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The Barca suicide

Tough draw could and should have been avoided

18 December, 2010 9:00 22 comments
The Barca suicide

Wenger – Arrogant idiot?

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Forget the fate nonsense and the bravado: Wenger's failure in the Champions League this year is clear - and should be roundly criticised.

He will trot out the usual "It makes no difference, if you want to be the best you have to beat the good teams at some stage" bullsh*t. And it's just as inexcusable - and naive - as it ever was. It's a cup competition - a cup in which Arsenal are by no means the best team. The longer you stay in the competition - even if just a single round more - the more chance you have of fluking an easier run to the final. Which is what this team will need to win it.

Wenger would prefer to think no such practical strategy exists because a) of his delusion that this defensively-impotent Arsenal side can genuinely compete with Europe's top-class teams; and b) because he has once more screwed up the group stages. He is an arrogant idiot. This is a failure with a clear consequence: to come second in the group is to invite the possibility of Barca. Which is what has happened. We have quite literally asked for it. Given that they are obviously the best team in the competition, and that we have now ended the possibility that someone else might upset them for us, this is not just foolishness in the extreme, but a gross competitive error.

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22
comments

  1. aabbs

    Dec 21, 2010, 0:43 #416

    2 b honest i'll just be glad if barca let us have the ball for a while, i'v seen them play a couple of times this season, they really are on another planet peoples, their the best evidence 4 UFOs. We havent got the players that can shut up shop and keep it tight for 90 mins, also we cant compete with their passing, movement and closing down, we havent got the experience or temprement to deal with Barca, like someone else said, 2 months of concentrating on the league after Feb!!!

  2. Andrew

    Dec 20, 2010, 10:34 #400

    I don’t understand some people. I’m not an AKB by any means but what’s with all these insults being thown at Arsene? Arrogant idiot? Prick? You’d think he’s been an absolute failure rather than our most successful manager. Ok, he’s made a lot of mistakes in recent seasons but insulting him is ridiculous. What are you going to do if we get knocked out by Ipswich, sing that song so loved by the Man Utd neanderthals? By all means be critical but to actually insult him is pathetic. Sod off and support Barnet if you’re so fed up. It’s not like we’re fighting relegation for crying out loud.

  3. Murphyr

    Dec 20, 2010, 3:01 #399

    I know its always a bit dicey to draw paralells between away games in the group stages and the knock outs but it didn't fill me with confidence about beating the likes of Barca, Real etc when we can't get over the top of Braga and Shakhtar (yes i know we gubbed them at home). Whatever. The fact is that we should have comfortably topped out group and we didn't.

  4. Tony

    Dec 20, 2010, 1:13 #396

    In 1982 or 1983 or even 1995 we would have stampeded over dead grannies and children to have been playing Barcelona

  5. GoonerRon

    Dec 19, 2010, 22:50 #395

    God, this negativity does my head in. I'm not an 'AKB' and I understand the basis of the argument that by finishing top we increase the odds of getting an 'easier' path to the next round. That said, we could have drawn Schalke in this draw or won the group and got either Milan. That said, most people seem to think we will get battered by Barca no matter what - with this sort of mentality the underdog would lose every single time. Why noy accept what we have got and get behind the team....

  6. Ray

    Dec 19, 2010, 20:57 #391

    Wenger keeps saying we are one of the top 8 teams in Europe.He's right we are 8th and no higher.I want us to lose the tag of biggest team in Europe NEVER to have won the CL and be the champions of Europe before i die.So what does Wenger do he throws away the group after winning the first three games and now wqe are playing the best team in the worls who slaughtered us 9 months ago.What a prick Wenger is

  7. Dan

    Dec 19, 2010, 14:19 #388

    Spot on. We may as well have not bothered with the past 4 months of group games, what a total waste of time. To start the campaign as strongly as we did & then decide that was enough, play substandard teams in two tricky away ties was idiocy of the highest order. Wenger need only have looked to our pathetic European away record to see that we shouldn't have rested players against Shakhtar & Braga. 2 European away wins in the past 2 seasons - Partizan & Standard Liege. Hardly the record of a team whose manager claims are good enough to win the thing.

  8. Tony

    Dec 19, 2010, 10:49 #387

    would you like us to withdraw from the competition or take part in the match ?

  9. Fan for over 60 years

    Dec 18, 2010, 14:42 #384

    Agree. Wenger got it totally wrong. He thought that with a maximum 9 points and scoring goals for fun these 3 CL opponents were as bad as everyone said. Instead of going for victory at Shakhtar which would have meant he could field weak sides in the last 2 matches he thought he would look after his star players and save them a long tiring journey. He therefore sent the Carling Cup squad. However players like Eastmond, Eboue and the returning from injury Walcott and Bendtner were not up for it. The bench with Vela,E Thomas,Lansbury etc was nowhere near good enough and the message sent out was that the weekend PL match v Newcastle was more important. As we know it was a waste of time anyway as we lost both matches. I don't know whether it's Wenger's arrogance,stubborness or just deluding himself with his continued statements about the quality of this squad. Whatever it is it is his actions which have made made the club favourites to go out of the CL at the first knock out stage and that's not good enough.

