Glenn Gould
I don’t know about you, but I felt we had lost the recent game with Chelsea long before we took to the pitch for the match. Not to say that the game was a formality, but barring an early Chelsea red card it was almost impossible to see Arsenal getting anything from the match at all.
This got me musing on how far expectations have fallen at Arsenal in the last few frustrating years and how I have found myself – against my will, it has to be said – actually wanting Arsenal to lose games to hurry up the process of dismantling the mess that is currently ensuring we continue our slide into mediocrity.
There isn’t room here to list Wenger’s failings. The promises, the excuses, the nonsense, the ‘fight until the end’ mentality which doesn’t actually exist apart from in his imagination. I lost faith in Wenger’s ability to get the best out of the situation at Arsenal quite a long time ago and it makes me angry to see fans accept the situation. The reason I gave up my season ticket in 2010 was that I’d grown completely disillusioned at watching Denilson play over 100 games for the club. ONE HUNDRED!
Fans who now tolerate Mikel Arteta pulling on an Arsenal shirt are being similarly short-changed. Forget the pretentious nonsense about his being a ‘midfield metronome.’ He’s an automaton trained to pass the ball to the nearest Arsenal shirt. Opposition players running towards him cause him to malfunction completely, and when I say he’s an upmarket Denilson I damn him with very, very, very faint praise.
I am at the stage where I will accept just about anyone as Arsenal manager as long as it’s not Arsène Wenger. Ok, I draw the line at Peter Reid, but only just. A friend texted me recently to say David Moyes is available and would guide us out of Europe completely. But United have acted quickly and decisively and now are making steady progress up the table, as we already begin bedding down in fourth.
I am an Arsenal fan. I have been since I went to my first game in 1988 at the age of 6, and I still am despite refusing to pay top dollar to watch players like Olivier Giroud attempt to play at the highest level. But I have no shame in wanting things to get worse if it means they get better. There is an alarming lack of ruthlessness about Arsenal’s attack which is mirrored in the stands, and I’d rather Arsenal failed in their season through a desperate and brave bid for glory than to hear endless sound-bites from nonentity footballers like Theo Walcott that ‘we’re ready to step up now.’
The expectation level at our club has fallen further every season – losing at Chelsea before we’d come out of the tunnel suggests it keeps falling. Fans who tolerate it and try to suggest that we should be careful what we wish for don’t seem to realise that the status quo is taking Arsenal backwards. We’re not stagnating – we’re getting further away from the top every year this man is allowed to spout his nonsense to a fawning media and (diminishing) public. I’ve stepped down from the front line and look forward to returning when there’s a new manager and a new culture of hunger and pride.
