Gunnerrob says:

Dear oh Dear Chris, talk about reading the bits that suit you. you’re taking this personally, which is not great, but anyway to defend myself against your unnecessary slurs (I thought we could have a balanced discussion, apparently not) career stats Carlos Vela since 2006, competitive matches started 71, match brought on a substitute 65, total goals 24. So even if you ignore the 65 matches he came on as sub it’s still a 1 in 3 strike rate, if you count all 136 competitive matches it’s 0.12. I know you want the world to agree with you on Carlos Vela, but the truth is he just ain’t that good chief.

So let’s get this clear, you want Carlos Vela to have a proper chance in the first team (even though he’s shown nothing for 3 seasons, not even West Brom could justify the gamble). The problem is not his terrible strike rate, but his mental attitude, he’ll faithfully score the 4rd goal with a pretty chip to sew up a match, but have you ever seen him score a vital first goal against a tough opponent when real mental application is required? rarely if ever, I have no memory of such an occasion

You want to take a “gamble” with the future of the club and get shot of Wenger, well that’s just brilliant, I’ve followed Arsenal for nearly forty years and I’d like to think they’ll still be around in another forty years at the top of the table, not if you’ve got anything to do with it.

In hindsight a couple of extra experienced players at the beginning of last season would have helped especially after losing Vermaelen, not everyone is as fortunate as you Chris, we don’t all have a science degree in Hindsight and a crystal ball, maybe you should have forced a meeting with Wenger. If I remember correctly, Wenger was looking for new players last season but got priced out on a couple of occasions. But you believe what you want to if it makes you feel better.

And Why do I want to keep him?

1) He single handedly turned a dull boring team who were mid table playing long ball football and going nowhere into a fluent progressive team that play football I want to pay money to see.
2) He rejuvenated players that were finished before his arrival into winners, yes I’m talking about serial drug takers and alcoholics Ray parlour, Tony Adams, and Paul Merson.

3) He blended them with youthful new talent Vieira and Anelka and within his first full season won the double.

4) He went on to raise the standard of the club to even higher levels by bringing in Henry, Overmars Petit, Lyngberg to win two more titles and another double.

5) On top of this he created the untouchables that went a mesmeric whole season unbeaten, never done before or since. He did it with his own defence, not an inherited one, we shipped in less goals in that season than in any season with the old guard of Adams and co. And to top that off we even scored over 90 goals.

6) He did all that in the face of the fact that Man United had a huge financial monopoly on the premiership. £30 million Rio , Veron.

7) Wenger is a clever man, he knew that in order to ensure the future of the club he would need to get closer to Man Uniteds financial strength. Here is Highbury with 38000 capacity and unit just built an extension to 66,000. The future was looking bleak

Calculated gamble, bigger stadium, more revenue, but short term sacrifice, and when I say short term I mean 5-7 years. for this period little money available for transfer, The gamble was to keep the short sighted fans like you Chris quiet for 5 years, find a balance between creating a lasting legacy and a competitive side but perhaps some compromises would occur.

9) We come out of this period of financial pressure and now money is made available for purchases, but not stupid money, we’re never going to spend £35,000,000 on Andy Carrol or £50,000,000 for Torres, but maybe a couple of quality £15,000,000 players.

10) Wenger has shown on several occasions that he is a winner, and with nothing but football to occupy his mind in the future, sooner rather than later we’ll start winning again. Albeit in a much tougher environment, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Tottenham all want to win as well

11) I don’t want Mourinho coming within 1 mile of my club thank you very much, that Portuguese peacock is nothing but a self styled glory hunter, and his team are boring to watch. Rather watch Real over Barca? or Chelsea over United? not a chance.

p.s I didn’t contradict myself 1 bit, you just choose not to read that paragraph in it’s entirety.

Chris, you can’t take it when people disagree with you, my opinion is that Vela is not good enough to lace RVP’s boots, that opinion is based on hard facts , my opinion is that Wenger is the best thing that ever happened at Arsenal football club, he only comes second to Fergy in terms of achievement in England in the modern era and all without wheel barrow loads of pound note.

You carry on with you reality distortion field when it comes to players like Vela, nobody else i know is singing his praises, I think you’re in a very small minority there. And if you seriously want to ship out Wenger after all he has done and continues to do, so a short termist like Mourinho can waltz in and take all the glory from Wenger who has laid all the foundations at the club frankly makes you go down in my estimation.