Raskolnikov Enahoro
Following the clamorous responses from the first article I submitted to the Online Gooner, I would just like to supplement some of my earlier points, which I feel have been justified in light of the recent Champions League final.
Arsene Wenger is a Genius.
I was watching Barca play in the final and I can honestly tell you that they are not a better footballing side than Arsenal, and had it been Arsenal in that final then I feel we would have stood a much better chance than Manchester United. The result in the final has for me, merely confirmed that Arsenal are technically, and morally, the best team in Europe.
It doesn’t take rocket science to deduce this, just simple logic: Arsenal beat Barca and Man United this season. Wenger confirmed as much the other day, and therefore we must be considered the best team in Europe. How many other sides can claim to have beaten Man United at home this season then? No other manager could manage a league defeat of Man United in the whole of the English Premier League. Do any of these know-nothing ‘fans’ who criticize Arsene expect someone like Mick McCarthy, the sacked Ancelotti or Kenny Dalglish could manage to beat Man United at home isn’t it? And we beat Barca! Only Hercules and Real Betis can claim to be on a level with us and share that honour. Yes that is correct, we completely embarrassed Barca at home in the Champions League. I don’t understand these morons that continue to mention that it was actually a two-legged tie and that therefore in real terms, Arsenal won only half a match?
Arsene is the master of the half measure and over half a season, we have been the best team in Europe for the past four years. No one can compete with us. And people are forgetting that in the Nou Camp, had it not been for a poor touch from Bendtner and for RVP getting sent off, we would have eliminated Barca. Just as, had Leroy Lita had a better touch on ninety two different occasions, Reading FC would have won the Premier League a few seasons ago. Arsenal had Barca on the ropes, and pulled the game back to 1-1 with a sumptuous goal, indicative of our ‘Wengerball’ football. We attacked with purpose and intent, and peppered the Bara goal with shot after shot.
Arsene also correctly reminded us that when you observe the mini-league of the top 4 teams, then Arsenal are top. Too right Arsene. This is the most important honour to bestow upon this glorious, best ever Arsenal squad. The fact that Arsenal are bottom of the mini-league of Arsenal, West Brom, Bolton and Newcastle is irrelevant.
I keep hearing people claim that when Guardiola leaves Barca at the end of next season, that he should be Arsene’s replacement? For me Guardiola has proven nothing as a manager, and the fact that in three years he has won more than Wenger has in his entire career is down to the fact he has an amazing team. Even Phil Brown would have won all those titles with that team, it’s just a case of turning up and winning two out of the last three Champions Leagues.
The real skill for me, is having the breathtaking skill and moral superiority to assemble a group of young players like Diaby, Denilson, Eboue and Song, pay them wages of over £50k a week, and then nurture them into the best fourth placed team in Europe. Guardiola at the moment does not have to manage a dressing room full of big personalities and egos, he is managing small-time players who hardly win anything between them.
Wenger on the other hand, is working in a cruel pressure-cooker environment with a demanding board, and an even more demanding fan-base who accept nothing but trophies. Would Guardiola be able to cope with the pressure of delivering at a club like Arsenal? How would he be able to resist the impending £35 million Inter Milan bid for Diaby?
I will say it again and again, I am sick of the Wenger-bashing. People need to remember that he has put Arsenal in such a fantastic financial position that, once the financial fair play rules come into effect, Arsenal will be primed to destroy the competition. Think about it: Chelsea will suffer under the new UEFA directive and will be forced to play their matches behind closed doors in Siberia. Man Citeh will also implode and once the Middle East runs out of oil reserves, and the Glazers are finally taken into custody for Financial mismanagement, Arsenal will have no equals.
In terms of the transfer market, I continue to hear unrealistic demands made of our dear Leader. ‘Sign this’, ‘Sign that’. Do these know-nothings not realise that it makes sense for Man Citeh, Chelsea, and Real Madrid to finish their spending first, before Arsene makes his move in the market? If he does not do this, then these clubs will sign every single player under the sun, just out of fear that Arsene might beat them to it. Arsene’s shrewd movement in the transfer market has enabled him to bag the cream of French football. Had Mourinho, Ancelotti or Mancini known about Arsene’s intentions, then the likes of Squillaci, Chamakh and Koscielny would have now been playing for Real Madrid and Chelsea. Instead, Real Madrid ended up with poor French players like Benzema instead.
