The decline of Arsenal FC

[Phil71]

Never forget the "fourth place trophy". It was that kind of money orientated mentality that got us into this shit.

AW covered for an incompetent board for far too long, and was happy to do so. We are now reaping those fruits.

The problem was Wenger's multiple roles. He had partial responsibility for the club's finances as well as footballing responsibilities. That was a conflict of interest.

Finishing 4th was never enough for his footballing desires, but it was excellent for the club's finances.

His desire for financial fair play also suited the owners down to the ground. It meant he'd never ask them for more money.

[Luzh 22]

Finishing 4th was never enough for his footballing desires, but it was excellent for the club's finances.

I have no issue with any other part of your post, except that sentence right there. That is plain revisionism.

It was more than enough for his footballing desires. So much so, he tried to legitimise it by calling it a "trophy". Truth is, somewhere along the way, football achievements started to mean less to AW than monetary achievements.

[Power n Glory]

Finishing 4th was never enough for his footballing desires, but it was excellent for the club's finances.

I have no issue with any other part of your post, except that sentence right there. That is plain revisionism.

It was more than enough for his footballing desires. So much so, he tried to legitimise it by calling it a "trophy". Truth is, somewhere along the way, football achievements started to mean less to AW than monetary achievements.

Yep. Wenger didn’t have the fight in him to change the culture of the club. I also can't understand why he seemed reluctant to freshen up the backroom staff and have take more ex players in under his wing.

[Phil71]

Finishing 4th was never enough for his footballing desires, but it was excellent for the club's finances.

I have no issue with any other part of your post, except that sentence right there. That is plain revisionism.

It was more than enough for his footballing desires. So much so, he tried to legitimise it by calling it a "trophy". Truth is, somewhere along the way, football achievements started to mean less to AW than monetary achievements.

I guess we disagree then.

I don't think he ever lost his desire for footballing success. The CL is the Eldorado that every club seeks to gain, and he secured it every year bar two. No matter how anyone might try to belittle it, that was a terrific achievement, and one that any one of our fans would be delighted to get next season.

[Luzh 22]

Careful putting words in my mouth. I never said he lost his footballing desires, I said they were superseded. Footballing achievements were a secondary consideration in his later years at Arsenal. Money became king of football, and so too did it become AW's prime motivation and "yard stick" of success.

[Phil71]

You need money for success in the modern game. His desire to make the club richer was based on a desire for footballing success.

The problem was that when he saw the need for further investment he looked in the coffer and decided for himself that it couldn't be done. There is the conflict of interest. If he hadn't had the financial responsibilities he could have been knocking on the chairman's door and saying if they wanted footballing success they needed to give him more money - and let them decide whether they have it or not.

[Santi]

Do agree that wenger started this spiral but I also think we’d be battling chelsea and West Ham had he been here right now and used the funds unai and Mikel had.

Problem was, that wasn’t good enough anyway and now it’s a distant dream.

[Luzh 22]

But he never. He was the one who decided the cash was the most important aspect. In the battle of the conflict of interests, cash became his highest priority.

Therefore, going back to my original post, it is clear to see his complicity in the situation we now find ourselves in.

He was in a unique position to arrest the decline. Instead, he inadvertently embraced it.

[Santi]

Finishing 4th was never enough for his footballing desires, but it was excellent for the club's finances.

I have no issue with any other part of your post, except that sentence right there. That is plain revisionism.

It was more than enough for his footballing desires. So much so, he tried to legitimise it by calling it a "trophy". Truth is, somewhere along the way, football achievements started to mean less to AW than monetary achievements.

I guess we disagree then.

I don't think he ever lost his desire for footballing success. The CL is the Eldorado that every club seeks to gain, and he secured it every year bar two. No matter how anyone might try to belittle it, that was a terrific achievement, and one that any one of our fans would be delighted to get next season.

I agree, I think we gets downfall was being realistic with where we could get to and trying to portray it as acceptable. He’s the type of guy who will take the fall and never sell out the people he fell for and that caused his to be the hate figure more so than the board.

He’s nowhere near as delusional as his interviews and latter years make him out to be, he just played the role and ultimately fell below that minimum standard he had set.

You could see on the sidelines it was never enough, the man felt every frustration we did and it must’ve been killing him to stay in that job tbh. I hate how people still have so much hate for the guy who did everything he could for the club, one day I hope people will understand it. He would’ve died for Arsenal to win the PL again, unfortunately all it would’ve taken was a striker in 2015/16 but who was to know at the time.

[Santi]

But he never. He was the one who decided the cash was the most important aspect. In the battle of the conflict of interests, cash became his highest priority.

Therefore, going back to my original post, it is clear to see his complicity in the situation we now find ourselves in.

He was in a unique position to arrest the decline. Instead, he inadvertently embraced it.

How can this and the ‘he spent 9000000m on mustafi Xhaka etc’ both be true?

There wasn’t much problem with our spending power in his latter years, it was merely the quality of targets we were spending on and our shit negotiating team. Imagine we had signed Kante like he wanted instead of Xhaka for the same price? Our club would be hugely different just from that 1 purchase ffs.

[Luzh 22]

Last I saw, he wanted to hold onto that job at all costs.

Let us not be fooled, he was happy with the way the club was being run. He was not shy to say how he felt and if he thought saying something would jeopardise his position, he would remain absolutely silent on the matter, like he did so many times. Did he do that? No he didn't. Worse, he made up excuses and "trophies" to cover his and the boards tracks.

[Santi]

Can’t be arsed, you’ll be one of the sad sacks celebrating when this guy dies.

He gave everything to us and in the end it didn’t work out, now it’s even worse. Let the hate go.

[Phil71]

He was loyal to his employer. The people that were paying his wages. He didn't think it was appropriate to criticise them publicly.

There's nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to remain as manager of a club you love.

[Luzh 22]

Can’t be arsed, you’ll be one of the sad sacks celebrating when this guy dies.

He gave everything to us and in the end it didn’t work out, now it’s even worse. Let the hate go.

Not even worth replying to this.

[Luzh 22]

He was loyal to his employer. The people that were paying his wages. He didn't think it was appropriate to criticise them publicly.

There's nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to remain as manager of a club you love.

But he was complicit. It's OK saying "he didn't want to criticise his employers in public" - but he didn't do it in private either. Worse, he was publicly supportive, and judging by his actions, one can only assume he was supportive in private too. Well, until him and Gazidis came to logger heads anyway.