tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-228061822024-02-22T11:08:31.949-05:00GoonerboyGoonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.comBlogger462125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-7939041881579161922021-04-30T09:00:00.001-04:002021-04-30T09:00:00.248-04:00The Disaster of Arsenal Past Meets the Disaster of Arsenal Present<p>It was a weird day. It's hard not to reminisce when it comes to big European nights, and my mind did wander to those hazy days of 2006. The semi-final away against Villareal that year was a tough game, memorialized in <a href="https://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2006/04/king-among-men-jens-lehmann-i-love-you.html" target="_blank">one of my earliest blog posts</a>. Looking back, I remember the massive sense of exhilaration and hope that night. The team's progress in Europe that year, plus the imminent stadium move, seemed to herald a new chapter in the club's history - a portent of big things to come. </p><p>Who would have known that this was the peak of the club's performance in Europe. And that the last 16 years have seen us decline from champions league contenders, to European canon fodder, to mid-table also-runs. Put in context, it's a sorry decline, and it's hard not to correlate it to the involvement, then ownership, of KSE. </p><p>The empty stadiums and dismal football have made this a hard season to care about. But a European semi-final is a rare occasion and one worthy of note. What a shame then that Arteta decided to galaxy brain our line-up. It's hard not to see the imprint of his mentor, Pep, in the bizarre team selection for today's game. Too many decisions seem to be made on the basis of short-term patches of form. Xhaka at left-back and Ceballos in midfield appears to still be based on our thrashing of Sheffield United a few weeks ago - one of the worst teams in the modern premiership era. Both were ripe for targeting by a man that we all know is obsessed with video analysis. </p><p>But deciding to, essentially, not play a striker in a game of this magnitude reeked of cowardice and over-complication. I am not sure Odegaard, Smith-Rowe, Saka and Pepe can play in the same team together even if we had a forward on the pitch. That we did not led to some bizarre parody of a false-9 without an actual 10 leading the line. For a team that struggles to score at the best of times, this was a terrible decision. We did not have a shot on goal from open play until after the 90th minute as a result.</p><p>The players looked over-awed and confused and we were rightly battered in the first half. Whatever Arteta is doing in training is not working. It's a shame because you can see the raw ingredients of a great coach in Mikel, but he seems determined to shoot himself in the foot. He is scared of starting players that have explosiveness but potentially cost us some degree of control of the game. This could have been the occasion for Martinelli to lead the line on a historic night in Europe. Instead we had...no-one bothering a vast swathe of the Villareal defence. </p><p>As for Ceballos - again, one great performance against a relegated team does not compensate for a terrible season and, in particular, an abysmally poor season in the Europa League. I can only assume Arteta was too proud to hook Dani at half-time and we paid the price for his stubbornness. </p><p>This is my concern about Arteta. He is completely unproven as a <i>manager</i>, regardless of his success as a coach at City. Many of the attributes that define a great coach in football - essentially helping to put in place the structure for players to realize someone else's plan - are not that comparable to what's needed for a manager. You get little sense that Arteta can roll with the punches and adjust as different scenarios arise. His in-game management is appalling and his tactics barely seem to flex regardless of the various scenarios we're facing. The players appear to have been ordered to build up play in a measured, almost glacial manner, killing the impetus of counter-attacks. I can't tell if this is a stats-driven approach, or simply a desire to dominate possession and hope the win comes from there. Either way, it's boring, results in very few goals, and isn't working. If you're going to be a control-freak perfectionist, you have to be able to make your plan work. </p><p>What luck then that we came up against the disaster of Arsenal's past. I could not imagine a more classic Emery move than subbing an attacker for a defensive midfielder at half-time during a game you're dominating. We were on the ropes and a third goal would've killed us. Instead, Villareal sat off us in the second half and let us back into the tie. Emery's gonna Emery. </p><p>Emery's appointment was its own special kind of disaster, squandering our last, easiest opportunity to return to the Champions League. It remains to be seen where we go from here and, who knows, we may win the Europa League and this whole season will have been worth it. But it's hard not to shake the sense that this season has been a slow-moving disaster for the club, with KSE, yet again, showing little desire to put the club back on the right track. Here's hoping Mikel doesn't overthink the second leg. </p><p>Gb</p>Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-24666913665635994232021-04-23T10:11:00.006-04:002021-04-23T10:15:00.299-04:00Josh Kroenke Fronts Up - But Why Are We Talking to our Owner's Son? <p>So the great apology tour has begun. Vinai has apparently been calling various board members at other PL clubs to apologize and I'm sure he's getting an earful. More interestingly, there was a fans forum with him and Josh K yesterday. Kudos to <a href="https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/every-word-josh-kroenke-said-20447252">Chris Wheatley at Football.London</a> for publishing a full transcript (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryYOxiz7ik">and audio</a>) of the event, which is well worth the read. </p><p>Let me put a few cards on the table here: I give Josh some kudos for fronting up, particularly as he seems to have aged about twenty years during lockdown. It's unclear to me whether his dad - the actual owner - will ever speak directly to an Arsenal fan group again after the battering he received a few years ago at an AGM. Josh could have hidden behind his vast wealth too, but it seems like there is some attempt here at building bridges with the fans. </p><p>I wasn't at the event, but there were some tweets, and references in the transcript, about how Josh gave the impression that he didn't really want to be there. And, again, to be fair - would you? This is like being caught cheating on your spouse and having to do a zoom call with their family to apologize. It's grim no matter how much cash you have. </p><p>To be less fair, that we're speaking to Josh says a lot about why bad decisions are being made in European football. As <a href="https://twitter.com/KuperSimon/status/1384589647473483778">Simon Kuper</a> was discussing in a great thread earlier this week, old white man, their families/mates and ex-players are at the nexus of power in most clubs. This is a tiny, insular talent pool that is predisposed towards thinking in ways that benefit that in-group. There is now <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter">abundant business literature</a> that diverse teams make better decisions and drive innovation. The current Arsenal board, who largely drove the decision to join the ESL, comprises Stan, his son, a retired carpet maker (Lord Harris) and Tim Harris, who only joined in June last year. Stan and Josh may as well be one person, and Chips is a token figurehead. So basically, at a board level, we just have Tim Lewis, a corporate lawyer that we had to draft in to deal with the *shenanigans* that were going on last summer.</p><p>Even if we take into account that Vinai and perhaps a few others in the club were involved in the ESL discussions, is it any surprise that this quarter made a bad decision? Imagine if there had been fan or ex-player representation on the board - they could've told them in ten minutes that the ESL idea was a disaster and bad for the club's image. KSE need to understand that it is *in their interests* to have fan representation at the board level - it will lead to better decisions that will benefit both KSE and the club. Josh signaled that he wasn't entirely opposed to the idea in the fan's forum, but I'll guess we'll see. </p><p>***</p><p>If we look at what else was said in the meeting, a few things stood out:</p><p>* Josh basically tried the, 'we didn't like it, but we had to go along with it' line of argument. This is either pathetic - we're so weak that we have to go along with what the big boys want - or disingenuous. I find it extremely hard to believe, especially after Ivan was snapped having dinner with the Glazers and FSG in NY a few years ago, that this hasn't been in the works for years. Producing an economically stable cartel is clearly the end-game for the US owners in their drive to make revenues and outgoings more predictable and in-line with the owner-driven model of US sports. So don't insult our intelligence.