Well, if anyone still clung to hope that we might still climb a bit higher in the Prem, Liverpool’s win over Sunderland all but seals the deal. Having played the same number of matches as Chelsea and Liverpool, we’re six and five points behind them, respectively, but they might each be playing for second place, as the inside track looks to belong to Man City, who are three points ahead of us, and they have two games in hand. This would give them enough to establish a three-point lead over Chelsea, a four-point lead over Liverpool, and a nine-point lead over us. In short, the writing’s on the wall, and it’s telling us that 4th place is our target. That, and the FA Cup. What’s left, then? Well, if we’re not going to win the Prem, someone has to. Might as well be Liverpool, if only by default. Did I ever mention that I’m a spiteful, bitter man? Well, I am. I can’t stand the thought of Chelsea or Man City winning it, and I’ll be rooting against them with all my heart. If this means I end up rooting for Liverpool, well, so be it.
However, spite by itself is a fickle beast, and I have to admit, I feel the need to put some lipstick on a cocktail dress on it if only to convince myself that there’s more to my motivations than that spite. Lucky for me, there plenty of rationalizations and justifications of varying degrees of legitimacy from which to choose, so let’s bang them out now, shall we?
- Oil MoneyPure and simple. Black gold. Texas tea. Um, oil. As we all well-know, Chelsea and City are bankrolled by oil barons so wealthy that it almost defies description. The real wonder of it is how they’ve resisted splurging even more than they already have on players. Maybe they want to enjoy the semblance of the thrill of the chase? After all, Abramovich is the beggar of the two with a net-worth of some £10 billion. Apparently, his portfolio has taken a bit of a beating. Still, he could probably scrape together a few shekels to spruce up the squad a bit. By comparison, Sheikh Mansour and his family’s net worth of some £90 billion simply defies comprehension. Why haven’t they each gone out and just bought a bunch of players, if only to let them sit on the bench just in case they’re needed? To put it in perspective, Mansour could spend 0.01% of his net worth on players, and this would amount to some £95m. Without thinking longer than you or I might think about buying a pint, he could go and spend nearly £100m on a couple of players (thank this guy for putting it in those terms). Abramovich might have to dig a little deeper to spend a similar amount, say, 0.009% of his worth, but I hardly think he’d be troubled by that.
- Defections
Look, we all know that player-movement is fact of modern footballing, but the ease with which Chelsea and Man City have poached players infuriates me. Cole. Nasri. Clichy. These are just the former players. How many would-be Gunners were enticed to move to Stamford Bridge or the Etihad by the fatter transfer-fees and wages, not to mention the near-guarantee of silverware available by playing for, or at least being entertained by, the deepest squads in football? Mata. Hazard. Ba. Jovetic. Lukaku. The list goes on, but the real kicker is those players who were Gunners but left. Cole seems to have started it all, and of course, the manner of his departure is vintage Cole dirt-baggery. Is it any wonder though that so many have found greener pastures? After all, each of them has found glory in shorter order than they had in their times at the Emirates (except Cole, of course, who won his early on in his stay). Heck, there’s now talk of Sagna entertaining an offer from Man City. Why? Do they not have enough right-backs as it is with Richards and Zabaleta, or enough center-backs in Kompany, Nastasic, Lescott, and Demichelis?
- The C*nt factor
This one, I’ll admit, resurrects spite and refers almost solely to Jose Mourinho. I cannot stand the man. His petty mind-games, his pretentious false humility, his claims of being special. Yes, I get it. He’s a diabolical genius, but his record is inflated by his extensive reliance on the first point I was making. The money, in case you forgot. He struts and frets about on the stage, pretending that he’s the poor little underdog pony, all the while “managing” squads so stocked with talent that even I could wring a trophy or two out of them: “You there, number 7. Ronald, is it? Score a goal [pause]. See? I told him to do that.” And so on. Of course, at Chelsea, I have to add to the list the aforementioned Cole, but also Terry and Ramires. Hate ’em. Admittedly, this element is not quite as pronounced over at Man City, but Nasri somehow seems to deputize well enough for me. Again, rooting against certain individuals is something I derive perverse pleasure from—and I’m proud of that. Hating them, seeing them deprived of pleasure, seeing them experience humiliations galore, even pain, these are delicious feelings for me.
I hope I’m making myself clear. I can’t see the season end with either of these clubs on top. I just can’t. It’s irrational and primal, and I nurture it as Gollum does that ring of his.
