Graham Perry
Dear Fellow Gunners
Over the years I have corresponded with – but never met – an Arsenal Fan, Victor Thompson.
We have always got on well even though we have different views about AW
Here follows a piece by Victor and a response by me
This exchange shows that you can have quite different views about AW and yet never descend into insult, rudeness, vulgarity or personal contempt.
I disagree with Victor and Victor disagrees with me
But we have a very healthy respect for each other which means that never for a moment have we been anything other than warm, pleasant and respectful to each other
Good Luck To All Of Us Today
From: Victor Thompson
Sent: 11 April 2017 15:14
To: Graham Perry
Subject: Arsenal
Hi Graham,
I have recently been corresponding with Bam whom you may have noted on twitter. I also correspond with Alex Beguzin and some other Wenger supporters. If you read Alex`s articles on Gunnerstown, you will have noted that he has moved from being an avid Arsenal fan to moving slowly to a troubled but loyal supporter. Now he is still a committed Arsenal supporter but one who wants Arsene out.
I watched the Crystal Palace match in despair and I saw all the faults which have become a hallmark of our performances. The players knew that they were better than their opponents and they started by passing the ball around between their defenders as if to show that they could pass better than Palace and that it would engender them with confidence. As we know now, Allardyce had prepared them for just that and he said in his post match interview that Bellerin and Monreal would play as wingers and when they attacked, Mustafi and Gabriel would be left exposed. That is exactly what happened and in the first 7 minutes. Townsend scored a goal when a panicky defence failed to clear the ball out of the goal mouth. Hennessy in goal aimed long balls to Benteke and they had a further two reasonable attempts at goal whereas we did not get a decent shot in for the entire half. It looked as if our players had succumbed to panic and accepted that they were second best, Walcott later said that they knew from the outset, that "Palace wanted it more than we did".
The result was that Palace grew in confidence and our players lost what little they had. In fairness to the fans although the Palace fans out sung and out chanted them, they did make themselves heard and got behind the team. The goal shattered must of that support and the vocals were quieter at first but when the abject humiliation continued it became a mumbling of discontent, increasing to a roar of anger and frustration. I agree with you that it does not help the players to jeer and shout at them, but in reality, fans pay good money to watch their team put in a performance worthy of the shirt and had they been doing that recently, we would not have been in the position we are in now.
The malaise which is debilitating this club has been boiling for at least 5 years as the players we were used to gradually left and were replaced by poor imitations. Wenger was able to continue with reasonable performances which kept us as a top 4 club even during austerity years when we were building our stadium. As long as the team responded to the challenge the fans did not complain. However the tipping point was when Gazidis announced that the days of Arsenal being a selling club were over and Wenger said that we could compete with the elite clubs. The fans took them at their word but we did not improve. We benefitted in the last 2 years from the implosion of Chelsea, City, and Utd all at the same time and due to an unexplainable collapse by Spurs in the last two matches last season we managed to finish 2nd, which was one better than the previous year. Despite those achievements, there were many disappointments and inexplicable defeats to the likes of Swansea and Watford, and of course, we still could not beat Chelsea, Utd and City.
This season, we began with our 2 world class players, Ozil and Sanchez, together with the addition of Xhaka who was one of the stars of the Euros. Elneny had made a satisfactory debut last year, so there was every reason to be optimistic. With the further addition of Mustafi, as a last minute acquisition, Wenger told us that this was the best squad he had had since the Invincibles.
Were we ever to be so disappointed? The beautiful football which had been Wenger`s trademark has long since deserted us and we have developed a style of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow, forwards and backwards, at a speed hardly above walking speed. That was another feature Allardyce had told his team to expect and it is something which every club in the league knows about now. We cannot defend and we cannot penetrate packed defences, the first because our full backs are absent and our midfield is engaged in the tippy tap football described above. The second because when we get to the 20 yard line, we play backwards and sideways and the other team is able to muster its defence.
In other words, the team has no plan, no shape, no tactics, no cohesion and no leader, on or off the pitch. The great teams we had included players who needed no coaching: Adams, Keown, Dixon, Sylva, Henry, Bergkamp etc could have played off the cuff with a style which made it look as if each wonderful move had been rehearsed and choreographed in advance. Vieira and Petit could even foul or bully opponents and make it look classy. Any one of them would have been a good captain but nowadays, KoscIelny is in that role, reluctantly because there was no one else. Walcott is our fall back now. That is why there is no cohesion on the field and nobody to rouse the team when they are under the cosh. There is no natural leader and that is a weakness that Wenger has not addressed for at least 8 years.
If you throw 999 pieces of a jigsaw onto the table, you can never complete it unless you have the one missing piece. Wenger is "The Professeur" whose task it is to find the missing piece. For 8 years it has eluded him and he does not see the weaknesses that other people do, amongst both the fans and the media. He is blinded by arrogance and stubbornness. If you wanted proof of that, then look no further than Sam Allardyce`s post match interview statement. He dismantled Wenger`s style and laid it out on the table in a succinct analysis of how to set up his team to beat Wenger. All his players had to do was follow the plan.
Graham, I consider you to be the perfect example of a decent loyal fan of Wenger`s and a man whose writings I enjoy. I was more interested in writing to you than I would have been to a fellow non-believer because I genuinely cannot understand how Wenger can still command loyalty from someone like you. The reasons I have set out above for my dissolution with Wenger are all empirical and they do not need any forensic investigation. One need only look to Wenger as the source.
Kind regards,
Victor Thompson”
From: Graham Perry
Sent: 19 April 2017 10:36
To: 'Victor Thompson'
Subject: Arsenal
Dear Victor
Thank you for your email of 11 April.
Often when declaring myself for Wenger I have not failed to record a sample of negatives.
I repeat them again
Was he lucky in that he inherited GG’s back four and their mentality
Yes he was but deserves credit for lengthening their careers
Persisting with poor signings – not over looking the good signings – Senderos, Denilson, Bendtner, Squillaci, Silvestre, Almunia
Balanced by Toure, Silvinho, Gallas, Fabregas, Arshavin (for a while) Ox, Theo and later Sanchez, Ozil – Jury still out on Xhaka and Mustafi
Predictable substitutions
Not necessarily wrong – each player knows he has 70 mins
