The Pros and Cons of Arsene Wenger at Everton

One of the great parts about working at Royal Blue Mersey is the editorial discussions that happen behind the scenes on our Slack channel. On any given day, there’s absolutely no telling what might be going on. The memes that never see the light of day are innumerable.

However, sometimes we do talk football, and with the rumors of Arsene Wenger to Everton Football Club, an interesting chat broke out about whether or not hiring the Frenchman would be a good idea. Below is the entirety of that conversation.

Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

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Adam Braun [7:22 AM]

I mean, regardless of who the next manager is, the sooner he’s in and can start sorting through this garbage, the better you’d suspect

Thomas Mallows [7:23 AM]

Yep

Adam Braun [7:23 AM]

I can’t decide if Arsene is just a broken human being at this point or whether he’s just been at Arsenal too long and would be alright with a change of scenery

Thomas Mallows [7:24 AM]

What about as a DoF? With a younger manager as head coach?

Just spitballing here

Adam Braun [7:24 AM]

Think I might like that less, honestly. Their transfers over the last 12 months have been

uh.. questionable

Zach [7:25 AM]

I’ve actually liked most of their moves, they just need a real DM, honestly.

Thomas Mallows [7:25 AM]

They’ve needed that since Vieira left

Adam Braun [7:26 AM]do n

Lacazette hasn’t really worked out, PEA surely will be fine

Except for the fact that he’s Europa League cup-tied and that’s the only way they’re getting into CL so that’s questionable too

We’ve yet to see how Miki and Ozil can play together

Zach [7:28 AM]

Lacazette not working out has really nothing to do with the player and all to do with how the manager specifically feels about his game. In the position Arsenal is in, PEA will be a great ST for a good while, and the biggest problem with Mkh and Mesut right now is not having a real DM behind them.

Brian Lewis [7:36 AM]

So here’s the issue with Wenger. Everyone agrees he’s not a tactics guy and he’s not a technical guy.

Even before this stuff there are plenty of stories of his staff doing the coaching and he’s more grand strategy/morale

Essentially a more successful Jurgen Klinsmann.

Zach [7:37 AM]

I’ll wait while we try to come up with one manager Everton has had in the last thirty years that’s nearly as good as Wenger.

Becoming even close to what Arsenal has been under his tenure would be a massive upgrade for Everton.

Brian Lewis [7:39 AM]

But that’s the problem, other than managing at Arsenal’s level there isn’t recent evidence Wenger can take a high mid table team and get us over the hump.

He’ll recently he can’t even do that from CL to title team with Arsenal

If we want anyone it is someone in a Jose mode

Who can maximize the current talent level

Zach [7:40 AM]

We spend just as much as Arsenal, I don’t see why we’re acting like we are default below them at the modern level.

Wenger can attract talent Everton currently can’t.

Brian Lewis [7:41 AM]

Because Arsenal has a higher base talent level. And they can afford to pay more wages to keep the top guys and buy new ones at that level

Zach [7:41 AM]

Basically if we have Wenger rather than Koeman last summer we get a better player than Gylfi for 45m, and that’s rather obvious.

Arsenal has a higher base talent level because they’ve had Wenger for 20 years. That just reinforces my point.

Every single player at Arsenal at any age level is part of the Wenger project.

Brian Lewis [7:43 AM]

But that difference in talent matters going forward. I don’t think Wenger would get us to outperform our current level and I don’t think he’d get the resources to remake the squad at Arsenal’s talent level.

And with his whole project I’m not sure he’s going to be managing long enough to see it through at a new club.

Zach [7:44 AM]

You don’t think actually attacking more than once a month would get us to outperform our current level?

Brian Lewis [7:44 AM]

With our defense? No

Zach [7:44 AM]

Competent offense helps defense.

Increase our possession of the ball and be a greater threat in attack and our defense is helped tremendously.

Brian Lewis [7:45 AM]

To a degree. But reducing goals against is both easier and more efficient than scoring more.

Zach [7:45 AM]

Scoring more does both in our case.

So I don’t see why we should take a false dilemma.

Sam doesn’t attack, so people can just take pot shots at our defense.

Brian Lewis [7:46 AM]

Possession is a defensive statistic and even then limited. Arsenal has a lot more of it than us and still dicks around without scoring. Hell there is an entire Arsenal meme on it.

Zach [7:47 AM]

Arsenal scores quite a bit, their fans have just been spoiled by having the best manager their club has ever seen for 20 years.

Three fewer goals than the offense with Harry Kane at the front of it, how terrible would that be?

Fourth best xG in the entire Premier League, after City, Liverpool, and Spurs.

Brian Lewis [8:00 AM]

Well yea my point is more about possession. And again my issue with Wenger is that he doesn’t seem to outperform his talent. Which is fine. But that isn’t getting us to where we want. And I don’t know that he’d do well with lesser players or guys that don’t play his style. Ultimately I think it is a bad fit that would set us back 2-3 years.

Zach [8:02 AM]

I think the players we have would absolutely fit his style. Just because Sam doesn’t use them that way doesn’t mean they don’t fit his style. We have all the makings to be a great team in possession we just don’t use it that way.

Heck, at Everton he’d have capable DMs, which is the biggest challenge he has for overperforming his talent. (edited)

Everton can’t even perform at basic expectations for their talent, so just doing that would be a massive improvement.

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What do you think? Would you take Wenger at Everton? Should Zach or Brian be put in the stocks?