i don't want to turn this into another wenger thread. ive been critical of him in the past. but if you look at the timeline, really what he has accomplished deserves a lot more credit and respect than it gets. the plans to build the emirates started during the middle of his golden period. the finalization of the plans and the construction started in 2004, right at the end of our magnificent run. we'll never know for sure how much money he had to spend. we'll never know what conversations happened, if he was told he needed to sell player X before he could buy player Y. he never complained about it. again, because he has class and understands what is expected of him.
could you even imagine someone like mourinho being the manager of arsenal in 2004 and being told that he'd have to start selling players, and that he'd only be able to manage a net spend of £10-15m per window? he'd have never taken that job. we'll look back in 15 years, when the stadium is completely paid off and we have no debt and we're in the same basic position that real/barca are in now, and we'll marvel that we ever gave wenger as much shit as we did.
should we have won the league in 2007-2008? probably. should we have won the carling cup against birmingham? most definitely. is wenger a failure or even close to a failure? no. you can say its a dream job, and maybe it is. but its only that way because of who he is and what hes done. if this club had chased short term success and sacked him in 2007 or 2008, we might be in complete disarray now. instead, he basically held the wheel steady while we built the stadium. and now the rewards are showing, as he's spent £35m+ twice in the last 2 years, and hes not been afraid to buy players. is he buying the right players? is he getting the most out of the team? those are all worthwhile arguments. but i think for the job he did during the transition, he can basically leave when he wants. will i be super happy if he stays another 10 years and we win zero league titles? no. but that is a short term narrative. the 97-04 run will be looked back on as one of the most glorious in the club's history. the job he did to keep us europe's elite while we built a brand new stadium, without a sugardaddy cash injection, will be looked back on as one of the most important times for the club. and yes, we are still part of europe's elite, even though our short term results haven't backed that up in the last 9 years. wenger's sacrifice will ensure that we remain in that elite group for the foreseeable future, and for that, we do owe him respect, probably more than he gets.
