Arsene Wenger made logical predictions when Arsenal were on top to keep us there in the short and long term. Unfortunately things didn’t work out how he predicted and we have gone six years without a trophy and the club needs to keep revenue up to compete this has hurt the fans in heart and pocket.Arsene gambled and lost but unlike roulette all is not lost, we still have a great training ground and Academy, Swanky stadium and an exciting young team that competes for trophies and is capable of beating Barcelona on their day. Financial fair play has screwed us over and we have had to play little penny pincher while we negotiate new commercial deals

Arsene Wenger has always been a visionary when he came to our great club which was in serious decline, he stopped everything that was dragging the club down. Alcohol was banned for everyone training methods were completely changed apparently the first thing he did was give David Dein a list of gym equipment and suppliers in Europe to refit the training facilities. Everything from supplements to colour coding the player’s p*ss were introduced. His Arsenal revolution hit England like an earthquake and we won the double in his first full season.Now all proper Arsenal fans knew the history of Wenger’s reign how much he changed Arsenal and English football.

Almost as soon as he arrived he began plans for new training facilities and a new stadium.These plans had to be changed from the originals to be accepted by politicians anyway thanks to Arsene Wenger Arsenal enjoy the best training facilities and stadium in Britain and rival those of A.C Milan and Real Madrid. These facilities have ensured Arsenal will remain a big club long after Wenger leaves. Now the cost of all that was huge and a new approach had to be taken, a financial plan unlike any football had ever seen was undertaken to fund all this and keep Arsenal competitive in the transfer market with ManU.All of this was in place by 2001 and it took a few years to get the green light from planning authorities,banks etc. so everything came together in 2003 Arsenal had a better squad than ManU, just set up the best academy in the country and their new stadium plans were committed to, everything was rosy for Arsenal and that vision for how Arsenal would continue to work. However Red Rom came riding into Premiership land.

Chelsea now had financial backing of about £7b but Arsenal were ‘Invincible’ so nobody cared. The Invincibles weren’t young and some were past their prime or were content with the 49-game-streak. Chelsea won the league in 2005 their buying power and salary offers putting them on top. Arsenal had to increase wages for our top players and this money came from the transfer kitty we would have to rely on younger cheaper players we could pick up from foreign countries. Now this is the important part about Wenger getting it wrong.

Chelsea’s new wealth didn’t matter to Arsene he had already predicted financial fair play rules sadly UEFA were slow acting and ultimately bottled it.Football in England changed in the late 90’s becoming more about the football than long-ball physicallity.Wenger expected this change to continue his teams post-05 have been smaller more technical sides. Wenger predicted all clubs in the Premiership to follow his lead which was reasonable as he was having great success in England.However they didn’t Mourinho with his sugar daddy and footballing genius built a big strong team with excellent technique and near perfect tactics Fergie did likewise. Fat Sam’s tactics survived his Newcastle shambles and Stoke arrived etc. So as Wenger created one of the best footballing teams around widely agreed as second only to Barca he ignored the physical side and we have suffered for it.Had things worked out more like Wenger’s predictions we would have dominated English football like Barca dominate Spain, the last 6 years and be pushing Barcelona in Europe.

Arsene Wenger made logical predictions when Arsenal were on top to keep us there in the short and long term. Unfortunately things didn’t work out how he predicted and we have gone six years without a trophy and the club needs to keep revenue up to compete this has hurt the fans in heart and pocket.Arsene gambled and lost but unlike roulette all is not lost, we still have a great training ground and Academy, Swanky stadium and an exciting young team that competes for trophies and is capable of beating Barcelona on their day. Financial fair play has screwed us over and we have had to play little penny pincher while we negotiate new commercial deals and wait for FFP to account for our new deals.

In summary Wenger’s predictions=good, outcome=bad,Arsenal under Wenger=almost ready to kick ass again

Mean Lean’s Response

It is amazing that Arsene is currently being beaten with the same stick that he has handed out to people. Arsene has come to Arsenal and raised the bar, we have accepted that and enjoyed the success in his early years. These days he hasn’t been able to reach those levels, mainly because the competition has been so tough and so much money has been poured into the game either by rich sugar daddies or clubs who are willing to risk their future by overspending. Whether you believe in Arsene Wenger’s methods or you do not it is difficult to escape the fact that Arsenal FC has never been a club to overspend or risk its future by reckless spending.

A quick look through history and our spending has always been conservative, whether that be George Graham, Terry Neil or Don Howe it has always been the same so I do not understand why all the criticism has been directed at our manager as to why we do not buy superstars.

While these last 6 seasons have been frustrating to the extreme and some of the frustrations have to land at the managers door step which is fair, it is also fair to say that Arsenal FC have not been competing on a level playing field with our rivals.

Judging by the way things have gone, I imagine that the respect will only come his way from the main stream media and a section of the supporters if he manages to beat his rivals with a lower wage bill and lower transfer budget than the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and now Manchester City. Good luck with that Arsene, it appears you are going to need it.