I have firmly been in the ‘Wenger’s lost the plot’ camp for the last two or three years, and wish to respond to the rare pro Wenger comments that have appeared recently (such as this one and this one). I have supported Arsenal since 1970 and certainly do not expect to win a trophy season after season, remembering well 1972 to 1978 and 1980 to 1986 and the 18 year title gap between 1971 and 1989. What I do want is to understand where the manager is coming from and to be able to say to myself that the manager sees what I see on the pitch and is trying to do something about it. This is the crucial point that the pro-Wenger brigade are missing. Wenger has been the greatest manager during my forty odd years of support but in recent years he has failed to act on the evidence of his own eyes, instead he insists he is right and the rest of us can go hang.

Yes we play lovely football which is a joy to watch, we dominate possession, but ultimately against the likes of Chelski and Manure (and sometimes teams we should beat comfortably) we come up short and lose the game. We have to have more of a cutting edge, put chances away clinically and most crucially of all be able to defend. This seems obvious to all except Monsieur Wenger. I am so fed up with the post match guff he comes out with that I cannot bare to listen anymore. He is fast becoming a cracked record.

I for one am not advocating plunging in to the transfer market spending vast amounts of money on player after player and I think most of the anti-Wenger brigade would agree. What we want is some evidence that Wenger has recognised that the team has weaknesses and to see him trying to do something about them. Our goalkeeping situation is a joke, we are defensively naïve and still do not posses a 25 goals a season striker. Even if Wenger had gone some way to rectify these weaknesses I would have been happier. Instead we have to endure ‘Groundhog Day’ season after season with lessons not learnt and talk of potential and what might be next season.

I love the club but have now been reduced to such a level of frustration with Wenger that I have no hope at all for this season and cannot get excited over performances like the 6 – 0 thrashing of Braga because there will be a ‘West Brom’ to follow as sure as eggs are eggs. Also progressing to the latter stages of the CL (which I would dearly love to see us win) would usually fill me with childish hope and anticipation but I am afraid not anymore as I know we will ultimately fail because we are just not good enough. We have a very healthy balance sheet and a smug board, but as far as I can see no footballing ambition to be the best anymore.