It is a little bit ironic that Arsene Wenger is upset that Liverpool have sacked Brendan Rodgers and brought in Jurgen Klopp, as there are a lot of Arsenal fans that would have liked the German to be coming to the Emirates and displacing Le Prof instead!
Wenger sounds rather shocked that Rodgers, who nearly won the title for Liverpool only a couple of years ago, was shown the door after just eight games of the new season. Even more shocking is the fact that the Reds have only lost two games so far, which is exactly the same as Arsenal, Man City and Man United, and are only six points below the League leaders.
Wenger said after Klopp’s appointment when the “Normal one” promised to bring the title to Anfield in the next four years. Wenger said: “They came the closest to winning it two years ago and now I don’t know why really, the rational reasons why they have made that decision so quickly. It’s difficult for me to understand.
“I’m surprised because first of all for me it’s very sad.
“I think when you lose your job in life, it’s difficult and on top of that after eight games it’s very, very difficult because if you start well and you have a bad moment during the season, people forgive you.
“But if you start wrong straight away you are questioned and that’s what happened to Brendan Rodgers.”
I hate to bring this up but Arsenal got off to a much worse start, and after rallying are still only four pints in front of Liverpool. It would seem that the Anfield management have made a very hasty decision and Wenger is quite right to be shocked at the decision. Unless there was some friction behind the scenes that hasn’t been revealed yet…
Yes Brendan should have been given 19 years to prove himself
You cry like a baby man. The money Rogers has spent in 3 years Wenger never spent it in 19yrs. Get a grip…go somewhere else and do the crying.
Other clubs prayed fervently for Wenger to be sacked so that they could pounce. Simply a phenomenal manager. Klopp would grab Wenger’s achievements with both hands.
Game on…boy.
Listen @Tyni,
@Robertthegooner is right.
Its only at Arsenal where the manager can constantly underachieve for a decade and still be secure in his job and still be given the freedom to make the same stupidly obvious mistakes season after season. It is a shame. I hope by the end of the season when we end up with nothing in the shape of major silverware he realizes this is it and call it quits so we can get a top manager like Guardiola who becomes available.
Wenger literally has no pressure that is why it doesn’t translate into much success on the pitch. Nothing is really expected of Arsenal…definitely not in the champions league and its just more in hope than expectation that we can win the EPL. In the EPL, 19 managers are under constant pressure every week and only one has a safe job. Do we really think Alex Ferguson would have been allowed to go more than 5 years without winning anything at Manchester United and keep his job? NO!
Honestly, the Rodgers sacking is maybe just a year early but justifiable. Now if Chelsea were to sack Mourinho after he just won the EPL last season or had Man City sacked Pellegrini after he won the EPL the previous season then that would not be justifiable. They need the time to steady the ship again and have proven that they are winners by actually winning the coveted EPL crown. Now on what merit should Wenger stay continuously on the job for 12 years now since he last won the EPL? Making top 4 every season only to make minimal contribution or challenge in the champions league? I think not!! That objective would be an overachievement or perfect achievement for a club the stature of Everton or Tottenham Hotspurs. That is where we are right now. Its not good enough. Of course Wenger does not like Rodgers leaving because it shows Liverpool’s ambitions. They are not just content with trying for 4th every season.
‘trying for 4th..’
Yeah, Liverpool got 6th. We finished 3rd, played in the CL and won the F.A. Cup.
Don’t compare the clubs achievements last year as anything close. Wenger doesn’t ‘try for 4th’ he achieves the minimum of 4th, there’s a difference.
There’s been quite a large gap between a rotating front-runner in Chelsea, City or United these past few seasons. But then there’s been a big gap between us Spurs, Liverpool and Everton and co. so please don’t act as though we’re anywhere near their level. It’s simply, just not true…
Do you honestly believe Wenger, the squad and board had similar ambitions to Rodgers and Liverpool this season??
Sorry, you think last year’s achievement was good? You really need to have a chat with Alexis Sanchez.
