CanadaGooner
This article is based on one proviso: I am assuming that we won’t mess up yet another cup final. So, with that in mind, read on….
We began this season knowing that with yet another summer transfer-market failure, and with no clear indication of how our defence would be better or how we would get more goals than last year, Arsenal fans were resigned to the expectation of another season where the chasing pack (for the fourth-place trophy) would again roll on their bellies, leaving Wenger to walk away with that coveted trophy yet again. However, at the final whistle of the first game of the season, most Arsenal fans (at least those who were there on the day, as we all walked home in disbelief and anger) felt this was definitely going to be the season in which we would fail to achieve a top-four finish. In came Mr. Rambo with other ideas, and he single-handedly transformed the season, and it looks like he might have just kept Wenger in his job.
When Rambo returned from his leg-break, most fans assumed he would become the next Eduardo, and in fact, some fans (myself included) showed exasperation last season when he simply couldn’t knock the ball into the net (even when it was empty and gaping). I can recall a few articles calling for Rambo’s head (along with that of Walcott, who showed some early promise prior to his contract extension being signed last season, and then returned to his dire performances right after; albeit, he had a good start to this season). Call Wenger what you may, he gets my credit for holding on to Rambo, and I have since published my personal unreserved apology to Rambo, midway through this season, after his heroics.
Every pundit in the land wrote Arsenal off, and they were right. I was one of many who felt this season could be a turning-point, especially after fan pressure forced Wenger to panic-spend £42m on a single player (something he would never have done, if his job wasn’t finally on the line), but it proved to be yet another ill-prepared season where we could still have maintained our challenge for the title by defeating every bottom club, while dropping points in spectacular fashion, at every top-five or six club. I don’t care how you win the league, as long as you win it. Alas, the good run against the lower-table clubs came to a predictable end and we dropped some very valuable points against Stoke and a few others, which effectively ended our title aspirations.
How would one sum this season up? If Chelsea and Liverpool end it without a single trophy, and Man Utd finish seventh, with Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League for the 17th consecutive season and winning a decent trophy (the FA Cup) for the first time in nine years (and the fifth time for Wenger, the joint-highest number won by the same manager), one would have to put this down as a very successful campaign indeed. No matter which side of the Wenger debate you're on, it is very simple: after nine barren years, I will take the FA or even Capital One Cup plus Champions League qualification each season for the next three or four years, provided we begin to sustain a true challenge for the CL and the Premiership title in each of them.
There is no point finishing in the top four if, in all honesty, you know you haven’t got a chance in hell of winning the Champions League (you only have to look at the performances of the teams in the last eight to know we are nowhere near winning that trophy). We are not that far away, but we will not get where the fans want the club to be until we begin to address the problems in the back, midfield and upfront: Flamini has been a revelation this season and, alongside Rambo, it’s been glaringly obvious that if we can have a Vieira/Flamini-type player in the middle, and a flair-player like Rambo behind or alongside an RvP-type scorer (without being too harsh on Giroud), we will be competing genuinely for every tournament we’re in. A player like Giroud should be kept for those tight games against the likes of Stoke and teams who are setup to frustrate our style of play, where the long balls and set-pieces can help us grind out a win.
I will not bother entering the Wenger debate as it is clearly immaterial. He is set to sign a two-year extension (and some even say he has already signed it, but the club is just keeping up with the pretence until after he’s won the FA Cup and they can then come out smiling). The fact of the matter is that we cannot hope to come out of the nine-year trophyless wilderness by winning everything in sight. We need our players to get used to winning trophies again, and this year will be a great start, with the FA Cup (hoping we don’t mess it up), and then they can hunger for more trophies. With sound investment, we could perhaps return to those early Wenger years of winning multiple trophies, and perhaps even mounting a genuine CL challenge (and not going in just for the money, as we have done for the past eight or so years since 2006).
In closing, a season that has delivered much more than I expected (certainly much more than most fans expected after the opening day debacle), and another massive opportunity for Arsenal to buy the three or four players we need this summer, to get back to being a trophy-chasing football club (and not just a business). But I’m sure we all know exactly what will happen this summer: words and philosophies, cheap players will be bought, nothing will be done about getting a Vieira/Flamini-type midfielder, and we won’t buy a recognized striker.
