If we were managerless right now, or even last summer, Wenger surely wouldn’t be on our radar. A manager who’s won 3 fa cups in 4 years but had not won a league for 14 years and was showing a serious decline in performance year after year and a failure to convince in the transfer market.

It beggars belief that this was pretty much the situation we were faced with last summer. We had a choice, the power was out of wenger’s hands and the club decided there was no one better.

On a whirlwind tour of New Zealand apparently.

(Although at least he has some consistency and doesn't change his view on Wenger depending on what the last result was).

Mustafi. Not good enough (putting it mildly). Chambers. Not good enough. Koscielny. Past it and injury prone. Bellerin. Probably leaving. Mertesacker. Past it and being a great guy not really enough. Monreal. Good but getting on. Čech. Past it and increasingly error prone.

If you had to rebuild an entire defence I think even Hoy might agree that Arsene Wenger would not really be your go-to manager.

Basically the market price of 3 defenders and a keeper of the required quality is probably something like 130 million quid. We don’t have that unless we sell and he still needs another wide player.

More of the same next year and probably worse as we will probably have to make do with aging defenders trying to do their best but ultimately not good enough

Win or lose against Athletico, the day after the second leg the club should release a statement saying Wenger is leaving at the end of the season. The Emirates can give him a wave goodbye at the last home match and they can make a presentation. Then we can go back to being a football club again and not Arsene Wenger's Arsenal. He is no longer fit for purpose and every day he stays damages us more.

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What I really can't understand and as most would attest to , I've got a pretty good handle on most things

Why oh why this team is so robotic as to not pump the ball forward in Hail Mary fashion searching for an equaliser .

It beggars belief it's a natural reaction ...... all hands to the pump .

Yet in the final five minutes we are strolling around playing half a dozen 'cute' purposeless passes back and forth at the back like we are 4 - 1 up

If by that you mean a flagon of rum, a welding torch, and the hindquarters of a furry animal then, yes, few could disagree.

If I was there and that happened I would turn my back on any presentation, I would hope many others would do likewise .

I’ve said for years that I won’t be able to reflect on Wenger properly until at least 2-3 years from the point of departure and then i’ll See how I feel

Quite frankly the leave with gratitude angle has long gone with the mess he’s caused and what it’s done to the supporter base ,

I’d prefer he was driven out in humiliation but that probably won’t happen

Brighton should be safe now Pete, the three that are there now look doomed.....

From an emotional point of view, Wenger doesn't really matter to me any more. All the anger is gone - I just turn off when he appears on telly and I pay zero attention to anything he says. My only interest in the Europa outcome is whether he leaves if we don't win it - I suspect he might and that is why I don't want us to win it. It doesn't matter if we get back into CL as we shall just see more of the tedium that preceded the last couple of relatively bad years - it's not like anybody really loved the 4th place hegemony.

I don't think I'll feel anything when he goes such is the indifference he has created.

My only interest in the club rn is individual players that I quite like - Welbeck, Elneny, Ramsey - as I wish them well and do not think they are responsible for any of this.

Not renewing next season though - cannot give more money to this club - (choosing between Kroenke and Usmanov is like choosing between garrotting and drowning) and I have miles more fun watching Championship football live. Had a ST for nearly 25 years. My wife is sadder than me that it's ending, said my love of Arsenal and being able to speak Spanish were the two things she first liked about me after the Greek god appearance obvs.

Good point by Barney Ronay.

Whatever one thinks of Guardiola/City, if it weren't for them this Man Utd team under Mourinho would have won the title.

We have plenty to thank them for.

I was up North over the weekend. The match started as I left to drive back. Despite the prospect of a tedious 3 hour drive, I couldn't be arsed to turn on the radio. When I heard it, the result came as no surprise. We are the only club in all 4 leagues without an away point in 2018.

https://arseblog.com/2018/04/newcastle-2-1-arsenal-no-surprises-as-gunners-blow-another-lead-on-the-road/

Sometimes arseblog just says everything that needs saying. Cannot disagree with any of this. It's the apathy and indifference that are so debilitating.

Mertesacker is retiring and is, as you say, past it. But at the moment, however past it he is, I'd still rather have him in the team than Mustafi. I largely agree with what you say about the others. Chambers simply isn't good enough. Koscielny was once, but even when he is fit these days, he's no longer the player he was. He's nearly 33 and sadly needs replacing. Monreal is 32 now and past his best; even when at his best he still wasn't at the level of Sansom or Cole. Hearing rumours the club is looking to move Bellerin on so I think you could be right about him leaving. Čech isn't as bad as Ospina but is another in the 'past it' category.

You didn't mention Kolasinac or Holding. After bright starts to their Arsenal careers (Kolasinac this season and Holding last season), they've both gone seriously downhill. Hence there are solid arguments that we need a brand new defence. However, as you imply, Wenger is the last man you'd select to sort it out.

