Ian Henry
I’m not going to any more Premier League games until Arsene Wenger has gone. I have better things to do with my time at the weekend. I’ll go to the Champions League group games, if my work schedule allows it, but only because I don’t expect to see any Champions League football after the end of the current campaign (probably in December) for a long while.
Our esteemed editor’s words are so right; but it was all so avoidable. Before the ManU game, Wenger said words to the effect that he had spent so much time dealing with the departure of players that he hadn’t been able to sign players, but all the same he was quite happy with where the team was just now.
Excuse me? Happy with the team just now? And dealing with departing players? What was he doing? Packing their bags, kissing them goodbye? Give me a break.
At the end of last season, the manager and the CEO said they would strengthen the team, implicitly assuring us that this would focus on the defence. Now, some may say the departure of Clichy and Eboue is an improvement to the defence, as is the non-appearance of Squillaci this season. But really, relying on Gibbs to stay fit for an entire month is a bit much, never mind an entire season, and Johan Djourou – for all his sterling efforts on occasions last season – has regressed so badly so quickly this year that I wonder if he has had the ghost of Philippe Senderos crossed with Pascal Cygan transplanted inside him.
We hear that we are close to signing a new striker (a Korean, who according to some reports will have to disappear in two years’ time to do national service; but don’t worry, I am sure the club will give him a nice long contract, longer than two years so we’ll end up paying him while he’s in the army), and the manager wants to sign a defender and a midfielder. Apparently, according to Pravda (sorry arsenal.com), he has 20 people working on signing players. What? 20 people? Who are they and what are they doing? More to the point what have they been doing all summer?
All the money earned from the sale of Nasri and Fabregas will sit in the bank, but it won’t score goals, keep out goals, clear corners or put in crunching tackles. Of course, the money won’t actually stay in the bank for very long – it will carry on subsidising Denilson’s wages while he is in Brazil (come on Arsenal tell me I’m wrong!), it will carry on signing players like Galindo, Wellington and Joel Campbell who haven’t got work permits and who I don’t believe we will ever see in the Arsenal first team and it will be carry on paying Almunia, Diaby and quite probably Bendtner and Squillaci for the rest of the season.
Maybe we will sign a defender, and a midfielder, but it will be too late for this season; 8 points behind the leaders, with a -8 goal difference, yes minus 8, after three games. Oh how I pine for those joyous, carefree days of boring boring Arsenal grinding out another 1-0 win under George Graham. Hard Times? Too right they are. If Arsenal get 4th place again this season it will be truly remarkable.
The board might surprise us and sack the manager. Then again, the sun might rise in the west and set in the east; and pigs might just fly by my window (but not before I’ve sunk a couple more bottles of red). At 5-1 during the ManU game I sent a text to a number of fellow Gooners saying “P45 for Mr Wenger” – a senior AST member replied, quick as a flash –“no one with the balls to do it”; and he is right. Ivan Gazidis will wax lyrical about backing the manager, Peter Hill-Wood will spout some waffle to his friends at The Daily Star (I don’t know whether we should more embarrassed by our chairman using The Daily Star as his mouthpiece than any sane Bolton fan would be their chairman’s tweeting), and dear old Bob Wilson will probably be wheeled out on Radio5 Live to say how hard Arsene works and he deserves the chance to sort this out.
Sorry, Bob – you were my hero when I played in goal for my primary school – but you are wrong. Arsene Wenger has had years to sort this out. He could have kept Cesc had he bought quality players to support him, Alonso for one three years ago. He could have brought in Martin Keown as full time defensive coach, or promoted Steve Bould. He could have kept Pires and Gilberto as chaperones to the younger players, just as Fergie kept Giggs, Scholes and Neville while their successors were trained and brought through. When he knew – as he surely did (unless he is really dim-witted and blind to reality) that Nasri and Cesc would leave – he could have bought replacements at the beginning of the summer; just as he could and should have bought a proven striker, a proper defensive midfielder and at least one, if not two, proven Premiership defenders. But he didn’t; he left the problems we all knew existed untouched and he let experienced players go without replacing them and now he is finding it difficult to find players to fill the gaps we already had, let alone find replacements for the souls of the departed. Too fussy by half, too stubborn by half. Too blinded by the light of the halo over this head, placed there by the board.
Right now the Arsenal team needs new direction, new thinking and above all new players; at this moment in time (almost) anybody will do; we have so many injuries and suspensions that if RvP is injured playing for Holland in the international break (2-1 says he will be), what’s left of our attacking threat will have gone.
The current situation is the logical consequence of the manager being given way too much power, and a board and a CEO who fail to control the manager. Arsene Wenger is accountable to the fans, or so said Ivan Gazidis to the AST in May. Well, Mr Gazidis, if he is accountable to the fans, put him in a room with the AST, with AISA, with RedAction, with the bloggers from Le-Grove, Arseblog and the others, all of whom care more about Arsenal than you do, and more than you can ever understand and let him answer their questions, truthfully and honestly (and that means not telling us porkies like Diaby was trained as a left sided midfielder). We’ve heard all about mental strength, football intelligence and how we are a young team; and it’s all hot air. As Bob Dylan once sang, Arsene, it’s an “idiot wind blowing every time you move your mouth”.
To end, a few more of the replies to my “P45 for Wenger” text:
• “It’s a bloody joke”
• “He must be phrasing his (resignation) letter right now … surely …”
• “Long overdue”
• “Shows up the lack of any proper strategy … v sad”
And one from my optimist friend … “A bad start is not necessarily a bad thing …”; well, Michael I do hope you are right. If it leads to a new manager being appointed that is.
