A highly over-rated manager in my opinion. Too stubborn to address his team's flaws.
Firstly he won't buy a proper goal keeper. Nothing more needs to be said of that.
Besides Vermallen he won't buy a strong back 4. He won stuff with a back 4 (and Keown/Viera) that teams were afraid of.
He has brought most of this team through his stewardship, hence all of them being able to take a touch but few who can either physically break down a defense, or stop others (a-la Carroll) doing it back.
Good coach, over-rated manager :slap:
I don't get the whole "buy a proper Goalkeeper and defender" jibe the board at Arsenal was set-up to run a business model of making a profit investing million's into a proper goalkeeper and defender would have set back their business plan of braking even/making a profit.
I see your point, though I must admit I would argue that long term success (and with it, financial gain) has been lost time and time again for it. They bought Vermallen for £5 (I think) and a relatively good GK wouldn't be far off that, might not be the best in the world but would out strip Almunia atm. As for the defeners jibe, he must have scouts to find all the young talent, but even then it is his choice to go for the 1's he does. I might be wrong (and by all means correct me as the figures for Vermallen are probably off) but I still feel he should at least attempt to address his flaws. Lehman has done that in 1 respect.
He did make a bid for Reina that was rebuffed, but doesn't make a good story for the media so gets little coverage (he should have come in for Westy). I actually think the other lad they have Scezny (sp?) looks very good, so that problem could well have been resolved.
Vermalen was injured for a while and Van Persie missed a big chunk at the start of the season. I don't rate Bendtner and I think they lack leadership on the pitch, but as much as I dislike Wenger, I disagree about him being a poor manager. People look to trophyless seasons as failure and I can understand that, but they've been competing on all of those and but for a bit of luck here and there things could have been vastly different.
I can see your point, but I still feel his stubborness to have every player imitate Messi will always backfire, especially at the back. I might have been a little harsh tho, maybe I just don't like the man