Arsenal Supporters Trust AGM

[YeahBee]

People underestimate what Tony Adams meant to the club. When Graham went the star of the team was Ian Wright, but the first man David Adrian spoke to and confided in was Adams. He asked him to steady the ship until they could sort things out at that level.

You can say what you like about his management career, his personality etc. But never under estimate just what an important character he was in terms of Arsenal’s history. He was as natural leader of men as I’ve seen closely followed by Vieira after him. We’ve had classier centre backs for sure but none with his strength of character and will. I would cut my right arm off to have someone who cared about the shirt as much as Adams did and who could install the ways and pride of the club to new player or member of staff that comes in.

So why did he fail or atleast not really succeed when trying fulltime managing?

He tried the same stuff that worked with players of the highest level and it didn't work with lower league guys?

 

[say yes]

Not sure what half you lot are on about.

Dixon went up in my estimation with those comments. Erudite, balanced and best of all - honest.

His comments only ‘discredit’ Arsène’s achievements if you have an over-inflated sense of those achievements anyway.

 

[Garrincha]

Was Adams not brought into the coaching fold at some level but opted for the $$$ just like Thierry? I have no problem with that & probably would in the same situation but Wenger does bring ex player in.

 

[Fallout]

the player development issue is perplexing because for many years, wenger had a good record of developing players. after he sold the invincibles, he went through many seasons of bringing in youth ... it seemed like we would sell a big player and then a youngster would step up the very next season to fill the void. and it's not like they had a lot of experienced players to coach them at the time. so i'm not sure how the wheels fell off the bus so drastically.

 

[goonerwarsh]

So why did he fail or atleast not really succeed when trying fulltime managing?

He tried the same stuff that worked with players of the highest level and it didn't work with lower league guys?

I'm not talking about his managerial career. I'm talking about what Tony Adams achieved and what he represented as a football player for Arsenal.

He embodied everything that modern day Arsenal aren't. Wenger and Adams were absolutely perfect for each other at that time of each of their respective careers. They both brought great things out in each other. Wenger's new diet regime that English football hadn't seen, the pick of a wonderful generation of French players and exciting loose football mixed with Adams leadership and his marshalling of arguably the best back four and goalkeeper the top flight has seen. That mix of strength, discipline and experience at the back, the talent and physicality of Vieira and Petit, then Overmars, Anelka, Bergkamp.

Adams was what was left over from the old era; there to install the principles of the club to newcomers, and Wenger was bringing in his ideas to lead us into a new era. They complimented each other.

All of those advantages that Wenger brought, have long since been caught up and surpassed - where we was once ahead of the curve; it is us that are playing catch up to everybody else. We all said when we got a sudden influx of top class football managers come into the league, Klopp, Mourinho, Conte, Poch and of course Guardiola that it would be really interesting to see what happens and that we would see the true test of where Wenger and his abilities stood. That question I think has been answered. We've won the cups of course but everyone knows the league is where you see the true result of where you are. We've gone from struggling to make top four to struggling to make top six with a budget that isn't to be sniffed at either. It's been like watching a car crash in slow motion - we've literally sleep walked our way into a crisis through complacency, inability to act with any kind of dynamism and acceptance of average or sometimes actual mediocrity.