  10. Theo Superstar

    Dec 18, 2010, 12:37 #382

    One of the most irritating sayings in football is the 'well you have to beat the best teams eventually if you are going to win it". Such nonsense is repeated by almost all the 'experts' as if it is based on fact, when even a cursory look at history shows many examples of top teams getting knocked out before reaching the final. Think of the CL in 2004 and tell me that Porto's win and Monaco's appearance in the final wasn't assisted by all the favourites getting knocked out beforehand. Or that Chelsea's FA Cup wins in the past few years wasn't helped by getting drawn at home against lower league teams in almost every round? Indeed, that saying is almost as irritating as the 'We're the Arsenal' one - as if that by itself is enough any more. Maybe we could shout that in the old days, but with this current group of spine-less and characterless individuals, one would be better off whispering it and hoping for the best.

  11. Proudtosaythatname

    Dec 18, 2010, 11:26 #381

    Shakhtar drew Roma (currently 6th in the Scudetta). Realistically, Barca on current form will stuff us. So a dreadful error by Wenger to not play his strongest side at Braga, but please don't insult the man who brought to Arsenal one of the most successful periods in the club's history and some of the most entertaining football ever seen, certainly in English football.

  12. ando

    Dec 18, 2010, 9:55 #377

    fact is you do need luck to win anything in any sport. i think our keystone cops (sorry i mean our defence) will need more than their fair share against barca its a funny old game

  13. Richard

    Dec 18, 2010, 9:25 #376

    we came second and could of got Schalke, or won the group and got Inter or AC Milan! Barca could stick 10 past us, but at the same time they are on of the few teams left in the competition I fancy us to score against home and away. Its gonna be a tough game but its amazing how many of our fans have written us off already! We are the Arsenal.... since when have we done things the easy way!

  14. victor

    Dec 18, 2010, 9:05 #375

    I honestly dont understand why true gooners cant accept that wengers has made some serious mistakes in the last five years and even though we can see what this team needs to be great, the powers that be are blind to it or there are other elements we are not aware of. Believe me when i say that barca will tear us apart because of wenger naivety in conceding 2nd place to shaktar. villa, pedro, busquet, xavi, iniesta and the magician himself messi will tear clichcy, sagna, kosienlcy, sqillachi, song and denilson or diaby apart. I agree with the moderator wenger has made a gross competitive error. i can imagine wenger saying we will adhere to our beliefs in how we want to play the game, the beliefs that has cost us losing 10 out 11 games to chelsea and man utd who are both having a shit season also.

  15. Brad

    Dec 18, 2010, 8:05 #372

    If only you were manager. When will the world learn? O, cruel footballing gods, why hath you forsaken Arsenal? Appoint this guy posthaste

  16. Markhouse

    Dec 18, 2010, 7:21 #371

    "arrogant idiot"?!! him or you?

  17. Rick

    Dec 18, 2010, 5:38 #368

    This is the worst kind of negativism. There's no way one can DECIDE to win a game - that's why the games are PLAYED. I would examine your own motives in writing pointlessly nasty stuff like this. To wait for others to do the work you yourself should be doing is callow and feckless. Step up lads, show this whinger what you're made of!

  18. Hausner

    Dec 18, 2010, 5:21 #367

    This is the CL, you are the one displaying naivity n foolishness in the extreme by suggesting that one would set out to meet easier teams. All these teams are here on merit n you cant b sure of meeting easier competition.

  19. The rookie

    Dec 18, 2010, 3:40 #366

    Don't be a pussy. Either we're good enough to win the cup and we'll beat barcelona and all others, or we aren't and we won't.

  20. Shropshire Lad

    Dec 18, 2010, 3:33 #365

    Every cloud has a silver lining. Spuds likellihood of going further, the reduction in revenue by going out early plus the missing out again on the prize most older gooners crave than all other puts not only Wenger but more tellingly this inept, guilless and bollockless Board under more pressure. Happy. Days and he still won't sign anyone in January, love him! Oh, and by the way, what does Pat Rice do?!!

  21. Alfonso

    Dec 18, 2010, 2:38 #363

    You are so right about the defensive impotence of the this Arsenall team. Yes Wenger is deluded if he thinks his weak defence can go all the way. Actually the weak defence is of his own making. The warning signs were ther but he chose to ignore them. His mantra is my attack will take care of the weak defence. Either he is ignorant or he chose not to know that soring is harder than preventing goals being scored. This time rounf the defence could be about 20% better than the last match against Barca.He better know there can no margin for errors and failure to convert the chances will come back to haunt him. Btw I hope the gunners willl shoot instead of making endless passes at the penalty area.A snap shot with A REBOUND CAN CREATE OPPORTUNITIES.

  22. dan

    Dec 18, 2010, 2:03 #361

    well said