bigmick wrote:LFC2007 wrote:As a manager in his own right, Rafa is certainly comparable to Wenger.
Well that's an opinion LFc and you are entitled to it. No doubt in terms of Eurpoean success, Rafa is superior to Wenger. Domestically however, which is what I was talking about when I talked of Wenger rebuilding his team over the last four years there really is absolutely no comparison.
Now I guess somebody will come on and say "but hang on, they do compare. In tha least two years we've finished above them on both occasions" and once again they would be entitled to that view as well.
I'm no statistician though, but I really would be interested to see our mananger compared in terms of transfer funds, time in the job, team/players inherited etc etc etc with the managers which he is actually competing with.
I must say though fair play to the supporters of the manager. In those heady days at the start of the season where poster after poster came on and said "well I think we'll launch a challenge. For me that means we'll be within 5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12 (take your pick) points of the Champions, then we can press on from there" who would have thought that we would never ever be involved in the title race, be out of it before it even got started and be in a four way scrap for fourth place? Who would have thought that our points total would be so far off our best under the cuurrent mananger, despite the signing of Torres? That people STILL believe shows incredible faith, and though I totally disagree I am secretly quite impressed by it sometimes.
When I say 'a manager in his own right', I mean, his managerial record in totality.
It stacks up well against Wenger's.
In terms of their performances as managers of their current respective clubs, I think it's unfair to compare the two in that Wenger's managerial record at Arsenal extends to 11 years and 5 months. Rafa's only extends to 3 years and 8 months.