Chris Britton
(Ed’s note – Submitted Sunday evening. I am still clearing the backlog of offerings, so please bear with me as I get them up at the rate of about three a day)
I write this after just having gotten home after the best part of a four hour journey and yet I’m not sure if I am still in shock or completely numb after the utter disgrace we saw today at Wembley. What the hell was that we had to bear witness today?! How is it that a team that in a dazzling 15 minutes was able to overcome Barcelona yet against newly promoted Geordies, struggling Brummies and a League 1 side with no history we completely bottle it and fall apart? What excuses do our ‘talented’ and ‘mentally strong’ side have for any of that? I sit here feeling for the first time to be utterly ashamed to call myself a supporter. Why should we be allowed to endure any of this bulls**t?
This hurts far more then the finals against Barcelona and Chelsea in 06 and 07. Even if we had a realistic chance to win those games we still lost to teams which had proven to be better than us that year. How is it we create over 20 chances and dominate possession and yet we fail to end that end product we so desperately need? Despite dropping stupid points which would have put us miles clear at the top I was still cautiously optimistic that we would pull it off here. The side could emulate Stroller’s heroes of 87 and kick start a few years of success; even if it had been a scrappy game we had the silverware in spitting distance, yet we go and bottle it due to being overpaid, over confident and with a manager with utterly no clue what he is doing.
It shows how much we rely on Fabregas to create chances, much like we used to rely on Wrighty to score them years ago. I honestly would not blame him if he left this year; he is like the Brady of the current era, a masterful midfield genius with flair, ability and passion stuck in a side of mediocrity. Yet he is not a leader, where are players in the mould of Adams, Vieira and Seaman who would command and rally the team when on the back foot? Where are players with the style of touch of Bergkamp or ones with the killer instinct of Henry? This is of no disrespect to Wilshere, van Persie and Djourou, the only ones out there who turned up with any desire and hunger to see this thing through. Arshavin showed once again how lazy and disinterested he was, Rosicky seemed to have any accuracy desert him. Nasri looked like he had lost his mojo, only showing flashes of what we needed. Bendtner also proved again he is all bark and no bite. As for the moment which handed the cup to Birmingham on a silver platter, take your pick from Sagna, Kos and Szczęsny. Either one of them are just to blame, of which it is something you would expect from a pub team with only nine men.
Fair play to Birmingham, they turned up with the desire, drive and hunger to win this, we just didn’t turn up. Hell I was still optimistic after the first half; a stunning van Persie goal gave us back the momentum we needed to kill the game off by two or three goals. Then Sod’s Law showed up to take him off injured. As for Wenger, who constantly tells us to judge him in May, how about I judge you now? You are a f**king useless arrogant w**ker who has utterly gone insane and lost the plot. You have turned this club into a s**ty business with little respect for the history of the club or its fans, who you quite happily plunder money from without any indication of where it goes. Get the next f**king taxi out of here and take your b*llocks about mental strength with you! You may say how disappointed you are, but nothing will change will it, as long as we get into Europe you won’t ever realize what an utter f**king moron you have become.
I will just end on this, two images stick in my mind from today. One is an upset Wilshere being hugged by a couple of the team, the other is Denilson smirking to himself as he got his loser’s medal. What does that tell us about the state of our club? Some may respect the history and legacy, but most will just take their hefty wage packets and lack of talent and not give a t*ss. The latter is what Wenger’s legacy now is. We as fans need to seriously do something before we endure another six trophyless seasons.
