Kevin Whitcher
Occasionally, for variety, I like to reproduce the odd text message I am sent after a game. So here are a few – the first ones are all from Ian Henry…
Masterful, disciplined, organized, clinical, tactically astute. But not words applicable to Wenger’s teams.
Defensive shambles for 2nd and 3rd goals inexcusable at any level. Giroud so bad, Sanogo would have been better.
On the train home I met some fans who seriously believe our defence is sound, that Monaco were lucky and every other team in Europe would take Wenger tomorrow.
My response: So many brainwashed fools. One thing Wenger is good at is managing expectations
Ian H again: Shame we can’t play Expectations at the back
Mickey Cox: A dream draw that turned into a nightmare. No-one ever learns. Not to get off the bench once shows you everything about Wenger you need to know. Ozil and BFG past sell by date. Defence AWOL again. Leadership not there. So-called big players melted yet again. In my book a number 9 who gets six chances and comes up blank says it all.
Doktor Schneide: Apparently Gary Neville said Wenger will be very disappointed to see that performance tonight. Imagine how he’d feel if he had to pay to watch it.
One thing that will have hurt Arsene Wenger a little bit more about last night’s performance was that he was humiliated back in his native country. I wrote before the Leicester game that his stock is not that high back in France these days, but the nature of the defeat to a Monaco team some eleven points off the lead in Ligue Un would have sunk that to a new low.
Monaco’s wage bill, now they have been forced to straighten their finances due to Financial Fair Play and jettison Falcao and James Rodriguez, is a quarter that paid to Arsenal’s squad. So the the old ‘well we can’t possibly compete with the money the other team has chucked at their squad’ excuse isn’t going to wash, and as far as Europe is concerned, Diego Simeone and Jurgen Klopp have shown that money does not have to rule the day if you are tactically astute and able to motivate your players.
And what struck me last night was the lack of passion at Arsenal. In the stands, in the manager, and in the players (with the exception of maybe Alexis Sanchez and the Ox). The whole club is in desperate need of change and freshening up, something to break a long lasting malaise that is like the stench of something rancid left too long in the fridge. The stadium is like a morgue these days. This was a huge game in the season, yet you wouldn’t know it going by the atmosphere. It’s been gradually killed by the stasis that has been allowed to develop, and the increasing ticket prices changing the nature of the audience.
The phone-ins last night were asking for Diego Simeone. He might not be able to speak English, but his sheer passion would translate to Arsenal’s players, even through a translator, and the club could certainly afford him. Imagine what he could do with Arsenal’s budget. The crowd would pick up on the change in attitude in the team and respond.
What was most damning about last night was that Arsenal did not learn the lessons from an earlier match in the same competition this very season – at home to Anderlecht. Schoolboy defending once again ruled the day. Heads went.
And ultimately, the responsibility for that falls on the manager’s preparation of his team for this game. People saw this draw and were optimistic about the chances of progress, enjoying further luck in the draw and maybe somehow finally winning this long coveted trophy. However, this is a manager that has failed on 16 previous occasions, and critically, with much better teams. Arsene Wenger does not know how to prepare a team to get a result, and this is exposed time and again at the highest level. 2005-06 was of course the exception. Juventus and Real Madrid were beaten. But in the other 15 seasons, how many two legged victories can you recall when it really mattered? I can think of Inter Milan in the group stages of (I think) 2003-04. 5-4 on aggregate, not pure knockout, although Arsenal had to win away from home in the second match. Aside from that, I am struggling.
I went to an Arsenal Supporters Trust meeting on Monday night in which guest speaker, German journalist Raphael Honigstein, questioned whether Arsenal, as a club, really cared about winning (obviously not or the manager would have not been allowed eight years without a trophy). He questioned the way the club is structured in terms of the amount of power enjoyed by the manager and pointed out that it was a unique model amongst all the clubs of any significance in Europe. He added that it was an unhealthy situation where a manager appointed his own boss. It has to end, but the only man who can take that decision is Stan Kroenke. But Kroenke is happy with Wenger. The humiliation on the field is meaningless to him. People not turning up to sit in paid-for seats is meaningless to him. Even Champions League qualification is not that important to him because the Premier League pays so much and if the worst comes to the worst, a first team player can always be sold each summer to balance the books. The owner does not give two hoots about association football, so Wenger will remain until he has the balls to do the decent thing and resign or not renew. Until then, the malaise continues and every year, around this time, we hear the words ‘Groundhog Day’. It’s the supporting equivalent of Chinese Water Torture in perpetuity. However, some fans are perfectly happy with this state of affairs and wish the manager to continue. That means that what would force him out – open revolt in the stadium against Wenger – is not going to happen. It’s a shocking state of affairs that the club have let it reach the level where the disaffected either do not attend or end up fighting with Wenger loyalists in the stands. But Kroenke isn’t there to witness it, so it is meaningless to him.
Arsene Wenger is paid £8 million basic a year - £11 million including bonuses (presumably Champions League qualification). The fans are not getting their money’s worth. For that kind of money, you could get a manager who would bring back the excitement and passion to the stadium, have it rocking once again in big matches where his team actually turn up. I have long maintained that a different manager could get more out of this group of players simply through decent match preparation, motivation and organisation. And in-game tactics. Where were the in-game tactics last night when Arsenal took their foot off the pedal after a promising first ten minutes? Where was the suggestion that they try something different and play wider, rather than drifting in and playing into Monaco’s hands?
The bottom line is that the Monaco manager, who no-one had ever heard of, prepared for this game by analysing Arsenal’s strengths and weaknesses and doing a job on them. This with several key players absent and a 34 year old who wasn’t good enough for relegated Fulham last season as the pivot of their attack. Arsenal’s starting eleven featured nine full internationals, eight of whom were on duty at last summer’s World Cup Finals. All three subs were experienced international players. It’s shameful.
One wonders, with the visit to Old Trafford on Monday week, whether it will be a case of the club exiting two cups within a fortnight, as so often happens at this time of the year. We are all waiting for the great renaissance under Wenger. We were optimistic last season about a title challenge, blown away in atrocious displays at Liverpool and Chelsea, where defending was an afterthought. There was renewed optimism with the FA Cup win after a barren eight seasons, but hindsight has told us that Arsenal got lucky, and needed penalties to beat Wigan and extra time to beat Hull. They contrived to cock it up, but somehow managed to dig themselves out of self-inflicted holes caused by poor defending. Then, this season there was the masterful display at Manchester City. But it proved another in a long line of false dawns under this manager since the stadium move. We thought – hallelujah! – Arsene is willing to adapt his team’s approach to get results in the big games. But in the next big test – at Spurs – the players did not demonstrate the same diligence, in spite of taking the lead. And then, last night, in the competition that means everything to the manager, the lack of defensive awareness was criminal.
Sure, you could argue Arsenal were unlucky in front of goal, but there was no need to abandon any kind of shape and concede three. When gung ho started to take over, where was the guidance from the bench?
Looking around the stadium, the multifarious images of the current manager indicate he is some kind of deity, but he is a false god, and the sooner the Arsenal crowd as one accept it is time to move on and let the directors' box know it inside the stadium, the sooner this never-ending underachievement can be brought to an end. And if you still believe Arsene Wenger is the man to bring the glory days back to the club, take another look at the highlights of the matches against Anderlecht and Monaco at home this season and ask yourself this: Has a team without basic defensive organisation ever won the title in England or a European trophy?