Still a bit of a worry with the fixtures left , the top 4 plus Burnley , hopefully they can get a point or two from the home games

If he is released after the last match of the season, at a minimum he should get polite applause. Just out of respect. Its his entire career, despite the last number of years. I would disagree Pete, with fans turning their backs.

With regards to us going after certain players, it doesn't matter. Its not players, its the manager. We are at the point where it doesn't matter who we bring in (Aubie, Lacazette, Özil, etc.) we are still going to lose. If Wenger managed City he'd lose more matches than he should.

Those that want to can, for many we won’t forget easily

The additional factor is that a defence that is so weak is also so shapeless, lacking in spirit and energy, and tactically inept. Mustafi's problems are so glaring that I cannot believe they could be improved with better coaching.

I wouldn't worry, we have absolutely no chance of beating Atletico Madrid over two legs.

If he was planning to leave they would have announced it by now. The club are waiting to see if he wins Europa and if he does he stays for another year minimum. There won’t be any movement till the season ends. He has pretty much nothing else going

Once he does go Wenger can only be really judged in terms of the damage he leaves and how long it takes the club to reach their previous highs. I'm even thinking how long it takes us to get back in the top 4 let alone challenge for the title. To finish above at least 2 of the teams above us in the table is unthinkable in the next few seasons even with a new manager such is the rebuilding job at hand.

As others have pointed out, a whole new defence is required. We still haven't got that proper strong defensive midfielder and we have a horrible lack of pace or width.

The squad is a shambles and needs a visionary and absolute wizardry in the transfer market to even tread water at the moment

I would put our chances higher than that - they must be favourites but we COULD do it if we convert chances and they don't first leg. I could then see us losing the final though.

Roma knocked Barca out of the CL last week. Liverpool beat City twice. It's no foregone conclusion.

We knocked out Milan. I agree it's not foregone at all. I would bet on Atletico but wouldn't feel it was a dead cert.

Positive that we will bring in new defenders and keeper, Mislintat has been very busy and he realises that massive changes at the back are needed if we are going to compete for silverware next season. A

Kev’s hunch is that he’ll just slip away out of the country at the end of the season if it’s anounced

I’m sorry it’s a foregone conclusion

Now if it’s not thats even worse

I can see him returning to Alsace and seeing out his days pondering topics like who invented the question mark.

I really still don’t believe he’s going to go voluntarily and if we win the Europa I can’t imagine the season ahead next year as he definitely won’t go.

Further evidence it is not a foregone conclusion.

Breaking news.

Jeremy Corbyn demands further evidence that our defence is *%^@ and says the best way to resolve whether Mustafi is an immobile ball-watching muppet is to ask him.

R. Lee Ermey, the actor known for his Golden Globe-nominated role as an intimidating drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket," died Sunday at the age of 74, according to his manager.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/16/entertai ... index.html

Mmm, I'd wait to see whether it happens before saying "Positive that we will bring in new defenders and keeper." Just because we all think it should happen is no guarantee it will.

Agree. 3 new defenders and keeper it's gotta be 130m plus on the market at the moment. We won't do that! May get a couple in but some of our defenders who are failing this season are likely to be in the side still failing next.

It's not just Arsenal though, is it? The game is meaningless now, a spending wankathon dominated by the biggest teams in Europe. The top European leagues are even less competitive than the PL so all the same teams more or less compete at the business end of the champions league. It's boring, end of story.
Quick question . Without googling the answer. Liverpool played Roma in the 1984 European cup final. In the semi final Roma won the second leg 3-0 at home having lost the first 2-0 away. Who did they beat?

All very true but your question has definitely got the pulse racing again, every fibre in me thrills to know the answer to this one...

They say that self-control is one of the critical markers of a developed personality so I shall refrain from googling it to allow the tension to boil a little longer.

Clue: it is linked to crocodiles and cake and also has a quality that might stop you falling.

I DIDN'T GOOGLE IT I DIDN'T

Factor in probable sales of Ospina, Czech,Bellerin? Wilshire, Mustafi? makes it doable.

If we get the ref decisions Liverpool did v Man City we’d have a chance

You *%^@** did.

Except some teams can break in to it by buying well, selling well and having a manager who has a clear game plan and importantly improves players.

In Klopps time with Liverpool his total spend ins/outs is very slim. No way was coutinho worth £145m but look at what Klopp can do with that money.

Arsenal have consistently sold players for well under market value. The decision to not take £60m for Sanchez last summer was clearly terrible at the time and has proven so. We squeezed mkhitaryan out of Man U but really that deal meant Sanchez was only worth £30m. So we gave up £30m for 6 months of sulking