Graham Perry
Dear Fellow Gunners
In my last Arsenal Circular I relayed an exchange between Victor Thompson, an Arsenal fan with strong criticisms of AW, and my response. Today I take it a stage further. I am active on Twitter and have almost 3,000 followers – almost all are AFC fans but the noisier and the nastier responses come from quite vulgar and insulting anti AW fans. I am sure that there are some “nasties” among the pro AW fans as well. But as you know if you read my Arsenal Circular or follow the tweets @arsenalcircular there is a lot of misplaced venom on the Wenger issue. I always say “Reserve your hate and hostility for Racists and Fascists and not for people who merely take a different view on the current position at AFC”. But standards have changed due to the ease and freedom to comment on social media. Too many people abuse the new found freedom given to us by Twitter and other forms of communication to denigrate, insult, mock, humiliate people with whom they disagree. There is also a non-football point here – intolerance is growing and eats away at the proper functioning of free and democratic debate. Prediction - we will have big problems ahead when non-football issues grab the attention of Twitter users.
Back to AFC. I list a sample of anti-AW comments with my response in italics;-
DOES AW FAIL TO ANSWER FAN’S CRITICISMS?
Managers should engage with fans but they are not answerable to fans. Wenger is employed by the Board. He is accountable to the Board and has to answer to them for every reasonable football question they have. Wenger is not employed by the fans and he has no duty to answer each and every question that fans raise. That said Wenger has to make himself accountable but he never hides from the media; he answers every question they ask at the weekly press conference; he does not duck questions raised in post match interviews. Some questions he will treat with contempt if asked but that is his right – such questions being Are you a failure? Why has Sanchez not signed a new contract? But Wenger is not a missing manager or a contemptuous manager.
CAN AW STILL DETECT TALENT?
All AFC fans agree that Holding is a star in the making. Purchased for just £2m he has fans purring. We have confidence he will make it. He was signed just last summer. So Wenger, who has the final word on transfers, can still detect talent. Not every signing is a success. That is true of AFC and other clubs too. At least we have not given a free transfer to a player one year and then spent £80m to buy him back a couple of years later. With transfers some succeed and some fail. The jury is out on Chambers but there is a growing feeling that Gabriel is coming good. Sanogo seems not to be the right talent but Perez – when injury free – is the right talent. The issue that talent slips by has been given sharper focus by the THFC purchases of Kane and Alli and others. When Wenger came to the UK he had a virtual monopoly of French talent. Today is different and all clubs have an active scouting team. I do not know enough about our structure but I accept we would be happy to have the two THFC players in our squad. In answer to the question my view remains that Wenger can still detect talent but detecting and signing is a tough challenge. We’ll see what progress our new left back from Hednesford makes – was it £20,000? Watch this one.
NO TITLE IN 13 YEARS – SURELY HE IS FINISHED?
We last won the title in 2004. We have not challenged since 2004. It is quite right that the question should be asked and those of us who believe in Wenger should not avoid this difficult question. A number of points need to be made;- First, it is an inescapable fact that we have built a stadium and the funding turned us into a Club that sold stars rather than purchased stars. We could not pay the stars the sums their talent entitled them to seek, Other clubs stepped in with increased remuneration packages and we lost many players of talent. Few of the players actually admitted it was a money thing and sought to justify their departure on football grounds – eg RVP - but we know that a football career is of limited duration and players have a relatively few years to obtain the high rewards that are available. They left. Again Wenger lacked funds to buy big and pay big and we fell behind. In my view no blame – no blame at all – attaches to Wenger. On the contrary – and remember today is the day that Manchester United were relegated in 1974 to be followed in 1975 by THFC – it is a great achievement for Wenger to have kept us as a top four club throughout this period. Instead of being derided he should be praised as he is by many AFC fans. And remember that Liverpool have been 20 years without a title and THFC 56 years.
WE HAVE SUFFERED BIG DEFEATS – THE MANAGER SHOULD GO?
Defeats hurt and big defeats hurt big. 8-2 by United. 6-1 by CFC. Also defeats by Liverpool. Yes it is a humiliation that causes pain. I am not complacent when I say it happens. Chapman suffered the Cup defeats at Walsall still recalled by Arsenal critics. Also defeats by Northampton Town in 1958, by Blackburn Rovers and I think I recall a 7-1 defeat by Sunderland when they were a top team. But as you recall the defeats please also remember that under Wenger we have never flirted with mid-table anonymity or even relegation. Never. Being a top four team for 20 years needs to be recalled in the same breath as the defeats. Which other manager can boast of that record while recording some always speedily recalled defeats. Balance and fairness please. Let me mention the 10-2 BM score this season over two legs. The first leg was 5-1. No comment – it was a bad defeat. Maybe we should have switched to three at the back earlier in the season but some fans cheat when they add to the away score the second leg 5-1 defeat at home. Remember we were one up. We should have had a penalty. We then had a harsh penalty given against us and a consequent equaliser by BM and a red card for Kos. We needed to win. We had been playing well. We had just one alternative – attack. We did and got picked off. For me no criticism at all of the home second leg defeat. Those that cite it as evidence of decline are not being straight – in the same way they fail to identify or even mention the selling years within the 13 years.