</p><p>* Josh said we'd be seeing a lot more of him over the next few years. Again - good, I suppose. But rather than feeding off whatever scraps they throw us, permanent representation within the club's running is crucial for fans. I'd rather, also, that Stan fronted up. It's such terrible corporate management to hide behind your money and your family rather than be open and candid about your goals for an organization, particularly for such a public institution like Arsenal. </p><p>* He was clear that KSE are not going to sell. Not a surprise. But given the failure of the ESL it begs the question - what is their strategy for the club? My preference, as always, has been for a fan-owned club. If KSE want to own part of the remaining 49% - fine; but the fans should be in charge. If that's not going to happen, we want a clear, detailed vision from KSE on how they are going to make Arsenal a competitive force in English and European football again. Because, at the moment, they have done little other than oversee a 10-year decline and it's not clear to me what their next move is. </p><p>Gb </p>Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-79603569456867571252021-04-22T10:59:00.001-04:002021-04-22T10:59:12.687-04:00The ESL Goes Down, But What Now for Arsenal and the Kroenkes? <p>Well, I wasn't expecting that. When the synchronized statements dropped on Sunday night, I was sure that the the ESL was a foregone conclusion. Yes there would be some wailing and flailing, but the owners, ensconced in their ivory towers, would do the usual - <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/club/arsenal/359/blog/post/3245662/tone-deafness-from-arsenal-executives-further-exhibits-clubs-dysfunctionality" target="_blank">'thank you for your interest in our affairs'</a> - and we'd soon be all signed up to our new streaming packages. So what went wrong?</p><p><b><i>Why did the ESL fail? </i></b></p><p>If I was to speculate on why the ESL fell apart so quickly, I'd point to a few things:</p><p>* Fan pressure - It seems this did matter, particularly when fans can show that they can translate their displeasure into tangible disruption, particularly to the brand or bottom line of their clubs. I still think, because it fits a lot of romantic narratives, that the role of the fans in the ESL's downfall has been somewhat overstated in the press. But it was certainly significant, and powerful, to see the protests at various grounds around the country. That said, portraying Chelsea and Man City fans as the saviours of English football, and seeing their fans carry signs complaining about the role of money and greed in the game, was a level of irony that I'm not capable of processing. More on that later. </p><p>* Player pressure - More significant were the public statements against the league by players. The dumbest move in this whole affair by the ESL ringleaders was not getting the players on board first. This is an elite industry with a small pool of high-level talent - the clubs can't do anything if their players don't sanction it. People, in general, have an intensely strong psychological reaction to things being taken away from them, and without an intense PR campaign to the players, there was very little upside to them for the ESL and plenty of downside - loss of international caps, contracts that didn't reflect the lucrative new competition they were being asked to play in, etc. Once the Liverpool players came out, en masse, against the league, it was a goner. </p><p>* Government pressure - To put it lightly, Boris Johnson knows a populist opportunity when he sees one. Whatever long-term schemes they had in mind about the location of ESL clubs, the English ESL clubs needed the UK government onside, so to speak, with their plan. Instead, BoJo promised a 'legislative bomb' and opened the door to all kinds of long-term repercussions for the clubs. Who knows what was said behind closed doors, but I think this genuinely spooked the ESL leaders, not least because both us, and Sp*rs, have taken huge COVID loans from the Bank of England recently. The irony here, of course, is that successive UK governments turned a blind eye to the successive takeovers of major English teams that led us to this shambles . Had the government enforced fan ownership models in the early days of the Premier League, once the money started trickling in, we'd have seen a much different (and better, league), and one where fans would not have to worry about owners acting against the interest of local communities. Here's hoping the government puts this right in their forthcoming review, although how they would force owners to give up a share of their clubs at this point is questionable. </p><p>* Internal Group Dynamics within the ESL - The ESL was a coalition and the cracks within it soon appeared. The true ringleaders here are the American owners (including AC Milan), the Spanish owners and Inter/Juve. Barca, Real and Inter are financial basket cases, with huge debts that they see little prospect of repaying, particularly as the premier league continues to grow in popularity. The American owners have long sought to push football in a direction where financial risks are mitigated through more consistent (as much as larger) revenues, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/04/20/european-super-league-clubs-agree-salary-cap-guaranteeing-club/">effective caps on expenditure</a>, and a shift from player to owner power as seen in the various American major leagues. This situation would only be possible in a unified league of Europe's top clubs where a true economic cartel could be created - otherwise players could just shift leagues to chase bigger contracts. The problem for the ESL is that Chelsea and Man City do not really need money, given the source of their funding, particularly in the wake of UEFA's failure to effectively enforce Financial Fair Play. They joined for fear of not being left out and were the first to leave - once they left, the whole thing came crumbing down. The financial doping and disruption that these clubs (together with PSG) have brought to European football was a major reason for both the rise and fall of the ESL. </p><p>* The new Champions League format - While the whole circus was rumbling on, UEFA was able to push through changes to the Champions League. These changes will lead to more games and backdoor methods of qualification for the big clubs through the fabled 'UEFA Coefficients'. Combined with more money, the new format gives the ESL rebels a lot of what they already wanted. Indeed, it has been hilarious to see UEFA held up as some form of virtuous organization over the last few days. The current Champions League format is awful - it's a quasi-rigged system to ensure the big teams get to the knockout stages each year. It has led to CL money being consolidated into the heads of an ever-diminishing number of clubs, who then dominate their leagues each year. It's been a rubbish competition for at least a decade and is in need of reform, and the ESL clubs will no doubt use this opportunity to push it more in the direction they want, whatever public pronouncements of their 'defeat' will claim. </p><p><b><i>Where Now for Arsenal and the Kroenekes? </i></b></p><p>The question posed by many fans in the wake of the ESL's announcement was why Arsenal, a club currently languishing in 9th place in the table and who have not competed in the Champions League for 4 years, should be included in a super league. The answer is simple - we are one of the ten biggest teams in world football. Even if we put aside the colossal history of our club and its achievements, you could basically choose your metric when it comes to the things that owners/money men care about - revenues, fans, brand awareness - and we would be in or around the global top ten. I say this all the time to anyone who will listen: we are a massive, massive club. </p><p>We have been duped into thinking otherwise, largely by the bizarre statements that pleaded poverty after the stadium move and the Chelsea/Man City takeovers, combined with the terrible mismanagement of the club in the last ten years, both on and off the pitch. On the pitch we had the Arsene twilight years, followed by the Emery fiasco. Arteta has shown some promise, but we are on course for our worst league finish in about 25 years, and questions should be asked about his position if we do not win the Europa League. Some of the football this season has been as bad as I have seen in thirty years of supporting the club and it has to change. </p><p>Off the pitch has been an even bigger fiasco. Gazidis was paid millions, yet did little to address the decline in our on-pitch fortunes. He set up a triumvirate within the club to strip power from Wenger, who all (including Gazidis) left the club around the time of Arsene's departure. Sanhelli's time in charge saw us pay overinflated transfer and agent fees for *reasons* and once he was booted out the club we now have two inexperienced leaders in Vinai and Edu basically at the helm of everyday operations. </p><p>It's a mess and it's resulted in the club punching