Emmanuel Fyle
Everyone knows what Arsene Wenger has achieved for this club, but it is time for Arsenal fans to stop talking about the past, and to stop believing in the ‘bright future’ continuously promised every year since 2006 but which never actually arrives.
I hear an awful lot of different theories on Arsenal players and Arsene Wenger. One thing that is undeniable is that this Arsenal team is subject to serious mental deficiency, and is psychologically brittle. The evidence is overwhelming and well documented – from repeated frittering of leads against Spurs, Newcastle and Wigan to the infamous recent Liverpool fiasco.
While the players tend to bear the brunt of the criticism, there comes a time when Arsenal fans need to stop blaming individuals for their crass stupidity and patent inability to learn, and start looking at the methodology behind the coaching and continuous selection of these players. Although the names of the players complained about keep changing – Hleb, Silvestre, Squillaci, Denilson, Bendtner – to name but a few - there has been one constant, common denominator - Arsene Wenger. The ingrained loser’s mentality that is now prevalent in the club has been fostered by Wenger’s culture of over-permissiveness, and his refusal to apportion blame where it is due. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen unacceptable behaviour by an Arsenal player, rewarded by the said player walking straight back into the team. As an example: Abou Diaby’s insanity at St James Park. Had Diaby cost any other big club in the manner he cost Arsenal, be sure that he would have been reprimanded in such a manner that he would have been afraid ever to transgress again. Instead, imagine my horror to see Diaby booting the ball away completely needlessly at Blackpool, in a match Arsenal were in total control of.
We subsequently found out that it was Robin van Persie who had to administer some semblance of dressing room discipline to Diaby. We are also informed by Arshavin that after becoming the first team in history to throw away a 4 goal lead at Newcastle, the manager said ‘nothing’ to the players. This constant lack of discipline has been encouraged by Wenger, who is only too willing to blame anyone and everything but his own flawed management and methodology.
I honestly fail to see how anyone can present a fact-based case, based on recent evidence, as to how Arsene Wenger can remain as Arsenal manager. He is the root cause of our malaise. A manager who insists that he would ‘sign up for twenty years’ to second place, has no business calling himself the manager of a club of Arsenal’s standing, and the fans should certainly not accept such a climate of complacency.
The dwindling amount of AKBs who sit on the fence and claim that: ‘I want Arsene to stay, I just want him to change’ are effectively and unwittingly providing a vote of no confidence. This is tantamount to a husband claiming that ‘I want to stay with my wife, I just want her to completely change who she is’. Alternatively, it would be like demanding an entire government cabinet be fired, but for the Prime Minister to remain in situ, despite being the central figure of that cabinet.
Arsene Wenger is incapable of change. He has been indulged for far too long, and Arsenal fans now need to ask themselves whether we can allow ourselves to consider Arsenal a ‘big club’ if the greater concerns of the club are now secondary to the whims of one man. Is Wenger bigger than the club? If we are a small club who would implode under the weight of Wenger’s departure, then yes, Arsenal are a small club whose future depends on one individual.
This is clearly a fictitious notion. Arsenal are a big club, who were in possession of ten league titles long before Arsene Wenger had arrived at this club. There are a number of occurrences that take place at this club that are in my view, patently unacceptable.
We are (mis)informed that Wenger does an excellent job ‘despite the financial constraints he is under’. This is not a fact-based argument and appears rather weak when one considers that Arsenal have a wage bill of over £110 million. Spurs have a reported wage bill of just £67 million. There is a massive financial disparity right there, but this is never mentioned when Wenger’s so-called financial prudence is uttered. The insistence on renewing the contracts of undeserving individuals has created a false economy, and a system that is the polar opposite of a meritocracy. The manager has assured a mediocre group of players that irrespective of performance, they will not be subjected to competition for places as this may ‘kill’ them.
Could you imagine applying such an absurd notion to a real-life working environment?
