Being in the back pages surrounded by images of despair and broken cannons is nothing new to Arsenal. Even in times when the title was being challenged for and won, the club was chastised for ill-discipline or diving before the annual speculation about Real Madrid wanting Vieira, Henry and Wenger on a seemingly rotational basis. The current phase is nothing new. Crisis is a subjective term, dependant upon circumstance. Arsenal, along with other clubs, are seemingly in a permanent state of crisis.
Some people respond well to stress and pressure, others buckle. Right now, we are going to find out which category the manager and players fall into. This is new ground for them all, with the intensity of the disappointment and anger a new feeling during his reign. I’ve been detached from Arsenal for a week through a business trip in the USA with little time for anything other than work. It’s been interesting to come back and settle into normality. Not particularly nice either.
This season has seen various ‘iconic’ rungs have been splintered from Arsène’s ladder this season. The first to go was the unbeaten home record against European teams at The Emirates. Bradford inflicted the club’s first defeat by a team in a lower division during Wenger’s reign. The manager, the board are turned upon by supporters and former members alike. Well, for the board that is nothing new. The club is turning in on itself. To rub salt into the wounds, Manchester City are about to ride a coach and horses through the FFP regulations. Everything they believed in is crumbling around them.
Or that’s how it feels. More than anything though, the previous unwavering defence of his team, his players, is not being universally supported. Arsène can do nothing else though. Publicly admitting that the players are not good enough may be counter-productive in a time of low confidence. Publicly naming underperforming stars will lose him the dressing-room, something uninformed gossip already believes has happened. It’s uninformed to believe he hasn’t as well; none of us know what goes on in the inner sanctum. The point is this: we don’t know the state of affairs when the club shuts its doors to get down to business beyond matchday. Some will tell us they do but they are never able to substantiate it, hiding too often behind undisclosed sources.
One this is certain though. To expect Arsène to change his way when dealing with condemnation of players and staff is ludicrous. It isn’t going to happen. He will take the flak, he will be hung out to dry in the media because (a) he is the public face of Arsenal FC, (b) he is willing to do so, and perhaps most importantly, (c) others are willing to let this happen.
The manager should be held to account for results; that’s his job. Most people I know are uncomfortable with the current state of affairs in this sense. Results have been patchy, performances worse but into the last sixteen of the Champions League was expected and they find themselves closer to the top four than they really ought to be in the Premier League. If we are honest, the League Cup was not something to get excited about although let’s be honest, it was rightly perceived as emminently winnable. Breaking with tradition and playing a strong starting XI, Arsène cannot deny that he had placed huge importance on the competition, perhaps complacently believing that Bradford was a quick way of reinforcing confidence gained in the win over West Brom, never countenancing the idea of defeat.
It was bizarre to read the transcript of the Press Conference with the manager goading the media into naming the “big buys” who are failing him at the moment. The usual suspects were named. When the only defence offered by the manager is that the cost of these players is not as expensive as believed, that says it all. He erred when questioning whether or not the players are offering value for money; if he believes that the likes of Gervinho, Squillaci, Park or Chamakh are doing so, this is the root of the problem. The question is another way of putting the view across that they are inconsistent. It’s a benchmark. Wenger is right, we don’t know the wages but certainly they are not earning the average wage. Therefore, it is not wrong to suggest that they are not offering value for money. The problem is that this quartet is not the problem; they are the scapegoats for the collective failure. Yes, Gervinho should have scored against Bradford, the miss was inexcusable. The Ivorian is not a solution on a consistent basis. And this is the problem; we don’t appear to have any consistent solutions at the moment in time which is a never-endingly unanswered question.
And lurking in the background to all of this is Alisher Usmanov, capitalising on the unrest. Populism is an easy path to tread, make the right noises without any substance. Chanting against Kroenke isn’t going to make life uncomfortable for the American sitting in his ranch 5,000 miles away. It might make life hard for the board and in that sense, there is nothing wrong in that. Increasingly they are proving sturdy commercial custodians but inept at providing football guidance. It muddies the water when looking at continued summers of less investment than is widely believed to be available. Don’t tell me that there is £70m in the accounts so that figure was available; it isn’t a consistent figure and cash does not equal transfer budget. It doesn’t; most deals these days are structured with bonuses and payments over the course of the contract. Ivan does not walk around with a suitcase of used fivers in the back of his club Robin Reliant.