So who am I left with? Well, I guess it has to be Liverpool. By default. The two sweetest words in the English language. De. Fault. If you’re not chanting that mentally, you’re mental. Moving on, I have to swallow hard and get imaginative here. After all, by rooting for Liverpool, I have to permit Luis Suarez, whom I spent the summer braying we shouldn’t sign at any price, to win silverware and qualify finally for the Champions League. Well, it looks like I was wrong. I’m used to the feeling; don’t fret. I called for him to have another meltdown and get banned from football, and it hasn’t happened. Instead, he’ll finally get the validation he needs to sweep all of that biting and racism and diving under the rug. As long as he’s getting into the Champions League, well, he might as well win the Prem in the process. It could happen to a nicer guy.
More seriously, though, I can throw my support behind Liverpool with the smug knowledge that I can twist it like a knife in the Spuds’ sides. See, for those of you newer to the rivalry, Liverpool played a small role in helping us get promoted to the First Division in 1919, relegating Tottenham to the Second Division in the process. Therefore, supporting Liverpool is, in a round-about way, a poke in the eye to all those Spuds, a way of saying “thanks for 1919”. Heck, if we can’t win, I might as well look for the spite. It’s the silver-lining on a cloudy day.
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nice try gooner but you will have to bask in our glory, it's the best you can do to hitch your wengerwagon to us. it's as close as your gonna get. have fun holding off everton!sincerely,scousers everywhere
What is Usmanov's profession?? How much is his net worth?? What is the net worth of Steve kroenke??
Too much money is the main cancer in football.We must fight to erase it.
Too much money is the main cancer in football.We must fight to erase it.
Too much money is the main cancer in football.We must fight to erase it.
2 weeks ago Arsenal were top. Now they could be fighting for 4th.Regardless of what happens this season,Wenger shd go and let another guy take over. Most fans have lost faith that he will ever take the necessary steps to make the gunners competitive.The md is overflowing with creative players and yet he is still looking for similar type. I don't know.In 1998 he got Petit and Arsenal went on to win the title. As someone said,he is a one trick pony. When the other team stops Arsenal playing like POOl and Chelsea,the gunners are at a loss. This is irresponsible and Wenger shd pay the price for repeated failures.
Yeah you might want to remember that next time Arsenal open a mega store in Thailand or increase their season tickets by £20k
Yeah you might want to remember that next time Arsenal open a mega store in Thailand or increase their season tickets by £20k
there's a difference between being owned by a wealthy plutocrat and bankrolled. we're blessed/cursed with owners who are not nearly as aggressive in spending money on players. Arsene also insists on not spending, whether that's good or bad is a different matter.
The issue is the lack of progression and competitiveness of the team. The failings are familiar; we have reached another circular groundhog day moment where the club bombs out of a title challenge. The lessons remain unlearnt- 8-2 v Man U, the Pool and Chelski games were all groundhog moments. A good manager would not allow that to happen twice under his stewardship- let alone 3 times (and Im being charitable with the Citeh score as that could of ended 6-6). The injury record is appalling- a top manager would not let that continue and would look to rectify it (at its simplest by building a squad to he didn’t have to flog players into the ground into the inevitably get injured). The tactical failings continue to underpin performance. We are out-fought, out-thought and ultimately out-classed against top-quality opposition time and time again. You bring up the past- but it is your blinkered misty-eyed staring into the past that clouds your judgement of the present. Arsenal is a club that is in dire need of modernising from a management perspective. Which is as equally sad and ironic given that was the status-quo that AW found all those years ago. The problems at Man U has not been from a succession of management- it has been from a poor succession of management. The two are not synonymous- history books tell us that. I refuse to submit to the view that things must get worse because he leaves. Why? I rarely contribute here because I find it as pointless rationalising with the blindly-loyal as I do with the blindly dis-loyal. Where objectivity departs so too does credibility. This article is another tirade against those that dare to criticise the manager- rather than dealing with any of the issues it looks to stereotype and badge those making the criticisms. It offers nothing constructive or insightful; it just seeks to reinforce this sites whole modus-operandi- defending Wenger. One article I have never read is this; “At what point would I sack AW?” What is your threshold for saying enough-is-enough? What about a 5th placed finish? 3 consecutive 5th place finishes? No trophy for 10 years? 15 years? 20 years? Relegation? At what point do you concede that its not good enough Tony? Or will that destroy too much intellectual-capital that you now have invested in AW? Here’s another article I have never read here: “We will win the EPL in the next 3 years under AW. Here’s why & how”. Again, that would be moving away too much from defending mediocrity- an admission of failure. No, far better to defend repeated failure- perhaps rebranding it as partial-success. I see the same state of affairs now as I did with George Graham all those years ago. I had grown up though the 70′s watching limited success (granted, it was a trophy-fest compared to the last 9 years) and the guy came into the club like a breath of fresh air. He made the club competitive again- before the game caught up with him as his ideas stagnated. I felt that we’d never get another manager as good as George and was proven very wrong. The question is no longer if Wenger goes its when. The club is at a crossroads- he has led us into the promised land (as far as financing is concerned)- can he deliver a team to compete over the next decade? I don’t think so. That is all. No ‘AAA’. No undermining of the club. No pride in the decision. Just a simple belief that AW has run his course. The club needs to move forward as it has done throughout its proud history- now is the time. My biggest hope for the coming season is that he can hold onto 4th, win the FA Cup and then depart on his own terms with that as an epitaph.
