Richard Hatton
On the 16th February 2011 Arsenal played Barcelona at the E******s. My father and I both agreed that this was in the top five games of football we had ever attended and was most certainly the best game we had seen at the new stadium. The atmosphere, the football, the game went by in a breath and my heart was still thumping when I got home two hours later.
40 days later and using the benefit of hindsight, what we expected could happen has now been completed. What we saw on Saturday last weekend broke every ounce of hope we have for our side, every millimetre of expectation and threatens to hold up the claims that we mortal supporters (60,000 there again against Blackburn. Bulls**t, why announce it as attendance when it was plain for all to see the stadium was not full. Why don’t they announce it as tickets sold? This makes us look complete idiots and liars when you hear it on televised games and only gives the media a bigger stick to hit us with) have come to expect year in and year out. Nothing but a Champions League place!
There should be no wholesale clear out. This would be madness and we most definitely do not have the financial clout to replace the 8-9 players that are only competent at being far below standard for this league.
I wonder what sort of power David Dein held over Arsene Wenger as it seems that since Mr Dein’s departure, Arsene has gone from being a genius coach of wonderful football and a displayer of tactics that left Alex Ferguson a shade of red that would make him invisible in a strawberry field. However his coaching of “over football” is now fruitless and becoming depressing to watch. All any opposing side need do is flood the midfield to stifle it. What is the point of passing a side to death when you can’t finish them off? How many sections of the media have mocked us for continually passing when a shooting option presented itself? This is not just a one off situation; this is a tedious and non-productive disease and has been coached into our players!
Why is there never a plan B? If you are getting no joy from an approach to football you have to have the intelligence on the field to change your style a bit. This is what unfoots stubborn resistance.
Why have our club doctors and physios never been asked to explain why we have only been able to field a first choice eleven about six times in the last few years? And if there is nothing they can do to keep our porcelain squad fit then why wasn’t this addressed in the transfer market instead of having to bridge gaps with inferior players. My boss and wage payer would expect me to come up with answers to an obvious problem such as this. When all Arsenal seem to do is accept that it will continue to blight every campaign.
I imagine that the club will be asking us to renew our season tickets before this campaign has ended. My father has suggested (he is a season ticket holder) that everyone should delay until the 1st of August and to quote him “show us your hand first this time”.
Winston Churchill played a blinder during the Second World War, but was an average every day Prime Minister and was eventually replaced. Arsene Wenger guided a wonderfully gifted, experienced squad to success however I am starting to wonder if that is where his talents end.