well, well below our weight. I'd contrast our current fate with what's happened at Leicester and Liverpool (altho the latter have obviously taken a hit this week). They have shown that through a smart recruitment policy you can challenge in the Premier League, even if you don't have the financial firepower of Chelsea and Man City. </p><p>The reason for our mess lies largely at the feet of one man: Stan Kroenke. I am on the record in <a href="https://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/all-that-glisters-is-not-gold-great.html">2007 </a>and <a href="https://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2011/04/sad-day-in-history-of-arsenal-football.html">2012 </a>opposing his involvement in the club, because even to the younger, more naive Goonerboy it was obvious that Kroenke was bad news. It's worth re-reading that 2007 post because in the comments there were certainly fans that were open to the takeover. But the warning sides were all there - debt-fueled takeover, minimal involvement in his teams, the mediocre performances of his 'franchises'. </p><p>Kroenke's ownership of Arsenal has been a disaster. He's sat back while we went from a club that challenged for the title, to scrambling into the Champions League spots, to one that could very reasonably finish in the bottom half of the table this season. He has only dropped the hammer a few times, and they all correlate to occasions where he saw a threat to the bottom line - Arsene finally failing to deliver CL qualification and Emery being in a tailspin. Were Kroenke serious about the club we would see much more active investment and involvement in the team - we would not have let Arsene' agonizing decline play out over 2014-2018 to give but one example, including the bizarre summer of 2015 where the club decided to not purchase any outfield players. </p><p>In this respect, it's unsurprising that we backed the ESL - and I imagine we were one of the prime movers in it - because it was a massive get-out-of-jail free card. Ten years of decline reversed with the stroke of a pen and a return to Europe's elite without having to actually do the hard work of competing. </p><p>This was why, if I am being completely honest, I was somewhat on board with the ESL. I do not trust Kroenke to take us back to the top and this seems the only feasible way in the short- to medium-term for Arsenal to re-establish ourselves as a leading club. But that is...awful. It makes me feel like a terrible person for even admitting it. It's essentially saying that we need a cheat code because the club is a basket case. To paraphrase a better man than me, is this who we are, what we are, and what we represent? </p><p>The whole ESL fiasco raises the question as to whether this was Kroenke's long game all along. Maybe, but one shouldn't discount the combination of opportunism and incompetence that were the hallmarks of this entire affair. Covid may have simply been the short-term trigger for an attempted power grab that had been only discussed in theoretical terms over very expensive bottles of wine for years. </p><p>The question is, therefore, where do we go from here? I have to say - I'm worried. There are only two positive ways forward for Arsenal. One - the Kroenkes wake up tomorrow, decide they love Arsenal, and start pumping money and purpose into the club. Let's just say that this scenario is unlikely given virtually everything we have seen about this family over the last 15 years. Two - the Kroenkes sell-up. But to who? Perhaps the government will give financial support to fan groups and introduce compulsory purchase orders, but I'm skeptical. In terms of the private market, who's available that's better than Kroenke and has 2-3 billion pounds needed to buy Arsenal at the moment? Much as I dislike Kroenke, the thought of us becoming the PR arm of a dodgy government/organization makes me even more queasy. Is our saviour out there? And even if he is, would Kroenke do a deal? </p><p>So I think we're stuck. I'd love to end this blog on a positive note, but I don't really have one, other than hoping we can do some good deals this summer and Mikel can finally realize his vision next year. If not, I fear that the end of the ESL may be better for the soul of football than it was for the future of Arsenal. </p><p>Gb.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-76726225804339853892020-12-14T09:21:00.000-05:002020-12-14T09:21:13.913-05:00Xhaka is an Emblem of Arsenal's Toxic Culture <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tFIQuhkWb_g/X9bOaJJzzmI/AAAAAAAAAZI/G-Q5CsVDS_82uzYUjyOM31qnrSymp6tXwCLcBGAsYHQ/download.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" height="255" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tFIQuhkWb_g/X9bOaJJzzmI/AAAAAAAAAZI/G-Q5CsVDS_82uzYUjyOM31qnrSymp6tXwCLcBGAsYHQ/w487-h255/download.jpeg" width="487" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><i>"</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>In terms of recruitment, don't even wait for January - make sure that Xhaka and Lacazette never play for the club again." - </i>Your's truly from last week's blog.</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">I guess it's easy to be right about Arsenal at the moment. We keep starting the same players every week and every week they let us down. So why expect anything different? </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">The club has a toxic culture that has dragged us into a bona fide relegation scrap.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">If you think we're too good to go down, I've got news for you - we ain't. The stats are brutal. We've lost four home games in a row. We haven't scored more than once in the league since early October. We can't keep a clean sheet. But stepping away from the numbers, just look at the players on the pitch. Their body language is terrible. They look confused. Their heads go down at the first hint of struggle. And they lash out in anger. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">A few week's ago it was Pepe, deciding to headbutt a player out of frustration. Today, it was a more predictable culprit. Arsenal's idiot-in-chief, the one, the only, Granit Xhaka. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Look - Arsenals' troubles run deep, as I outlined last week. But if you wanted to put a face on our struggles in recent years, it's hard to look beyond Xhaka. Looking back, the summer of 2016 was a doozy: Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez signed for a combined 100m in what was a catastrophic outlay of money for the club. Holding, signed for 2m quid from Bolton, has probably given more to the club than those three combined.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">It was the transfer window that ultimately got Arsene sacked. After failing to take advantage of the historically poor form or our rivals in 2016, and letting Leicester win the league, 2016 was meant to be the year we went big and pushed home our advantage. Xhaka was seen as a necessary upgrade on the middling Francis Coquelin, and I was excited by the prospect of his arrival after Xhaka impressed in the 2016 European Championships. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Instead, he anchored the midfield that finally saw Arsene and Arsenal fall out of the Champions League. And it's all been downhill from there. For some reason, I thought Xhaka would be some form of defensive lynchpin to our midfield, closing down players and building our attacks from deep compared to the limited destroyer role that Coquelin played. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">In reality, Xhaka is an average player at best. He clearly does not have the defensive nous to read the game, spot patterns and break up play. He gives away half-decent tactical fouls to stop attacks and, even then, these are typically clumsy enough to earn him a card given his snail-like speed. He doesn't track runners or break-up play in an intelligent way. As a defensive midfielder, Xhaka is extremely limited, and typically compensates by dropping deeper and deeper until a chasm emerges where our midfield should be. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">This might be ok if Xhaka was some titan of midfield passing - but no. He is painfully one-footed, constantly working around the ball to get it onto his left foot. To boot he is incredibly susceptible to pressing. Put Xhaka under any form of pressure and he panics. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">What you're left with is a painfully slow player, who can't really defend, and who can only pick his passes when given time and space. These are not the ingredients of an elite premier league midfielder. Even if one looks simply at his player profile, it's beyond me why he's been given so many chances at the club.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">And all this is before you get to the real heart of Xhaka - his temperament, or lack thereof. There are too many examples to name, but the ones that come to mind are his brain-dead penalty against Brighton in 2019 which helped put an end to our champions league tilt, and his infamous shirt throwing against Palace. The latter should have been the end of his Arsenal career. Instead, it merely hastened Emery's departure. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">The red card against Burnley was typical Xhaka, more concerned with playing the hard man than thinking about the team and the result. With a three-game suspension incoming, hopefully that is the last we see of him in an Arsenal shirt, but honestly who knows given Arteta's current proclivity to pick him. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">But Xhaka is emblematic of a broader poisonous streak running through the club. There is a cadre of experienced players who simply let Arsenal down over and over again. There was a reason why Freddie ditched half the first team for his last game in charge. He was trying to send a message that there is a group of professionals who are on fat contracts, who don't want to change, and who are prepared to sink the club rather than change their ways or leave. It's a toxic culture and Arteta has been throw in the deep end to fix it. These players have brought down Arsene, Emery and even Freddie and they are now sinking Arteta's ship. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">In a 'normal' environment, half these players would have been shown the door this summer. But we couldn't find buyers for even relatively premium assets like Guendouzi and Torreira, much less the likes of Ozil, Kolasinac, Lacazette, Mustafi, Bellerin, Sokratis, and Xhaka. If anything we've swelled the ranks of discontent by adding David Luiz and Willian. The former, as others have noted, almost seems to be a harbinger for dressing room unrest and managerial downfall wherever he goes. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">This is the problem facing Arsenal at present and it's massive. We have such a bloated squad that we couldn't even register the likes of Ozil and Sokratis for the prem. Yet the massive deflationary pressure placed on the European transfer market by COVID means we can't shift a group of toxic players that are dragging the club further and further down. To boot, we have a first-time manager, a Director of Football that is completely out of his depth, and a Chief Exec who has no record or experience to draw upon. Above that, we're basically being managed by a billionaire's son who's treating the club like a glorified internship. It's fun times all around. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">It's reached the point where some big moves have to be made in January. If there are players in the last six months of their deal and we can't shift them, cancel their contracts. Why have experienced pros hanging around the club spreading a poisonous atmosphere? Get rid or ban them from the club till their contracts expire. Promise agents fat premiums if they can get their players out of the club. Try anything.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">At the same time, we have to sign some creative midfielders and hope that Partey can return to fitness. Until then, play some of the kids. Balogun looks like a baller - give him minutes. He's shown more presence in about 30 minutes of Europa League games than Lacazette has in three years. I'd rather see Reiss Nelson play than Willian. And, as I said before, I think Smith-Rowe is a clever player who can create chances in the final third. Crucially, these *don't* always involve a cross. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">Much will depend on Arteta now. I am aghast that he keeps picking the same players in the league, no matter how well the Europa League players do. We need to do something different and that involves rolling the dice. If he doesn't, the future looks bleak and he deserves to go. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;">Gb</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></p>Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-63202205954864415552020-12-08T09:08:00.004-05:002020-12-08T09:08:52.669-05:00What is the Path Forward for Arteta?<p> </p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aso5-g7McUY/X85IF_801qI/AAAAAAAAAY0/Lh5KXtLe2Fsd5WVS7CTgyq4jB-hwYwiXACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/skysports-arsenal-mikel-arteta_5166543.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aso5-g7McUY/X85IF_801qI/AAAAAAAAAY0/Lh5KXtLe2Fsd5WVS7CTgyq4jB-hwYwiXACLcBGAsYHQ/w515-h289/skysports-arsenal-mikel-arteta_5166543.jpg" width="515" /></a></p><p><b>Where We Are</b></p><p>It's been a grim year and Arsenal are closing it out with a party of pure doom.</p><p>A derby loss, where we were comprehensively outplayed, is our sixth defeat in 11 league games. Even after 4,000 crosses, we can't buy a goal. The defensive solidity that Arteta briefly brought to the club has evaporated. We're fifteenth in the league and the prospects of Europa League football next year, let alone Champions League, seem distant. It's very hard to argue that the table is painting an unfair picture of where we are as a club at the moment. We're a mess. </p><p>What we're seeing happen at the club is a toxic mixture of problems that are finally coming to a head. Some of these are long-term issues that have festered for years, while others are a result of the extraordinary short-term circumstances we all find ourselves in. Before I get into that, I think the simplest way of summarizing our current plight is this: it's not fun to watch Arsenal anymore. And it hasn't been for quite a long time. </p><p>If the pandemic has taught us nothing else (and, living in America, it seems it hasn't taught our leaders anything at all) it's the importance of fun in our lives. Of distractions. Of novelty. Of spontaneity. </p><p>What we all seem to be facing right now is the crushing monotony of social distancing, face-masking, sanitizers, temperature checks, closed pubs, empty grounds, FaceTiming friends and family, and the sheer, relentless need to be on your guard at all times. The need to be safe, predictable and boring. Because if you make just one misstep, you could find yourself on a ventilator. </p><p>Watching football - let alone Arsenal - struggle forward in this environment has been both inspiring and depressing. The sheer profit motive that drives all modern sport ensured that any cessation in hostilities would be temporary. And, at least when compared to some other sports (I'm looking at your, NFL), the Premier League has done a half-decent job in setting up structures that protects its players. </p><p>It's also been heartening to see football take a knee on racism. Perhaps this has been easier because fans were not in stadiums to complicate the picture, as we all saw with the booing at Millwall last weekend. But, for once, it seems like the game's authorities listened to players who wanted to make a simple gesture in defiance of the racism they have faced, and continue to face, in their lives and careers. </p><p>The empty stadiums have been tough. At first, they felt like a temporary sacrifice to try and bring something pleasurable back to our lives. But now - even with 2,000 fans back - it's just a weekly reminder of how horrible everything is. </p><p><b>How we Got Here and the Squad(s) We've Got</b></p><p>And on that positive note, let's talk about Arsenal. It's been two years since I last blogged. I wrote many times over the years about the danger of letting Arsene continue for too long. Any student of history will tell you that the longer a leader stays in power, the harder it is to replace them. Arsene was always going to leave a colossal vacuum in the club when he left - not just in terms of the loss of his own knowledge and experience, but also all the areas he had neglected for nigh on a decade when he was finally shown the door. </p><p>Gazidis deciding to leave at the same time says a huge amount about that man - he was a chancer who hid behind Wenger. Ivan let the club drift while pocketing millions. He left the moment real responsibility fell at his door. Not before, of course, the disastrous appointment of Emery.