thanks for the thoughtfulness and extent of your reply. I'll admit that I'm guiltier than I'd like to admit of defending Wenger. If you read my post-Swansea piece, you'll see that I'm at a tipping point (finally, you might be thinking). It saddens me that the way that AW revolutionized Arsenal was then copied so quickly by–and accelerated through the aggressive spending of–other clubs.I'd like to say I'm not blindly loyal. Maybe that's precisely what a blindly loyal fan would say. I will say I agree with you. Change is needed, whether it's in the transfer-market, on the pitch, maybe even at the managerial level. If that last part comes through–4th place and the FA Cup–maybe this is a fitting send-off. I would hate for him to slink away because we crash out on both accounts.Last thought–you've suggested two articles. Interested in penning one yourself? I wouldn't want to steal your thunder!
I post on a sporadic masis my friedn and penning an article at present will only add salt to the wounds. I enjoy reading your reviews so let’s keep the status quo…for now. And hope that Arsenal’s fortunes can take an upsurge.
@ AnonymousMarch 27, 2014 at 6:52 AMDid you sleep through Chelsea and City spending Billions of un earned money on players? Did you think for one second committing £500 Million on a new stadium during a recession, and at the same time the ‘Oil money’ arrived, wasn’t going to have at least a little impact on our ability to compete at the very top? As for what Arsenal, Wenger and us fans wish and hope for. What do you want them/us to say? Theres no hope? Lets all throw in the towel? Don’t be so ridiculous. Of course we all want to win EVERYTHING. I’m sure that’s the intention at the start of every season. That’s also the intention of City. Chelsea. Man Utd. Liverpool. Even Spurs. BUT, and it’s a big BUT. We are competing against the BIGGEST Club in the World in Man Utd, and 2 Clubs in City and Chelsea with UNLIMITED budgets. Do you not get that. I’ll say it again. UNLIMITED budgets. If you cannot grasp the enormity of trying to compete against Clubs operating under such conditions that is sad. No one says Wenger is perfect. I certainly do not. But nor was Fergie. Nor is Jose. Nobody is. But I do not judge Arsenal, Wenger, United, Fergie, Chelsea, Jose, etc. etc. on individual decisions, games, even seasons, but on the ‘bigger picture’. And the ‘bigger picture’ is competing with oil rich Clubs with un limited budgets is an impossibility. You can point to errors, poor tactics, bad buys, anything you want (All are true with regards to all managers since football began) but it doesn’t change the fact that my mum could take a football club to the PL title with an unlimited budget. If you think otherwise then that’s up to you.
Was online and just saw this. In reply, well, Liverpool have progressed this season- that’s for sure. They are not doing a bad job of competing without CL money- let alone oil-money. No guarantee that they’ll be able to build on it next season- but I wouldn’t bet against it. And Ferguson managed to a pretty decent job of fighting the oil-money didn’t he? And you mention how hard it is for us to compete. It would be a decent start for us to try to compete- having the amount of resources we have sat as cash with the same recurring problems is negligence. Failure is not the issue- failure to try is. People point to Ozil. A great player, but was spending £40m on another creative midfielder precisely what the club needed to progress? Management of any description is about getting the best out of your available resources. Has AW done that? No- simple as that. The bigger picture is this: we have the same failings now as we did 5 years ago. Some of the players may have changed- but the failing-ideology and problems are not. AW is proud that his approach hasn’t changed in 15 years. He has gone from visionary to dinosaur in management style. His competitive edge when he arrived- style of football, approach to transfers, approach to fitness, approach to training, etc, is now his Achilles heel. The world has moved on- it is time we did. If you think otherwise then that’s up to you.
