Hi Myles,
I don’t always agree with what you say but enjoy your articles as a refreshing and original change to the same old “Arsene Knows Brigade†or “Get Wenger Out†articles in all the other blogs, the fictitious transfer gossip we see in the press or the propaganda that the club feed us.
I don’t think the volume of the PA is cynically totalitarian, as you suggest, but I agree that calling out the players’ names is demeaning to the fans.
But who are the fans these days?
I had a season ticket at Highbury for 15 years before moving to the Emirates and have for the past 3 years been sitting next to a guy who every week brings his 2 kids both under 8 years of age. They spend the whole time eating the overpriced and inedible food, fidgeting and asking banal questions. But I can accept this as they are children and don’t know any better.
But on Saturday, before the game, as the PA announced the anniversary of the death of Rocky and the video footage on the big screens, the father turned round and asked us who this Arsenal legend was and how did he die.
I must have seen about 100 articles posted on the web in the last 2 weeks about Rocky and the 10 year anniversary of his sad passing. How can this so-called fan not even know who he is?
This I cannot accept.
Is it any wonder the team appear to play better away from home in front of the real fans instead of the fickle boo boys at the Emirates?
How many empty seats do we see on mid week Champions League Group Stage evening games, as well as 10 minutes either side of half time, and before the end of every game as people walk out to avoid the rush for the food stands, toilets or trains?
But these are the people who are paying the highest prices in world football to finance the stadium debt, so the club will continue to extort them and feed them this Americanised version of what English football has become on the red side of North London (and before anyone thinks I would rather go and sit with a bunch of Neanderthals at White Hart Lane, that is not what I am saying, I am just disappointingly resigned to the stale corporate atmosphere at the Emirates).
Whilst the stadium is a fantastic arena for modern football, I was more than happy with Highbury.
I loved it when the giants of Europe were squeezed into our small unique fortress of a stadium behind a row of terraced houses and forced to play on a narrow pitch.
But Wenger believed that we needed a new home to compete with the top clubs and it was a remarkable feat to find somewhere ½ a mile away. I can accept that we needed to move but this was so that we could compete in the transfer market. I also accept that this would take 5 or 6 years of careful transfer dealings after which time we would see the fruits of our patience.
However, it doesn\’t look like we will ever see a return on our investment the way things are going and I don\’t see any improvement over the last 5 years.
We might finish second in the league (even before the Blackburn game I could not see us winning the title when we have to go to Stoke and Spurs and play United at home) which we will be told is an improvement on last year and an achievement in itself as everyone thought we wouldn\’t stay in the top 4.
But that is only because Chelsea had an unexpected poor run after Ray Wilkins was sacked and Man City are only now starting to gel as a team.
I think Wenger has done a magnificent job keeping us in the top 4 all this time with the players and resources at his disposal.
It is frustrating that had he signed one or two necessary and glaringly obvious signings during that time, we might have won something. We will never know what goes on behind closed doors; whether it is Wenger being too careful with the club’s money treating it as his own, or whether the board are using him as a buffer between them and the fans by announcing that there is money for him to spend but secretly telling him not to spend it.
Peter Hill-Wood\’s recent comments – that we were 2nd in the league, in the final of the Carling Cup and still in 4 competitions, and therefore why would we need to buy any players – suggest that it is the latter.
Wenger is an intelligent man and I don\’t think he believes everything he tells us. He clearly knows we are thin on cover in defence and in goal.
According to Bob Wilson he offered a lot of money for Pepe Reina and apparently he was £500,000 short of bringing in Xabi Alonso as an experienced midfielder to take some of the pressure off of Fabregas.
Can you honestly tell me that he was not prepared to offer that little extra to get the deals done and that it wasn’t the board keeping a tight reign on his purse strings?
However, I don\’t believe that the lack of quality signings is the only reason for our lack of success, and for whatever reason (be it the board or Wenger), there are too many factors with this club that I am not happy about. These are causing me to seriously consider whether I will renew my season ticket next year.
