Bard
It looks increasingly like another title tilt is disappearing down the pan in all too familiar fashion. The debates about the club’s direction and the manager will inevitably begin to ramp up. The arguments, by and large, gets polarized. He’s either rubbish and should resign or he’s an unlucky genius and needs more time. There are other arguments but they are merely variations on either theme.
Whichever side of the fence you sit there is an uncomfortable truth that needs examining. If we ask a simple question, have the manager and the club done everything in their power to win the title over the last decade? The answer has to be an overwhelming no, they haven’t. Any number of reasons have been put forward to justify this state of affairs. The most popular with the club and some fans is that we haven’t had the money because we have had to pay off the stadium debt or we have been unlucky with decisions and injuries. The debate about these particular arguments is for another time. The uncomfortable truth that I want to focus on is that there is a flaw in Wenger’s psychological make up that conspires to undermine his best intentions. And for someone who is supposed to be so intelligent it’s frankly bizarre that he can’t see it or more worryingly he can see it and chooses to ignore it.
The flaw is that he often acts like an insecure teenager. It is a characteristic of teenagers that they stubbornly refuse to take notice of the achingly obvious. They are famous for digging their heels in and arguing black is white. When they become victims of their refusal to take account of the obvious they blame someone or something else. They do this largely because they are insecure. Their insecurity has to be protected at all costs. They hold onto their viewpoint with all the tenacity of a dog with a bone. To do otherwise leaves them prey to all manner of doubts. It’s my view that insecurity is the reason Wenger ignores the achingly obvious. Once he has nailed his colours to the mast he will not change tack even if it becomes clear that he is wrong. This characteristic more than any other factor has been responsible for our lack of success over the last decade.
For years it has been blindingly obvious to everyone who watches the club that we have needed a top class keeper. We haven’t had one since Jens left in 2008, that’s eight years ago. Since then we have had to endure a series of average keepers between the posts who have frequently undone our wonderful attacking play. To rub salt into the wound we have had to listen to Wenger defending the indefensible, ‘bigging’ up keepers who are patently average at best. Every manager makes mistakes - think of Ferguson’s purchase of Veron - but very few persist with the ‘mistake’ for as long as Wenger. We now have Cech and suddenly he announces without a hint of irony that no side can expect to win anything without a top class keeper. Really? Is lack of money a legitimate reason for never having bought one in the intervening years? To compound matters he knows what a top class keeper brings.
We have had some wonderful attacking midfielders over the years but defensively our midfield has been about as watertight as a string vest since Gilberto left in 2008. Again it was blindingly obvious we needed someone who would add some steel to the midfield and prevent us being brushed aside by more powerful and physical midfields. Coquelin’s arrival against Man City eight years later was seen by many as some sort of epiphany but the really serious question is why did he take so long to realize that Coquelin was just what we needed. Was lack of money really a good enough excuse to explain why we didn’t buy one or more worryingly did he know we needed one and stubbornly refuse to buy one?
And here we are in 2016. All and sundry have known that we have needed a top striker since RVP was sold in 2012. We have been blessed with some wonderful strikers in past seasons, from Wrighty, Anelka, TH14 to RVP so we know their importance. RVP almost single handedly got us into fourth spot not so long ago. No side can seriously aspire to winning anything without one. Giroud is a solid performer and a great trier but he is nowhere near top class. When we have spent £42m on one of the world’s most creative midfielders, it is incomprehensible that we don’t buy a striker capable of finishing off all the chances he creates. Yes a top striker costs north of £50m but we have the money. And what does one make of Wenger when he comes on to explain that we don’t need one because we have Danny Welbeck and Theo or even more bizarrely when he was arguing not long ago that we didn’t need to buy because we had Sanogo. These calls aren’t marginal or tactically complex; they are no brainers even to those who haven’t worked a day in football.
All the great managers have an autocratic streak. Clough, Paisley, Ferguson come to mind, but all were astute enough to recognize that they needed wise counsel not least to protect them from their own ‘blindness’. Clough relied on Taylor. Paisley used the infamous Anfield ‘bootroom’. Ferguson changed his number 2 at regular intervals. Wenger’s refusal to countenance the use of ‘wise counsel’ in the form of a properly effective number 2 has been a sign of weakness. He is clearly too insecure to risk being challenged. It is a footballing truism that all teams come to embody the values and characteristics of the manager. The Arsenal teams down the years have lots of admirable qualities but they have been undone by the same psychological insecurity that afflicts the manager. The uncomfortable truth is that over the years potential trophies and title challenges have gone begging, sacrificed on the altar of Wenger’s need to protect his insecurity.
