Klaus wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
Football back then was so different that the comparison is irrelvant. You're talking about a squad full of men that Wenger inherited. Arteta has a squad full of overhyped and overpaid little boys. But that's the case at pretty much every single club in football these days.
The fact that he's quite old school in my opinion doesn't sit well with the babies in this group.
Nah, I'm talking about a squad full of drunks and doughies who were as bad as any Arsenal side had been in half a century (until Arteta took over, that is). There has been plenty to work with in this team, but aside from one great cup run - that was diametrically opposed to our shambolic league form - Arteta has improved nothing and no one. We've spent 150 million since he arrived - soon to be pushed into the 200 million bracket - and have two 8th place finishes to show for it along with the legitimately worst football in Premier League for long spells. (Easy to forget, but we've actually failed to qualify for Europa League through the league not once but twice, and Aubameyang's individual brilliance was the only thing that saved us the first time.) He has been backed and given every opportunity to improve on our position and he has been found wanting.
It's not just a lack of tactical and aesthetical values that makes him unsuited to manage on this level, there also seems to be a lack of understanding on a psychological level, which is incredible to me because he's someone I expected the exact opposite from based on his playing career. There's plenty of evidence to draw that conclusion though. Other teams have lazy entitled little shits to deal with too; that's just the way it is when you deal with overgrown man-children who earn more in a year what a normal person does in a lifetime, and most of those clubs don't experience these kind of complete breakdowns. And the ones that do usually end up sacking the guy who has failed to get the team to pull together.
Come on, Klaus, don't make me list all of the outstanding characters in the squad Wenger took charge of. However much some of them liked a drink - it was the norm then at every British club so not actually that relevant really - there were champions galore. Proper grown men that knew how to win, how to work hard, how to come together as a team and get shit done, even if they had lost their way. They also had respect for the badge, the fans, and for each other.
This squad is a joke. There are no leaders, no winners, no men of characters at all. Tierney is probably the only one I could see being able to lace up his boots with some pride and fit in that squad back then (granted, football has changed, as mentioned). The long-termers are mainly here either because they're total shit or enjoy being on easy street, and won't move because no other clubs will match the ludicrous wages that the idiots - Wenger very much included - in their wisdom, decided to dish out.
Am I happy with what's happening on the pitch? No. Definitely, no. But do I want to see the back of lots and lots of this shit squad? Yes, I do.
I am for Arteta doing everything he can to cull the squad. Get rid of every last self-entitled loser and start again, even if we have to drop into mid-table to do it.