Whatever the truth is, it doesn’t alter the fact that right now the club is not functioning as we expect. We’ve been spoiled by success. We don’t have a right to it and whilst some believe it a right, most know it is not. We have a right to expect that those in charge will do their best to ensure that the club challenges for trophies every season and we are not doing that. But more worrying, they appear devoid of answers.
If this is the endgame in Arsène Wenger’s reign, he deserves better than for it to end in a morass of rage and indifference.
’til Tomorrow.
Moe
So which striker would you buy? (in our price range)
Yes R*P is the best in the league. He will probably make the difference for them this year as well. Which is sickening if you think about it too much. It was a sale too far wasn’t it. I keep hoping (praying) he’s some kind of trojan horse sent by Arsene to wreak havoc from within. Or even better, this is all just a dream, like that infamous dream sequence in Dallas, and we’ll wake up and find out we never sold him to them after all. Ah bliss. Oh shit..reality bites.
Poodle is correct, in that it’s over and we should move on. Only we can’t move on because we haven’t yet replaced the irreplaceable.
The last word on the Dutch boy goes to Dups though.
i like benteke..
i think llorente could be gettable as well.
if i were wenger?
i like this game..
id kick a whole heap of players out and id buy near enough a whole first team to go with the 13 players we use already..
Trouble with that idea JJ is it will mean even more transition.
I like Llorente would prefer Radamel Falcao García Zárate of course
@dupsffokcuf cunt or not. hes gone.
mind you i ones knew a french girl that did not speak english very well. and she was an aupair for a “count” but she kept telling everyone she was aupering for a “cunt”.
hehe that was alot of fun until someone told her… aparantly this count and his family was really nice too.. hehe
Dups
Ok lets list a few that are reasonable. Our price range being up to 20 to 25mil now? Because of injection of cash. And just so you know i am picking very ambitious choices. I could pick players that are not proven but then we need a player whos gonna make an impact straight away.
Suarez- Yes him, the problem is that liverpool would rather cut off their own arm than let him go. He’s the differnence between them being a lower league team and a midtable team. I really belive that, thats how bad liverpool is at the moment.
David Villa- But he wouldn’t come to Arsenal i don’t think.. Barcelona are starting to play with other strikers now and also more midfielders as center forwards. SO he might become surplass because of age and other upcoming players.
Ok this is harder than i thought.
Im just looking for proven class, problem is most of those players wouldn’t come to Arsenal…….
@ i would like someone we knew could score in PL. Like United knew RvP could score in PL. Is there no provem strikers in the PL that are up for grabs? they dont have to be technically sublime or anything like that, aslong as they can score alot, be playable for their team mates and just be our outlet.
The trouble with bringing in fancy imports in January is that they can either hit the ground running or they need a year to acclimatize.
We need instant inpact.
Poodle
I prefer her 1st answer. Most of the aristocracy are c(o)unts
Pato?
Bojan?
It’s not easy is it
Suarez is wasted at liverpool, i hope they go really low this year so we can poach him in the summer…..
@Moe i dont think we need proven class as in aguero or villa class. we just need proven class as in a proven PL goal scorer. He probably wont succeed in Europe, but Giroud will.
He will have to succed in the cold january and february stalemate matches against physical teams that loves to tackle, and hussle and be dirty.
Its probably better to buy real class players in the sumemr window as you want them to have time to gel with the rest of the team.
Mind you Podolski playing down the middle may be the sort of player we really want though. He was decent last year…Rather buy a left winger…
not that looks mattes,but really zuares looks like a vampire..lol
If we got Suarez he would be hounded like Eduardo for diving. At LFC he gets called for it but not like he would at Arsenal
dups
i’ll admit it, it isn’t.
Just seen this on twitter
UNITED TILL I DIE @WE_ARE_SPURS
@th14Renato listen up wanker, there is no way milan would sell el shaarawy, balesconni will never even allow it. Go get grant holt you twats
Scesney
Sagna…….Mertasacker…..Vermalaen……Gibbs
………………….Arteta………………..
