Was Arsène Wenger A Failure?

Arsène Wenger’s 22 years at Arsenal was a tale of two halves. For nearly a decade, the Frenchman spearheaded a revolution, full of success and history. However, the last 14 years of his reign was plagued by regression, failure and disappointment - tainting the legacy he’d created.
Let me explain the main reasons why Arsenal went from invincible to a laughingstock and ultimately answer the question… was Arsène Wenger a failure?
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[@jettleonard]

If you enjoyed the video, please do like and subscribe. It massively helps out the channel :)

[@dalton7525]

Do Klopp next!

[@JuanSebastianRamos]

Tbh Wenger is my hero. Dude was consistent as hell and did win 17 trophies with arsenal plus 10+ straight years of CL football with a limited budget. I would like to see any of the modern geniuses do so much with soo little

[@lwandomadikizela2213]

Arsene Wenger in his first 10 years changed English football for the better with better nutrition, diet, training regimen and scouting. Turned Arsenal from this boring team to the most exciting team in the Premier League. He won three Premier League titles including going invincible. That season when Arsenal went an entire season undefeated was a sign of a brutal storm that was heading for them. The first red flag was letting Viera go to build a squad around Fabregas which to be fair on Fabregas was a great player during his career but losing the steel that was Viera become the catalyst of spineless players and the start of their banter era. The second red flag when Arsenal left Highbury for The Emirates but they had to pay the cost of the stadium and was forced to sell their top players and sign mediocre players that don't fit Arsenal. The third red flag was Wenger himself. He has failed to adapt to the changes of football and lower the standards from competing with the elites to claiming top 4 is glfar better than winning silverware. 07/08 Premier League season Arsenal screwed up wasn't on him because Eduardo suffered a brutal injury that shook the players and went on a dreadful run of form. The 13/14 season and 15/16 season that's on him because his rivals had challenges but he failed to take advantage of it. Especially when Leicester City won the Premier League title when none of the big 6 were at it and yet allowed a club that was favourite of getting relegated to win the Premier League title. Further destroying his credibility with Arsenal fans and he should have left Arsenal on a high after winning the FA Cup in 2004. The fourth red flag is Stan Kroenke. Like the Glazers he was tone deaf with the Arsenal fans and their concerns about Arsenal falling to mediocrity for the past 20 years. At least now his son runs Arsenal and build a solid foundation to challenge for the Premier League title. Wenger is an Arsenal legend and no one can take that away from him. However his legacy got tainted in the latter years of his career by ego, stadium payment, lowering the standards and failure to adapt with the changing climate of football. I'm not an Arsenal fan but I can acknowledge the positive Wenger has done for the club and the Premier League.

[@dylanparker130]

Three League titles, Seven FA Cups, Seven Super Cups. Having taken over from former-Bolton Wanderers manager, Bruce Rioch. If ever there were someone who embodied the phrase `A victim of their own success'. Great retrospective, Jett.

[@jettleonard]

Thank you so much 😊

[@randomsh1t1471]

no such thing as a super cup stupid

[@ronaldkatamba8557]

u think your slick saying super cups we call them community shield

[@dylanparker130]

@@ronaldkatamba8557 I did feel slick 😂

[@queenzoroark]

If he is a failure, then I wish Brazilian Football had that kind of failure nowadays.

[@owenthfc9055]

No he most certainly isn’t

[@BrownGuyDoesLife]

Can you argue that he underachieved with some of the best squads in Europe? Yeah. The invincibles losing to Chelsea in the champions league that season was a travesty But on the same note, you have to acknowledge how he overachieved spending basically nothing all the while selling his best players to balance the books. He was mocked relentlessly for his statement of "4th place is like a trophy" when so many clubs would kill for that exact outcome now days.

[@EliasRoy]

It's hard. Even though he revolutionized Arsenal's philosophy and playing style and won a historic Invincible PL trophy, his later years and European pedigree will always discredit his legacy.

[@JuanSebastianRamos]

Later years in which he won 7 thropies...

[@randomsh1t1471]

He had to stay that was a part of the reason why the Banks Accepted the Loans for the Stadium... a Key fact you have over looked thats why he stayed on past 2006

[@philipjohn1254]

Wenger never actually said that fourth place was a trophy. What he actually said was "the first trophy is fourth place." Meaning qualification for the Champions League is the MINIMUM benchmark for success.

