Yes, whipeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!! Could the dropping attendance be a strong factor?
There is now brighter light at the end of the tunnel.

(But Stan's statement stinks. All his BS about winning again. You are the key cause for the club's poor state.)

Got a tweet from brother in law to say heard wenger going. How do you feel.
I was like whatttttttt??
went online and saw tweet from matt scott about rumours of press conference at 10am.

Im like , no don't get my hopes up.

Then went on BBC WEBSITE

WENGER TO LEAVE AT THE END OF THE SEASON!!!!

F******K

IM DUMBFOUNDED
UTTERLY DUMBFOUNDED
WHO SAW THAT COMING????

all that excitement has just come back.
rumours about the new manager and wondering who its going to be
all the press comments and news comments
the new manager first press conference etc etc .
wow going to lap it up!!!


Thank you Arsene!!!
Given us great memories but its time to go.

GO GET ALLEGRI!!!!!!

Wow. Despite the pressure that has been building for about a decade, that felt like it came out of nowhere. Genuinely shocked about this. I started following Arsenal for real around 94-95 so I’ve practically never known another Arsenal manager (back then I didn’t really care who the manager was, I just liked seeing Ian Wright score). Bizarre stuff.

But it was definitely time for him to go. I understand those who were on the fence about us winning the Europa League as it could be seen as a way to legitimize extending his contract, but now we can just hope that the team brings another trophy to the club, knowing that change is coming either way. Next season will be one of the most exciting Arsenal seasons in a long time.

They've had a self-defeating strategy for some time now so the result is not surprising.

We can't gloat. I don't think Arsenal will get many points against themselves for the foreseeable future either.

Nah. I think he's a pretty good bloke who got trapped into a job that become stale and eventually toxic and he was too stubborn to admit he couldn't turn it around.

Onward and upward and no need for recriminations.

Totally agree DHD. I'm also glad the decision has been made, and his time has long since passed, but I can't agree with any celebrating his departure.

Let's keep things respectful.

Absolutely. And now fans can be unambiguous in their support for the rest of the season. No more need for debates about whether we would prefer to with the Europa or have Wenger out.

I am certainly going to renew my television subscription. I am hopeful that the rot doesn't go deeper (I do worry about Kroenke and co) and that a new manager will unleash what would appear to be considerable potential.

Thank goodness we won't have to endure any more of this sort of nonsense!

Wait until you have a *&&*$ giraffe stick it foot through the roof of your car, or an elephant sit on it.

Mind you I agree that the jumpers are the worst. At least elephants and giraffes are easy to see and have some wit, but when you have kudus and elands flying into the road things get very exciting. These animals completely lose what little brainpower they have when they see headlight beams. I believe roos are a bit lacking in that department too?

Wenger talks up Vieira as his successor one day then announces he's leaving the next.....

Well he outlasted Mugabe so there was nothing more left to prove.

The likes of Paul Biya and King Mswati III must now feel rather like Murali did the day Warne retired.

Wenger has given me my greatest moments as an Arsenal fan.
I thank him and am grateful to him immensely.

But lets not show disdain to fans that are celebrating the news of him going.
He has stayed too long and it has turned sour and there have been many embarrassing moments these last few years.

The 3 FA cups in last 4 years was brilliant especially last years final.

But the celebration is more about relief that the club has been going downhill and we can now look forward to change with him going.
The same mistakes being made over and over again.
That's why some are celebrating the news including myself.

Doesn't mean we will ever forget what he has done for our great club and don't appreciate it.

I think people have the right to react how they want. For me, it’s just more fun to celebrate the good years on a day like this – I’ve been watching youtube clips of old goals since I saw the news and damn, we played some football back then. His first decade at the club was truly spectacular.

Did you forget your password again, Babu?

you are just ramping it up you show pony , the closest you've been to an elephant or a giraffe is when you took the kids to Cape Town Zoo .

Wenger going ..... Should be heading straight for the rum bottle but so many insipid performances and the general lack of interest in football in general these days with the knowledge that Man City will buy their way to the next ten league titles , stops me getting too excited .

Plenty of time still between now and end of season. Let's hope Wenger doesn't change his mind. :)

My old man had a 1941 Ford V8 pickup we hit a wild boar that was soaking up the heat in the middle of the road one freezing NZ winter's night ...we sailed about six feet in the air , long before the days of seat belts lucky we all didn't head throught the windscreen .

Pig squealed , ran off into the bush , didn't do a hell of a lot of damage to the Ford either spring steel bumper , solid front axle .
Surprised you have any snakes left , thought the cane toads would have accounted for them all .
Now they are a creature I take great delight in seeing dead .
Saw the first half of the Roosters game then decided on bed . That Latrell Mitchell is some sort of player ....amazingly strong .

Nice kid ... I see he is the great nephew of Evonne Goolagong but doesn't have any contact with her . Family get togethers she was too far up herself , never spoke to him .

Hard to believe its true though we all knew the day was coming!
Good to see you back Babu - now that Wenger is going it would be nice to see you, Harlow and Cannon back to liven things up a bit. Things may get worse before they get better but lets be honest, its been a piss poor season and a change of manager and playing style is something for most of us to look forward to!
Happy Retirement AW - Thanks for the good times.

While I am relieved to see him go as I think it is time he has given me so many great football memories.