</p><p>Since then, things have gotten genuinely dark at the club. Once Mislintat was shown the door, we became a juicy target for the true vulture of modern football - executives and super agents who realize that the biggest money to be made in the game is through player trading. What our absentee owners in Denver knew about what was going on, I don't know. But a well-run football club would not have signed-off on 72m for Pepe - a player who's not as good as Saka, an academy product - especially as it's not clear where all that money went. They wouldn't have given an exorbitant multi-year contract to Willian, a player in his early 30s, and they certainly wouldn't have let him sign his deal at the house of his notorious agent. They definitely wouldn't have signed David Luiz, a disaster of a player, as their replacement for Koscielny - our club captain who they had years to replace but singularly failed to do so. </p><p>We got rid of Raul and that will hopefully ensure less money is wasted moving forward. But, let's face it - our transfer and contracts strategy has been a disaster for years. Just one stat. We signed Xhaka, Mustafi, Lacazette and Pepe for <i>more </i>than Liverpool spent on Salah, Mane, Firmino and Wijnaldum. That is bonkers. For a long time, the argument at Arsenal was whether we had money to spend or not. As we saw with Partey this summer and Pepe last year, the club does have money. Maybe not PSG/Man City levels of money, but we can compete for good players in the market. </p><p>The club's fundamental problem is that we've not just bought mediocre players, we've rewarded these players with huge contracts. As Le Grove pointed out, we tried to even give Mustafi - MUSTAFI - a new deal this summer. A player who is surely, based on his transfer fee, our worst ever defensive signing. </p><p>This approach is one of the reasons the pandemic has hit us so hard. We were already one of the big clubs who were most reliant on matchday revenue, yet we were also a club desperate to shift a load of overpaid players to rebuild the squad. Instead, we were hit by a devastating deflationary event in the transfer market just when we were looking to sell. Hence why Torreira and Guendouzi - two prime assets - went out on loan, and why the like of Sokratis and Kolasinac stayed put. </p><p>This situation is why I do have some sympathy for Arteta. In 'normal' times, a new, midseason manager would work with the current squad to get the best results possible over the remainder of their first season. The summer transfer window would then be a ruthless rebuilding period, with players shipped out who the new manager doesn't fancy. Instead, Arteta essentially has three signings to his name - Willian, Gabriel and Partey. I think the latter two are quality, even if the first is rapidly entering 'financial disaster' territory. I will give Arteta a pass on Soares and Mari as I am not convinced he had a huge say in those signings, which seem to largely have Edu and Raul's fingerprints on them. </p><p>With Partey clearly the best midfielder at the club by a mile, Mikel rushed him back for the derby, and then lost him to injury. So we finished the game with 9 players on the pitch who were Emery/Wenger-era players. That is the challenge facing us. Indeed, our the squad can roughly be divided into three groups:</p><p><b><i>Team Arsenal Retirement Village</i></b></p><p>Willian, Luiz, Sokratis, Ozil even - dare I say it - Auba at the moment. These are old players on fat contracts who are not currently pulling their weight. Three of these leave next summer, at least. I won't get drawn into the Ozil situation, but he should have left last summer and he's destroyed any legacy he had with the club based on his current antics. </p><p><b><i>Team We Will Always Let You Down</i></b></p><p>Xhaka, Bellerin, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Lacazette, Ceballos, Pepe, Chambers, Holding. These players will <i>always </i>let you down in the long run. Yes, they can pull off a cup run when drilled to within an inch of their lives to play compact, counter-attacking football. But they are all fundamentally limited players. Either let them leave next summer (Mustafi, Ceballos), or take whatever fee you can get. I'd honestly let Lacazette leave on a free tomorrow if we could cancel his contract. </p><p><i><b>Team Hope</b></i></p><p>Saka, Tierney, Leno, Gabriel, Partey, Martinelli, Maitland-Niles (just) - these are the players who should have a future at the club. Notice how there is only one fit attacking player in this list, who's 19, when we're wondering why we can't create chances at the moment.</p><p>There are a handful of players here who are either inexperienced or who haven't played enough for the club to truly judge (Willock, Nelson, Nketiah, Smith Rowe, Mari, Soares, Saliba). Elneny also remains an enigma to me - sometimes hopeless, sometimes good. </p><p>But this is what years of club management has wrought - about 5-6 players who are genuinely good enough to play for Arsenal in the long-term. That speaks to a colossal failure by the club's executives, and we've decided to ask a first-time manager to clean it up. </p><p><b>Arteta's Problems</b></p><p>If I were to end on a truly dark note, it would be to ask whether Arteta has it in him. He's a very thoughtful and charismatic leader, who (I thought) had a clear vision of how he wanted the team to play. The FA Cup win was impressive and I thought we played good football at times in the league during the back-end of last season. He seemed to find a level of form in the likes of Xhaka and Mustafi that I didn't think possible, and had Auba firing on all cylinders. </p><p>Things have completely fallen apart this season and I'd argue two related things are going on. Arteta, firstly, recognized that we were a mess defensively when he took over. Having played under Arsene, he would have known for years that defence has been undervalued at the club. The 3-4-3 we played for most of the end of last year got the job done in this regard. It gave players clear, defined roles, and made us defensively sound. We became harder to beat and harder to score against. With Auba providing the goals, things looked promising. </p><p>This year, without a true transfer window to rebuild the team, the squad has collapsed due to its contradictions. Players have horrendously regressed to their horrible means. We have bad faith actors <i>within the squad</i>, as the likes of Ozil and his PR team stir the pot online. The signing of Willian seems to have been a complete disaster - destroying Pepe's already fragile confidence while saddling us with a huge financial liability. </p><p>Teams have worked out that our players - even if coached more effectively - are still, largely, the rag-tag band of mediocrities they were before and have stopped being intimidated by our tactics. We've had no answer for teams that hit us quickly on the break with our collection of sub-par central defenders and midfielders. When in possession, we ponderously stroke the ball around. The relentless pressing of the opposition high up the pitch has disappeared. We've stopped waiting for players to commit before passing the ball, a hall-mark of our game from last year. </p><p>Amidst all this chaos, the goals have dried up and Arteta has (bravely or foolishly, depending on your perspective) attempted to execute his pivot from 3-4-3 to either 5-3-2 or his preferred 4-3-3 to give us more attacking spark. The essential problem with this attempt is that it seems to be entirely predicated on the fitness of Partey, and his ability totally dominate whatever midfield he's playing in. I might venture that basing an entire tactical system on the fitness one player is, shall we say, a gutsy move.</p><p>Short of Partey, our tactics have devolved into endless probing down the flanks and ineffective crossing to forwards that can't head the ball. It's been a mess. </p><p><b>The Path Forward for Arteta</b></p><p>There is no easy way out of our current situation. This is not a quick turnaround. Regardless of his cheerleaders in the press and in Kroenke HQ, if we're hovering around the relegation zone after another ten games, Mikel won't last the season. Arsene hung on for so long because he kept us in the Champions League and its associated money for so long, but was summarily removed once it was clear we'd failed to qualify for the second year in a row. Emery was similarly removed once things started to go south quickly. Arteta is one of the biggest prospects in European coaching, but he ultimately has a very short CV at present. I think he's on much thinner ice than public pronouncements might suggest. </p><p>One card that Mikel does have up his sleeve is Edu: the one person demonstrably doing a worse job than Arteta at the moment. Recruitment has been shambolic since Edu joined, with half of the deals seemingly revolving around his connections vs. a defined strategy of finding the best player for the job. Moreover, for someone whose remit supposedly encompasses team harmony and acting as liaison to the squad, we have toxic employees aplenty. </p><p>A no-brainer for me is to sack Edu, find a world-class Director of Football and give them whatever they want to join. We can't have two novices steering the club. We've seen with the appointment of Tim Lewis that the Kroenke's have some sense of the importance of decent corporate oversight and we need reinforcements. Look at the success of Liverpool, Leicester and even that mob down the road from us. Vinai seems a nice guy, but he needs help, and Edu ain't gonna cut it. Get someone i and give us the piece of mind that the long overdue culling of over half the squad is finally on the horizon. </p><p>Until then, Arteta needs to back to basics. Look at what you have, not what you want. Re-start the season and go into damage limitation mode. If we have to grind out fifteen 1-0 wins to put some form of gloss on this season, so be it. I watched the dregs of the George Graham days, I'm ready for it again. </p><p>In terms of recruitment, don't even wait for January - make sure that Xhaka and Lacazette never play for the club again. See if you can find someone in the Middle East or MLS to take Willian off our hands. Unilaterally cancel Ozil's contract in January (or before) if he won't leave. Ban him from the training ground if that's not possible - I'm being serious. High-profile, toxic employees destroy team culture. </p><p>It's time to find out whether some of our youngsters are going to make it too. Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock are at make-or-break moments in their Arsenal careers - give them a run of five games in the team. See if Smith-Rowe can play #10 - he cannot be worse than Willian or Lacazette in that role. Up-front, start putting Balogun on the bench or give him a chance in the side while we wait for Martinelli to return. Supplement this lot with whatever you can get into the squad in January. It's time to roll the dice.</p><p><b>**</b></p><p>Personally, I think Arteta is going to ride this out. It may seem like he's in a Moyes spiral at the moment, but I think he will swallow his pride and make some biggish changes. More than anything, he - and the club - need to be honest about where we are. We have fallen out of the English, let alone European, elite and we are in the early stages of a long-term rebuilding project. That should be the guiding principle for all our future moves. </p><p>Stop the short-term, agent-driven decision making and get smart. We need to cash in on whatever assets we have and rebuild. Give Arteta some proper help when doing so. And maybe then, in 2021, it will be fun to watch Arsenal again. </p><p><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;" /></p>Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-80554183766625546352018-04-24T09:30:00.001-04:002020-11-23T10:30:33.067-05:00There Will Never Be Another Arsene Wenger<i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></i>
<b><i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Beginning</i><br />
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When I was growing up, I couldn't imagine Arsenal without George Graham. He was Mr Arsenal to me. The immaculate blazer. The slicked back hair. The back 4. The 1-0 to the Arsenal. </div>
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And then he was gone. There it was on the front of the papers - the bungs. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then there was well-meaning Bruch Rioch. Bergkamp too. But Rioch was not Arsenal. He fell out with Ian Wright and the countdown began. </div>
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My Dad saw Patrick Vieira's debut. He came home and told me he'd seen a that had run the game. He could do it all. And this was a Wenger player. </div>
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Before Arsene took over, I'd never seen Arsenal win at Highbury. But '98 was different. We went to Old Trafford and Overmars scored and it was possible. Then I saw Dennis score against Sheffield Wednesday and we were closer. </div>
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Then I saw us put five goals past Wimbledon. Overmars again. Bergkamp. Petit. Wreh. Adams. Every goal took us closer. I walked out of Highbury with my family and people sang about how we were going to win the league. And we did. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If you've supported Arsenal since the 90s, you have a favourite moment that Arsene gave you. A gift. Maybe it was when we won the league at White Hart Lane. Maybe it was when you saw Pires or Henry play for the first time. Maybe it's when Sol came over. Maybe it's just that feeling in April and May, when the days start to stretch out, when Arsenal were always in the running, even if we sometimes fell short. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Maybe it was when we achieved perfection. When Arsene created a masterpiece. They celebrated a draw while we celebrated a title, unblemished. We were fed caviar by the spoonful. For ten years, Arsene created a haze of happiness. We didn't just win, we won playing the best football this country has ever seen. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In the beginning, Arsene was the greatest manager in our club's history and we got to see it all. </span></div>
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<i><b>The Fall</b></i></div>
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My last game at Highbury - I was at the third row from the front in the West Lower. Lauren took a throw in front of me. He took a few steps back and I could have touched his back he was so close. </div>
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A year later, I was at the first game in the Emirates. It is a magnificent edifice. Beautiful sightlines. Comfortable seats. Pristine toilets. Just no soul. When we the moved, something changed. And so did Arsene. </div>
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I have read, by apparently sincere people, that Arsene's greatest achievement was keeping us in the champions league year after year, a competition we never came close to winning after our trip to Paris. Indeed, Sky flashed a graphic about Arsene's net spend when his departure was announced. And there you have it: the act of accounting, that dullest of professions, becoming something we should celebrate. </div>
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After nine years without a trophy, the drought ended. And yes, we saw - sometimes - patches of great football at the Emirates. But this wasn't the Arsene of old. This was a slow-motion decline from title challengers to a cup team. The big money signings finally came and plastered over the cracks, but the writing was on the wall when a mediocre United side battered us 8-2. That Wenger survived for seven more years after this moment of abject habilitation is a testament to his survival skills and the inertia that had overwhelmed the club. </div>
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What went wrong? A number of trends coalesced and Arsene was left behind. </div>
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1- Big Money.</b> When Arsene took over, Arsenal were the Bank of England club. Bergkamp was a record fee for a UK transfer. We were behind United, but not by much. We were - and still are - filthy rich. But we weren't big money. We weren't an oligarch from Russia. We weren't a petro-country. We couldn't buy and dump 30m pound players in a season. But Arsene's answer was to retreat even further from a transfer market he clearly despised towards a vanity youth project. We'll likely never know how much we were financially constrained by the stadium move. But we definitely had more money and money that we had could have used better. We flew the white flag to Abu Dhabi and Abramovich as quick as we could. We stood still as we paid off the mortgage and filled Stan's coffers. </div>
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2 - Lost Allies.</b> When Dein was forced out, Arsene lost his fixer. Post-Dein, we became a shambles in the transfer market. Players ran down their deals and held us over a barrel. It's hard to imagine that the summer of 2011 would've happened with Dein around. And with Dein gone, Arsene retreated further into himself and his ideas. Genius left unchallenged becomes eccentric. And when the parasite from Colorado arrived, Arsene was emboldened further. A symbiotic relationship was struck between Stan and Arsene - Arsene made Stan richer and Stan let Arsene do whatever the hell he wanted. Arsene let the club drift while chasing his various ideals and Stan had no inclination to correct him. </div>
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3- Silk without Steel.</b> All three of Arsene's title winning teams were built upon the rock of Patrick Vieira. Behind him, were an elite defence, whether it was Adams and Bould or Campbell and Toure. After 2007, Wenger apparently gave up on the idea of steel. Instead we would pass. Pass, pass, pass. Then pass. Then pass again. The '98 and '02 run-ins, the unbeaten season, getting to the Champions League final: these were all built by Arsene on a solid defensive core. The lesson from 2006 should have been that steel means progress in Europe. Instead, we signed Alumnia, Squillaci, Silvestre...an endless parade of defensive mediocrities. We had a team of lightweights for a decade. For someone who talked so much about mental strength, we were feeble when the going got tough.</div>
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4- A Failure to Change.</b> Arsene is the radical who became a reactionary. Everything he brought to Arsenal in 1996 was ahead of its time in England. He was so far ahead of the curve that it took 10 years for the opposition to catch up. Yet new ideas were not welcome. Ferguson found a formula for Wenger in 2005 and barely took an L from Arsenal in his last 8 years at United. It took ten years for Wenger to beat Mourinho. Sometimes things clicked into place and Wengerball got us a result. But we started to scrape into the top four as our years of dominance waned. Wenger stood still for ten years and the new breed overtook him. </div>
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<i><b>The End</b></i></div>
