Wenger in or out? Let’s end the argument today « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Over 750,000 visits per month

This site was set up with the explicit purpose of supporting Arsene Wenger. I started calling him The Lord Wenger, to emphasise the fact, and for getting on for two years there have been almost daily commentaries which support him.

But in the last few months a number of anti-Wenger commentators have joined in the debate and put their point of view most forcefully. They have been undermined slightly by the fact that one of their number (“James Le Beak”) was caught copying posts word for word from other sites, and then, on being found out submitted a series of pro-Wenger pieces to this site which made fun of the anti-Wenger group (and which I, as moderator, didn’t allow through since I thought they were taking the piss – although I am not sure who he was taking the piss of.)

What concerns me on this rather pleasant Wednesday evening, before I toddle off to the local jive club for an evening’s meander around the dance floor (wherein if I may say so, I am considered one of the best dancers in the area, and as a young lady said last week “dancing with you makes my brain hurt”), I thought I would try and wrap this all up, before it becomes too stale.

So I am going to try and summarise all the arguments. Anyone interested can pitch in, and then with the next post we can move on to something else. (I say this because it strikes me that we’ve stopped taking much notice of each other – those of us who support Wenger don’t find the opposite views of any merit, and vice versa, so we just repeat the same old ritual each day,)

The argument against the Lord Wenger is

1) He was good in the past, but has now lost it.

2) He has become stubborn, fixed in old ways and flexibility is the key to winning in modern football. In fact he has lost the winning mentality.

3) He makes the same excuses season after season about having a young squad, and how they have to be given time.

4) He has no idea how to use the transfer market. While he used to bring in bargains like Freddie, Kolo, Sol for nothing, Vieira for £3.5m, he can’t do it any more.

5) He is reluctant to change his backroom staff, whereas doing so would allow new thinking to emerge

6) He can’t see the obvious – as in that last season we needed to replace Flamini, and we need a new centre half, but he did nothing.

7) The club is going backwards, and will soon be in a position where like Ancelloti’s AC Milan this past season, we are not even in the European Cup. As evidence we were four points behind in 2008, but in 2009 are now much further behind. If he doesn’t act now then there will be a wholesale rebellion among supporters.

8) He is fanatical about signing youngsters

9) Great players are never replaced – Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp.

10) He is fixed on the issue of what he will pay for a player and will not budge.

Against that these are the arguments in favour of Wenger

1) All managers have ups and downs. The Special One at KGB Fulham was and is a great manager and gave them two league wins, but couldn’t repeat his Euro Cup victory at Porto.

2) All managers have a style – an approach – and Wenger’s is attacking fast fluid football. He used it in the unbeaten season and the two doubles, and there is no reason for it not to work again. But it takes time to put together a team that can do this.

3) Wenger has changed his ways significantly, going over to the idea of building youngsters. It is a long term project and will ultimately lead to greatness. We should not be so impatient and demand improvements each year. In the 1930s we waited for the right manager to take us forward, and again in the late 80s, and again with Wenger. Nothing happens instantly – and now the competition is greater than ever.

4) Wenger has brought in huge numbers of players – many unknown kids, some players ready to play but unknown in the UK, and often others with whom he has changed their position (think of Kolo for example). He buys when he wants, at a price he believes in – Nasri and Arshavin are two such examples in recent times.

5) Stability in the backroom team is a great benefit, and keeps the production line of youngsters coming through.

6) The fact that he will take kids and put them in the team early is the reason why all the world’s kids want to come to Arsenal.

7) If we, this week, went out and bought Fabregas, it would presumably satisfy some of the people who want us to buy now – and it would look significant at £40m or whatever the price is. The fact is we get these great players early so it doesn’t seem to count.

8) Wenger sees the obvious – but also the alternative. While many supporters wanted Flamini II, Wenger saw a different way of working the midfield – with Denilson and Song. Denilson was universally derided as lightweight but in fact became a remarkable player who has an extraordinary ability to see where the ball will be – and be there. Song was called in some quarters a player who “should never be allowed to wear the shirt again” after a poor game at Fulham. He is now see to be one of our great prospects.

9) The club is going forwards, not backwards, because we are building a team that will within the next 3 years overtake the achievements of the Invincibles. But what Wenger is doing is (for the most part) letting them grow into their roles.

10) Wenger has more than any other manager changed with the times. When he started at Arsenal he brought in players from Europe who were not being chased by other clubs. Now he finds every game has a dozen scouts, all trying to work out who the Arsenal scout is looking at. But because of the club’s reputation we can still bring in youngsters like Clichy to replace ACole, and Gibbs to cover for Clichy.

11) If Wenger goes, it is uncertain who could fill his role. The fact that Chelsea have taken on a manager who has failed for the last two years, suggests that there is a shortage. The fact that Liverpool (a club willing to mortgage is very existence on winning the league) hasn’t won it for what 19 years or something, shows that finding the right manager is hard.

12) Wenger is keeping Arsenal from falling into the financial vortex which will ultimately gobble up Manchester IOU and the like.

13) Bringing in an Arab or Russian to bankroll the club is dangerous. While it is true that Absent Abramovich is no longer so absent, there were signs last year that he could be willing to move out. The rich don’t give guarantees.

14) We have had terrible downs before. The 6-1 defeat to Manchester IOU in which we had a central defending partnership of Grimandi and that Latvian guy, was really hard to take – much more so than the defeat in the Champs League to Manchester recently. Or perhaps more particularly the home defeat to Leeds which robbed us of the league championship. The following game we beat Southampton 6-0 and that was the start of the 49. All teams get bad results – the point is to start again afterwards.

15) We have not gone backwards in the past year. Rather we suffered two awful runs of injuries. Everyone gets injuries but to lose almost the whole of the midfield, and then almost the whole of defence is quite extraordinary.

In summary, those in favour of Wenger see his underlying strategies as sound, and that all that is needed is a bit of patience. Those against feel that there is no underlying soundness, and that there are others who could do better.

Those who question Wenger believe we must have success, and that the paying customers deserve success. Those who believe in Wenger suspect that most of the critics are not gold or silver members, but are watching from a distance. Of course everyone can have their say, and everyone is entitled to an opinion, but it is interesting that those within the ground seem more positive than some of those without.

(c) Tony Attwood 2009