Wenger’s other faults have little or nothing to do with finances. Coaching a defence to defend set-pieces costs little, and when Alex McLeish is tactically outthinking you in a cup final, you know there is a major issue. Appointing a number 2 to challenge your authority costs very little, yet Jack Wilshere claims that Jens Lehmann at half-time against Blackpool was ‘like an assistant manager’. Oh is that so? So what is Pat Rice?
The most grating problem, and the reason Arsene Wenger in my opinion needs to be thanked and then shown the door, is that the ‘six years no trophies’ is not the main issue. The main issue is that Arsene Wenger has the resources at his disposal to rectify glaring deficiencies in the team, but he continues to show a complete disregard for this, and seems more concerned about bringing his pet ‘project’ to fruition. Wenger makes derisory comments about the fans, yet, these people who ‘have not worked even half a day in football’ seemed to know their stuff about Manuel Almunia, about Denilson’s suitability as a holding midfielder and about playing Van Persie (a number 10) as the focal point of an attack without a number 9 to run the line.
Arsene Wenger cannot, and will not change. It is a forlorn fantasy to expect him to do so. The more Wenger is challenged, the more entrenched he becomes, and this is evidenced by his outrageous comments in press conferences, followed up by the dim-witted Hill-Wood’s ill-advised, crass commentary.
Those that witter on about money fail to note for instance, that despite Laurent Koscielny having cost more than Nemanja Vidic, Vincent Kompany, Patrice Evra and Ivanovic, he has yet to learn that as a defender you simply do not go to ground inside the penalty area. This proves the lack of attention to tactical detail that takes place at Arsenal and this is a managerial issue that has not been rectified.
A further and more grave issue that has disheartened many Arsenal fans is the leadership issue. Again, Wenger has shown a patent disregard for the fans when he claimed that ‘in England you like to focus on fighting qualities a little too much’. He went on to extol the virtues of the ‘collective expression’ they so treasure in France. May I please be reminded at this juncture which country Wenger manages in please?
The leadership issue dovetails nicely with the Cesc Fabregas scenario. It has become apparent, through his increasingly vocal and acerbic public outbursts, that Cesc Fabregas is angling for a move away from Arsenal. Fabregas is a superb footballer, who has been badly let down by his manager, who failed to surround him with the requisite quality to make Cesc believe in this team. His desire to leave is understandable. However I, like many others, was extremely disappointed with his shenanigans in the Nou Camp prior to the Barca game when he was canoodling and giggling with his future team-mates.
The past three Arsenal captains have all presented us with evidence of the lack of foresight that has gone into the Arsenal captaincy. The captaincy of Arsenal is important, it is an honour to be bestowed and not a leverage tool to appease want-away star players. Arsene Wenger first did this with Patrick Vieira whom, despite being a superb captain and leader, was desperate to leave Arsenal in our Invincible season. Real Madrid made an official bid of £31 million that was turned down after a protracted saga. After a season of going through the motions, visible through Vieira’s body language, he was sold at a knockdown £14 million to Juventus. So the next time someone mentions Wenger’s ‘constrained finances’, any manager willing to lose out £17 million on a transfer whilst increasing the unhappy player’s contract cannot be in dire straits.
The Cesc situation is a mirror of the Vieira scenario. Now we are hearing the usual howls from some Gooners claiming ‘Sell Cesc for £50 million and use the money to sign such and such’.
As long as Arsene Wenger is in charge, that money will never be used. I am still to this day, waiting with bated breath to see what will happen to the £41 million we received from Manchester City for Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor.
Arsene Wenger is not doing the Arsenal job out of love and charity. He is remunerated to the tune of £6.5 million per year. He has not won a single trophy in six years and attempts to persuade the world that finishing top four – whilst managing the team with the third/fourth highest wage bill in the league – is an achievement. It is not an achievement. And when a manager is being paid more than Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola, you really need to begin to ask yourself what fact-based justification there can be for keeping him in his role. We are often asked by the AKBs ‘who would you replace him with?’
