Fourth Place

[boundngag]

Amazingly, Wenger has recently been working with his defence separately. At the start of the season, when Steve Bould started it and received praise, Wenger stopped it. Now Wenger has started doing this himself, as it his own idea now. Isn't that despotism?

Yes, Arsenal have improved recently (funnily enough, at the same time as Walcott and Wilshere out of the side. Has anyone else noticed this?). However, in my opinion, Arsenal closing in on fourth place has had more to do with the stuttering form of Spurs and Chelsea. If Arsenal do finish in the top four, unfortunately the media will probably heap undeserved (imho) praise on Wenger. Until he doesn't spend much of Arsenal's money in the summer, what he does spend, he spends badly and then keeps to many poor players on Arsenal's books.

[John]

Spot on boundngag, yes, Arsenal have had a good run of results recently but they certainly have benefited from the recent poor form of Chelsea and Tottenham. If they do make 4th, it'll be lauded as a great effort by the team and the manager, which imho, it really isn't.

When you define a successfull season as a 4th place finish, you ambitions as a club are brought into very clear, sharp focus..

still, I'd prefer a 4th place finish and CL football than not so long may the recent run of results continue..

[boundngag]

But the downside is, the longer Arsenal finish in the top 4, the longer Mr Wenger stays. There's no guarantee Kroenke won't just give him a new contract when his current contract expires at the end of next season. The longer Wenger stays, the further away Arsenal get from actually challenging to win competitions.

[John]

I'm actually thinking that whilst Wenger has overseen the steady decline of a team that once were champions into a team of "has beens", the real problem is the man at the helm of the club as a whole. Kroenk. Arsenal will never be a club with ambition, no matter which manager they have, whilst the guy at the top is someone who settles for sporting mediocrity.

The day he goes, I'll start thinking positively about AFC.

[boundngag]

I agree with you about Kroenke. I'm not sure he can make as much money out of Arsenal as he does with his American franchises, as profits in the permier league tend to correlate with success. Unless he plans to rip off Arsenal fans more every season, which does seem quite likely. I don't think Arsenal's fans will continue turning up indefinitely. I mean, who exactly does no chance of success and ever increasing process appeal to?

On the other hand, I think what has happened with Wenger is that he has got old. What this has caused is rigidly clinging to his beliefs in the face of all the contrary evidence (this is actually fairly common. An admittedly inappropriate, but accurate comparison is Hitler, studying closely the model he had built in the bunker of how Linz would be rebuilt after he had won the war, while the Soviet troops grew ever closer) and his declining ability to judge players in the transfer market. Whereas before he could unearth a Viera, Henry or Fabregas, now he recruits the likes of Fabianski, Squillaci, Gervinho and Santos. This means that, in my opinion, although Arsenal are likely to decline under Kroenke whoever the manager is, it is likely to be steeper if Wenger remains, as he is unable to spend the money he has as effectively as he was before.