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 .

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.

Well said Warrior!

Yeah you made me laugh even when you were talking bollocks and that's always a good trait.

Get Bruce Ricoh back so he can try and sign Roberto Carlos and Bixente Lizarazu

Greetings Jonathan and welcome. Your father seemed like a very nice bloke.

Have been away from the news for the last few days....well, football news. I'm in Los Angeles for a couple weeks and only seen CNN and Faux..er..ah...Fox News.
Wenger out?! Wow! Surreal. I'm catching up on the reading. The news. Blown away. Had to be sacked I presume?

lol...C'mon Babs..lets be gracious to the man on his way out. Twisting the knife..I wanna stay on your good side. haha.

I don't have anywhere near the history with the club as you and 99 percent of people on here, perhaps all but I have to say I pretty much stopped caring. I used to move heaven and earth to catch a match when I was traveling. I've made it a deal breaker for certain assignments. I almost got sacked once from a job when I left it mid day in NYC to watch us beat Real Madrid 1 nil in the CL.

This season, I don't even look for a pub carrying games. I ended up hanging out with some local Scots watching more of the old firm derby than I did our match against the toon.

Things have gotten so bad, they could have announced Pardew coming in and I'd be excited. Yes, it was that bad. Fat Sam is about the only one I'd frown.

I guess the Newcastle defeat was the last straw. Now, I am hoping we beat Atletico and hoping they get that trophy for him.

I would "loooove it..just loooove it" if Wenger could lift that Europa cup trophy.

Jamie Redknapp makes some interesting points.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... napps-view

Bit of a tough one , the announcement Arsene is leaving has produced neither elation or sadness .

So many spineless performances , massive losses in between the ocassional Cup final euphoria in the last five years has led to apathy and a whatever attitude so that I don't get my nuts into too much of a knot about events over which I have no control .

I find it impossible to suddenly do an about turn and start gushing "thanks for glorious memories etc etc " when just yesterday I wanted the bloke to take up a coaching position in Outer Mongolia .

22 years in charge I find it hard to believe we won only three league titles .

I heard the news last night, texted my brother who is a fan and went to bed to consider his time at the club. Slept soundly.

Having thought it through - my greatest moment with the club was Anfield 89, my greatest F A Cup victory was Sunderlands goal to finish off Man U, we actually won some euorpeans trophies as well in these years but the play was often dire.

So in short Wenger never gave me the greatest memories of the club. The invincibles was a brilliant season and the first ten years were wonderful. We played some sparkling football and were always a pleasure to watch. But he does not define my greatest memories. Once Dein left it was never the same.

The last ten years have been dire and the 3 FA Cups did not make up for it at all. The magic of the cup had gone the day Man U didn't want to be in it. But some of the defeats in the last 10 years mean that I can not and will not carry on as if it is a sad day blah blah blah. 8-2 and 6-1 to Man U, Man City , Chelsea 6-0, Liverpool 5-1 and some of the disasters in the CL Bayern 10-2 were not just bad but destroyed our reputation. The loses to some of the smaller clubs meant that no longer do clubs arrive and fear a game against us. He destroyed his legacy not the fans and I hold grudges for a long time.

The rebuilding will be interesting. The next appointment is crucial. My expectations is that I want a good defensive manager who can sort through our squad and work out if they can ever be repaired into a defensive unit. Then get rid of the ones who are not good enough. I fear we may still lose Ramsay and Bellerin because they have probably totally had a gut full. If next year we are not scrapping for 6/7th place and are a bit higher up then we have to accept that.

One thing that may split the fans from here is the appointment of the new manager. People are mentioning Brendan Rogers - are they f.... joking, Eddie Howe - joking, get someone like Benitz or Hiddick to sort through the squad. Then the next manager after that is the important longer term appointment.

Hope we can make the european final but until we get some leaders at the club we will battle.

Overall - no tears from me just relief but I have no expectations of a quick turn around.

Not had chance to read all the posts, I’ll keep it short, it was the right decision for both club and manager.
I hope now that this galvanises the coaches, players and fans to give absolutely everything in the final push of the season.

I really do think he’s stayed too long, but I will still say thank you for everything he’s done for our club

Press suggesting it's Luis Enrique. Really unimpressed if true

At least he's better at present than Wenger, and most of all won't be around so long.

I honestly think that was one of the major downsides of Wenger. He was simply here too long.

The Telegraph claims to have the real background of how it all went down. Seems to be Wenger's decision and he wanted to leave under his own terms than forced out. Wise decision. Should have done that after the FA cup win.

We may actually stand a chance against Atletico with the amount of emotion going into the rest of the season. We'll get a preview against West Ham. My guess is he'll get a standing ovation before kick off. Pete and Babu leading the applause and a rendition of 'Magic Hat'.

My guess is Gazidis proved to Josh he needed to go and Wenger saw the writing on the wall.

