Bard
It is perhaps a measure of how desperate Arsenal fans are that a couple of terrific performances from Theo have given rise to a form of Theomania. Those with short memories seem to believe we now have our very own Arjen Robben. It’s easily forgotten that what we are seeing is familiar Theo territory, a world-beater one minute, a passenger the next and very little in between. But what has caught my eye is the change in his attitude. He has been charging up and down the right wing putting in a proper shift. He is supposed to have made more tackles in the last three games than in the last three seasons, which doesn’t say much for his defensive capabilities or his attitude this last three years but we will let that one go.
He appears to have had an epiphany in the close season, one would imagine as a result of realizing he was becoming surplus to requirements. He is alleged to have had a heart to heart with the boss, employed a personal trainer in the close season for extra training, and changed his attitude. This is all good news for Arsenal fans, not withstanding the fact that the rest of his game looks much the same to me, fairly hit or miss.
This welcome development raises some awkward and uncomfortable questions about the coaching at Arsenal most notably how come it has taken 10 years for Theo to realise that he needs to put in a proper shift? We are, after all, not talking about the complex transformation of a journeyman right back into a marauding goal scoring wide man. What we are watching is what every footballer bar perhaps Ronaldo and Messi should be doing every match. So what’s been going on?
Have Steve Bould and the boss been banging on about the need to put in a shift and get stuck in for the last 10 years and Theo has effectively been telling them to p*** off ? I doubt it very much as Arsenal only recently put him on humungous wages. Or has Wenger suggested that he needs to improve and left Theo to sort it out? Theo, not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, has taken 10 years to work out what he meant. If it is, then it is a hell of an expensive coaching technique. By my calculations Arsenal have shelled out in the region £40-£60m in wages and his transfer fee since 2006. I doubt this is the explanation. My guess is that no one has said anything and that Theo himself suddenly realized his career was rapidly going into freefall and he needed to do something about it quickly.
If the current coaching set up requires 10 years to instill basic qualities into a player then it might explain why Arsenal of all the top sides seem to be stuck in permanent groundhog day mode when it comes to tactical awareness and defensive discipline. And does it explain why Ramsey, a talented player, shows all the tactical discipline of a headless chicken, or the Ox seemingly unable to stop himself from messing up in the wrong areas of the field? And critically does it explain why we are largely unable to defeat the top sides, where tactical awareness, both individually and collectively plays a significant part in the outcome. While Theo’s epiphany is to be applauded it is a damning indictment of the Arsenal coaching set up that it has taken 10 years to sort out such basic requirements.