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I still didn't think it would end now. I fully anticipated that Arsene would see out his contract. One more grim slog of a season. Two things did for him in the end.</div>
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1- We have been truly terrible this year in the league. Blowing the title to Leicester (Leicester!) in 2016 was the start of rapid decline in the club's fortunes, as our rivals regrouped and overtook us. Last year was bad. This year was terrible. Playing once a week - effectively - has not helped at all. The team can't win outside of Islington. We spent over a 100m on new attackers in the last 12 months and no-one thought to defend. Not building a new core to the team in 2015 was a monumental act of hubris that led directly to the detritus of the last year. Ultimately, even if we win the Europa League, our current trajectory is clear and the board finally accepted that Wenger would not correct it this time around. If one were being cynical, the football has finally got bad enough to threaten Stan's wallet, and he finally acted as a result.</div>
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2- The fans stopped caring. Arsene hasn't been hounded out. His reign has ended with a whimper, not a bang. The humiliating performance in the league cup final was the last straw for most. Why bother to turn up if the team wouldn't either? The empty seats spoke of a declining empire, a club in freefall. It couldn't go on like this and Arsene was finally put out of his misery. Apathy can sometimes be more deadly than hatred. </div>
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<i><b>Epitaph </b></i></div>
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I was a child when Arsene took over. He's always been there as I grew up. I'm not ashamed to say I will miss him terribly as a constant in my life. He's someone who, on some weird level, I could always rely on. I have wanted him to leave for the last 7 years not because I hate or despise him, but because I want him to be remembered in the right way. He is one of the few individuals in the world I truly admire and I will never forget the happy memories he gave me at the peak of his powers.</div>
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Looking at the reaction to his departure, I would say my position is far from unique. Watching his decline has been an incredibly painful process. I'm glad it's finally over. I can let nostalgia wash over me and ignore the rest. </div>
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Because there will never be another Arsene Wenger. There will never be another Bould chipping over the top to Adams. Another Henry slaloming through the Bernabeu. Another Wiltooooord. Another Pires lobbing it over Schmeichel's head. Another Battle of Old Trafford. We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And it's all thanks to him. </div>
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When I think of Arsene, I'll think of the beginning. Merci et bonne chance mon ami. </div>
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Gb. </div>
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Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-40412826391162385202018-01-21T10:00:00.000-05:002018-01-21T10:00:39.624-05:00Alexis Gave More to Arsenal Than Theo Ever Did<div class="MsoNormal">
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Change, it seems, is afoot at Arsenal. Gazidis has finally
pulled the trigger and is starting the long overdue re-build of the club to
prepare it for the post-Wenger era. We’ve got Sven doing transfers, the guy
from Barca as de facto Director of Football, and Huss doing contracts. Quite
how Wenger fits into this, and who actually has the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">final </i>say over transfers is unclear. But surely, the monolith has
begun to dissolve. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As a consequence, this has been one of the more
consequential January transfer windows in recent history. Within it, two
players have been sold, both of whom stand as emblems of the club’s decline
under Wenger. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The first is Alexis. It’s easy to forget now, but Alexis was
signed in a period of great hope for the club. We’d signed Ozil, broken our trophy
drought, and seemingly taken a number of steps towards reinforcing our squad in
the summer of 2014. Alexis hit the ground running, we won the cup again in
2015, and we were poised to take the great leap forward with a few more
additions. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But none came. Wenger, in one of his signature moments of
imperial decline, decided to sign no outfield players in the summer of 2015. We
lost our opening home game to West Ham, recovered, then blew the easiest league
campaign in a generation, with Leicester (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leicester</i>)
winning the title as our nominal rivals struggled. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When you look back at Alexis’ career, his second season at
the club was largely bereft of open displays of insolence, but this was clearly
the moment he realized he’d been had. Unlike most of the dross that has
populated the team in the last decade, Alexis is an elite football player; a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">true</i> winner. He will do anything to win
and doesn’t care what bridges he burns along the way. This, of course, blew
minds within the squad. While Giroud was busy celebrating a draw at
Bournemouth, Alexis threw his gloves at the ground in disgust. He, wait for it,
didn’t like being substituted. He told team members how he felt about our
mediocrity in training; shock rained down. He fell on his haunches in Munich, appalled
at the humiliation we’d received.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, of course, the club have relentlessly briefed against
Alexis since he was dropped for the away game at Liverpool earlier this year.
He’s difficult, he plays for himself, he’s selfish, he’s a brat. We’re better
off without him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is curious, because Alexis is, by a distance, the best
player that Arsenal have had since the Invincibles. He has consistently
produced. He has scored goals in big games against virtually every team. He
scored in both cup finals he has played in for the club. He has single handedly
won games on countless occasions. Until Lacazette scored yesterday, he was our
joint top scorer in a season he had supposedly given up on, were we to believe
the lines coming out of Colney. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The truth is that Alexis exposed the ever-diminishing
expectations of the late Wenger era. Arsene has passed from revolutionary to
reactionary and refuses to countenance players that expose him. Alexis asked
simple questions – why aren’t the other players as good as me? Why don’t they
care as much about winning as I do? What are we going to do to stop this
relentless momentum towards mediocrity?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Alexis will earn a huge payday at United. Within the warped
world of football wages, he deserves it. He is a game-changer, a force of
nature who only cares about getting that next goal, regardless of the score.
Seeing the logistical cartwheels that Arsenal fans have undergone in the last
week to claim that losing Alexis for an inferior players is ‘the best we
could’ve done in the circumstances’ is instructive. We have become so
relentlessly attuned to underperforming that losing our best player to our
supposed rivals has somehow become something of a triumph. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The circumstances should never have arisen. We should have
brought proper reinforcements in 2015, won the league in 2016, and be basking
in a golden ending to the Wenger era. How far we done fell. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Contrast Alexis to Theo. There has been nothing but good
wishes for Theo. Good old Theo. Stats Theo. A goal every 4 games Theo! Never
complained did Theo. Loyal servant to the club. No mischief from him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Just lots and lots and lots of bad performances. The fact
that Theo got to almost 400 games in an Arsenal shirt is emblematic of the
lowered standards that plagued the second half of the Wenger era. His stats are
bolstered by braces and hat-tricks against the likes of Bate Borisov and League
Cup nobodies. Theo’s record stands at about nine-ish goals a season. This was a
guy who twice held Arsenal to ransom over his contract, culminating in his
ludicrous stint at centre-forward. Bayern were surely quaking in their boots
when they realized old Theo would be up against their centre-backs. When the signature phrase of your career is "unlucky Theo", it's not because you were a world-class player.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And look – Theo is clearly a nice guy, But who cares? I’d
rather 11 winners who hated each other and won than 11 Theos who had a
nice time at work together and took L after L when it counted.
