Kevin Whitcher
Where to begin? There is so much to say, and yet, it’s all been said before and since the end of Sunday’s 4-0 defeat, it’s been said again by so many.
In terms of the decision to give Arsène Wenger a further two years as manager, the chickens have come home to roost big time. And the worst thing is, given Stan Kroenke probably isn’t even aware of the results so far this season, the manager is not going anywhere, unless he sees the light and makes the decision to hand in a letter of resignation.
Wenger has always claimed what he does is for the best interests of the club he loves so much, rather than his bank balance, and that when he does finally depart he will leave the club in good shape. Yet he lacks the self awareness to realize that best thing he could do is to have handed over the reigns after the FA Cup Final victory (although history tells us that 2008-09 was the last time the club credibly challenged for either of the title or the Champions League, but the calamitous performances over two seasons when glory was within reach means the board would have been better calling time on Arsène then).
However, financially, the club have been growing in value, posting profit habitually, so there has been progress there. When football history is written, show us your medals has greater currency than balance sheets, but the priorities of Arsenal today are more to do with financial rude health than silverware. The FA Cups are good for PR, but meaningless money-wise, which is why Premier League position and Champions League qualification are the main target. The team selections reflect this.
And yet, this prioritization makes the last 15 months a bit of a mystery in terms of the club’s transfer and contract negotiation activity. Mustafi, an expensive centre-back, was apparently the third choice on Wenger’s shopping list for a central defender in 2016. Lucas Perez was purchased, looked good when we saw him, and yet – like Mustafi seems to be – is surplus to requirements only 12 months on. This summer’s window is not over, but for all the world, we are looking at a repeat of the 2011 supermarket sweep after the 8-2 humiliation at Old Trafford.
Interestingly, that was the Ox’s debut. And Sunday looks set to be his final appearance for the club. We’ve gone full circle. As for the situation with the player contracts, it’s farcical. There are players the manager has invested time and generous wages in, who have gone backwards, and who the club cannot sell because of the fat salary they are currently enjoying, which no-one else is going to come close to matching. So you have Carl Jenkinson on a £45k a week contract until 2020, who will spend the next three seasons on loan at various other clubs with Arsenal paying something like 75% of his wages.
As for the players he does want, they can’t wait to go. The Ox looks set to depart, the only question being where. Sanchez wants out, and a deal will probably be done before the end of Thursday. Nobody will pay what the club want for Ozil, who will in all probability coast through the season and take a free move to one of the Turkish clubs next summer, with a signing on fee compensating for the difference between the wages Arsenal are offering him and what his new team can afford.
The players know Wenger is a busted flush. They know he cannot coach them as well as others. Wenger’s tactics have become a standing joke in football, akin to the Queen Mother and her liking for gin, and his players are all too well aware of this when they meet up with team-mates on international duty. He cannot organize them and he cannot motivate them. He will not address the defensive side of the game through either his buying policy or his preparation for matches. So you have a situation where he has one defensive midfielder of any note – Coquelin – who he had previously decided was surplus to requirements only for an injury crisis to see him return to the club from Championship Charlton and enjoy a purple patch alongside Santi Cazorla to earn a new deal. Time has told us that Charlton was about his level. Yet, the manager has not purchased at least one player to improve the situation, preferring more creative options. My guess is he will now think about Jack Wilshere in this position, although he lacks the discipline to do it, and will most likely be injured again before too long.