[@ever7359]

For context I am 27 years old and only got to see 1 league title in my lifetime being the invincibles. Arsene Wenger made Arsenal. One thing the video doesn’t mention is we got Wenger from managing a shit team in Japan not Monaco. Everyone was highly questionable on his appointment. The change from job to life style was extremely controversial from players. The English did not want to stop drinking (they were alcoholics not casual drinkers) and the French were chainsmokers. Most players also did not want a strict diet even when Wenger provided a team chef/cooking staff when most teams didn’t want that. Tony Adam’s is one of the players who is still vocal to this day about hating Wengers guts on this matter. Wenger funded London Colney with the sale of Anelka to Real Madrid which used to be the nations best youth setup pre Chelsea and Man City just buying everyone at 14-16. Wenger did also not go from counter attacking style to possession base like the video says. Arsenal has and always will play beautiful football. It was the first team in England to play Tiki Taka in a league of chuck it to the striker. Wenger had structure and identity even when rivals like Sir Alex did little in that way. Only once Mourinho came did more teams also start branding themselves. Arsenal were only second to Barcelona in terms of playing good football. Wenger did not have to stay with us like the video said. Real Madrid wanted him for years and in another universe he became a serial winner but he chose to stay to guide us when we had no money. People under sell this situation because in recent times teams who have also built a new stadium have either fallen under the financial strain or are nowhere near where they should be now. Arsenal could have turned in a mid table, relegation fighters or actually been relegated like former giants. Getting UCL with no money legit saved our club and if you go back and see those teams of the past you’ll realize how much better that achievement is with most those players destined to be forgotten. Sure he overstayed his welcome by the end and teams caught up with him. But out of all the seasons he was here 2 out of what 20? Seasons were in my opinion highly successful. Arsene Wenger NEEDS to be remembered as one of the greatest coaches of all time and I hope one day his legacy being the emirates stadium gets renamed after him when the name rights expire I think in 2028? A legend of Arsenal and the Premier League.

[@Eggy27]

Hey man I really love you editing style please keep making more videos like these!

[@jettleonard]

Oh wow, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much that means to me :)

[@adtastic1533]

It's really quite simple. 1st half of his career, he was The Truth. 2nd half of his career he lost the plot and started getting high off his own farts

[@ookonkwo]

No he is not a failure he made football more beautiful and he revolutionized arsenal and football and Made footballers and clubs more health conscious and amazing even Mikel Arteta was asked wenger for advice on how to handle the pressure on this current title chase show that Aresene is still high respected by the club and fans

[@BOZ_11]

abstaining from red meat was absolutely silly, but carbs pre-match was smart (though wheat is the least good carb)

[@Allfootyside]

Great video bro!

[@jettleonard]

Thank you so much :)

[@zach1619]

These videos have the quality of proper documentaries, really top work man. Keep it up and you’ll go far. I think a video deep diving into the damaging impact of the Glazer family on Manchester United would be interesting. Especially if you look into how the takeover was actually done and how it really fell apart after Ferguson retired.

[@jettleonard]

Thank you so, so much. Really kind of you to say that. And that's a great idea. Definitely a topic I'll cover at some point :)

[@jamescollins2629]

No. In his first decade at arsenal he won them 2 doubles 1998 and 2002, won the leaque in 2004 by being invincible, he got to 2 European finals uefacup 2000 and ucl 2006 but sadly he lost the uefacup on penalties and in the ucl the red fucked them. Then the stadium was build 2007-17 he couldn't compete because Arsenal didnt have the money and whem the got the money the board gave him the bare minimum but still he won 3 facups 2014 2015 and 2017, had amazing teams in 2008 and 2009, in 2016 could have won it if the board got him the quality signings, his major mistake was sailing Robin Van Persie to Man utd 2018 was the year that he should have left as it was his worst season. His not a failure but in Europe he could have achieved more and maybe leave earlier but he didn't deserve the abuse he got from arsenal fans

[@mpumelelobeyers957]

Im not a young Arsenal... Winning the FA Cup / Carling cup was something deemed ' no longer an achievement '. 2005-2013 . Something nobs like this video guy doesn't get.

[@michaelshannon9169]

Excellent presentation man, one of the best analysis of Wenger.

[@jettleonard]

Thank you so much :)

[@corneliussmiff2773]

He took Arsenal from a decent sized club into a world class sized club. He changed how football was played, how it was managed, how players trained, how they ate and he modernised the entire couching system. Arsenal fans and the club itself betrayed him in the end.

