as bad a team as some critics suggest, for look at the number of goals we scored. We only need a couple of experienced center backs plus a goalkeeper.

  • Okey Onwuagha says:

    For 6 years we have done it Arsene’s way without any reasonable result. It is now time to try other ways of doing it. If Arsene and his “young” team take 20 years to learn madness, how many years will it take them to practice madness?. It will be absolute stupidity to think that this man has any more thing to add than more misery to us fans. Applying the same solution to a problem and expecting a different result is a clear sign of madness and intellectual timidity.

  • Samuel Wilson says:

    Well let me take a lil time and try post my true feelings, a lil soul searching for myself in this.
    We are the only top flight club to build a new state of the art Stadium in recent years, also in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Business wise we are VERY lucky to be in our financial position and keep our on the pitch competitiveness. We have also been up against clubs being bought by the richest families on the planet who have pumped vast amounts into their teams (pet projects). Clubs who have spent half a billion pounds more than us on their squads including wages. I can assure you if Wenger had those resources we would have destroyed the world no question! The money those clubs pay their players is ethically inappropriate to the world we live in. So for me Arsenal follow the line of my heart on that note and im happy i support a club following a unique vision and doing it well! We play a beautiful style which needs only a few last pieces to the puzzle and i, like many pEOple, are getting frustrated with the unwillingness to buy these key final players. We deserve the money we brought in from Kolo and Ade! we also should sell, Bendtner, (send on loan or sell as im tired of waiting for him to come good) Denilson, (not good enough) Rosicky (even tho he is a tidy player hes not cutting edge). players like Squillaci, Eboue and chamakh should be kept incase of injury and thats it. once Vermaelen is back we can have djourou who has stepped up a bit fight with koscielny for the other spot (healthy competition). Fab as sad as it makes me to say this, has to go, hes too comfortable with himself, hes too soft, he isnt a leader, Vieira would NEVER have left a field with his head on the floor like he did against tottenham (lower cap lol), (i was there i saw him). Vieira would have gone in with a head of concentrated anger and given a speech of hard facts with the light at the end of the tunnel that tomorrow we crack on! Lets get 50 mil for him (id take 40 now) .
    we should then have a lil over 100 million from the selling of who i said, the 40 from Cesc and the 40 from ade and kolo. I will say we need a world class striker, a huge center back (over 6’3) and a midfielder of mega strength speed and grit with a damn good technique (which is not too much to ask they are out there!!!) who we can deploy against these long ball teams. With the usual yearly transfer budget we should get too (like other clubs) we could spend 30 mil on each 3 players leaving us with 3o mil for their wages.
    We have had key decisions cost us vital points there is no doubt about that but i think those things even themselves out over the season all teams have lost points due to officials.
    or we can wait for pep to bring messi for our fresh challenge, spend 100 mil on cristiano and bobs your uncle 🙂

    All in all our squad is very young and just just just away from silverware, Closer every season, i Hope Wenger is saying we wont buy to call a bluff on the purchasing power we really have saved.

  • NefariousGooner says:

    Delusional! Wenger won’t change, end of story. To all the Wenger die hards, it’s time to wake up. His success came with a largely inherited squad, full of seasoned experienced big game players, a defensive back line that was respected.
    Since his “experiment” to win with kids, after letting quality proven players leave year after year because they were on the wrong side of 30 we have won bugger all. He refuses to spend to fill gaps in the squad that need proven players, and it dosent appear he is going to change this any time soon. Not to have brought in a keeper at the last transfer window was bordering on criminal! And then he has to go get mad Lens in as an emergency replacement. That’s just one example of many where he hasn’t updated the squad when it was needed.
    He is now just being stubborn, arrogant and pig headed not to admit his failings. Everyone can see where the gaps in the squad are, what we need to bring in and who needs to go except him.
    Sure Arsenal are pretty to watch, great build up play, precision passing, but what counts is putting the ball into the back of the net. How many chances do they need per game, but they want to walk it into the goal, take a shot already!
    Defensively we have been very poor, and all fans get a sick feeling every time there is a set piece or corner, here we go again!
    The experiment has failed, time to move on Wenger.

  • Dan says:

    What to do with Arsene Wenger? How much will the Russians charge to blast him to the dark side of the Moon?

    WENGER OUT! KLOPP IN!

  • ken says:

    Join the spend or go prostest at the ems this weekend

  • Gavin says:

    Great article. Well thought Out, to the point and sums up my own thoughts exactly.

    These fans who want we wengers head are the same fans who were singing his praises 6 weeks ago.

    A real shame this season though, it just feels like we are so so clode. Tv5 back + cb + defensive mf all that is needed in my opinion. I think gk position will be ok next season between chezza and fabianski. (bring on the critics)

  • Aussie Jack says:

    Wenger is a professional and as such knows what he must do. He`s probably battling with his pride and his stubborness won`t let go.
    One more season Arsene for old times sake, make the most of it, and good luck.

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