1. Home
  2. Online Exclusive

Another blank year

Is it a case of same old, same old?

18 March, 2011 9:00 18 comments
Another blank year

Wenger: Lost tactical battle at OT

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GOONER

The editor’s piece after the Man Utd cup defeat was a very good article - and one supported by a great majority of the fans. I disagree with one point though. He stated we are fighting for third spot, whereas I think we will be fighting for 4th with the Spuds who are now a proper team (as I feared) and have a bigger and more balanced squad. I could have coped with the defeat at Old Trafford, just, but when Djourou went off, with it went any remote hope of the title.

This ridiculous situation has been foretold every year for the last three seasons. I have written every year that we will run out of players and so it has proved. Someone wrote that Wenger is just a "spin doctor" and that sums up part of his current mental state. When he states "we have great mental strength" he is expressing his own fears about the team's (his team’s) lack of toughness and when he laughingly suggests "this team has steel" he is openly worried about how weak Diaby, Rosicky, Denilson etc are when the going gets tough.

The most worrying aspect for me is that as a fan I have been more accurate in the summing up of Arsenal during the last three seasons than the man who is paid millions to put together a team that can at least last the course! The team is so brittle and collapses under pressure to the point that the man of the match for the last few games is a nineteen year old rookie who has played almost on his own. That he is English leads me to places I don't really want to go.

How Wenger has allowed this to happen and how openly old adversaries are lining up to give him a metaphoric slap is very disturbing and suggest Wenger's mental health is not what it should be. He was so tactically out thought by Ferguson last Saturday that it was embarrassing. For me it is not our defeats but the manner of them that need questioning.

NEW! Subscribe to our weekly Gooner Fanzine newsletter for all the latest news, views, and videos from the intelligent voice of Arsenal supporters since 1987.

Please note that we will not share your email address with any 3rd parties.

Article Rating

Leave a comment

Sign-in with your Online Gooner forum login to add your comment. If you do not have a login register here.

18
comments

  1. Adams

    Mar 20, 2011, 9:27 #3877

    We will fade to third but not fourth. We will lose Fabregas in summer and start to "rebuild" again. I hope that the Board will move Wenger up to Director of Football to oversee development and bring in a new manager/coach combination to deliver more immediate results.

  2. HowardL

    Mar 19, 2011, 0:40 #3810

    PPP - I also danced on the WHL pitch in 1971 (though not with Adrian) so I'm not exactly a Spuds fan; however, much as I hate the thought of it, I do think they have more chance of winning the Champions League than our depleted squad has of the Premier. And it's not just about depth of squad - it's also about 'mental strength' and we don't seem to have much of that, despite the Professor's insistence. I hope sincerely that I'm wrong but the last 2 weeks debacles have convinced me. If Arsenal lose out in the final competition AW has to go - there, I've said it! Does that make me officially an ex-AKB?

  3. Rob

    Mar 18, 2011, 23:17 #3806

    A true post and the best Wenger's little - and it is LITTLE - and diminishing, fan Club can come up with, is that "he's a closet Spurs Fan !!!!!!!!!!!!" Perhaps I am ? But if that is so, then I must have been knocking on the wrong door since October 1967, when I first came to Highbury. We - Arsenal fans - are bieng sold, well short. We need to see either a change in the Squad or a change in the man who picks the squad. It really is that simple. Guess which is more likely ?

  4. Adrian Wagenaar

    Mar 18, 2011, 20:22 #3803

    Sorry PPP Fully paid up AST member, I once danced on the Spuds pitch in May 71 but as I am over sixty now I don't do much dancing. Anyway most "Spuds" could not write as eloquently as what I do!

  5. ppp

    Mar 18, 2011, 18:27 #3797

    adrian wagenaar is a spurs fan. all of the comments supporting his article are by spurs fans. any true gooner reading this should ignore them. for many years now spurs have had a number of sleepers on various websites and working in all kinds of disgusting media outlets like the bbc, itv and at sky. most major newspapers and all minor ones are infested with vile rotting spuds. i know that all true gooners will ignore their pathetic attempts to destabilise our beautiful club and be aware that natural justice will take care of them all in the coming years. NEVER TRUST A SPUD - they are going to hell and they will take you there with them if you let them.

  6. Mark

    Mar 18, 2011, 17:29 #3796

    you have hit the nail on the head for me when you say it is the manner of the defeats thats most upsetting. we cannot win every game but we do have a right to expect our team to hold onto points at the key times. Spurs home, Newcastle away, Wigan, WBA home, Newc home just proves that its not going to be our year in the league as you cannot drop points like that and win the league. Manchester derby where city were more than holding their own and who pops up with a great winner. we dont win the tight matches anymore because the tight matches by their nature are about 2 evenly matched teams who cant outplay eachother anymore so strength of character, resiliance, team spirit and individual brilliance can see you over the line. we show more signs of consistant individual errors, weakness of character, a lack of real spirit & togetherness when its tough and any sign of resiliance and this is why we drop points too often not because we are not good enough. these things can be influenced by the management team. GG got these things right first and then added ability and it works !