Morning all,

Just heard the Wenger news. I actually feel quite sad and emotional even though I know it was coming and is probably in the best interests of the club. His tenure at Arsenal has been part of the very fabric of my life and given me so many amazing moments even though I think he has done himself no favours in recent years by failing to heed the alarm bells that were clearly ringing. I still feel sad that he couldn't turn things around and that he eventually became a figure of ridicule because he could not or would not address the very obvious failings and the mistakes that were being made over and over again.

I hope the club now have the balls and the vision to appoint someone who can play the game with style but also address the organisational, disciplinary and tactical issues that have plagued us for so long.

Fair enough if you felt that, but personally I don't think your presence was detrimental to the forum at all. Good to have you back, but go a bit easy on Wenger will you? He's basically admitted defeat now.

Nonsense. When is comes to all things Arsenal, nobody overstaying their welcome could prove detrimental for the greater good.

While Wenger going is great news, it's critical to get the right man in. I don't fancy Howe, Arteta or to a lesser extent Rodgers (names heard mentioned in recent times). david.d's preferred option Allegri would be good choice but it will surprise me if we can get him. I like the way the German national play so would be fine with Low.

Actually now I know he's going I'm not going to rant about Wenger anymore. What I'm expecting now is that a lot of revisionism will take place and only the good times remembered.

Anyway regardless it's over now. I can take the kids to football again and enjoy the first love of my life once more.

Let love win Babs

For me it's Allegri first but I would suggest there might be a strong possibility it's someone from bundesliga or Luis Enrique based on our head scouts and director of football "relations" experience

To answer someone's earlier question I do think the attendences must have played a part. Looking around the Emirates and seeing a half empty stadium must scare corporate types

Not going to get too schmaltzy about it - this is excellent news.

Past glory blah blah but he was seriously eroding the link between the club and the fans and we were becoming a byword for flakiness and flat-track bullying. He dragged it on far too long for largely selfish reasons. It could all have been so much less stressful and costly all round.

I can actually look forward to wanting us to win again.

And so it should. And not just corporate types. It is a massive indictment of the culture created in late late-Wenger.

I know Hoy's probably in "New Zealand" but somebody needs to get a message to him because I am greatly looking forward to some full-blooded lachrymose tributing and he is the man for the job.

Exactly, and we’ve seen how difficult that can be. I agree completely with Socrates about the organizational and tactical side of things, but we must not neglect the attacking side of football. I want Arsenal to play exciting football at a consistent level again. It’s not an either/or situation with regards to attacking football and winning, all of the best teams in world football currently are attacking minded.

Don’t follow football enough to come up with any names, but would prefer someone youngish with a vision rather than someone like Ancelotti. He’s a good manager, but everything about signing him would say makeshift.

Dividing attack and defence always seems so weird to me.

It's like writers saying they are more interested in character than plot - they are co-dependent.

Its why I think Heyncke's Bayern were so impressive and why Ferguson was such a good manager. Powerful. Fast. Organised.

That's true. I guess what I'm talking about is more of the general mindset of a team. To use some examples, Arsenal could really defend well during Wenger's best years, but there was no doubt it was an attacking team first. Chelsea could score under Mourinho, but their entire identity as a team was based on defending. You could probably put United under Ferguson in the middle, they were just perfectly balanced.

Would like to see us play like Arsenal 98-04 again. United during the same era would be ok as well. Would not want to see us play like Chelsea though. Probably a bit more snobbish than Arsenal fans can afford to be, but there it is.

I would HATE us to play like a Mourinho team especially his current one.

Mee's son here. Hope you're all well.

Contrasting emotions upon hearing the Wenger news. At 28, I can barely remember Arsenal without him. I do vaguely recall Dad reading an article in The Guardian around the time they were discussing the vacant position though. Why this has stayed with me I have no idea. There were two photos side by side, Cruyff and Wenger. The former suntanned and accompanied with a caption heralding every conceivable honour. Wenger himself bespectacled, fresh from managing "Grampus Eight" and falling way short of what a manager in England was supposed to look like in the nineties. Dad sided with Cruyff for the visuals as much as the romance, then was gladly proved wrong every season for the next ten years. Wenger at this point could do no wrong in our house, to such an extent that quotes of his have been etched in my mind through their repetition - "every man thinks he has the prettiest wife at home"...

I don't have to tell you about the next ten or so years. The green screen of this forum took the brunt of Dad's regular changes of heart in regards to Wenger's reign. The 70 minute substitution rule, flailing arms in the air and a new supply of quotes this time more along the lines of - "Abou Diaby will be like a new signing". All of this interspersed, most notably after cup successes, with the rational admission that his appointment was surely the best thing to ever happen to the club.

There'll be an onslaught of articles and retrospectives these next few weeks. One thing that I hope to see mentioned, which Dad and I agreed goes unnoticed far too often, is the dignity with which Wenger has always handled himself. As well as a tirade of often unwarranted abuse from his own support, he's had the whole of Old Trafford calling him a pedophile and the manager of one of his rivals labelling him a voyeur and "specialist in failure". Wenger deserves more respect for enduring such classlessness without lowering his own standards. He may no longer be heralded as the professor and those once revolutionary methods are now archaic, but he's still quite unlike any other manager around.

Any craic?

Hi Jonathan. Nice post. Of course we still have to go to OT this season. Let's hope Mourinho et al treat Wenger with a bit of class.