Kevin Whitcher
Yesterday’s result didn’t particularly bother me. One of the chants of the protest marches before the Bayern and Lincoln matches was “Arsene Wenger, You’re Killing Our Club”. That’s a bit over the top, but one thing that is certain is that, for many, the manager has killed enthusiasm about the team. Many feel we are just marking time now until we can all move on, with the best case scenario being a new manager this summer.
I have to admit that finishing in the top four is pretty meaningless to me at the moment, unless it was confirmed that Arsene is offski. Because Arsenal in the Champions League is like a hamster on a wheel. Not going anywhere in the competition itself, so what’s the point in being in it? The extra £50 million? So what? Arsene would either hoard it in the bank or spend it and get the same results he has been doing for the last ten years. Champions League money brought Ozil and Sanchez – in tandem for three seasons. Arsenal still failed to mount a title challenge or get past the last 16.
What about the proud record of qualifying for the CL for 20 straight years? So what? You don’t get a trophy for that. Sure, it’s great for the balance books and Arsenal’s place in the Deloitte’s Football Money League table, but do these things matter to a supporter? Chelsea have not made the Champions League every season since Arsenal moved to the Emirates. However, they have won it once as well as two Premier League titles (soon to be three), four FA Cups, one Europa League and two League Cups. They have also been through nine different individual managers (two of them doing two stints) in that time. Would you prefer that to Arsenal’s record under Wenger since 2006? I know I would.
Still, once one accepts not caring about the result, yesterday was hugely entertaining. The planes for one. Embarrassing, many called it. Where’s your sense of fun? The football doesn’t matter at the moment. It was like the Battle of Britain up there and the Twitter memes made me chuckle. The irony was that the planes were booked through the same company (and for all I know might have been flown by the same pilot) and once news of the crowdfunding plan to raise funds for a #NoNewContract banner to hit the skies became known, it seems that a pro-Wenger banner was arranged to counter it. I have been informed that the booking was apparently paid for by someone in the far east, although the organisers of the #NoNewContract banner suspect that the club’s head of PR, Mark Gonella might have actually been the one who instigated it (which definitely suggests AW will be staying on, otherwise what point?). The protestors’ banner was flown pre-match, but it had as much media coverage as the Trust Arsene version flown during the first half. (Update – the word now is that the banner was paid for by Jardine_Matheson or in other words the Keswicks. How embarrassing. The chairman getting his relatives to hire a plane countering the supporters' views. Looks like they forgot to take care of a confidentiality agreement when hiring the plane. How un-Arsenal like. So looks like Arsene’s staying then. Ramp up the protests guys!)
The two fly pasts beautifully symbolized the current divide in the club’s fan base between those who want Wenger to remain (albeit a dwindling number) and those who are desperate for change and have got to the stage where they need to make the board aware of their unhappiness in more public ways than sounding off on social media. There are of course a large number of people in the middle ground that want change yet cannot bring themselves to target Arsene Wenger, but unfortunately, hopes for such a dignified end to his dictatorial reign are now long gone. The media aren’t interested in a painless goodbye.
The thing is, the longer it goes on, the worse it will get. The manager’s teasing words about having made his decision but not telling us what it is are just so “It’s all about me”, and reflected on what Arsenal have become now. It’s not a football club at the moment, it’s a mouse that fat cat Arsene is toying with, exhausting the thing as it tries to get away to the extent that it doesn’t know what to do. Ultimately, the board of directors are to blame for this situation, but Wenger is very much a part of the problem and, initially, the easiest thing to change.
There are reports coming out that the extension will now be for one year only – a compromise on the part of the manager. The same report also suggests that Massimiliano Allegri has agreed to take over at Arsenal if Wenger does go this summer. It’s an opportunity too good to pass up if that is true, but one fears it might become another lost opportunity. Who knows, perhaps if Wenger is going, he knows the news from Italy will leak out so he needs to go public before long.
However, if there is to be another year of Arsene, what’s the point? He will lose his two star players this summer. What this indicates to me is that he will use the justification of the club needing a succession plan to indulge himself for one more year in the ridiculous belief that he has the ability to manage a team to one of the two big prizes he has always prioritized. One reason he might actually go is if they didn’t make the top four, as that would leave him no chance of winning the Champions League next season.