[@EmergingEcho]

If Arsenal is a world class club, where are Steaua and Crvena Zvezda?

[@willleon9165]

Arsenal were far from decent pre Wenger. Countries second most successful club coming off two title victories in the end of 80s early 90s

[@wingedhussar1453]

After 2005 his squad got worse and he had mediocare players

[@bumblebee1930]

Man lost against Birmingham in the final for heaven's sake. Stop making excuses for the specialist in failure

[@randomsh1t1471]

David Dein leaving thats what caused the regression

[@thatomatseba6916]

My Career role model from the Economist to Coach

[@wolfpackpete6408]

The big problem with the idea of changing game philosophy from type Vieira to type Fàbregas, was that Fàbregas was always going to return to Barça.

[@BOZ_11]

Ozil replaced Cesc, and quite aptly. Same problems occurred.

[@wolfpackpete6408]

@BOZ_11 Özil didn't join Arsenal for 2 years after Fàbregas left. Van Persie had gone by that time, too.

[@BOZ_11]

@@wolfpackpete6408 Ozil was nevertheless the midfield string puller that Cesc was. It's really odd that he didn't revert to his original style using Vieira (or that type of central midfielder, physically bossing the place, with surging runs and clean passes).

[@wolfpackpete6408]

@BOZ_11 Wenger spotted that possession play was the direction football was heading. His later team was still very good, they just lacked a little bit of bite/grit. Moving to the Emirates stadium will have been part of it... it is one of the smoothest, fastest playing surfaces. When I say "type Vieira to type Fàbregas", I am talking about how the team plays. They were both string pullers in midfield, but very different in style. Of course it didn't help that Wenger worked to a lower budget than rival clubs, but it's not entirely clear if that was because of funds sanctioned by the hierarchy or if Wenger was just fixated on developing bargain fee players with potential. The large fee on Özil came too late, and Özil had already regressed a bit from being the best young playmaker in the world... Real Madrid wouldn't have sold him otherwise. For Arsenal fans it was understandably frustrating. They were (and still are) paying the highest match ticket prices in Europe and the club wasn't reinvesting their high ticket prices on the best players.

[@BOZ_11]

@@wolfpackpete6408 "Wenger spotted that possession play was the direction football was heading" Wenger was playing this short passing, fluid possession focused style in the 90s; albeit more direct, but years before tiki taka. Mourinho, Ancelotti and Fergie kept winning without a possession focused style I don't think Ozil had regressed the moment he joined Arsenal, he was a great player for his first 5 seasons at Arsenal; Mourinho sold him because he doesn't like slight playmakers in central roles. "they just lacked a little bit of bite/grit" ------ Something Vieira had in spades. "it's not entirely clear if that was because of funds sanctioned by the hierarchy or if Wenger was just fixated on developing bargain fee players" ---- If you swapped Wenger's budget for the one Mourinho had under Abramovich, holy moly

[@yanglu6786]

Hi, bro. Can I translate this video into Chinese? I highly appreciate your work, I think it's perfect, and I want to share it with more Arsenal fans in China,

[@willleon9165]

Sure he gets overrated by his fan boys but it can't be denied he achieved great things and was still doing good work on budget after Emirates move. Probably should have been moved on around 2012 even though Wenger still kept arsenal as a force

[@mynthie2576]

underrated

[@EmergingEcho]

I am a Liverpool fan. Pick any English team. Discuss about the pros and cons. And in the end Real Madrid wins everything.

[@joeford5181]

To some it up, it's just an elite or great coach who was already passed his prime.

[@theknightowl728]

17 trophies a failure??????

[@johnwalters4792]

Not a failure. Just Arsenal owners wanted Champions League football above all else and when he failed he was gone.

[@EmergingEcho]

4. Arsenal

[@Salacious-Crumb]

Course not

[@lenneth1188]

Complete failure, look at how Real Madrid's run. New stadium and still competing at the highest level, lots of deluded fans will come up with sorry excuses for Wenger but he was simply a specialist in failure.

[@matiaslopez9142]

Real Madrid produces a Lot More than arsenal and they are different times and situations

[@Woodroffski]

That's a false comparison, as top Spanish teams receive state aid, which doesn't happen in the UK.

[@ItsTheBoombox]

So your comparing Arsenal to real Madrid, if anything that means Wenger was a success

[@wingedhussar1453]

His players left and he had mediocare players later