Well by your admission and claims that Arsenal are not on the same level as Liverpool, then you would agree that Arsenal’s 3rd and an FA cup is relative to Liverpool’s 6th. It is UNDER-PERFORMANCE. The minimum for Liverpool is the Europa league. So why did Brendan Rodgers lose his job and Arsene didn’t?
I’ll tell you why….AMBITION. Arsenal have none and that is why under Wenger we shall remain stagnated.
Can you define what performing to our actual level is?
Winning the title? Considering we compete against clubs with far larger budgets and better resources than us for the PL title, like Man City and United, I’d say winning it would be an over-achievement.
Winning the CL? Even more of an over-achievement.
Winning the FA Cup? Doesn’t seem to satisfy you.
For me, performing at our level is competing for the title. Not necessarily winning it, but being in the mix. Finishing within 5 points of it for example. We’re a little behind that at the moment.
And the players arsene has been forced to sell ovee the period justifies wat tyno says.. wenger has been exceptional in terms of utilising what he was left with and the budget.. we on course to build a deadly team i believe.. lets keep the faith gooners
there’s nothing to be PERPLEXED about……. The pool owners wants results for well over 200+miL spent…… And brendan…….she wasn’t delivering!
What matters now is that Arsenal players are on fire. Hope G-rude finds his scoring boots. Enough of the confidence thing now…Theo’s relieved the pressure from him.
sorry buddy……… Nobody wants hold-up play these days……. Not even the french national team!
He will at some point. Still think he’ll finish the season around 18+ goals
Impossible job at Liverpool. Can’t get top 4. The established top 4 now are Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Man City. You’d describe Liverpool as a club ‘aiming for top 4’. But you’d describe the top 4 clubs as ‘aiming for the title’. There is a gulf in quality between the top 4 and Liverpool, and it’s going to be very hard for them to bridge that gap. Can’t attract top talent because they don’t have CL football, can’t get CL football because they can’t attract top talent. Anything but success will see Klopp labelled a failure. I think he’s a very good manager, and could do it, but I don’t think he can. Shame, I quite like the guy.
Also just worth pointing out just how crucial it was that Arsenal were kept in the top 4 for all these years. Everyone moans about not having a chance at actually winning it, but being in it is massive too. Not only the money, but we can also attract brilliant players like Alexis and Özil. Liverpool clearly have had hundreds of millions to spend, but haven’t managed to get any established players of that quality – guess why that is? Staying in the CL over the past decade means we can still attract players good enough to challenge for the PL. Liverpool not staying in the CL means they can only attract players good enough to challenge for top 4.
And yes, before the big ‘wenger only aims for top 4’ debate begins, we are aiming for the title and not top 4. For 6-7 years we were just aiming for top 4, and were successful, now for the past couple of years we’ve been aiming for the title, and have failed. The title is our aim, top 4 is our safety net. Whether you think we’re too willing to fall into that safety net or not is a different argument.
I expect Wenger’s surprised and shocked at Rodgers dismissal because he doesn’t understand how accountability works. Wenger said the other day that he is ‘accountable’ for mistakes, but he clearly has no clue the consequences of being accountable. The buck is meant to stop with the manager, which meant the sack for Rodgers.
Rodgers had just over three seasons at Liverpool, no trophies, no finals, and lot of money spent. It’s clear they were a more or less a one man team with Suarez, and Rodgers seemed fairly clueless with the defensive side of the game. The board have done the correct thing, at the wrong time (should have been done in the summer before more money was spent), and have a appointed a much better manager. I feel the board have listened to the fans, shown ambition, and have appointed the correct man in Klopp. If only Arsenal had a board that looked at manager’s performance and listened to the fans.
Liverpool, 2014/15 6th place, goal difference of +4
Arsenal, 2014/15 3rd place, goal difference of +35, F.A. Cup, Community Shield, round of 16 CL.
Just a tiny bit of difference there…
I agree wholeheartedly that the manager should be held accountable, and in three years Rodgers has had one good season due largely to having a top-10 (maybe even top 5) player in the world carrying them. But Liverpool have gone backwards under Rodgers.. Arsenal have progressed. (since the new stadium has become less burdening)
If by ‘held accountable’ you mean ‘win the title or leave’ then yeah… Wenger has underperformed.
