Merci Arsène

I feel the remark about them not winning the league from 1991 to 1998 was a little sneaky way of putting them down, might be reading too much in to it...but I have you down as a crafty mofo, so I am always on guard on everything you say

 

If Graham and his back 4 were so good that you feel the need to mention that they gave Arsène a leg up ( that he didn't need, by the way), how did we finish 10th and 12th in 2 of the 4 seasons before Arsène arrived? Answer that.

Under George Graham, our goals per game ratio was 1.14. The same back 4 under Arsène Wenger averaged 1.28 games per goal conceded, better than George Graham.

 

And Arsène reshaped that defence and made it much better. Cole had already emerged as our left back, Lauren came in (2000), Sol Campbell (2001), Toure (2002) and Lehmann (2003). This back four that Wenger rebuilt, went on to be part of the record breaking Invincibles.

 

What about 7 FA cups man. Spoilt or what. On his spend, what he achieved was ridiculous.

 

That was the basically the same backline that had won us leagues in 1989 and 1991, plus a wonderful Cup Winners Cup in 1994...as I said they needed a change, and Arsène brought a wonderful change to the team in 1996 when he arrived, but you can't deny their quality.

It was widely considered the best defense in England at the time, you couldn't ask for a better base to take over...Arsène needed to and did sort the midfield out, but that backline allowed him to focus on that as quick as he did....not taking anything away from Arsène, just acknowledging he took over a great batch of defenders in 1996.

Didn't say Arsène didn't build great defences of his own...the Double in 2002 and Invicibles of 2004 were all him...plus you could also say his Champions League run 2006 was built from the defence first with our run of clean sheets, and Kos-Per which was the building block of 3 beautiful FA cups in 4 years.

That was a tongue in cheek post, post stadium move the board didn't give Arsène the funds to truly win the league.

My main point is both Arsène and Graham are greats of this club.

 

Ermagerd reading through this thread and seeing the Wenger love is making my nips hard. Very intelligent community here.

 

Ranked in terms best ever Arsenal managers Wenger 1, Chapman 2, Arteta 3, Graham 4

 

He spent 400m in his last 3 years

 

What? Stop making stuff up.

 

4 years sorry. 2014 to 2018. He spent a stupid amount of money. Do your research.

 

Fify.

 

Pack it in man. Kos came in 2010 and was still here 9 years later. It takes years to build a squad. By 2013 when the purse strings were relaxed a little our squad was well behind the top 6 for spend.

We never caught up the top teams. Those three years you mentioned, City spent more in one of those years than us in all 3. CIES publish the cost of all 25 players in squads every year and Wenger got up to 5th by the time he left.

You only think Arsenal spent stupid money because you're comparing it to the pocket money your dad's giving you.

 

Welcome bro, great username!

 

Klopp spent less and managed to build a CL and title winning squad in that time. We were well placed multiple times to challenge and never bought the right players.

Arsenal spent enough money to do something decent, if you dont think that's enough money to build a good side then wow.

 

Wenger didn't use agents hence why he only managed to sign one other world class player after alexis sanchez. After selling Sanchez for Mikky

His transfers were so poor it hurts my brain.

 

Firstly Wenger did need that leg up. He's acknowledged it himself. Not just because they were great defenders but because they set the tone for the club, managed the dressing room and played a massive part in the education of the Wenger signings. This has been repeated by all involved at the time.

How did we finish 10th & 12th? Similar to now, injuries and sales robbed us of all our best midfielders and those signed instead were not of the same standard. Also Graham became much more defensive, and in those two seasons all the non Ian Wright goals dried up. in 93 we also won two cups (so had lots of extra games with a small squad) and in 95, we similarly went to the cup winners cup final and had good cup runs (in both seasons we had multiple players with over 50 games played) and George had started to lose the dressing room, and then there was all the speculation and ultimately his sacking.

Main things were crap midfield, strikers other than wright losing form, senior players massively overplayed.

 

Obvs Arteta is a joke, but yes Wenger deserves to be ahead of Graham, although Graham's achievements are so often overlooked. Turned a bunch of unproven kids and lower division journeymen into double league champions, 3 domestic cup winners and a european trophy winner, and on a shoestring budget for the most part.

As for Chapman vs anyone else, I can't say as too long before I was born, but he did take over a team that had never done anything and within 4 years turned it into the best team in the country, winning the club's first 4 trophies before dying, leaving a dominant team after him. Probably more impressive was his other visionary stuff, which made him the most innovative manager in English football history. New tactics, new rules, new facilities, greater professionalism, shirt numbers, floodlights, foreign players etc etc (half of which were blocked by the cretins in the FA). If they'd had European competition, Arsenal would have chalked up a few trophies in the 30s as they routinely beat overseas teams in exhibitions.

 

I think Georgie was a better manager than Wenger.

Imagine Arteta winning us the league in 21/22. That's effectively what Stroller did for us in the late 80s.

 

They did something decent, they always made top 4 and won numerous FA Cups. They just couldn't break the dominance of the oligarch clubs spending 1o or 11 times what Arsenal did.

After 2015/16 when Wenger finished 2nd, he matched Klopp even with all the fan unrest on his back. They finished only 1 point apart. Wenger winning yet another cup too.

After that, the rest is history. Klopp was given a massive present in the sale of Coutinho and Wenger and his team were finished off with planes, boycotts, social media rants, and protests which paralysed the club. And here we are.

 

Yeah, maybe his nutritional diet of 5 pints a night is where we're going wrong. Xhaka might move a bit quicker.