So as each game comes and goes, it looks increasingly likely Wenger will not be our manager next season. As fans, where do you think we should go from here?
First of all we need some clarity on what is happening with Wenger’s situation. If he’s staying then unforunately there looks like there won’t be much change - in fact it could end up doing some proper long term damage that may take a while to recover from.
If and when he decides to announce his departure, obviously the first thing will be to identify a manager who can take the reigns and get us pointed in the right direction.
Do you think there should be any structural changes with the organisation of the club, maybe bring in a Director of Sport to aid the new manager and identify some much needed targets to bolster the squad?
Current squad - mass exodus of players who are clearly not up for a title challenge? Or players who are not good enough or have gotten way too complacent in a comfortable Arsenal environment where all players are pampered and praised even after shite performances…?
Our ambitions and targets - We may need to switch up our objectives for the next two seasons. Top 4 may not even be a realistic target depending on players who come and go, and the manager that is appointed. As we’ve seen with United, it’s not easy to pick up where you left off after a long term manager.
Players - which players would you keep and which would you get rid of asap?
The club is probably in it’s most complex position it has been in the last 10 years or so. We are heading into unknown territory for a lot of us, including the board. So where do we go from here, what is the plan in your opinion?
It all depends on the manager we get if Wenger leaves and if Arséne stays, then we can talk about our future. The manager is the most important role in the Premier League.
Anything without Wenger is better than anything with him and that’s also the case if we spend another few seasons outside the top four. This monotony has to end even if we appoint the wrong man and we spend many more years rebuilding.
@Midfield_Maestro what makes you think it’s increasingly likely Wenger won’t be our manager next season ? I think it’s more likely he will be because if he wasn’t now would be a good time to come out and announce it to ease some tension.
I am increasingly thinking he will stay… he is just too stubborn to give in now… my hope is that Sanchez plus falling out of top 4 might just push him over the edge (or it could have the opposite effect)… to me the ideal scenario is that we clutch onto top 4, win the FA Cup, and AW uses that as a way to ride out on a high - seems like Sanchez will be gone no matter what, so hopefully we get a lot of money for him to help the next manager.
Anyway, I think AW/Arsenal will announce a 3 year contract once we right the ship.
I just feel he’s gone too far to right his wrongs. Of course there’s a possibility he will stay, but another season like this will cause to much animosity.
Re: this part of your post, I can’t decide whether Wenger staying or him leaving would result in the bigger / more damaging player turnover really, I can see logic in both.
I suppose if he stays then all the dross breathe a collective sigh of relief, while that bad disruptive influence () Sanchez might be the only significant exit
If Wenger goes then the comfort blanket is thrown off all these players that have been for years. If there’s too big a gap between Wenger’s announcement and the confirmed replacement then you have a opening of uncertainty where someone worth hanging onto like Bellerin or Iwobi could be convinced to jump ship.
I presume this won’t happen tho and the process will be fairly seamlessly worked out internally, i.e. Talks wrapped up with Allegri, squad get informed as soon as practically possible, Wenger gives his announcement, Allegri becomes official, whole mood around the club improves, Allegri gets an early summer head start on transfer targets
^^ this is probably a dead giveaway that I’m almost 100% convinced that the guy can’t possibly sign another deal, so my thought process is always working from the Leave scenario
Install a DoF to spearhead player recruitment and purchasing: One of the reasons we ended up in this mess was Arsene accumulating too much power. We should never put the club in the situation where one person has all of that control. The business of football (yuck) is just too important to ignore. A manager should not be involved with negotiating transfer fees or wages.
Allow the DoF to fire everyone and anyone who has up until this point been involved with transfer negotiations: Dick Law has become a joke in recent seasons and while he’s probably a pretty good contract negotiator, a club’s transfer fixer should not have his name in the paper. Ever. Whoever the new DoF is should have the power to fire anyone involved with transfers and bring in their own people, if they want to.
Allow the DoF to have some input in who the new manager is: It does no good to hire a DoF and then hire a manager who hate each other or can’t work well together. It should be important to make sure both the manager and DoF can work together and know that they don’t answer to each other. They both should answer to the Board.