Just to add I still support him. I want to see him leave on a high. I don’t want it to end the way it did with George. I want him to ride off into the sunset with old-big ears on the table and the 4th place trophy that he covets. He is an undeniably a proud man- I want him to be able to retain that with his head held high. Equally, I am not frightened by the future without AW- in fact its because of his work that my optimism for the future is so high. The club is is a fantastic position compared to when he arrived: historians will look to his spending (surplus) in the transfer market and the Emirates Stadium build as one of the defining moments in our history. Ultimately, people will look back on his time as a success. However, his success from the last half has been off the pitch: for the future, we need someone with the vision to realise success on it.And seeing as you an I both I will sign of with the signature of a player who once graced our beautiful club. DB10
@DB10…Thanks for your insightful comments. A lot of your points are valid Liverpool winning the title or not is irrelevant to the discussion on oil money. People tend to mistake the one-offs with the longer term. Tottenham were in the CL a couple of seasons ago. They are not really much further along as a club, nor have they replicated that result.Even the Arsenal of the late 90s and early 2000s was an underdog compared to ManU’s spending potential. It is the reason we decided to switch stadiums in the first place. Because we could not have competed REGULARLY with the top clubs in Europe if we stayed as we were. Having a generation like that was a one-off and the board and manager were thinking ahead. Pity most fans seem to think that having 4-5 of the best players in the world in our team at the same time is something that just happens. Our financial restrictions came at the same time as the biggest infusion of money to players and agents that has ever taken place and it is a miracle we have still stayed consistent. Yes, some of you might prefer Liverpool’s situation of challenging for the title, going bankrupt, throwing money into a wasted project for their new stadium, winning a few cups and ‘challenging’ for a title. Maybe winning it. I can see the temptation of that for a fan. Especially because there is no monotony. But as a club, Arsenal will be challenging for titles, and winning them, with far more regularity than Liverpool over the next decade, precisely because of the sacrifice we have made in the last decade and because of the monotony (consistency) of top 4. Liverpool cannot hope to compete with oil money for too long, as they are right now. Pretty soon you’ll have their players being offered more money to move, players being loaned to their rivals in the hope they take points of them, and who knows, maybe even the targeting of their players by referees.Yes Liverpool have progressed this season. But lets not forget they have not had any CL fixtures to contend with and a pretty good run with injuries. Lets also not forget that far from being frugal they have, in the pursuit of the top, pushed there Club dangerously close to the edge financial, with a strategy of spending money they never had to the tune of an average net LOSS of 26 Million pounds PER SEASON for period 20001 – 2012. So lets not pretend they’ve been operating under anything like the financial restraints we have. Lets also not forget they are desperate to build a mew Stadium and have been for a while now. BUT THEY HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED YET. Why do think that is. I mean they’ve been trying to, and have succeeded in many cases, to force locals out of there properties around the ground. Go and dig around for some info on what they’ve been doing up there. It’s not good. But hay this is the wonderful Liverpool ‘it’s never our fault’ FCYou may of missed it because they don’t ram it down our throats every time the name Liverpool is mentioned, but I think that makes a shameful 25 years+ without a title. Some might say that’s pretty disgraceful. But not our Liverpool loving media it seems, or indeed you surfer X. No you save all your vitriol for Wenger don’t you !!! And one more point. Even if we did have £100 Million pounds or so stashed away as you suggest, that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what the oil clubs have. Perhaps you need reminding again. THEY HAVE UNLIMITED FUNDS.In addition to not being in the CL, Liverpool were also knocked out of both domestic cups pretty early (you may remember one of them). They are nowhere close to having a squad capable of challenging on many fronts. They are also dangerously dependent on one player – look at what happened to Spurs… Graham left because of off field issues. But on field things were an awful lot worse than they are today!
