Wenger is burnt out as a manager and as a person

Posted Thursday, March 21, 2013 by The Sun

BREAKING POINT ... Szczesny Snr's amazing outburst will put pressure on his son's relationship with Wenger

WOJCIECH SZCZESNY spent an hour talking with his dad Maciej in a Warsaw hotel lobby yesterday afternoon.

They met after Szczesny Senior’s explosive attack on Arsene Wenger had raised questions about whether his boy has a future at Arsenal.

If the keeper, dropped last week in favour of Lukasz Fabianski, is worried his Gunners career might be over because of his father’s rant, he did not show it.

Nor did he seem angry at his dad for speaking out and causing him such huge embarrassment.

My source said: “It was a normal meeting, a father and son meeting and they seemed to be going over some paperwork.

“They were together for a long time locked in conversation and there was no visible tension between them at all.”

Maciej’s vitriolic criticism of Gunners boss Wenger gave away things that could have been said in private conversations with his son.

Conversations like the one the two of them had at Warsaw’s Hyatt hotel yesterday.

It remains to be seen whether the jaw-dropping interview Maciej gave to a Polish newspaper will spell the end for Wojciech, 22, at Arsenal.

Particularly as Szczesny Snr claimed Wenger is burnt out, slated his transfer policy and said it could be time for the Frenchman to end his 16-year reign as Gunners boss.

Szczesny Snr — who kept goal for Legia Warsaw and Poland — said: “Wojciech proved to everyone that he is a brilliant goalkeeper.

“Obviously he is in worse form now than a year ago but not for a reason. He had two bad injuries. With the first he played through April and May last season.
“It was unreasonable that he got persuaded by an experienced manager. I have huge complaints for this manager.

“He played with Wojciech’s health and Wojciech got persuaded to do this stupidity.

“He wasn’t training for the whole week. He had a warm-up on Fridays and on Saturdays he played a game. He was less and less resistant to injuries and his form got worse. When you don’t train regularly that’s how it is.”

Maciej is now the goalkeeping coach of Polish top-flight team Korona Kielce.

He added: “During a football match the exertion is extreme. In my opinion Mr Wenger messed up a lot during April and May last year.

“I don’t blame a young man that he got persuaded — I would be, too.

“Wojciech’s form is a result of playing with injury for two months and that he had a problem with a metatarsal in August.

“OK, he recovered, but after a week he was playing again in the Premier League. How can he be in good shape?

“He is not training properly for about a year and whose fault is it? His? No, it’s the fault of an experienced coach.

“All those who think Wenger made the right decision about Wojciech should think where his worse form came from.

“Wenger started to look for a scapegoat and made it Wojciech.

“You don’t do such things.”

Szczesny Jnr was dropped last week for the games against Bayern Munich and Swansea — Arsenal won both without conceding a goal.

In time, though, he could have regained his place.

But what could really hurt Szczesny’s chances of staying at Arsenal was what his dad said next, slamming the entire Gunners set-up.

Many at the club will believe this can only have come from talks with Szczesny Jnr.
Maciej added: “Transfers were not Wenger’s strong side recently. Good players went out, poor players came in. This guy makes permanent mistakes. His players are often injured — that makes you think about his training process as well.

“His team play in a disgraceful manner. They lose 2-1 to Tottenham, conceding two goals in the same way in two minutes.

“So there is a huge possibility a rival saw Arsenal as a team who constantly make the same mistakes.

“I think that he is burnt out as a manager and as a person, too.

“He lost control with journalists. At a press conference he complains that they dare to ask him questions.”

Even worse, Szczesny Snr then all but suggested Wenger’s time is up and he must consider stepping down.

He said: “I think that it is a good time to make a break for him.

“It would be good for him to take the pressure off his shoulders and nerves and reset himself. I believe that he is a good coach and teacher but recently he is boiling up.
“And the plan for running this business got burned out, too. It would be good to make some modifications.”

The danger of course is that Wenger could start those ‘modifications’ by ditching Maciej’s son and spending big dough on a world-class keeper.