Myles,
I want to know this from the AKB:
For the sake of argument, I’ll agree to everything that the AKB usually trot out – lack of money, others grew big on the strength of sugar daddies yada yada. Fine and dandy.
Just tell me this much – this season, Wenger (I won’t include the board since the AKB has claimed on occasions that the board lies to keep the curtain on) is on record saying he’s had money to spend; a substantial amount.
Yet, why did he choose to go for Koscielny? This is a player with under 2 years of first division football. Would any manager in Wenger’s position, both as manager of a supposedly big club and having seen his defense ripped apart last season, ever have Koscielny on his list? And now apparently Squilacci? Despite having the money to spend? It is near impossible to believe that no defender anywhere in the wide world of football was available EXCEPT for those two who, incidentally, are French.
Perhaps both will end up being super star defenders, perhaps one of them will. But, being clueless about defensive coaching (set piece goals anyone?) and having an assistant manager just as clueless at it, would you dare to experiment with defenders? Especially when prior such experimentations, most notably with the likes of Stepanovs, Cygan, Senderos and Silvestre, have failed miserably? Would you not want to invest in defenders you would not have to coach? We needed one of those gigantic Germans in defense. Or an Englishman that has lived through the rigours of English football. Instead, we got 2 from France – a country that hasn’t had a good defender since the famous 4 (Lizarazu, Desaily, Blanc and Thuram) retired. At least Evra has been half-decent. In the meanwhile, they’ve had such gems as Boumsong and Abidal. Yet, Wenger has no qualms about going to such a country to look for defenders.
What is the justification, given all of the above, for once again bringing one unknown entity and one entity in his twilight years, to the club in the heart of the defense? And especially knowing that he’s also installed 2 clowns in goal?
Which brings me to my second question. Having seen the antics of Almunia and Fabianski fully last season, would any manager in Wenger’s position dare not bring in a goalkeeper ASAP? And would such a manager go for someone like Schwarzer, once again in the twilight of his career and hunting for one last glory, who’s hardly any improvement over Almunia? Is Wenger a child that he needs to be told the virtues of having a good goalkeeper in goal? Does he not recognize that all good teams around him, especially past winners of his beloved Champions League, all have excellent keepers? He still hasn’t learned despite 13 years of resounding failure in getting a goalkeeper who can last? The excuse of “killing” this one and that one is horse shit.
Competition builds success, not comfort.
A lot of people, despite being fed up of Wenger, were still willing to give him a chance this season to set the wrongs right. To fix the defense. To bring in a goalkeeper that would not make the remaining 10 players, and countless fans, nervous. And yet again, Wenger has let everyone down.
It is clear that, money or no money, Wenger is going to continue with his experiment. You need balls of steel to continue to be callous with the defensive situation at the club, but Wenger’s balls of steel come not from courage but from complacency.
He knows he can never be fired. He also knows that even if he wins nothing for the next 10 years, he’ll get a contract extension for the 11th. Mourinho said it 2 years ago – there’s no pressure of winning on Wenger, hence he’s given up on winning. How right he was.
Especially when we know that the same sort of experiment was also undertaken at Monaco by the same suspect and there too the result was there for all to see after the initial success – resounding failure.
There too, Wenger inherited the backbone of a strong team, made some clever additions, and won the title. And then it was the same dismantling of the senior side, bringing in sub-par kids, “believing” in his team yada yada..all ending in failure and sacking.
And things are going down the same route at Arsenal except here Gazidis doesn’t have the balls to sack Wenger.
Wenger will win nothing this season.
Take it in writing from me. Additionally, he will never win the title again in England, and imagining him winning the CL is a joke that is more sad than funny.
Myles replies :
Impossible to say how many fans are as angry and demoralised as you.
Last season some of us were sure that this season would be Wenger’s last. But I was wrong about Wenger’s contract. I was really taken aback by what happened. Four more years of him saying : I believe in this team? Gawd.
I thought he’d try to build an unbeaten run of 12 games into September-October, and then sign a two-year extension.
Instead of doing that, Wenger had the audacity and cunning to sign a three-year extension the day before the Premier League season started.
And he had the audacity to say he had other offers. What nonsense! What a smug, insulting thing to say! He was never going anywhere.
The board would never call his bluff because there is a huge executive vacuum at Arsenal, as there has been through long periods of the club’s history. He knows that. It’s his club. He is untouchable. He can do what the hell he likes.
Third won’t be so easy this term. Fabregas is going through the motions.