Let’s just take the game yesterday as an example of why Arsene can no longer cut it. In theory, West Brom should have been the perfect team to play. Having reached the 40 point mark, in recent games the Baggies’ players have been in ‘on the beach’ mode and easy to defeat. Pre-match, Wenger identified the likely danger of the opposition – set piece goals. Good work. So what happens next? Presumably lots of practice during the week to counter this particular threat? Looking at the first and third goals, it’s difficult to envisage much was done. Conclusion: Arsene either does not prepare his team for the specific challenges they will face from different opponents, or he tries to but fails miserably. Either way, the consequence is the same. Falling short in too many matches. That Arsenal only mustered two shots on target in the entire game is a damning statistic. Never mind 80% possession or whatever it was. This was West Brom, not Bayern Munich. Currently, Arsenal only seem comfortable facing non-League opposition.
The reality is that he has lost the players. I don’t know how much he could ever really motivate them, but he certainly can’t now. This is a consequence of the comfort bubble he has created, the ‘Colney Creche’ phenomenon as it has been labelled by Myles Palmer. At the end of the game in spite of a large number of protest banners going up, the players came over to the away section and stayed a fair while. They know he’s a busted flush and have zero respect, for all the lip service. They probably want change as much as the supporters.
The writing has been on the wall since 2008. Great team, but not enough football intelligence. At least the football then was entertaining. Now, it is largely plodding and predictable. Lots of possession, but little impact. How I would love to see Diego Simeone get hold of players like Ramsey, Walcott and the Ox and teach them about the importance of attitude and commitment in winning football matches. They wouldn’t know what had hit them. “We’d jump off a bridge for him,” said Atletico’s Tiago of his manager in 2014. That’s passion in your squad. Not the damp squib that is Arsenal 2017, with players on the bench smirking at the manager’s incompetence.
Anyway, back to the entertainment and the planes. It was hilarious that after the “In Arsene We Trust: Respect AW” banner was flown with the scores at 1-1, the team collapsed. Banners appeared in the away end during the game and some anti-Wenger chants got going.
I was pessimistic about the club’s second half of the season after the defeats at Everton and Manchester City before Christmas. Then, I identified that there were a number of tricky away trips that might prove the Gunners’ undoing – Chelsea, Liverpool, Southampton, Spurs and Stoke. I didn’t, at that stage, feel too many concerns about a trip to West Brom. Right now, you wouldn’t feel too confident about Arsenal getting a result anywhere. If you discount matches against non league opposition, Arsenal have lost six of their last seven fixtures. If the board needed any further convincing that this is only going one way, there it is.
It could have been so different. If Wenger had come out after the 5-1 defeat in Germany which made progress into the last eight in Europe a pipe dream and said – “I hold my hands up, I have taken this club as far as I am able to, I will see out my contract and let the club get someone else in,” he would have garnered great respect for his honesty and humility. Even more so if he’d resigned there and then, but that was never going to happen. Even so, confirmation that this would be his final season would have united and galvanized the supporters and I believe the players. Perhaps he could have even allowed Steve Bould to do some work on the training pitch, like teaching players how to block runs at corners, maybe?
No dignified exit is possible now. Whenever Arsene goes, it is going to be ugly. You think this team can win the FA Cup? It’s a very long shot. Possible, but it needs Manchester City to have an off day in attack and for Wenger to outwit (one assumes) Antonio Conte. That’s an unlikely double (and just imagine Wenger’s stock if Arsenal made it to a final and lost to Spurs!). Top four is certainly still possible on paper, but with three of the current top six still to play, as well as Southampton, Stoke and Everton, and even a resurgent Leicester… well, we are relying on a collapse from one of Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester City, as well as hoping Man United don’t get their act together.
Once you give up on the Gunners’ chances and just take a step back it’s actually been a very enjoyable Premier League season with all the character managers and some great players. And some of Arsenal’s calamitous performances and the circus around Wenger have contributed to that. I may not care anymore about the club, but that will change when something at Arsenal changes and the enthusiasm will return. Until then, it’s soap opera. A shame really, as the three seasons of Alexis and four of Ozil should have given us more. But it wasn’t to be.
Wenger might try the one year rolling contract stunt with the fantasy of continuing until he wins something and going out with an ‘I told you so’ expression, but if you think the atmosphere around the club is bad now, just wait until next season’s collapse if Arsene is still overseeing things. Already predictable are the banks of empty seats at some of the remaining home matches this season. It may even be worth targeting a particular TV game for season ticket holders who want to send the board a message about the need to freshen things up to boycott.
I was watching the movie ‘LA Confidential’ on Friday night. There’s a scene where the detective played by Russell Crowe is at the house of the mother of a murdered woman, and there is a foul smell coming from somewhere. It has built up over time and the mother does not know what has caused it. Crowe investigates and finds a rotting body in the cellar. As I was watching, for some reason Arsene Wenger came to mind…
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