The time has come for one of the unthinkable things in football to happen. Arsene Wenger should leave his post as Arsenal manager after almost 15 years in charge.
An absurd claim it may be but it is not one without substance.
A barren run of six trophyless years has seen Wenger’s side diminish from one of the most feared in the nation to a laughing stock. Once at the top of the food chain, they are now easy prey for those who have taken their place.
Wenger is so often a victim of his own philosophy. Aesthetically pleasing their football may be; there is a huge element of frustration about the countless occasions that Arsenal have tried to walk the ball into the net and paid the price for not turning their pressure and possession into goals. No plan B is evident when things do not go their way and there is certainly nothing to suggest that winning ugly is even at the nadir of the Arsenal agenda.
It seems as though ugly wins are not accepted and this remains one of Wenger’s greatest drawbacks. Whilst the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea are content to grind out a scrappy 1-0 win, Arsenal are not as it betrays everything they stand for. However, in a results-driven business, sacrifices must be made in order to gain success.
Blind faith keeps Wenger in a job but for how much longer?
In true Wenger fashion, the man they call ‘The Professor’, has failed to address the glaring shortcomings within the squad despite the world being able to see them – much like a lot of refereeing decisions that go in Arsenal’s favour. Refusal to spend money on quality players has seen Arsenal suffer yet still Wenger will deny that the problems exist.
There is no obvious leader within the Arsenal side. As good a player as Cesc Fabregas is, I do not consider him to be captain material. Long gone are the days of Patrick Vieira and Tony Adams, men who would drive the team on and set an example that the rest of the squad would follow.Wenger’s abstention from consummating the defensive frailty of his side has resulted in fruitless pursuits of trophies.
A defensive catastrophe cost them a chance of winning the Carling Cup at Wembley back in February whilst a catalogue of goalkeeping errors have failed to spark a reaction from Wenger in the form of a new goalkeeper. Lukasz Fabianski, Manuel Almunia and Wojiech Szczesny have all had their moments.
A top class goalkeeper is needed to provide stability and confidence at the back. An assured centre-back wouldn’t go amiss either – Gary Cahill and Christopher Samba are reportedly at the top of the wish-list. The money has always been there for such additions but Wenger has simply refused to spend it out of ignorance.
For years there has been an emphasis on youth at Arsenal which give Wenger excuses when questioned by the media. For six long years his players have been maturing and you could be forgiven for thinking that Arsene was a
The fact of the matter is that the squads he has had over the last six years haven’t been good enough yet Wenger still uses age as an excuse for failure. Half a dozen years is more than enough time, Arsene, and your mitigations are becoming more and more tedious every time you use them.
The supposed infallibility which Wenger has stems from past successes which have meant that fans have been reluctant to criticise him but over the last few seasons patience has worn thin and an increasing number have expressed their concern at what is going on at the Emirates and rightfully so.
Would such failure be tolerated at other clubs? A quick glance across
In reality, Arsene Wenger is in the same boat as Sir Alex Ferguson whereby his health will dictate the length of his reign. He will not be sacked; he will leave of his own accord but if Arsenal have any ambition they should replace him with a man who has a winning mentality because it is obvious to me that Wenger has lost his.
Sorry but I completely disagree. If we're now easy prey for those that have taken our place, ie. above us, then you'd think the top four table would show that. However, we're top of that particular table which wouldn't back up your claim. Not to mention our victory over Barcelona - how many teams can claim to have beaten them at full strength, full sharpness and top form?
ReplyDeleteWe've shown a plan B in some games, like Barcelona as I said. At 1-0 down and struggling, we brought on Bendtner and Arshavin to shift the impetus and our tactics. We came back soon after that - exactly the same happened at home to Everton.
The players are actually willing to win ugly - they've said so many, many times.
And it's not really in true Wenger fashion that he's failed to address our problems. If it was true Wenger fashion then he'd be known as a rubbish manager. But he's not; he's won many trophies, is our most successful manager ever, took us to three league titles, two doubles and one unbeaten league season, as well as other achievements along the way.
There are two types of captain - one who leads by motivating and inspiring his players like Adams and Vieira, or one who leads by example, and I think Fabregas is the second. He still motivates and inspires team-mates, but not as much through speech. His captaincy is vindicated by how he's the go-to guy, he's the one all the players look up to, he's been here longest (other than maybe Clichy). The slight drawback is that when he's off his game he can't lead by example, but when he's on his game he's an example and an inspiration to his team-mates.
In defence, it's not the personnel that's the problem. You seem to have forgotten that Laurent Koscielny handled Lionel Messi better than anyone has all season. Squillaci is nothing more than a back-up, Djourou has been first choice alongside Koscielny in the absence of Vermaelen.
Szczesny certainly provides the defence with confidence thanks to his own deep supply. Some would call it arrogance, but in football that's not necessarily a bad thing. He dominates in the air, and is a reliable shot stopper, consistently, unlike Almunia. Fabianski is also a good goalkeeper, he has great distrubution and it an unbelievably good shot stopper - his reactions are top class. He's less commanding in the air than Szczesny but will still offer competition for the number 1 spot.
Wenger hasn't refused to spend money out of ignorance - more often than not he's not had any. We moved stadiums just five years ago, and we're expected to splash out £40 million at least every summer regardless. Other times he's tried to go out and spend but had few options - Pepe Reina was one of the few viable options for a goalkeeper and Wenger's £20 million bid was turned down. Fact.
You use Chelsea as an example as to why Wenger should be sacked when in fact, their shoddy excuse for a club does the complete opposite. Each manager is undermined and not given any time at all. Another example would be Newcastle - they didn't give any manager time to sort things out and ended up relegated because of it.
Another example I'll use is Ferguson. I remember a couple of times when he was near the sack, particularly when they failed to get out of the group stages of the Champions League (when was the last time we did that under Wenger?) yet United stuck with him and look where they are now - better off for it.
Everybody underestimates how hard it is to qualify for the Champions League every single year, especially on the shoe-string budget Wenger has at his disposal. For ages he's been forced to sell his best players to break even and this seems to be the summer where that stops. Then we'll see how well we do, with our squad intact still.
Sorry if I came across harsh/scathing, it's just how I feel.