From Ben Waters : They tell us this team is maturing… Act like it!
Hi Myles,
Prior to every big game, and after every not-so-shocking loss, Wenger reminds us that this team is maturing now and shows great ‘mental strength’…
Then why is it when I browse through the news on Arsenal.com, as well as other more up to date websites, that I often have to put up with stories about how shattered our players are, and how we the supporters, the team, and the club need to support the players so that they can perform?
I’ve been noticing these kind of stories more and more lately. There was one after every goalkeeping howler, and as I write this there is one about Koscielny on Arsenal.com. I’m sure there would be more if I cared to search.
Koscielny is 25 years old, a grown man! So are Fabianski and Almunia!
If our players were mature and had mental strength, we wouldn’t publish stories depicting them as needy, uncertain, unconfident, incompetent ‘professionals’. It’s always the same old story… We lack winners, players with the personality, self-belief, and ability to drive this team.
On the bright side, I thought young Jack was brilliant against Birmingham.
He seemed the only player desperate to win in the dying minutes of the Carling Cup. He shows more talent, grit and determination at 19 than most of our players ever will.
Love your work, Myles.
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Reply in haste :
Man, you’re very kind – my work is full of typos and missing words and factual errors and gross misjudgments.
But it also has some original insights, some colourful lines.
You’re right about Jack. He was the best player on the pitch last Sunday.
He’s started more games for Arsenal than any other player this season and it’s obvious that Arsenal need five more Jacks. Vermaelen is one of them, if he ever comes back as good as he was. How many games have Wilshere and Vermaelen played together?
Right now, I do what I can. I’m busier than I’ve ever been and I can’t do 14-hour days like I used to do 12 years ago and I can’t do ANR after midnight any more and I wish I could do more and I wish I could do better.
When you talk about mental strength, you remind me of one of my readers. I haven’t heard from him for a while. He doesn’t use his real name.
His email name is arsenewengermentalstrength.
I have no way of knowing whether he writes to his mates as arsenwengermentalstrength.
I’m very lucky to have thousands of educated readers like you. I do my best for you and for the guy who wrote to me 10 years ago and said, “Thank you for giving me something I can’t get anywhere else.”
That was then. I hope he’s still reading ANR.
Mainly, I know I’m not as good as I was. I’m a bit over the hill. And I don’t have enough time. Is it Friday already? Is it March 4 already?
I could write 2,000 words every day comparing Arsenal-2011 with Man United-2011 but I don’t have time, so I’ll just write one line :
Arsenal have a stronger midfield but United have a stronger culture.
My Dad, a senior production engineer at British Aerospace, used to say, “When the good Lord made time, he made plenty of it.”
He also believed in targets. He said, “He who aims at nothing has a very good chance of hitting it.”
Dad said those things in the Sixties and there was more time then.
We had two black and white TV channels and The Daily Express and The Observer on Sundays, so we could read Hugh McIlvanney and Michael Frayn.
Life was simpler in the Sixties because every football match was on a Saturday, except AC Milan v Benfica at Wembley, which was on a Wednesday afternoon.
I had to bunk off school to be there.
The old stadium wasn’t full.