Let’s cut straight to the chase, and leaving aside all the arguments, regarding whether or not Arsène Wenger should be replaced or not, and beg the question, “if he leaves Arsenal, for whatever reason, who should replace him?”

There is a lot of talk about Mourhino being given the heave ho at Real Madrid this summer, and he is looking for a berth in the Premier League, so we are told.

Now I cannot stand the guy on a personal basis, with his cheap shots, stupid and unpleasant mind games and his general sneeringly dismissive manner. BUT – he is a good manager, possessing a very creditable curriculum vitae!

The subordinate question I would have to ask is “can he work his magic without a huge treasure chest to work with in order to buy marquee players, which has always been his signature method?”

I guess only time will tell, but I would be inclined to give him a shot, simply because it would be a win/win for me. If he succeeds, we would all be thrilled potatoes, and clacking our maracas, if he fails it would be only a short-term thing because he does not tend to stick around.

Then there is Sir Alex Ferguson. We all know how desperate he was to join us 20 odd years ago, and was near suicidal when old Dennis Hilly-Wood told him to sod off and stop wasting our time.
No – I am only pulling your string theory!

What about Pulis? OK, OK, but for those keen to get rid of Arsene, perhaps an Orc team might appeal. No?

I won’t let you choose Benitez, so you can forget him. Fact!!

This isn’t easy, because I do not really know anyone whom I can easily recommend, because like most of you, I do not take much notice of other managers, and have no real knowledge of their ability.

OK then, so what about Capello? Ancelotti, Klopp, Hiddink, Rijkaard or Lowe?

My problem is that I know these managers by reputation only, and I am sure many or even all of them are first class managers, in their own right, but haven’t they all made their names, in part, by having big money available to buy top, top quality players? Now where have I heard that phrase previously?

Now I know there are rumours that Arsenal have between £50 million and £70 million available for transfers, but there is a huge caveat here. First, if we do not clinch a 4^th place in the Premiership, and therefore we fail to qualify for the Champions League in the new managers initial ‘break in’ season, we will add another possible £35 million shortfall onto the likely £35 million shortfall this season if, as seems likely, we do not qualify this season.

Well as a self funding, break even football club, the transfer treasure chest would be needed to plug the hole in the profit line.

This is becoming a tad tricky for your correspondent.

There is only one thing for it, and that is to throw this open to the glitterati of the AA blogsite, and ask you to help me with your greater knowledge. Who would you want to manage Arsenal, or do you think Arsène Wenger should soldier on, and just heap scorn and ridicule on a decent man and a great manager?

Don’t be shy. Let’s have your views and your reasons to support your selection.

Written by Red Arse

Seasons Greetings to all our Gooner friends across the globe.

Whatever your beliefs, be it religion or 4:5:1 as opposed to 4:4:2 😛 we can join together at this time and celebrate what unites us.

COYRRG 

Anyone with children or someone of “uncomplicated taste” in their house will probably have heard of The X-Factor. This season’s contest was staggering for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there was a chap called James Arthur, and he was good. Secondly, and even more incredibly, the children and the “uncomplicated” got it right and Arthur won.

This got me thinking about the power of the Digital Vote. This thinking period also coincided with concerns I have over the way Arsenal FC allocate their pay.

As a club, we are stuck in no-man’s land. The Club wisely like to achieve CL Qualification, and let’s face it, until last season it has been a bit of a stroll in the park given the poor competition. As an end to realistic league ambition, this must severely dent the incentive of the footballers themselves.

So, and here’s the point of this post, perhaps it is time to reconsider the incentive scheme at The Club. It really does boil down to cash, unless of course, one of you bright sparks can unearth a better system, in which case I’d love to hear it.

What is in the kitty? I am not sure anyone really knows exact figures, so I’ll go ball park.

£135m paid out in total. Let’s say the total players’ pot stands at around £100m. Here’s the plan. Everyone in the first team squad is on £25k a week. Nice. They are all reasonably comfortable, have a little surplus for their jewellery, and enough orange for their wags. Tidy. This £25k is deducted from the pot. The remainder is divided equally over the total amount of games possible in a season (as we get eliminated from Cup competitions, the remaining allocation from that tournament rolls over).

The rest of the cash is performance related, and on a match by match basis. Here’s The X-factor connection. My system shall include Audience Participation. Fans simply text in their player ratings, and from these results, the pot will be divided up in accordance with the ratio of points scored.

I have done my sums here, and reckon a consistently top performer would end up on around £150k a week, while players only making the odd appearance from the bench would be hovering around the £30k a week mark.

I’m not entirely sure I can see a problem, can you, and if so how would you improve the current system?

Written by MickyDidIt89

Well here we are mulling over the worst defeat in our history, losing to 2nd division Bradford was not the sort of record we were looking to create.

It was the first game that I have not been able to watch in over 10 years so I listened to the audio commentary on Arsenal player. To be frank their commentary was far superior to what we are served up on television and it gave me a clear understanding of what was happening at field level.

You would think that after following Arsenal for the past 66 seasons that I would be really upset about us losing out on what was, in all likelihood, our most winnable trophy this season – but I’m not the least bit upset. Over the years, I’ve observed so many poor games that one more could not possibly create any more furrows in my brow, they just seem to get deeper and more pronounced when I think about Arsenal’s performances.

The simple realisation is that overall we are a poor team, our defensive play has been more than acceptable giving up only 6 goals in our past 7 games for .9 per game which is also our premier league average, but our offence has sputtered over the same period scoring only 7 goals for 1.0 per game vs. our PL average of 1.7 per game.

A defeat of this type, will of course, bring out the very worst in our “supporter’s” who will now be baying for Arsene’s head and the scalps of certain players.

The media will have a field day with this result and will have it “bronzed” for future use, bringing it out at every possible opportunity.

I feel that as a supporter group we need to stand resolute in our support for our manager and team, which does not exclude us from being critical, but the club must now realise that the day of reckoning is nigh and we need to make urgent changes to get us back to the high levels of performance that we have been spoilt with and have become accustomed to.

It is more than apparent that we are being let down by our performance’s but what is not clear are the reason/s behind our loss of form/ability/technique.

The questions are ongoing –

Is it the manager’s fault?

Is it because we won’t spend our transfer kitty?

Why do we lose our best players?

Why do we seem give away easy goals?

What has happened to our passing fluidity?

Why can’t we put away our chances?

Are we using the right formation?

Why are we putting players in the wrong position?

Why are players not fulfilling their potential?

We supporters are blessed with infallible hindsight and, after the fact, can solve all of AFC’s problems, I just hope that our club can find the foresight and vision that will resolve our problems and ease our pain.

We have a window of opportunity with the January transfer period and the club need to have completed their homework and be ready to pounce on some exciting new talent to put us on the road to recovery. One or two high quality players in the right positions would make a big difference.

You will have noticed that I didn’t write about the game or criticize the manager or our players, the reason for that is I believe that they are performing at the very best of their ability – but it’s simply not good enough – is it?

Changes are needed and the changes need to be well planned and executed.

I once read that –

You can have change without improvement – but –

You cannot have improvement without change.

My vote is for the latter as we have dwelled for far too long on the former.

Will it get better – well of course it will – we have just hit our all time low – so it can only get better – right?

Keep the faith.

A disheartened but not broken –

GunnerN5