The players effectively downed tools midway though last season. They were good enough to get a few results against lesser sides after the away defeats at Everton and Manchester City, masking their lack of genuine commitment, but things imploded in late January. After the Palace defeat which saw the club chairman leave early in disgust (and which should have signaled the sack), Wenger had the following fixtures in which he imitated runaway leaders Chelsea and played three at the back -
Middlesbrough away – 2-1 win v relegation fodder
Man City at Wembley – 2-1 win in extra time in committed performance
Leicester home – 1-0 win v team on the beach
Spurs away – 2-0 defeat
Manchester United home – 2-0 win v mix and match team who had other priorities
Southampton away – 2-0 win v team on the beach
Stoke City away – 4-1 win v team on the beach
Sunderland home – 2-0 win v relegation fodder
Everton home – 3-1 win v team on the beach
Chelsea at Wembley – 2-1 win in committed performance, albeit against 10 man team in party mode
Interesting to note that the two committed performances from the team were in matches where they saw a chance of silverware as a consequence. As for the league, they only met one side who were neither in the relegation zone or going through the motions – and lost badly (Spurs away could easily have been 4-0 as well).
Conclusion: In the Premier League, the players were playing with the same kind of commitment as we have seen since the start of this season. No sense of defensive responsibility, just gung ho Gunners out to express themselves and have a bit of a kickaround. Why? Because the manager has lost the players. If the team he had last season were not good enough to finish in his cherished top four, why not start the two men brought in to improve the situation at Anfield two days ago?
The unfortunate thing is that Wenger has no intention of falling on his sword and he is the man who will decide when his time is up. So things are going to get worse. A dictator who stays on too long, who doesn’t realize it’s time to let go of power. He’s an arrogant, stubborn man with zero humility and an excess of hubris, which is why I love watching him squirming post match (completely refusing to acknowledge any personal responsibility) after each successive defeat. He lost any right to sympathy years ago when he continued taking £8 million a year (plus bonuses reputedly around the £3.5 million a season mark) and yet refused to compromise his principles by sorting out his team to do the ugly stuff that is required by even the great teams (including his own Invincibles). Refresh my memory, what exactly are these Arsenal values of which he constantly refers to as an excuse for underachievement?
Aside from the Ox, Koscielny and Ramsey started in both the 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford and the 4-0 win at Anfield. But the main link between the two matches is the man who prepared the team for the two games. That’s your common denominator right there. There have been a good number of humiliating defeats between those two fixtures, and you can bet your bottom dollar there will be more this season.
I could write more, but I’ve had enough, and I suspect that goes for most of those reading this. There are still people who think Wenger can turn this around, but they are living in cloud cuckoo land, afraid of change. God alone knows why.
I’ll finish with some comms received after the game on Sunday.
Mike Preston: Arsene's playing post-senile total football. You play anyone you've got anywhere you fancy and then say you're not convinced by your central defence. Bizarre.
Adrian Wagenaar: No match report please – we all get the picture and most of us said 3 or 4 nil anyway. How about a nice tasteful headstone reading something like:
“Here lies the remains of Arsenal Football Club destroyed by greed, one man’s vanity and hubris and the most incompetent board that ever sat in the name of Arsenal in its 131 year history”
A resignation tonight would be a release for all of us.
Geoffrey Silman: The only sell out at the Emirates in the next few weeks will be the AGM.
Mike Preston: If anyone had any doubt, this Emperor has no clothes. The whole situation stretches credulity beyond any intelligible point. There's only one transfer we need before Thursday and that's of the manager.
Charlie Ashmore: I see you are taking an extra day to post your editorial. Is that to give you time to calm down?? I think you have said you are past angry before but f*** me if any Arsenal fan wasn't angry after that then it is difficult to see what would prompt anger.
Basic rule - play your best players in their best positions. Ox wants to leave so why the f*** are we accommodating him in a position he doesn't even want to play in???? It means weakening both wing back positions. Why play Xhaka when he has cost us a goal in every game so far with his casual passing and inability to retrieve the ball? Why play Ramsey and Ozil in the same team? They are different versions of the same player. Why drop our record signing who looks like he knows how to score goals? (I appreciate in saying that the player to give way would have been the one player who almost looked liked he gave a f*** - that the player in question is a Manc through and through is embarrassing.)
Liverpool could have had eight and part of me wishes they had got them.
Grrrrr...
