A fresh, modern and intelligent continental coach was brought to Arsenal by David Dein and should have given us our own decade of dominance.
Instead, Wenger has been too stubborn and failed to strengthen or refresh the side when needed.
I am not counting Cup Finals defeats as these games can always go either way. But take a look at the Premiership titles that should have been in the bag had we made just that one or two quality signings:
1998-99
Alex Ferguson got the shock of his life when Vieira, Petit, Overmars and Co clawed back a gap of 13 points to win the league. It should have been the end of the old man the following season but instead United won the league by just the one point.
All that was needed was a couple of good squad covers but Wenger basked in the glory of the Double (coupled with the French winning the World Cup).
The signings of Kaba Diawara (for 7m) and Caballero started the trend to invest in unknown players.
2002-03
Everybody knew that Seaman was past it and that Manninger was not going to be the solution while Wright had a nightmare spell. In the end Wenger stucked with Seaman who did make that amazing save in the FA Cup against Sheff United.
But his mobility had faded badly and we dropped a number of points. With Lehmann on board, the next season we became the Invincibles but a great keeper would have given us two successive doubles and three consecutive titles.
2007-08
A superb midfield quartet (Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb and Rosicky) should have won the title. But we all asked what happens if one of them gets injured?
We needed that tough-tackling midfield cover but Wenger relied on Denilson and Song, who were both not ready yet. In the end Rosicky did get injured and our season fell apart.
2009-10
Buy a centre-back and a keeper Arsene. Vermaelen was the find of the season and Gallas was very good but what happens if they get injured?
Djourou was already injury-prone and Wenger relied on Monsieur Silvestre who was perhaps one of the most mysterious signings of the Wenger era, especially with his 50k a week contract.
An over the hill Sol Campbell was our “big” January signing. Even if he surprised people by giving his all, a Silvestre-Campbell partnership could not get us over the finishing line.
2010- 11
Buy a centre back and a keeper Arsene. A sickening repetition of the previous year sees us gifting the league to one of the worst United teams of the past 15 years.
Procrastinating on the signing of Schwarzer, Wenger goes with Almunia after all. A few mistakes later and two Poles came to the rescue but they both get injured and we are back to Almunia.
Wenger promised fans on the 1st January that he will buy a centre-back “quickly”. At the end of January , he asks “what will I do with five centre halves?”
Good question. Except that Vermaelen is ruled out for the season, Djourou has an history of injuries and Squillaci has struggled to adapt to the Premier League.
This could have been our decade, our golden era. Wenger has given us so much joy but it could and should have been so much better.
