CanadaGooner
I’m not entirely sure what managers say to players in the dressing room these days or at the end of the season, but surely there has to be some form of performance review? Our players seem to have found this easy haven of excuses, where attention seems to focus on the manager at the end of the season and the players somehow get away with it.
We have four opportunities to win a trophy each season and there needs to be a strategy in place to secure at least one trophy each season. I look back at the last six seasons and it really is incredible to think Arsenal have gone so long without a single trophy. Surely, something needs to be said to these players? At the end of each season, Wenger has to carry the can, and although fans are quick to point out his mistakes and how he bought the wrong player(s), I find it really difficult to excuse the players, especially when you watch the replay of matches like this year’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham City.
A winning mentality can’t be taught on the training ground: we have a crop of players who feel very comfortable with winning nothing at the end of the season, while the manager has kept faith in a ‘youth shall grow’ policy that is indeed a very laudable approach to building/developing a team, but is very difficult to sustain in modern-day football, if the intent is indeed to end the season with some silverware. I think a three-year period is adequate to build a new team capable of winning trophies (as has been repeatedly demonstrated by Fergie). If nothing’s won after a three-year timespan, changes must be made. Some of the players must be offloaded and more experienced players added. That’s what we haven’t done efficiently in the past seven years, where we have held out for way too long in the hope that the group of players we have will be good enough to win something, and they have certainly had a few good chances
I was going through some articles and commentaries on Sky Sports today and must admit to a degree of satisfaction, reading some of the angry comments posted by Liverpool fans. I look at Liverpool FC and all I can see is the conclusive stupidity of a club who had it so good and decided to throw it all away. Benitez got to a League Cup final and then won the Champions League (something Arsenal’s been dreaming about for decades) but some of their fans felt he could do better. Several managers later, and after millions spent on players, they now wish they had Benitez, and a lot of the comments from Liverpool fans after their latest draw at home to a bottom-three club make say that they wish they had Benitez. Fortunately, at Arsenal we have a Board that will not be stupid enough to fire Wenger, but they should be ambitious enough to get Arsenal back on the right path by telling Wenger when to buy players and by funding such transactions. If Wenger refuses, then he should be set targets, which he must meet and, if he fails, he must be held accountable.
What the Premier League has clearly demonstrated in the past near-on 20 years is that consistency is the only key to sustained success. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Fergie and Manchester United have remained so successful over the years, even though they have also had to cope with some of the challenges faced by other clubs in the league: they spent millions when they had it, spent less when they didn’t, brought players through the ranks and when they had to buy experience they did (and sometimes in the shape of players over 33-years-old who came in and did the trick). Wenger could have been equally successful in his 15 years at Arsenal, but we have to acknowledge the fact that United didn’t have to build Old Trafford in that period and Arsenal has had to go from a 34,000-capacity stadium to a state-of-the-art 60,000-capacity stadium. Should we have mixed in economics with football to such an extent that success on the field had to be sacrificed so much? I don’t think so.
This season is not lost yet. It’s a shame we were eliminated from the Carling Cup, as I strongly believe that Arsenal’s way back to collecting trophies is to give our current group of players a taste for winning and they will want more, and the Carling Cup represents our most realistic chance of winning a trophy, sad as that may sound. However, with the way the top teams, with the exception of Man Utd, have been dropping points in recent weeks, if Wenger and the Board can rekindle their ambition and buy two or three more EXPERIENCED players in January (it’s never the best time to buy, but I’m sure there’s a handful of decent players available out there), we can still make a push for the Premiership, and the FA Cup should also present an opportunity for us to end this mindless drought.
It’s always interesting to read the news headlines: Chelsea dropped two points against Fulham and it was reported as follows: “Chelsea’s chances of winning the Premiership are further dented”, but when Arsenal had an identical draw at home against the same opposition, it was report as follows: “Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premiership are over”. Very interesting, isn’t it? It is, however, a little difficult not to see it from the media’s perspective, as we now have this unhealthy history of inability to mount an effective challenge. Let’s win our next four or five matches and see how the leading teams fare in that period. If only Wenger can revive our winning mentality and send out a team ready to respond to the challenges of winning trophies! If only……….
But trust me, fellow fans, this is no time even remotely to consider changing the manager, Wenger is still our best bet and, love him or hate him, we should all hope he’s less stubborn going forward and drops the isolated project-youth for a blend of youth and experience, sets targets for our players and gives them some clear direction and objectives: WIN A TROPHY this season and at least one trophy each season going forward. With the wages they get paid, I don’t think that’s asking too much of them!!!
