From Alex Marc : The burden of proof, the value of making a “splash”
Dear Myles,
It is that time of the year, every 2 years with no football tournament to “chew on”!
That leaves us with the transfer window, and summer plans.
Now because summer plans are mostly dedicated to our kids, they are made well in advance, to help them learn, develop and enjoy…so I will be going back with my son for a week a ski racing on the glacier of Les 2 Alpes.
The rest of the holidays is lined-up with the rest of the family…so what is left to surprise us really is that damned transfer window:
-is Wenger going to be brought back to reason? By whom?
-is he writing the final chapter of the most unique self-destruction in football history?
-is Fabregas eventually going to crack under the Barca pressure?
How long will he remain the polite and well-behaved young man who won’t ever hurt the club who raised him? Or how long will he tolerate leading a bunch of average overpaid children on the pitch and make it sound like a title challenge?
How resolved is Arsenal to keep him? To sell him at the right price? What is the right price for him if Barca is prepared to pay £40m for the Chilean winger Sanchez?
-is Arsenal still a top address for a footballer who wants to establish himself firmly at international level?
Hasn’t Arsenal severely lost some shine after failing to win anything over and over again while collecting a very large number of grossly overpaid average footballers?
We could go on and on with questions like that…and never before has the BURDEN OF PROOF been so concentrated on one single side: the management of Arsenal Football Club!
Because too many open wounds have remained unanswered:
1) what if Arsenal had had a real goalkeeper in the last few years…how many points would a real goalkeeper have been worth this season? 6 to 9 points?
2)what is Arsenal had had a properly working defensive unit? including a stable defensive midfield unit able to lead a full on pressing and break opponent’s play? Another 6 to 9 points?
3) what if Arsenal had the 2 or 3 accomplished warriors who simply do not lie down and do not take “NO” for an answer? 6 points at least?
4) what if Arsenal had all the above and a professional defensive coach thrown on top of it?
Bottom line: this year there was no need to be a genius to win it…simply because everybody else got so much weaker!
Yet all these questions are unanswered, and there is clearly a growing feeling even within the team that the previous model simply does not work…not project YOUTH…IT IS PROJECT MEDIOCRITY!
Dortmund became German champions with a team probably even younger than Arsenal. Admittedly it is not the premiere league, but they showed incredible resilience and discipline in difficult moments and had by far the best defense of their league…so to a large extent it can be done…only it will never be done with players who will repeatedly fold like “cheap suits” on windy afternoons in the north of England!
Where to start? Why not for once show some real “testosterones”, make a real transfer splash and send a clear statement through the market?
Instead of bargaining if not insulting the other parties with ridiculous bids, why not for the sake of pushing 2 or 3 deals through quickly under the noses of ManU, City, Chelsea pay the full £17m for Cahill and the £10 or 12 for Samba? Why not sign Enrique before offloading Clichy?
Why not impose a severe deadline on Nasri and Saga, after which he has a week or maximum two weeks to find himself a club for £15m after which all he can do is train with the reserve because he won’t have a squad number and therefore will miss Euro 2012? The fans need very badly a strong statement of intent.
No more corporate lawyer “wishy-washy” Q & A…time for a SPLASH or two, accompanied by a few real “macho” statements, Uli Hoeness (Bayern Munich) style.
In essence all it means is paying £3m to £5m more for the sake of:
-being done early and having a full preparation with a new defensive unit, ahead of a Champions League qualifying round.
-sending the team internally a strong message that the dead wood is being sorted out, the bar is raised in order to really target trophies…in other words show the Van Persie, Vermaelen, Fabregas & co that it is no more just talking the talk…the time has come to walk the walk!
-sending the market and more importantly the fans a clear and strong message: everybody knows what the problem is and everybody can see how it is being addressed, while the club remains a top rated address and not some senseless training camp for spoiled teenagers.
Myles, at this point you have the right to be mad at me because all I have done in all the above is state the obvious!
The season was a disaster, and the whole world knows why.
Aren’t the Arsenal fans who have been asked to pay more for the privilege of watching their team entitled to a real and credible alternative?
What should be the appropriate response from a club carrying so much history and heritage?
WHO SHOULD CARRY THE BURDEN OF PROOF?
1) THE FANS, WHO KEEP PAYING MORE AND MORE FOR LESS AND LESS
2) THE CLUB BOARD, WHO ASK FOR MORE AND MORE BUT DELIVER LESS AND LESS.
Myles replies :
I’m glad you got that rant off your chest, Alex.
And glad that you realise family is more important than football.
For me, Wenger made the new stadium possible.
But while Ashburton Grove was being built, he grabbed more power than Sir Alex Ferguson has, more power than any football manager has ever had in the history of professional football.
He saw the opportunity to make London’s biggest club the vehicle for his experimental ideas.
When Fiszman sacked Dein, Wenger had even more power.
When new CEO Gazidis arrived, he said that was surprised by how much power Wenger had.
But Wenger’s youth experiment failed badly, repeatedly, embarrassingly, shockingly, turning off tens of thousands of Gooners.
However, Arsenal’s stars have done what the timid board have failed to do.
Fabregas called time on Wenger when he handed in a written transfer request last summer.
Nasri called time on Wenger when he said he wanted to know if Manchester United’s interest was concrete.
Apart from that, nothing’s happened.
Fabregas and Nasri have called time on Wenger. And you can understand why. They don’t want to play for a loser manager alongside idiots.
Wenger’s next significant signing should be Pep Guardiola in 2012.
Will that happen if Arsenal are in the Europa League?