Peter Le Beau
(Ed’s note – this piece was submitted on Wednesday, over 24 hours before the close of the transfer window)
It is a sign of complete disaffection when your first thought on a match day, often a game you are going to, is depression about what awaits you.
Last Sunday I awoke, shook off the bleariness of age, beer and decrepitude and realised with a sinking heart that this was the day we were going to suffer a chastening experience at Anfield. I claim no credit for predicting an Arsenal defeat and it certainly isn't a case of being wise after the event because I shared this premonition with my friends. As the kick-off got closer, my anxiety grew and was compounded when I saw the side we had picked. It is a sure sign of concern when you look at a line-up and can't work out what sort of tactics we were likely to adopt. Had I realised it was to offer token resistance and play like gutless amateurs I wouldn't have wasted time trying.
After the game I was profoundly depressed and that depression has grown, not diminished. I'm not a good loser and defeats take a while to get over as I get older but on Sunday I crossed a threshold that I should have probably crossed a long time ago. I hate the classifications of AKBs and WOBs but I would have described myself as someone who had largely lost faith in Wenger but wanted him to leave with dignity. I would not chant or march against him because I respected him too much. On Sunday I crossed the threshold where I no longer hold that view. I believe he has seriously run out of road. I write this, in the hope that it is conveyed to senior management and the board at Arsenal (no chance) but primarily because it might help fellow supporters to get their thoughts together after that utter debacle.
What has made the suffering worse has been the proximity to the transfer deadline, another event I utterly dread. At least we only have two transfer windows a year. I come from a business background where I work with companies on planning and strategy. When you've made a decision you try to implement that strategy. May I refer you to Wembley in May, just after the best Arsenal performance in recent years when we overcame Chelsea. Arsene Wenger who had still not committed his future to the club (officially) gave an interview to Dan Walker which I recorded and looked at, at leisure after returning from the match. In it he reiterated that 'if we can keep this team together and add two or three players' we had the potential to be champions. He has long emphasised that too much upheaval in the close season can adversely affect a team's chances. (Maybe like when we lost Henry and Fabregas and Nasri and Van Persie)
If someone running a business says to me that his core team is excellent and needs to be retained, and that we need two or three additions I would take him at his word. I would probably query why he had left himself so vulnerable to losing key personnel by not tying them down on contracts but I would get the basic message - probably three top additions and no key departures. That would be paramount in my planning considerations. If there was deadwood to be disposed of, I would do so as quickly and effectively as possible, certainly in good time to execute the key plans.
If we look at what this blissful summer has brought us we have made two promising acquisitions. We brought in Kolasinac, a seemingly smart move, as a left wing back, and one day we may even play him there. We also brought in Lacazette, a very exciting striker, who after a period of familiarisation, is likely to score many goals. He took two minutes to open his league account for us. Unfortunately these two have not really settled in yet as they haven't played much and thankfully for them weren't involved from the start at Anfield. Still those acquisitions looked like steps forward and with the end of the window to come, the 'poker game' that Arsene so relishes (and plays so badly), we could see progress.
The key thing was to hold onto our talent. A few weeks from the end of the window we were told that the priority was to thin out our squad as too many players can be hard to manage. That's the excuse then! Earlier we had been told we were also going to see the disappointment suffered in the early months of this year being a 'catalyst for change'. Well we've shuffled the deckchairs on the Titanic to provide seats for ALL the people who were there before and made some cosmetic changes with the conditioning of players and contracts (that's worked well so far).
Primarily, we have been looking at selling or loaning or goodness knows what, a vast horde of players. We have sold Szczesny, Toral, Gibbs (more on him later), Oxlade-Chamberlain, the first man to make a debut for Liverpool in an Arsenal shirt, and have been at some stage in negotiations to sell or loan (whatever the other team prefer) Sanchez, Gabriel, Mustafi, Wilshere, Chambers, Perez, Jenkinson, Bramall, Akpom, Nwakali, Crowley, Martinez, Elneny and Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Does that sound like a phased and careful implementation of a vision agreed in May, which is completely up in the air with just over a day of the window to go?
A lot of people have a degree of cynicism about our ability to negotiate. The case of Gibbs might illustrate why this is the case. Early in the window hard man Dick Law turned down a deal from West Brom to buy Gibbs for £10 million plus £2 million in add-ons. Today (as I write) Kieran has moved to the Hawthorns for £7 million. You literally couldn't make it up!
Can you imagine how they view us in the West Brom boardroom as they clutch their sides in paroxysms of uncontrollable laughter!? You might have wondered with these departures if we are going to replace them because, surely if we lose a lot of key players, don't we need some quality replacements - e.g. Mustafi signed for £35million last year (Lord knows why). Well the priority has to be trimming our sales and robustly fending off the nasty clubs who want to sign our best players... probably... unless they offer silly money. We will take the hit next summer. It will only cost us about £130 million and we can well afford that. Having disaffected players in an unsettled dressing room for a season won't do any harm at all.
What was that about preserving stability? When did we say that? You fans just don't realise how difficult it is to run a top football club. Of course we don't - some of the decisions that have been taken are far too sophisticated for us to understand. We pay men fortunes to implement our strategy because mere mortals wouldn't appreciate its subtlety and direction.
The complete and utter dog’s breakfast that we have witnessed over the last few weeks has pushed even ardent Wenger loyalists over the threshold. The interesting thing is what that threshold is? Is it just wanting Wenger out? I estimate 90% of Arsenal fans would like him to go at the present time. I always wanted him to go stylishly, with applause ringing in his ears, say after a great Cup win at Wembley in May. That would have been a perfect moment and it was an opportunity not seized by the club. That game was a marvellous experience but one of the most gigantic red herrings in the modern history of the club. Those of us who still fondly remember the two doubles and the Invincibles, Henry and Vieira and some wonderful moments are now finding it hard to relate to those triumphant moments. They are in another life and one that Wenger won't ever recapture again. Even May seems a lifetime away.
As Arsene plays his mediocre game of poker at transfer window time and leaves us as ever with a busted flush I'm not sure that I can contemplate the months ahead. These few months of total mismanagement (by not means a new phenomenon) have been biblical in terms of impact and monumental incompetence. A few months ago, still seething from Selhurst in April I declared a truce with Arsene, hoping he would see sense and walk at the best (only) positive moment, he was likely to enjoy again at Arsenal.
He didn't seize the day... he dropped it on the floor and it shattered in ribbons and now I couldn't care less what his parting is like and nor could many Arsenal fans. We are the only Premiership club that would tolerate this complete incompetence on and off the field, a management style that is years out of date and a business model that is completely unfit for purpose unless that purpose is to make Stan Kroenke richer and richer - and that won't last at the rate this club has declined over the summer. Wenger needs to be fired or saved from himself but who is there to do it?
Then maybe we can wake on match days without that dread feeling in our stomachs and the fear of the ridicule this club is suffering now.