  7. Steve

    Mar 18, 2011, 16:57 #3795

    To illustrate your point, you only have to read the injury news on the official website. Apparently now Vermaelen is out for the season, Arsene always knew this! Well in that case, his failure to sign replacement in January is tantamount to criminal negligence!

  8. The Happening

    Mar 18, 2011, 16:29 #3794

    @Adrian Since i've joined this blog i've calling for AW's head, i saw the spin, the lack of transfer activity, the detached post match highbrow interviews as just pure professionalism in its splendour, a long time ago, FFS, i've seen managers do it where i work, after all these people also need jobs! Glad you pointed out that our only player worthy of the AFC jersey is English, go there mate, its blatantly obvious what kind of footballer this club needs, c'mon when Ashley left for Chelski, i knew something was up in that dressing room! Wenger's time is up! I just saw the lastest bbc interview and he's talking about fergies ban, uefa ban, and Jen's f'ing Lehmann, please! Either he knows something i don't or that interview was just the same old PR speak, show some passion Arsene!

  9. danalovAFCXI

    Mar 18, 2011, 15:54 #3791

    amen.

  10. Gus

    Mar 18, 2011, 15:47 #3789

    "he is openly worried about how weak Diaby, Rosicky, Denilson etc are when the going gets tough." When the going gets tough? Surely you mean when the going gets, erm.... going?

  11. Hendrix

    Mar 18, 2011, 14:53 #3786

    Quality! The last phrase sums up everything.

  12. [email protected]

    Mar 18, 2011, 14:17 #3785

    Yes I agree with your comments. I'll also add that Wenger is entering in the McClaren/Dowie mould both very nice people but in football terms losers.

  13. Spainicus

    Mar 18, 2011, 13:50 #3782

    Crikey Wagenaar, you seem such an affable positive guy on TV. So pessimistic. Ten games. We can do it. Jens back in the fold bringing his Hasslefhoff looks to the moral support party. Van Persie has been fit for at least two weeks now. Jack Wilshere is a driving dynamo force in the middle. Nasri. Sagna. We have 4 players, at least. With Jens and Eboue both stirring some crazy vodoo we may have something, we may win the league, considering how crap we're supposed to be that can't be too bad can it? Are you going to give up watching the rest of the games because we're going to concede some stupid goals over the next 900 odd minutes? Course not. Oh and another thing, Man U are RUBBISH at the moment - they were so lucky against us - I can assure you they will drop points - I can assure you we will pick some up.

  14. Sheriff

    Mar 18, 2011, 13:28 #3781

    Well Said and Spot on...I have said it time and time again, Im not the one paid 6M a year by the club to manage us, but I always seem to predict/forecast what will happen...As much as it pains me, I always seem to be right..I said it when Vermaleen wasnt back by xmas that my March we will b down to Squicielny..To me its just imcompetecy cus its been the same problem for the passt 4years,...Do u think we will learn in the Summer?? HELL NO, the manager with his short memory will b bullsh*tting us that we dont need to spend while salivating and buying more 16yr olds...

  15. RICHARD ANSELL

    Mar 18, 2011, 12:57 #3778

    You are right Adrian and your article follows a depressingly familiar them. Depressing because so many supporters can see the squads obvious failings but someone paid millions to do the same seems to have lost the plot entirely.

  16. S J Little

    Mar 18, 2011, 12:50 #3777

    MR WENGERS latest lecture re leadership is the sort of insult he keeps up setting us with yes we lost to Moan Utd but only after a fantasic battle and a last minute penalty miss by Bergcamp ( or brilliant save by the keeper - yes Mr Wenger the man in goal who can save you six points a season by super saves and another six by making no weak decisions) and Chelsea,well yes but only after two stiring battles and a team that makes your present lot appear like a lot of weaklings who cant judge anything or stay on their feet,do you not think we remember what football used to be like at Highbury before the present ping pong stuff took over!

  17. Gunner4ever

    Mar 18, 2011, 12:49 #3776

    Agreed with everything you've written. The fact that he (OGL) knew Vermaelen was out for the season yet he decided to do nothing should be a dismissal offense. But in reality our bean counters probably weighed up the situation, and felt that spending extra money was not worth it, bear in mind that the difference in pl prize money in terms of 1st and 2nd place is around £700,000, 2nd and 3rd is 700,000 and so on.

  18. GoonerC

    Mar 18, 2011, 12:44 #3775

    So you think Spurs are going to gain 10 points on us in 10 games even thought they have to go to Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool. Well done mate.