From Alex Marc
Dear Myles,
This letter is a beautiful summary!
I have followed you all along in the last few months and thank God I had a very busy ski season to offset the yearly “Carnaval” frustration: the start of carnaval generally coincide with our usual demise…that is when all promises evaporate…this is when suddenly we should all be happy and thankful that we were gratified by a few months of illusion…this is when from “judge me in May” we swiftly move to “this team is special”!
Anyway…I believe we are nearing the end of an era, and if Arsene’s life as manager of Arsenal had a grand total of 24 hours, we have just passed 23.30!
Would winning the Premiership change that? Possibly, but who believes seriously that we will win anything with Almunia, Squillaci having to play every game?
Why are we so close to the end?
The overriding reason is that there is no concept anymore in the madness of our once glorious manager.
In sequence:
1) first there was no alternatives but try to do the best we could with a bunch of kids because that is all we could afford with the new stadium being built.
It would have been heroic to win anything then and we all quickly realized that it wasn’t doable. To Arsene’s credit, having played Champions League football all through it is a great achievement.
2) the creche programm took one important turn when we started again to focus on British kids. At least when they become internationally acclaimed players there is less risk they want to go home somewhere else!
3) from trying to win with kids, the Arsene programme became trying to win with kids + a few special “trouvailles”, and all this while the club making money!
This approach brought Vermaelen to Arsenal and allowed us to cash in on Adebayor! Again, some great ingredients, but not enough to win anything!
With 1), 2) and 3) having brought us near success, we all knew that this team did not need much to make it over the finish line, especially as the main contenders were starting to fade in their own ways.
This is where Arsene went off the rails and started an “off piste” expedition which will come to an abrupt end imminently:
– suddenly we play our best XI in the Carling Cup because that counts as a trophy and that may shut up some fed-up fans. We all know where that ended: for Birmingham it was the biggest game in modern club history, for Arsenal it was a painfully unnecessary “other day in the office”!
– it is the third time in a row that we go through a transfer window knowing that we have gaping holes in the team and that there is no reasonable cover in the defensive segement of midfield (and this is all in conjunction with all of us biting our nails and more, waiting until Song has graduated from the creche and become our single official defensive midfielder!).
How long is it and how many competitions do we need to sacrifice until Denilson and Diaby graduate?
The Barca and ManU games were I believe the “one bridge too far”, because the money is there to afford proper cover. Every good schools has drop-outs! It is part of their education process and it is what defines the school. Only the Arsene(not Arsenal!) creche provides every entrants with secure graduation and a long term fat contract. This is not about “killing” young men as Arsene tries to make us believe, it is about his “almost fiduciary duty” to upgrade the team where needed with the means available.
I insist on this “fiduciary” idea because Arsenal does not belong to Arsene or anybody else. He is only the gatekeeper for millions of people who love the club and dedicate time and money…a lot of both! And that should prevent you completely from arrogantly brushing off the mistakes you make several times in a row as if nothing happened!
In which trade and profession would you be allowed to make obvious mistakes so many times in a row without repercussions?
-we are humiliated defensively several times (Spurs at home, Newcastle, etc…), yet our plan to succeed against the best team in the world on their home pitch is simply to “park the bus”!!!
The last time we did that was in 2005 in Cardiff for the FA Cup final. It was horrible and we deserved to loose 4-0, but we had players then who could execute(barely) such a cynical plan with some chances of success!
-the goalkeeping saga has cost the club several points and possibly trophies.
This year we have had 3 separate number ones through the season. How does that work? Again isn’t it the manager “quasi-fiduciary” obligation to come up with a credible concept and execute it displaying leadership?
-we are out of the FA Cup having lost not to ManU the undisputable force of English football! No! We lost with our best possible team against a makeshift ManU XI, because Fergie was already planning ahead for his Champions League game. Shouldn’t that be a wake-up call?
Let’s be clear: one of our main contenders, which has been significantly weakened in the last 12 months can afford to rest some of his key players, push us off the pitch and send us crashing out of the most prestigious domestic cup competition in the world.
Bottom line: there is no more logic in Arsene’s madness.
He is trying to plug holes everywhere, and please people for whom he had no particular respect or interest in the past.
This is bound to end in tears! The sooner the better, because especially this year, silverware is there for the taking.
It is time the club starts acting in the interest of its lifeblood – THE FANS – and stops allowing a former genius to live his madness in complete freedom.
It is just a shame that such a brilliant man and servant of the club has to end like this.