England want Arsene Wenger???

[boundngag]

First of all, why? I guess desperation. But then it is reported that Arsenal will offer him a new contract to ward them off. Really?! He is 66 and has been in decline for years! Offering a new contract surely can't even make any sense to the Kroenk profit making model? Offering a new contract to a guy with no sell on value, coming to the end of his career does not make financial sense. Surely if England offered compensation, Kroenk would bite their hands off? He had better do, as I suspect offering Wenger a new contract would lead to larger fan protests and no one turning up to the Emirates next season. I see he's not managed to sign anyone else since he signed Xhaka. What a surprise!!! I bet no one saw that coming!!! Sorry for the sarcasm, but I just get the impression that Arsene Wenger and Arsenal fc in general, think that Arsenal fans are stupid and will believe whatever they say. I'm sure Gillingham fans don't have this problem...

[John]

I'm not surprised England want Wenger and to be honest, they can have him imo. Why AFC would offer him a new contract is beyond me. He's signed a Japanese forward (9 goals in something like 30 plus games in Japan last season...so not exactly setting the world on fire goals per game!)

I also just read that they wont meet the fee for Morata. Are the club really that frugal? Even with the most expensive season tickets in the land!?

[boundngag]

Yes, but Arsenal signed Inamoto before and that was purely for marketing.

I don't think that it's Arsenal being that frugal. I think it's Wenger himself attempting to prove a point and be successful without spending money. He has always put this above the interests of Arsenal imho. The amount of players he is linked with, but never signs to save a penny or two is phenomenal. I note that he attempts to prove this point without even remotely caring about how he and Arsenal FC rip off their fans season after season.

So England get Big Sam Allardyce. He may strengthen their defence, but if the England fans want attractive football, i fear they're in for a disappointment. Long ball Sam ( as he was widely known at West Ham ), genuinely didn't understand why Hammers fans booed the team off the pitch at the end of a 1-0 win in a dour depressing match. Not long after, he was gone.

I wish them well but i struggle to be optimistic
I would have given Glen Hoddle another shot--his razor-sharp analysis in commentary, shows his depth of knowledge of the game.

[boundngag]

I actually don't mind Sam Allardyce. I am not one of those fans that England are continuously affected by nerves and the weight of expectation at tournament. There hasn't been that much expectation for a while for one thing! I just think that the English players are continuously over hyped in the media and are simply not as good as people make out. Lots of fans like to watch attractive football, but if you don't have the players to pull it off, you can't do it effectively enough to win games. I think a more limited game would probably benefit England.

There are 2 major problems as i see it :------

1)

Fans are more interested in supporting their favourite club sides than they are supporting England. Furthermore, they get upset when the domestic schedules are disrupted by international call-ups.

2)

The major tournaments ( world cup and Euro's ) used to be regarded by players as their " shop window " to show off their talents to the world and thus enhance their career prospects. With our Premiership football now being shown regularly the world over, the need for them to display their skills in their National teams has diminished.

Incidentally, it will be a waste of time sending our players to the Doha World Cup in 2022. They will all wilt in the heat before the half-time whistle. It was a stupid decision to hold such a prestigious tournament there in the first place, (probably a bribe ), and if they persist, i think we should boycott it!

[boundngag]

I think there are too many games, probably domestically and internationally. What I don't like is all the international friendlies that tend to be really boring and neither side is really interested in. The managers don't even tend to experiment that much with different systems or players and seem happy just not to lose them, however rubbish the game is. As well as this, there are too many easy games in qualifiers. England nearly always qualify with ease from their group and they are hardly a great side. The attitude to these games seems to be that the manager doesn't seem to care how bad the performance is, as long as they win.

The amount of poor games at the European Championships was quite high, I thought. When I was a kid, part of the appeal was you saw players you hadn't seen before that were really good, but you don't really get that now. I think that the quality of the champions' league over took international football, although the last few seasons seem to have declined a bit.

With England, back in the 90s, there was at least the though that maybe we had a few good players and might be able to beat a good team. The possibility seemed to be there, particularly at Euro 96 (I don't remember 1990, but I think there would have been the possibility there as well.) But since then, I always thought that the best teams were clearly better than us and would inevitably come out on top eventually. I do think that is because the English players since then haven't been as good. But even worse has happened to Scotland. They used to be pretty close to England ability wise, but now they are probably the worst British team!

Big Sam gets the sack after just 1 match in charge of England--What a friggin' farce! Set up by the Telegraph and recorded in an alleged bribes sting. Gareth Southgate takes over for the next 4 matches as an interim. We have the best manager's in the world managing our Premiership teams and yet we can't find a half decent manager for our National Team!

I repeat what i said last time----give Glenn Hoddle another shot.

[John]

Originally Posted by peter92305

Big Sam gets the sack after just 1 match in charge of England--What a friggin' farce! Set up by the Telegraph and recorded in an alleged bribes sting. Gareth Southgate takes over for the next 4 matches as an interim. We have the best manager's in the world managing our Premiership teams and yet we can't find a half decent manager for our National Team!

I repeat what i said last time----give Glenn Hoddle another shot.

Its a complete shambles. I dont know why British newspapers engage in entrapement techniques to create stories. This kind of stuff would never stand up in court...because it is clearly entrapment.

Most people would think twice if a long standing, close, personal friend of theirs offered them an opportunity to make a fortune on the sly...your luring someone who would never actively seek to be in that position...

The press argue that have a duty to pursue stories of significant public interest...really... I would suggest there is no moral high ground in the sleazy world of the press and the only driving motivation behind the sting was to sell more papers....