CanadaGooner
If Arsenal’s team-building policy is to replace the old with the fresh/new/youngsters, then along with that policy we must have a built-in mechanism that would keep those young players at the club, but with our wage structure and inability to win anything in the last six seasons, we have a doomed policy. Only a stark-raving lunatic would fail to see that a combination of no trophies, uncompromising wage structure and an awful lack of readiness for the transfer window can only lead to one conclusion: LACK OF AMBITION.
Years back, when footballers played for the local clubs where they were born and bred, and wouldn’t care much whether or not their teams won trophies or whether they could earn a bit more down the road, it would have been ideal to carry on grooming youngsters, but with today’s modern-day football, where players are simply mercenaries, and would kiss the badge of another club the very next day, it is simply a non-starter to assume you can command loyalty without trophies or sustained success.
Whichever way you look at Summer 2011, a few people at Arsenal got away with it, including Wenger. Fans were treated to several months of talk about ‘QUALITY’ players coming in, and then we had to wait till the final day of the window to get Benayoun? I have heard all sorts of explanations and recriminations from all sides, AKBs and AMGs, and regardless of which side you’re on, the whole scenario was a disgrace. Arsenal has become a club that lacks foresight: did Wenger think the same group of lads who collapsed following our tame capitulation to Birmingham at Wembley would have suddenly grown some balls over the summer to somehow challenge in the league in 2011-12? Did anyone on the board at Arsenal assume that the addition of Oxlade-Chamberlain to that tame squad was enough to turn it into a trophy-winning squad? The only logical answer is: LACK OF AMBITION. The Arsenal Board is resigned to having a team that works hard enough to finish in the top four, gets to the Champions League round of 16, makes each of them enough to end the year with a decent bonus and never mind what the fans want. Never mind what the folks who scream their lungs out at the stadium week-in week-out want.
There’s nothing wrong with having a youth policy and a strict wage structure, provided you accept the realities of modern day football and understand what it takes to keep those players. A club that fails to learn from its experience in the previous season is a club that lacks ambition. Arsenal used to have a core: Vieira, then eventually Flamini, had a successful season in that midfield bulldog role. It’s very possible that Wilshere will be able to marshal that role in years to come, but surely there should have been some foresight applied after Vieira left; we failed to keep Flamini and we failed to buy players who could give us that core. That isn’t rocket science; it’s simply lack of planning and no foresight whatsoever. It’s nothing to do with Arsenal not having money to spend; there are several inexpensive players we could have bought and tried in that role, and the same applies to what happened after the likes of Campbell, Keown and Parlour left. If someone came out and told us all that Arsenal is changing tactics and we won’t require such roles anymore, then fine. But that wasn’t the case, was it?
The January transfer window is about to open and I don’t think we need a crystal-ball to work out where Arsenal has been weak so far this season, and areas that have cost us in the past six seasons. Assuming we draw Barcelona in the Quarter finals of the CL, what do we have now that we didn’t have last season? NOTHING. So, how can we hope for a different outcome? WE CAN’T. That is what really annoys me about what Arsenal have become: A PREDICTABLY SOFT-TOUCH TEAM. We face Manchester City next week and already we know we would require a miracle to get anything out of that match (thankfully, the same applies to most teams in the Premiership this season and I expect Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea to drop several more points in unexpected fixtures). I don’t agree with blaming any particular person for our dilemma; be it Wenger or Gazidis, this is a problem that Arsenal as a club needs to work together to deal with. Someone needs to tell us what the long-term plan is, because - at this point - I can’t seem to see any. I don’t see players coming in during January to fill the obvious areas of weakness, and I don’t see any preparations in place to ensure that: we thought they had a game plan last summer, but it turned out to be a deadline day capture of Benayoun!