I am pretty sure wenger will stay, but starting to see possible scenarios whereby he could leave, maybe the same with some players. But I think he will win the cup, get into the CL and this will convince him We have the most angst ridden fans on the planet. You are correct to mention the issue of replacements, who and where are they.? All these fancy names the aaa come up with. Some of them really seem to believe we can get Pep. Some of them would have settled for Moyes, coyly or Martin oneill! One of the problems we have been through painful years, in relative terms of course. A new manager is no guarantee of anything as we can all see in varying degrees. The critics are also unhappy with the board, Ivan Gazidis what the fuck do you do…..a distant owner who cares only about money etc…if the board are so useless and unambitious, why are they now trusted to replace the greatest manager we ever had? Maybe wenger does all he can to counter problems at board level…..not saying this is true, just throwing it out there.The club clearly has a few issues that need putting right, is wenger at fault for all these issues? Wenger will surely stay. Hopefully, we will be a bit quicker to get in what we need, maybe look , as promised, at the injury situation and make changes if needed, they are already making changes at youth level, look in depth at our scouting process, maybe play a bit smarter against certain teams, and move forward with a manager who has earned the right to take us into a less challenging era. I would not pay much attention to the trolls, half of them don’t even support Arsenal. The UK sports media will always be fcukwits, it is in their DNA.Seeing as you sign off with one of the greats I will sign off with another great!!! TH7
Seperate the off-field for a second. Forget the financing- just look at the performances of the team. That hasn’t changed, either in style of results. Could another manager improve upon that? I think Fergie would of, surely no doubt. I think Mourinho would of (not that I’d want him within a million miles of the club). The others? Im not so sure. But look at the manager’s from outside the established elite: Klopp, De Boer, Simone, Garcia. Im not king-marker, I don’t get to sit with them and look at their vision for the club: but never forget, AW arrived with a nothing CV in those terms- just a vision of how to progress. And it worked spectacularly well. Why fear the future? Ive said before, the next man could turn out to be a Bruce Rioch or it could be an AW. You simply do not know- but the day is going to come soon. The guy is pushing 65. His philosophies have got the club to where it is (a position of competitive strength). I want to see the vision for the next 10 years- I have lost confidence that AW is the man to deliver that either in terms of ability or longevity. I believe that now is the best time for that change to happen.Marcus
The greatest sporting team in the world is admired for its skill and talent, however seldom does one delve into the foundations of its success. On the surface, you observe individual superstars performing exceptionally well together, but behind closed doors is tremendous physical endeavour and meticulous training.Destitute and affluent with the same respect and dignity is the hallmark of one who loves every human indiscriminately. His gentle, sweet words have transformed the lives of so many, and his concern for mankind is unsurpassed in the world. There may exist a separation between ourselves and Swamishri that is measured by physical distance, but, in his words, if he remains embedded within our minds and hearts, the thousands of miles that separate us are irrelevant…
My point was these people should be accountable to the club- not AW. A problem clearly exists in the areas I mentioned; unless you believe there isn’t one with injuries, defensive stability, goal-keeping performance, etc. If we keep repeating the same mistakes and have the same problems I fail to see how that can be painted as anything other than failure. The signings you mention are OK (though Id contend who out of them gets into a EPL 11? If that is the best you can come up with- I think that may well be central to our difference of opinion). That aside, alongside those there have been far too many duds in recent times. At the start of the summer, he identified a striker as key. We didnt get one, putting all our eggs in one basket. That was a critical managerial mistake- not rectified in the winter either. You say who has done better- I think thats a crazy statement. Chelsea have been hugely successful this years in terms of their transfer dealings. I dont buy into the money argument- the resources have been there. Ehat it more clear is that AW has the final say and frequently pulls out when a player goes beyond his perceived worth. Which is fine if you have lots of success with the players you do get.. but we haven’t. The point being that the one certain thing we do know is that AW has accountability for everything. I dont think that works anymore. He should definitely have a voice on everything- but those areas should be accountable at a club level not individual.DB10
wenger wont leave, My big hope is that he stays for 3 more years, then we replace him with Pep, Actually id have wenger for another 10 years, IF he just started to be a little more realistic about what it takes squad wise to compete for the leagueTH7