But if fans can’t see the change in ambition, and quality of the squad these past few seasons, I honestly don’t think you’re looking hard enough.. We’re retaining the majority of our players, fixed our socialist wage structure, added absolute quality and finally broke the silverware curse with consecutive F.A. Cups.
People act as though Klopp would have been a godsend… Last season he was where Mourinho is now, without a title the season prior, just saying.. This ‘accountability’ people talk of seems to be extremely selective when discussing potential Wenger replacements.
I think Wenger’s successor will be Roberto Martinez. If we win this season it’ll happen end of season, if not, the season after.
Buys extremely well, passionate, you can tell his squad hangs on his every word and goes out on the pitch to play their hearts out for him, well drilled tactically, and plays great attacking football. He oozes class as well, which is a hard thing to say about most managers…
Honestly, that will be fine with me. And if it takes him 2 or 3 years to get the squad winning major trophies then that is alright.
But at this point, I would have to be a professional FOOL to have any patience for Wenger’s reign.
First off Rodgers had 3 years with Liverpool and Wenger had 19 years and Wenger’s achievement with Arsenal for the 2014/2015 season would have been truthfully been a fantastic achievement for Brendan Rodgers but a rather meagre achievement for Arsene Wenger who has spent 19 years with Arsenal and had an overall better quality squad.
Staying on that note, the overall quality of Arsenal’s squad in the 2013/2014 season was also better than Liverpool’s so don’t just pin that season down to Suarez. Arsenal and Wenger were poor when it mattered in that season (in big games and in the 2 transfer windows…KALLSTROM already injured for 2 months before we signed him when we needed a striker…does that ring a bell?). Its not Suarez’s fault that Wenger is adept at incompetency.
On “Retaining the majority of our players”: Great, but realistically speaking, apart from Sanchez and Ozil who will other clubs go out of their way to sign? Giroud?…I think not, that is why we are able to retain them. It doesn’t mean they are great players.
Yes, the squad has improved but given the improvement in the quality of the squad and the little improvement in the quality of the results such as major trophies (EPL and CL), Arsenal are still stagnating. The F.A cup back to back is nice but I wouldn’t say its that spectacular of an achievement. In this era its not surprising to see a championship side or lower table EPL side winning the FA cup. Its a fantastic achievement for them but not for Arsenal. Its not as difficult as it was before. Nothing has changed and that means the only person to blame here is the manager. If the squad changes and still achievements are still low then its the manager’s problem.
‘Who would other clubs go out of their way to sign?’
Cazorla and Koscielny (heard of Real Madrid?), Bellerin, Gabriel, Coquelin, Ramsey, Cech, Wilshere (40mil, city), Theo, Ox, Sanogo (lhaha), Monreal had rumoured clubs after him, Ospina we could easily sell, and yes… If Giroud was available there are clubs out there who would pay 20mil. Other clubs and fanbases wouldn’t share nearly the irrational disdain you have for him..
Wenger is scared of Klopp , that’s what the real issue with Wenger . We might lose the Top 4 to Klopp next season.
Reading a comment only yesterday saying , “the first thing Klopp must do is control the selection committee”. That is something Wenger does very well.
Arsene, your comments have been worrying me for a long time.
Why does Arsene make so many comments about things that dont concern him or Arsenal. I dont hear other managers talking about this.
Other managers are under the same pressure, and all the people who are saying that Arsene and Arsenal have performed well in the last few years. I just have one single question.
Which manager in the world could have survived the humiliations Arsene survived? 8-3, 6-0, 6-1 i mean total and utter humiliation time and time again.
He is so used not paying the consequences of his own mistakes that he is suprised when others pay for theirs.
I think BR would make a great number 2 at Arsenal now. SB to just be defending coach because in my eyes great player but our back fire at very poor at times. But that has a lot to do with age now and the BFG being so slow. I like BFG but we won’t win big with him as first choice. GB needs a young partner to build a new CD partnership. Still don’t no why Carl is still at West Ham because I think he is much better then chambers much better