NO TITLE SINCE WE BECAME A BUYING CLUB – SURELY HE IS FINISHED?
Wenger fans have to accept that expectations that we would again be in a position to challenge for top spot have been dashed. We have not challenged. We should have challenged but we haven’t. It has to be a negative and I accept that. My concern is his belief at the beginning of last season that the addition of just Cech was sufficient to make us title challengers. It clearly wasn’t and the combination of Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky in midfield fell far short of the necessary talent to win the League and last season with The Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Liverpool in disarray was our best chance to win. This year was always going to be harder but to be 18 points behind CFC (with one game in hand) is a bad negative and not a positive. So why do I say he is not “finished” – that he still has a Title within him – that he is still a winner. Is this sentiment? – an understandable human feeling for an a much liked manager? Yes there is some sentiment there. I, in common with many others, do have affection for Wenger but let me be unmistakeably clear that sentiment is not a justification for a clear football judgement that he remains the man to win a title for us. It isn’t and much as I revere AW sentiment can have no place in a decision.
The more appropriate question is whether he is still the man for the job if he has failed to win the title since we became a buying club. He has had funds. He has spent on Alexis, Oxil, Xhaka and Mustafi but we are still 18 points behind. Time to Go say the critics. No, say I, and here are my reasons;-
1. I do believe in him despite passing through a rocky period. He has made a significant change in the format of the team. His willingness to make a change is a big plus. He does not, as alleged by his critics, have his head in the sand. Three at the back with two wing backs has bought us three successive wins. We are not the finished article. We remain apprehensive as we fight a loss of confidence and adjust to a new formation but wins are wins. They matter as does the willingness to try a different formation
2. Mustafi started very well and then hit an uncertain patch. Not a hanging offence. It happens to all central defenders and especially in their first season. He will come back from injury and uncertainty with a strong desire to prove his long term worth. Xhaka is the reverse – started uncertainly but is growing in confidence. He, too, has more to offer. I see them as good signings with a long term contribution. Much will come from Holding.
3. Questions remain about Walcott, Ramsey and Coq. That is true of all teams – we all have different views about the make-up of the squad. Some recall Ramsey as the star midfielder of three year ago, others see him as a perennial under-achiever. But this is balanced by speculation as to new purchases and the appearance in the first team squad of youth players ready for their chance – Adelaide, Bielik, Willock. Progress is always a mix of buys and youth. I have no reason to believe that Wenger will not buy well. Theo has had a good season but – like Ozil – is insufficiently physical. There is no physical threat from either player. One maybe can be tolerated but not two. Another point – Theo’s comment after the Palace game that “they were more up for it than us” was wrong – even if it was right (which in my view it wasn’t) was it a mature, sensible thing to say or plain stupid?
For me AFC is something unique – something special. It is “tradition” in football terms. It does boast a great Community activity which is far more than few hospital visits to the children’s wards – important though they are. I do not want an Ancelotti or a Mourinho or a Hiddink – successful managers who offer themselves to the highest bidder. I want a manager that lives, breathes, eats AFC and I will extend the period of non-achievement for such a man to enable him to come again. Some argue that we can dispense with AW and hire this one or that one and we may become winners and I know that some fans – desperate for success and bragging rights (nothing wrong in that) – would go for that option in a flash. I am not there for two reasons;-
1. Football and AFC mean more to me that just a title. It is the long term community thing. It is the identification with the Club. It is the munitions workers in 1886. Wenger embraces that.
2. I believe Wenger can do it. He is not “all washed up”. He may be older than the other top six coaches but that should not count against him if he has the talent. We need to build on the tactical change. We need to finish strongly. If we miss out on the Champions League it will be a setback but not a disaster.
WHEN SHOULD HE STAND DOWN?
Two more years
LAST POINT
Anti-AW often say – “give me a footballing reason why he should stay”
I have thought about this but need the critics to suggest some reasons – I want to be sure I understand what you mean by the term “footballing reason” – tactics, formation, training?
Let me know
That is all from me.
In response I want from you, the reader, comment but not insult.
I want reasons but not one liners.
I want debate but not derision.
Take a leaf out of the exchange between Victor Thompson and myself.
Let’s be civil. Let’s acknowledge that we all spring from the same source.
Let’s have good football comment and not the vulgar abuse.
I have set out my reasoned views in response to a request from Monty.
Now that you have read it, it is your turn to respond with reasoned views.
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
All the best for Sunday
Regards
Graham
