Kevin Whitcher
I haven’t dared peek at my email inbox since yesterday’s goalless (and soulless) draw with Blackburn, but my mobile phone is a good place to start, as half of what can be relayed after Arsenal’s title challenge took another blow is there in the text messages…
Before half time
David Oudot: As a goalkeeper watching other goalkeepers, Almunia is the worst I have ever seen in the Premier League. He makes Allen McKnight look like Gordon Banks.
After the Blackburn dismissal
David Oudot: Never a red card. We don’t deserve to win anything. The manager’s constant reliance on our supposed ‘superior’ fitness winning games in the last 10 minutes is beyond shoddy. Time to go. This team are LOSERS. They know nothing else other than finishing second best.
Full Time
David Oudot: Today surmises both teams correctly. United two down at half time and pull it back from nowhere. All we have to do is score one goal against a team who can’t play away and we can’t do it. Depressingly predictable
Alex Laidman: Again very poor today and lacking in ideas
Ian Tanner: Orient aside, we’ve not led since Barca win
(Ed’s note – Ian subsequently corrected this text to take account of the Stoke game, so that brings it down to being in the lead just the once – against Orient – in seven matches)
With reference to the board of directors…
Donald K: Madness and powerless. This cannot go on! Ivan on 6k a day and as much influence as you and me!
Arsene Wenger is paid a lot more than Ivan Gazidis. £7 million a year apparently. And yet he can’t do tactics. Andrey Arshavin’s contribution in the comeback in the last 20 minutes at West Brom was key, so why take him off first? Surely better to remove Theo Walcott, whose impact on returning from injury was minimal. And then, to cap that, with Blackburn reduced to ten men and Arsenal needing to score, he removes Nasri instead of Alex Song. It’s the madness of Emperor Arsene.
It was interesting to remember that last summer, there was none of the usual dilly dallying on signing a contract renewal by the manager. Traditionally, he leaves it until November or December of his final season, but not this time. He signed up pretty damn quick for an enhanced deal, and if the board had the bollocks to realize he can take the club no further, it would cost them not far short of £25 million at the moment. As the directors put so much store on the balance sheets, the earliest anyone can foresee them saying enough is enough is 2013. So you have at least two more years of this, and in all likelihood three.
Arsene Wenger has done wonderful things for the club. He has put it in a great position and steered the good ship Arsenal through some difficult waters. But the reality is that, as he has been given more and more power, so things have declined. In the days when he used to buy players in their early to mid-20s, he could not corrupt them with his obsession about how the game should be played. He could help develop them, sure, bring the best out of them, but he could not influence their decision making on the pitch through his methods.
However, get ‘em in younger and you have a situation where a natural talent like Jack Wilshere, inside the penalty box with a clear shot at goal the obvious and most likely method of scoring, chooses to square the ball. It happens a lot with different players in the team, and it is obviously how the players are trained. So we end up with the ‘tip-tap’ football that gives defenders extra chances to intercept. And frankly, the vast majority of Arsenal fans have seen enough of it. Wenger cannot even blame the referee for the dropped points against Blackburn. What Project Wenger has given us is a team that will pass its way to death, or if you are a director, a Champions League qualifying position. Sure, 17 other clubs in the Premier League would give their eye teeth to be Arsenal, but isn’t the point of football to try and win trophies?
Ultimately, the only two things that will force the board to act are firstly people not paying for seats in the stadium. Of course, it is better if they attend due to the supplementary spending, but the bottom line is that as long as the seat is sold, it really doesn’t matter that much if the purchaser then chooses not to use it. Secondly, consistent failure to qualify for the golden egg that is the Champions League. It will be interesting to see what protests are organized before the next home match, and remember, any anti-Wenger/board banners are far less likely to be confiscated at the televised Blackpool game. Ultimately though, one suspects their real impact will be negligible. Most season ticket holders will renew because Arsenal are our club, in our hearts if not in legal reality. Look at Manchester United. The Glazers are despised, but the stadium is full and those attending are perfectly happy with the trophy haul since they took over in 2005. I am not saying I want Arsenal run this way, just that protests by supporters are not going to get the manager sacked.
Maybe what they can though do is force the board to acknowledge the weaknesses of the current regime, which are obvious. The manager needs to be ordered that he is to get a team of assistant managers who will rectify the obvious problems with the team. And basically, it’s down to how they are coached. Here’s a quote from Caec Fabregas’ programme column yesterday: ”Today in football whoever defends better is the one who normally wins.” Maybe someone should tell the manager. Additionally, the tip tap posession has to go and the playing style revert to the lightning attacks of the Invincibles era. By all means play the ball to feet, just get it up the pitch faster and when the opportunity to shoot presents itself, don’t hesitate.
Additionally, the manager should have a director of football forced upon him who takes charge of player ins and outs. Someone who has the authority to ship out the deadwood and replace it with proven quality. Wenger might not like it, but hey, maybe he might get an offer from somewhere else and go! Sounds like a plan to me. But it’s one the directors need the balls to carry through. Change needs to be forced. And if there are some arguments in the process, brilliant. It’s all too cosy at the moment, the place has gone complacent and stale. The results on the pitch are there for all to see. This is comfort zone complacency. And it means the club do not possess the same spirit and determination as the team above them in the table.
If Project Wenger was ever going to come good, it was in this of all seasons. Other teams are falling over themselves to hand Arsenal the title, but still they cannot do it. They were at homes yesterday against relegation contenders with all their attacking options available. They couldn’t score. As Ian Tanner has pointed out, in the last seven games, they have only led against League One Leyton Orient. To anyone who is looking at the table and thinking ‘if Chelsea can beat United and we beat them when they come to Arsenal we can win the league’, let me tell you something – failing to be in the lead in six of your last seven games is not title form.
What we are witnessing is the same as we saw in 2008 and 2010. Once is unfortunate, twice is careless, but three times is a dereliction of duty. Project Wenger is not working if the intention was to win a trophy. As in 2008 and 2010, it seems as if a game against Birmingham is the point at which the season begins to unravel, even if, this time around, that match did not even register in the Premier League table. It’s same old, same old. No excuses. It’s time for a change, but folks, it ain’t gonna happen. Still, remember these two things. The players have incredible mental strength, and Arsene knows best. He’s paid over £130,000 a week because he does. He isn’t going anywhere fast.
