John Evans
I have some big news on the transfer front. The sale of Cesc has been finalised already and the news will be held back until after the deadline date for season ticket renewals passes on 1st June. The combination of the price rise and our current captain being sold could have proved too much for some Gooners to take as they are being asked to fork out even more money now per season than ever at a time where we are at our most least likely to win a trophy in recent history. Take it from me in good faith that Cesc will be sold in early June to a club that may come as a surprise to some. The sale price that has been agreed is £45m and he is bound for Madrid not Barcelona as some might have thought was a done deal. The only man that has been able to come up with the required fee has been Mourinho and even though Cesc would have loved to have gone home to Barcelona he will not be getting his dream move anytime soon. I know in writing this I will get the same old replies of what a load of rubbish, you can write this without worrying whether or not it is true etc but believe me it is true and if it isn’t I will gladly never write another article on this site ever again.
For me the planned rise in ticket prices at our club is beyond a joke. How can this rise be in any way, shape or form a justified one? We are paying above the odds as it is already to see a very average squad of players ply their trade. The cheapest season ticket at our club now costs more than the most expensive at Old Trafford. Does this sound like value for money to us Gooners?
The club get taken over and the ticket prices go up as the first move since the takeover was announced. Anyone would think we have just won the league and signed a top class player for a change but no we have blown our chances of success and no signings are on the horizon. Same old same old in my book, why should we be asked to pay out yet more of our hard earned cash to see this lot bottle it all over again next spring? For me it is too much to ask and I will not be in attendance at the home games at all next campaign.
The way we have played over the past couple of months makes me look forward to the summer months where there is no Arsenal to worry about. No frustration at not being able to break even the weakest of defences down when the results really matter. I can’t remember a season in recent history where I wasn’t pleased when it was all over so asking for more money to enjoy that kind of football is asking for too much in my opinion.
Bolton away perfectly summed up our season for me. Nasri through on goal with a wonderful chance to clinch the win, 7 yards out in the centre of goal with only the keeper to beat and what does he do? Does he prove to be a winner and calmly place the ball in either corner of the goal and get us the three points we desperately need? Or does he do the very thing that any school ground kid would have done and simply shut his eyes and smash the ball as hard as he can with zero composure? We all know what happened next. The chance was gone and the game was later lost, a possible three points became none and the title had gone. I know that many people reading this article will point to the fact that Nasri has been one of our players of the season and also mention that he has got a very healthy goals to games ratio over the course of the campaign, but for me he typifies the current problems we have as a club. The guy has precisely zero winner’s medals in his cabinet, even in his time at Marseilles before he came to these shores he always finished the season as a runner up and managed to lose every final he played in. All of his goals bar one have come in the first half of the season, when the games have really mattered he has let us down time and time again. If he doesn’t score a goal he doesn’t really add much to the team either as his assist tally is dire to say the least.
We simply need more players with Nasri’s ability as a footballer but with a far superior mental strength that comes with that ability to stand a real chance of competing at the top table of both domestic and European football. Jack has stood out a mile as a competitor this season but at any other club his attitude would merely be considered the norm and this must change for us to return to winning ways. I personally will be glad to see Cesc’s departure next month as this could mark a shift in the type of player we have playing at our club. We do not need as much technical ability in the abundance that we currently possess it, we need a lot more steel than what we currently have and this is the way to go for us to compete. We need more Yaya Toures than Cescs in this current Arsenal squad and this is the type of player we should be looking to unearth during the summer months.
What I fear is the fact that AW will again look to within his current squad for the answers he needs to the questions posed by this season’s collapse. We need a strong keeper so we already have one in Szczesny. We need a commanding centre half so we have one in Vermaelen. We need a strong defensive midfielder so we have one in Frimpong. We need a 25 goal man upfront so we have one in RVP if he stays fit. These are not the answers as all of the above players are fine on their day and some of them may well go on to prove themselves good enough over a period of time but as things stand they are all either unproven or injury prone or in some cases both. You cannot rely on players like this over the course of a season and that is why we continuously fall short as far too much confidence has been put on this type of player in recent seasons.
The reason for this reliance is simple, we as club for whatever reason have become far too reluctant to pay out the kind of transfer sums that are required to buy the real quality to compete with the other big teams on the domestic and European stage. We will wait two or three years to give Szczesny his chance rather then go out and buy a top keeper to replace Almunia. We will wait in hope that Song proves up to the task rather than go out and buy an Essien type player to fill the gap in the meantime. Going down this route is laudable on some levels but it wins you no trophies as the main men in your squad get bored with waiting for the improvements to happen with the current players. You then end up with a conveyor belt situation which is what we basically now have where players leave as they can’t afford to wait around for four or five years to win anything. The best players are taken away by the true big boys and you are left to wait all over again for the new ones to take their place. We have seen this time and time again in recent seasons at our club and I am tired of being asked to pay the top admission prices in the world to see it all over again.
If Cashley goes don’t worry we have got a great youngster in Clichy, give him a few seasons and he will be as good as Cashley anyway so no bother. If Bergkamp retires don’t worry as we have a gem in RVP. If Vieira wants to go then let him as we have a great kid coming through in Cesc. If Adebayor wants a bit more money elsewhere no need to panic as we can get Chamakh in on a free next summer to replace him. If Cesc gets tired of being on the losing side and heads off home don’t worry as we have Ramsey back to full fitness now. There does seem to be a re-occurring theme here in all of this. The players that are the replacements do not cost very much and in most cases hardly anything if anything at all and also more importantly the players that are the replacements are never as good as the players that they are replacing. We have steadily declined as a force because of this way of thinking and something really does need to change if you are being asked to fork out top money to see average players week in week out. Don’t get me wrong I am not fan of Adebayor or Mr Cole but let us face facts - they as players are better than what we now have to replace them with in the form of Chamakh and Clichy. Is Rambo ever going to be better than Cesc? I don’t think so, so why do we simply make do all the time then?
It is a cause of much frustration to this avid Gooner and a trend that I hope will soon end, either due to a change of manager or a change of focus at the club we all love to follow. I personally feel the latter is more likely as it would cost us a fortune to get rid of AW as things stand and if you are not keen to pay out any money on top quality players are you likely to pay out the same kind of money just to get rid of your current manager?