Figure Out if We’re Going to be Bayern (haha) or Napoli: What I mean by that is, are we going to spend our way into superpower status or are we going to become a firmly established second tier club with a decent eye for bringing young players in but ultimately outside of the top clubs. If the Board and Ownership want to be Bayern then we’re going to have to spend a shit ton of money on established players, up and coming players and be ruthless when it comes to moving under performing players away from the club. If we want to be Napoli or Udinese or Bilbao then we can concentrate on our academy (i.e.: Bilbao or Udinese style) or do what de Laurentiis has claimed he’s going to do at Napoli after selling Higuain, buy a ton of young players, tie them down to contracts and then eventually move them on for big time cash. Either way Arsenal have to figure out what kind of club they want to be.
Balance the First Team: The squad is a mess. It may not have been clear at the start of the season but things are not good. Obviously Ozil and Alexis have their contract issues but so to Ox, Cazorla, Jack, Woj, etc., etc. Part of how we got in this place is 110% Arsene’s fault because of how much control he has over the squad. The new manager and new DoF have to get together and figure out who gets moved on, then the DoF figures out how to move those players on. We need to fix the way the club handles contracts both dishing them out to academy graduates and structuring wages for incoming big name players. No more of this bullshit socialist wage structure policy. I love it in my politics but not in my football.
i dont want us too be In a situation where we lose wenger and we turn into united when they lost fergie and chasing top 6 however i cannot deal with wenger for a further year and to see our season over by February each time.
we need to face facts and ozil and sanchez will be out the door in the summer and we need to bring some good players in and get rid off the dead weight
this would mean alot of change in a short space of time - is it worth sacrificing next year changing the club for future success ?? - i would be happy to wait if we were making PROGRESS
then their is a question of who replaces wenger ?
the real issue are our boards policies and wage structures - if wenger is gone this will not change ??
too many unanswered questions however bottom line is wenger needs to go.
I’m tired of the “we might end up like United when they lost Fergie” stuff.
We won’t hire David Moyes. We’ll hire a good manager. And secondly, the difference in quality and level of success between the two is such that when we lose Wenger we are not losing a title winning manager we are losing a manager who’s essentially kept us in the same place for 11 years.
I don’t fear losing Wenger. We are one of the worlds wealthiest clubs. We are not an over achieving mid table team. We are one of the most successful clubs in English football history.
Wenger needs to go, his vanity project needs to be wiped from the club.
We’re making enough profit that we can spend like 80m per year without selling players. Maybe less if we want to start paying higher wages.
A stupid policy this club has is not treating our players as valuable assets and moving them on. There’s never been any notion of paying £50m for a top midfielder and selling Ramsey for £30m to cover a chunk of it. It’ll just be we don’t want to spend 50 million and we’d rather not lose Ramsey. Just because a player isn’t good enough for Arsenal doesn’t mean they aren’t still worth money to someone. I bet we’d get 10m from a club like Palace for Coquelin, 20m from a club like Liverpool for Szczesny and 25m from a club like West Ham for Chamberlain. It feels like we’ll just hold on to players forever or until their contract ends.
This isn’t a policy from the board, it comes from Wenger and his insidious leftist social democratic views.
Offering our best players more is easier to do when you don’t have average squad players on 50,60,70k. It balances out with those who are more valuable on more money and those who aren’t on less.
The wage structure is something which will definitely change post Wenger
@BigWeng_4LYFE where was the post where you were talking about the board? I can’t find it so ill just reply to it here.
I think an important point is that Wenger was actually present when Gazidis was interviewed for the chief executive job. I think that shows where the power really is. Wenger has a say in almost everything, since he is the longest serving guy involved in running the club too, sonce Dein left.
Not denying the fact that its Wenger because it does sound like a structure he would employ. But is there any evidence to suggest it isn’t the board’s doing? How is the manager allowed to impose such a policy, this sort of thing should be implemented at the top level…unless Wenger IS the top level.
It’s symbolic of the power Wenger has at this club. I can safely say Wenger is in full control of ALL football related matters at Arsenal. I have not seen any evidence whatsoever to dispute this yet there’s tons of quotes from senior figures and Wenger himself confirming his extensive control
The board simply let Wenger do what he wants because their intimidated by the length of his spell here and the fact that he was keeping the club consistent at the top end of the table for so long.
The Arsenal board have always been traditionally conservative, they turned a blind eye when Graham routinely low balled players during contract negotiations with take it or leave it offers.
Apparently for a board that only cares about making money you honesty think they care about Wenger’s leftist Humanist wage BS? Wenger used his stature at the club to make it happen. I guarantee the second Wenger goes we’ll move far away from ideals on wage and alot of other issues, the new gaffer will push much harder to have his best assets on more money and will compensate by putting squad players on less.
) Sanchez might be the only significant exit