Any thoughts on if he'll manage again? My guess is he'll leave the game for some quiet time. Maybe the rest of the summer. I'd be a little surprised if he is a pundit this summer. He usually is in some capacity. So, I think he'll be a pundit for the interim. Clubs will come calling. Not big names but Europa cup quality sides. Even at 68 he's driven so its hard to see him go quietly into the night.

For the first time all season every one will be cheering for us, even Man Utd and Chelsea...possibly Tottenham fans? Hmmm...I won't go that far.

Out of respect for Wenger, I have removed my name from consideration for the job and have notified Gazidis and Kroenke of this.

As unpopular as it was it may have been for the best that he went this summer not last, because of this paragraph from bbc article:

‘... The difference compared to a year ago is that Arsenal have a new structure off the pitch - Sanllehi arrived from Barcelona; Mislintat from Dortmund; head of negotiations Huss Fahmy from Team Sky; and head of high performance Darren Burgess from Australian Rules football...’

Finally got some other football people running the show. I think it possible Utd tanking after Ferguson has shaped the approach to this a fair bit. While that squad was overrated because of what he was able to get out of them ours, hopefully, is being underrated for the opposite reason and will be assessed soberly and added to robustly. There will certainly be fresh energy and motivation all through the club and that’s, at the moment, more than enough for me.

Arsene Wenger is a legend. Those years of 98-04 we will never see the likes of again. He lifted Arsenal to a level none of us had ever seen before and clearly couldn't be replicated in the recent post Highbury years. Will it ever? Doubt it. We saw peak Arsenal in our lifetime.



I will always "love" Arsene Wenger. Arsene will always be an Arsenal man. His pain at our defeats was obvious and I loved him for it. His put downs of Ferguson absolutely brilliant. We were invincible, double winners twice. European cup finalists. Absolutely *%^@*** amazing. We were the team.

Merci le professor for the best times supporting this club. I loved George Graham too but you surpassed him. Brilliant players, brilliant football. Going into work while we went 49 unbeaten was amazing. How it annoyed my colleagues having nothing to say
Scousers, Mancs and the odd Spurs man..silenced with begruding admiration of a top side.

But it is the right time to go. Whether that be foreseeing the push or a voluntary decision. The team is on the decline. Fans are apathetic. No longer could anyone argue you are the best man for the job. Younger blood is needed. Arsenal needs a change.

Had you gone stale? Had you lost the drive and ambition? Have you ultimately not been supported financially by the men who run the club? Has football just moved on and your philosophy is just outdated in modern terms? It will surely be revealed in time.

A sad day in regards to the passing of time. I was 23 when AW took charge. Never heard of an EEG, a Daz, a Bernard, Kiwipete or a (rip) Steve Gleiber. Time and tide waits for no man.

Onwards and upwards.

Allegri for me.

Rodgers can go do one.

Well we’ll it came to pass

I’m glad it’s over , thank you Arsene for the first 10 years and i’ll Give you 5 more out of respect , but from 2011 onwards the writing was on the wall ; and it’s escalated the past 12-18 months

The rest we all know and has been done to death , so no need to rehash again, but as much as the tributes we’re being saturated with ( and is getting a bit nauseating a case of who shot bambi I) are fair enough up to a point, I’m not going to forget the fact that the past 7 or 8 years have helped rip the soul out of the club we all love , caused fights ructions and feuds amongst fans , and led to many being bored out of their mind, giving up on the club, walking away , or like daz and I did ( and others) seeking our fix elsewhere .

Am I back in the fold? theoretically yes , however the goalposts have moved now, it’s very hard ,when ‘lines’ that I crossed just over a year ago when we organised the first protests after the Munich debacle changed relationships fundamentally , Arsenal truth( I know some of you don’t like the guy, but he says a lot of accurate stuff for me) said this in his piece yesterday

“However, having been through this ugly experience, which has both tested my principles and forced me to turn my back on the club I loved for 35 years, I’m not quite sure if I can ever support Arsenal in quite the same way as I did before. For me, that is the unforgiveable legacy that Wenger has left behind. I now feel more inclined to analyse Arsenal as an observer rather than a supporter, only time will tell if that changes”

And that’s kind of how I view things at this moment too, as he says time will tell

Also the knock on from this is, I have a real affection for BHA these days, and as I live here, this is where I watch most of my football now , so I can’t just switch that off and quite possibly I have two clubs going forward . But yes I’m Sort of back on board and fully hoping we can win the Europa league ,

At the moment, like it’s all a bit giddy . As I’ve repeatedly said the past few years regarding Wenger , that i’ll Judge him properly , two years from the point he leaves , once the dust settles , so i’ll Get back to you in May 2020

And if you haven’t seen it Kev is pretty spot on as usual http://onlinegooner.com/article.php?sec ... trlksrTWhA

He reckons Ancelotti short term, which he’s been saying for 6 months