……….Wilshere……………Rosicky……..
Walcott…………………………….Cazorla
……………….Podoslki………………….
That’s my team lineup, that team on paper would destroy many if not all in the premier league
poodle
Too true. But Wenger won’t play poldi there for whatever reason. And also i dn’t think say villa would take a long time to adjust. He knows our game.
The guy is a sperz fan with a pic of RVP in an Arsenal shirt
That should read ‘in a Man U shirt’
yup..
but seeing as though we are already in a transitions transition
Just a couple of players is all that’s needed. Messi & Fabregas would be a good addition
i think we could get messi if pep was manager
Unfortunately JJ neither outcome is likely.
Gary Neville “Yes, Arsenal are struggling but sensible people should be defending Wenger now.”
Notice the word ‘sensible in there’
lol the whole Phil neville article. the attitude he talks about, well its very much the mirror of alot of posters latley.
Just drama, drama ,drama.
Its worse than a female boarding scool fullof psychopats…
awh lets hope some of the other “big 6″ teams have a bad spell soon. or that some of the united or city stars(bar ballotelli) gets caought with a hooker or something.
WIll take the preassure off Arsenal a bit…
The whole RVP issue fucks me off like none other. My grand father played for Man U back in the day. He still watches every game and my whole familly are Man U all the way. Im the black sheep as it would be. Every time I speak to my Grandfather or any other family member ( Mum included ) The first word out their mouths are did you see the goal RVP scored ?
Fucking driving me bonkers..
Poodle @ 1:14:
On paper we should win the next 5 PL games. That would take the pressure off. I think we will end up with 13 points which would put things back on the right track.
Theory eh Bill. Shame theory is not always fact.
In theory we could have, should have been challenging this year if we’d not let two of our best players leave.
They wanted to leave LUCKY, simple as that
We aren’t the kind of club that forces a player to stay and play when they have decided to leave,
YOU GOT TO WANT To WEAR THIS GLORIOUS SHIRT AND FEEL HONORED TO WEAR IT,
I would not want it any other way
But they had stayed ,,,,,, we would be in the top three, and with a good to great chance of winning some of the competitions we are in now,
We are being poached to death and we keep laying the blame at the wrong door, we don’t have the strength to withstand these outside forces and except for a few good men are abandoning ship.
I hear you Kam, I was in no way apportioning blame. After his letter to the fans there was no way that RVP could stay. It’s such a bloody shame that we are continually leaking good players. If the players that were coming in were complimenting the players we had rather than replacing them we would have one hell of a team.
Power of money and greed
Sign of times
And it looks like ARSENAL is powerless and can’t stop it from happening over and over again
I know you weren’t apportioning any blame against anyone.
I don’t get why a player wanting to leave automatically means we have to let them go. We’ve not been that type of club before. Vierra wanted bugger off seasons before we went unbeaten. He even released a statement not much unlike RvP’s. Yet Arsene kept him until his performance levels started to drop.
Let’s stop bullshitting ourselves. We (board or Arsene) decided to let each of those players go.
I will never forgive Wenger for giving utd rvp and the title.
@bill i just wish the “on paper” could transform to “on the pitch”.
its like looking like brad pitt “On paper” and then suddenly turn into wayn rooney ones you leave your house.
It should not be possible…. its like beauty and the beast. its like tescos finest vs tesco value stuff.
you are tescos finest but taste like value, trust me i once bought value minced and it tasted and smelled like the inside of my mittens! disgusting…
for the love of football the boys need to find back to their normal form…
He should go just for that treacherous act alone.
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10207
Today’s Paper Talk.
Over at you can relive the time when we were able to tell the rich to “do one” when they came a-calling for our stars and later today – lunchtimeish – the end of the Terry Neill era.
That mercenary Anelka and his stupid ass agent brother started the whole cycle,
Dangle those dollars in front of their faces and ajll sense of loyalty and decency flies out the door,
whores&no character any of Ady, nasty, rvp flammini even helb and song,,,,,,,
Exactly my sentiments, Duke.