I have set them out below:
1. There is no captain or leader on the pitch.
Appointing Fabregas to keep him at the club is not the answer. Who next? Nasri, Wilshire…
2. There is a lack of tactical awareness or ability to change or react to a game with insightful substitutions.
Does Wenger ever look at the opposition and think there is a particular player or aspect of their game that we need to address? E.g. Rory Delap\’s long throw-ins or Gareth Bale\’s pace. Any team who does their homework and work hard for each other knows how to stifle us and we have no clue how to get around that.
3. It is a myth that we play pretty football.
On our day against weak opposition, we are clinical, incisive and fast and will score 5 goals. But too many games are played at a slow tempo.
4. Do we have a defensive coach?
What happened to Martin Keown? We got to the Champions League final the one season he worked with our defence) or even practice defending in training? Pat Rice is a nice guy but what does he offer? Surely there is a place for Steve Bould to be promoted from within to accompany them on the bench and assist with tactical decisions and substitutions.
5. What is the point of Eboue?
Why don\’t any of the other players tell him to piss off when he comes on the pitch hugging and kissing them after they\’ve drawn 0-0 at home to Blackburn? Would Tony Adams or Roy Keane stand for that nonsense? Even Wenger has realised that he is only in the squad as cover for Sagna and he will never play otherwise.
6. Man City, Chelsea and Man United will all spend big money this summer rebuilding or adding to their squads.
How long before Spurs buy their way into the top 4? We need to clear out Rosicky, Denilson, Eboue, Diaby, Almunia, Bendtner and Clichy this summer. Why are we sticking with players who have gone backwards? We will never get rid of them and blitz the transfer window with quality replacements. Instead we will be placated with cheap French players who have never played at the highest level.
7. RVP, Theo, Diaby, Gibbs and now Fabregas are always injured. What is going on with our medical staff?
8. Fundamentally the players do not have a winning mentality.
United have an inbred hunger and desire to win as is apparent from their results this season.
They are not the best team in the league but know what it takes. Wenger used to sign proven winners – Overmars, Kanu, Pires, Wiltord, Henry had all won major trophies before joining us. Surely there is a place in the squad for Pires or Gilberto to give some guidance to our young players in the big games that we consistently lose as Giggs and Scholes do at United.
It is also unacceptable that the players turned up to the Carling Cup final listening to iPods and wearing tracksuits, as if it was any other game instead of wearing a suit and treating the occasion with the respect that a cup final deserves.
9. The Emirates fans (see above).
10. Players being played out of position.
11. Why are all our young players out on loan at the tail end of the season when we know our squad will be thin on players due to injuries?
Is it to keep the wage bill down? Are you telling me that Lansbury and JET are worse than Denilson or Chamakh?
12. What is Stan Kroenke\’s agenda?
Is he just trying to buy up the shares on the cheap, make a profit and move on? I thought things would change when Ivan Gazidis came in as it would mean Wenger had someone to answer to but apparently not. I\’m not saying the Russian is the answer but I suspect we would see real changes if he were to take over.
13. How many games have I actually enjoyed this season? 2 – Chelsea and Barcelona.
That is it.
How many players do I enjoy watching? 3 – Wilshire, Nasri and Sagna.
Not even Fabregas does it for me any more and I suspect his heart is no longer in it. I don’t blame him. I would also lose interest if I had to play in a team with Almunia. It is insulting to our top players that they should be subjected to players like him and Eboue.
I appreciate that none of these points are original but an accumulation of factors that have all contributed to our lack of trophies, and my questioning whether to continue to give up my valuable free time going to see what I now consider to be an embarrassment.
It is no coincidence that our stagnation has occurred since David Dein left. He was a visionary football man who loved the club and knew what it took to move AFC to the next level.
There needs to be a radical shift in approach by the board and the management team or we will continue to remain trophyless, and it is only a matter of time before we slip out of the top 4 as more foreign investors come in and buy their way to success.