@DB10 and the other trolls, ever since the Unbeaten Season and the end of the 49 the media and their troll allies have been saying Arsenal are not good enough. Indeed some of them claimed the team of the Unbeaten Season wasn’t really that good – going out of the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Champions League. Reading some of their comments it felt more like failure than success. The AAA trolls have been arguing ever since we beat Man U on penalties to win Wenger his fourth FA Cup, that the quality of play was not good enough. The knives have been out and the counting of the number of years since we won a trophy started. Now as Arsenal have their best chance of winning the FA Cup since that defeat of Man U the argument changes again, and the winning of a trophy is suddenly is not after all the issue. The issue now is that being beaten by a big score is not acceptable. Recognition of how things were done in the past is irrelevant for most people, and all that matters is the present. And so we reach a point when there seems to be quite a chance that Mr Wenger will refrain from signing a new contract this summer. We ignore the facts, and instead abuse and sneering becomes the prime method of communication. Of course no one alive today recalls the days of Herbert Chapman, but we still revere him as the greatest manager we had, before Wenger, who has achieved much more. And if we do look back we find certain interesting moments… The 1933 defeat to Walsall, the 5-1 thrashing by Villa in 1931, the fact that by throwing everything at winning his one and only FA Cup in 1930, Herbert Chapman took Arsenal close to relegation for a while, the 7-0 drubbings by West Ham and Newcastle…. it was all part of the Chapman era.Th7
We are talking of course of managers who have the pick of the clubs, and who can through their influence have the pick of the players across Europe. And they look at what the media, the trolls and the AAA together have achieved and ask, “do I want that?” and they think no, they don’t. It is a similar situation with players. There is a widespread recognition of what the AAA did to Gervinho, and again the question is being asked, “do I want to subject myself to that?” Only the power of Wenger persuaded Ozil to come to Arsenal, and now he sees the way he and his boss have been treated in the media and blogs, he probably wishes he had not left. So the problems combine. Managers of repute don’t really want to come to Arsenal and get the level of abuse. Meanwhile there is a certain reluctance among some managers to manage in England because of what the English like to describe as the “robust” nature of the press, which others call “intrusive”. There is then the refusal of the legal authorities, and the Premier League to deal with in ground abuse. Mr Wenger famously saw off the press on his first day in office when they talked to him about “the rumours”. The slimy toads who were there that day have never dared print a word of that event, but up and down the country supporters of teams reprocess in their songs the abuse that the press so were desperate to print, and apart from a few bleats from Sir Alex F no one has done much to stop this. Managers also don’t want to suffer abuse from their own club’s fans, and nor do they want to have to waste time trying to persuade players that “it’s not that bad with Arsenal really” when everyone knows how the media and the trolls behave towards Arsenal. Indeed the only positive thing that can be said in this situation is that at least the players who are at Arsenal stick with the manager, which is more than can be said at Man U where David Moyes appears now to be under criticism from his own team. However given that the owners just see Man U as a cash cow, and not as a football club, nothing much is likely to happen until such time as Old Trafford stops selling out. But then, if Man U get rid of Moyes they are going to have as big a problem as Arsenal in replacing their manager. The fact is that most of the criticism made by the players of Moyes at Man U is nonsense. It gets run by the press and into the blogs because they’ll publish anything, like RVPs comments when he tried to argue that players were “occupying the spaces I want to play in”. An analysis of the game showed it was gibberish, but who cares about analysis when there is a chance of abusing someone.TH7
The final element in the mix is of course the critical ex-players. We are used to that with Arsenal – Frank McLintock being one who is putting the knife in regularly, hoping I guess that we don’t ever dare mention his one win in 26 matches as a manager for Leicester (ooops sorry Frank, but you started it). . Paul Scholes is meanwhile using his position as the golden boy of analysis to have a dig at Moyes. There has even been a bit of a fracas as the anti-Moyes mob (the AMM I guess) tried to storm part of the Stretford End and remove a pro-Moyesian banner. . So where does it all end? If Mr Wenger does go, it is not just going to be a problem getting a new manager of quality, and persuading players to come and face the AAA, the trolls and the media, but it is also going to be a problem keeping players who came to Arsenal because of Mr Wenger. Ramsey, Özil, Koscielny, Theo… these are all players who credit Wenger either with their decision to come to Arsenal or the growth in their ability. . The AAA who have always hated Ramsey, and now have turned on Özil will wave goodbye happily, and if Wenger goes certainly others will follow, and the quality we will get in as replacements won’t be as high because no one at the top will fancy it. Which is all so sad as Arsenal does have an incredibly good squad, although now decimated by injuries to Özil, Ramsey, Theo, Jack, Koscielny… Ferguson left Man U having brought in RVP on a ludicrous long term contract, while not refreshing parts of the team that needed attention. Wenger on the other hand has built the squad that is ready to take off. It would be a tragedy if it all fell apart before it has time to mature. Indeed if Wenger does leave and some players follow, and Arsenal have trouble recruiting a new manager of quality, and the new manager has trouble recruiting players, it will be the biggest victory for the trolls and their friends in the press, of all time. They won’t stick with Arsenal as the quality goes down, but at least they will have won in their ambition of getting Wenger out.