In my last article, I wrote a comparative example of some of the fine players Arsene has signed in the transfer market recently, citing the examples of Koscielny, Squillaci and Silvestre, and compared them with some of the lesser players at City like Kompany, and at Man United like Evra and Vidic. I was rightly castigated by certain fellow Arsene-lovers, who pointed out the error of my ways, by making reference to players like Henry, Vieira, Pires and Ljungberg. Of course, like Vidic, Ivanovic, Evra and Kompany; Henry and Pires still all actively play for Arsenal. And on that point, I must apologise.
Those questioning Arsene need some perspective please. How many of these people have managed even half a day in football then? Right ok. How dare they criticize Arsene when none of them have ever managed a football club? It reminds me of all those people who had the audacity to criticize George W Bush when he was US President. How many of these people had ever run the world’s biggest superpower? How many of these people have ever launched a full-scale land invasion of a rogue state, and organized a State of the Union address? Therefore how dare any of these fools ever criticize G W Bush? Until they have worked half a day in government, then they have no place or right to criticize single thing, full stop.
Another well laboured point by my fellow Arsene-loving brethrin, is our disgraceful home support. They are at fault for the dropped points we suffered this season, and if only our home supporters, with their demands for victory and quality football could stop being so demanding, then we would be champions. Look at our away performances at Stoke, at Bolton, at Old Trafford, at Spurs and at Newcastle this season. If we played all our matches away from home, we would be champions by a distance. Quality performances at home are entirely down to our outrageous fans, who dared to boo the team for failing to beat 10-man Blackburn with the worst away record in the Premier League, and for booing Arsenal for failing to beat 1 point in 27 Sunderland at home. Had the noise been much louder, Arsenal would have decimated the opposition. For instance, a recent study proved that Stoke have the loudest home fans in the league. It is because of this loud home support, that Stoke will be Premier League champions next season – Arsenal’s woes have to do with the home support, not with a lack of investment, a lack of heart and courage form the players and a lack of tactical insight.
People need to remember how Arsene Wenger changed Arsenal forever as we know it. He built the Emirates with his OWN two hands! I went to the Ashburton construction site and witnessed it with my very own eyes, Arsene was sat there hard hat on, bricks, mortar and cement all in hand and the most outstanding mental strength to build the stadium from the top down. To all those who are asking for Arsene’s head, be careful what you wish for. No more Arsene means bye bye Diaby, Eboue, Rosicky, Almunia, Fabianski, Squillaci, Chamakh and Song.
Arsene has already begun to address our shortcomings with the signings of both the Barca 16 year olds. The summer is looking promising already and I believe that the two teenagers from Barca will be excellent acquisitions for the club, and will be able to one day follow in the footsteps of Cesc Fabregas, by going to the Spanish GP in Barcelona (and posting pics on Twitter) whilst their team-mates blaze a trail against a team like Fulham.
Unlike American-owned clubs like Liverpool and ManUSA, our board are custodians of the club. We are English-owned and the board members would never ever sell out to an unknown American quantity. Peter Hill-Wood is far too classy for that, and upholds the traditions of our great club. I am proud to have him as a representative of our club.
The final point I want to make however, is that I recently had the fortune to be pointed in the direction of another Arsenal blog. Now. The main writer of this blog struck me as being an erstwhile, erudite and deeply intelligent individual, who was more than secure in his own ability. I know this, because far from constructing an intelligent argument all by himself, the writer of this blog used the uniquely intellectual standpoint of actually attacking a different Arsenal blog! In case you were interested in knowing which blog I am talking about, it is called ‘Another Arsenal Bog’ (sic?).
The clearly non-adolescent writer of said blog, was apoplectic with rage and railed against disgraceful Arsenal blogs such as the Online Gooner. His premise, seemed to be that using the term ‘AKB’ is some kind of misnomer, and he is right: of course, there is no such thing as the brainwashed Wengerite. There is no such thing, as the dedicated Wenger fan who will casually inform you that should Wenger depart, the club will be set back 28 years. There is no such thing, as the Wengerite loyalist, who will tell anybody with a contrarian opinion to ‘p**s off and go support Spuds’ – the highest intellectual form of rebuttal there by the way. I also especially respect the manner in which the so-called AKBs, can take the moral high ground because, whilst a bunch of dimwits use the term ‘AKB’, these so-called ‘AKBs’ would of course, never use apposite terms such as ‘Doomer’.
And I agree with the likes of ‘Another Arsenal Bog’. I find it absolutely DISGRACEFUL that sites like the Online Gooner are permitted to spew the kind of poisonous, malicious bile they do. I find it sickening that the increasing democratization of the internet, means that the likes of the Online Gooner are given the platform to offer alternative, independent opinions that do not conform to the standardized party line. I find it an outrage that the Online Gooner has a relatively large following, many of whom happen to have independent opinions of their own. How dare they?