The fact that Theo’s greatest moment for Arsenal, his slalom run against
Liverpool in the Champions League, happened ten years ago says it all. If you
wanted a figure that summed up the second half of Arsene’s reign, it would be
Theo – flashes of brilliance, injuries at key moments, and a lack of bottle
when it ultimately counted. It may sound churlish to talk about Theo in this
way, but he should have left the club long ago. To put it another way, Alexis
could’ve fought Ljungberg or Pires for a starting spot in the Invincibles XI;
Theo wouldn’t even make the bench. Given our colossal resources, it’s not
unreasonable for us to demand players of the calbire and mentality of Alexis, rather than
Theo, as the norm at the club; we must resist every attempt to make us think otherwise.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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That the likes of Theo and Coquelin are finally being
cleared out is a reason for hope. But only if Arsene follows. Otherwise, no
matter who we sign over the next few weeks, the club cannot move forward. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s hoping. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Gb. <o:p></o:p></div>
Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-30896262362437358212017-08-28T07:00:00.000-04:002017-08-28T07:00:29.589-04:00If You Care About Wenger, Make him LeaveA few thoughts on another, entirely predictable shambles.<br />
<br />
* The team selection was, yet again, bizarre. Chamberlain is shoe-horned into the team as a RWB with Bellerin, hardly a natural defender at the best of times, pushed onto the other flank. Holding, apparently dropped last week, goes straight back into the starting XI. What a great way to re-build his confidence. Lacazette, our record signing, dropped to the bench. Kolasinac not at CB and not even in the team. It says a lot when the club's social media team actually struggle to work out how we're meant to be playing, and still get it wrong. Mustfi, one of the most expensive defenders of all time, watching on from the bench, apparently days away from leaving.<br />
<br />
* Once upon a time, maybe thirty years ago at this point, there was a simple theory to away games at big teams. You keep men behind the ball for the first 30 minutes, make sure it's tight, and don't give away a cheap goal. You let the opposing team become frustrated, and look for chances to pick them off on the break. It doesn't always work, but it usually keeps the game close. Instead, we simply attack from the start. If there is a game plan, it's simply to play the same way we play in any situation, regardless of the team or context.<br />
<br />
* It's difficult to muster the effort to analyze any of the individual goals in depth. A common theme, instead, is a lack of defensive thought and anticipation. For Firmino's goal, we actually have a decent number of defenders in the box, but there is no organization or anticipation of a relatively late run into the area from a Liverpool attacker. Watching him throughout the move, he is never closely marked at any point, and has a relatively easy header to put them ahead.<br />
<br />
* The Mane goal was perhaps more representative of the mess we were in. It's easy to blame Holding here, and he does deserve some blame for being turned inside-out by Mane before the goal. But where is the protection? Why is Mane able to take all day to twist and turn Holding about before he scores?<br />
<br />
* The answer lies in the system. It is useless, absolutely useless, to blame individual Arsenal defenders for goals at this point. They are all slaves to a system of defensive ineptitude. When defender after defender fails in our team, perhaps it's not due to individuals Jonathan Wilson wrote an article in this week's <i>Guardian</i> about the so-called 'red-zone' between a team's defence and midfield in their own half. Failing to stop teams here is lethal.<br />
<br />
*And for Arsenal, we haven't so much abandoned it as deemed it an everlasting no-man's land. A place where no Arsenal player dare set foot, less their total commitment to attacking football be brought into question. This stems from the formation. Ramsey and Xhaka are both good central midfielders, yet, clearly, neither will defend our box unless explicitly told to do so. Ramsey now spends most of the game bombing forward, while Xhaka tries to pick passes from deep with middling effect. Behind them is a wasteland. Re-watch the match and pause it virtually anytime Liverpool win the ball from us. In most instances, they will outnumber the Arsenal defenders and have acres of space to play between our midfield and defensive lines, as much as these exist in the first place. And they are the <i>home </i>side.<br />
<br />
* Our failure to defend this zone is both tactical and philosophical. Clearly (surely!) neither Ramsey nor Xhaka is being told to patrol the area in front of our defence, except when we are looking to re-start attacks and distribute the ball. Ramsey, as far as I can tell, is being told to play as an auxiliary centre-forward at this point. The conclusion, is that Arsene sees 3 at the back as an even greater licence to his midfielders to abandon their defensive responsibilities. The constant overloads we've seen in midfield are a consequence of this.<br />
<br />
* The other major failure is the space behind our wing-backs. The whole basis for success of the 3-4-3 lies in the willingness, and ability, of the wing-backs to tuck-in and defend without the ball, and then sprint forward to overload with it. Clearly, Chamberlain and Bellerin get the second part, and are more than willing to bomb forward at a moment's notice. Defence? Not so much. In the first week of the season, NBC interviewed Vardy after the Leicester game. He said that they knew to target the space behind our wing-backs as an area where they'd find joy. Leicester put 3 past us in that game. Liverpool similarly destroyed us today on the flanks, and this team we had no answer up front. If before the season even started teams knew how to exploit our system, and Arsene has been unable to prevent this in all three games so far, something badly wrong.<br />
<br />
* At 2-0, the game was lost. All that was left was the familiar, bizarre cavalcade of substitutions. Coquelin on for Ramsey. Lacazette on for Sanchez, to play as a left-winger. Nothing improved and were simply picked off twice more on the counter.<br />
<br />
* Six years ago I moved to America. My first season over here was the 2011/12 season which we started in catastrophic style. A horrendous 2-0 defeat to Liverpool followed by the nadir of the Wenger era, the 8-2 at Old Trafford. Shortly thereafter, we went on the trolley-dash and eventually salvaged our season.<br />
<br />
The 8-2 was the moment I became Wenger out. It's been a shorter or longer journey for others of you out there, but surely we are all here now. Incredible as this may sound to the final loyalists out there, it's possible to respect his previous achievements and still want him gone from the job.<br />
<br />
Every post-game interview makes my heart wrench. Today's was typically awful. A hero, a true hero of mine forced to face up to his latest failing. One he will never be able to resolve. The past is a foreign country.<br />
<br />
The only question left is what comes next. Does the club have the guts to do what's best and finally end it? Or will it be two years (at least) of further decline? Two years where we watch, almost each week, our greatest manager stripped further and further of his dignity.<br />
<br />
Let's end it now and get working on his statue. Every day he stays is another blow to his legacy. The faults are obvious and we'd be hard pressed to find someone who' do a worse job.<br />
<br />
Gb.<br />
Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-52008664841424380702017-08-25T21:20:00.000-04:002017-08-25T21:20:12.819-04:00Wenger's Final Years - Scorched Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oECsGvS9gc4/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oECsGvS9gc4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
If you're looking for an analogy of Arsenal's summer, the video above is hard to beat. Even more than ever, given our recent demotion to the Europa League, we were fed the same lines in June. "Early purchases," "catalyst for change", "statements of intent" etc. etc. Notwithstanding our FA Cup performances, we'd hit a low in the second half of last season, with one calamitous performance following another. Even our usual Spring uptick in form was not enough to save us this year.<br />
<br />
And, as so often happens, the summer started quite well. We actually signed a striker and, by the looks of it, a half-decent defender. We were supposedly in for not one but two of Monaco's brightest talents making, it was alleged, a bid of a cool 100 million euros for Mbappe. This was statement of intent stuff. A well played game of chess.<br />
<br />
Instead, our strategy has ended up resembling the random machine-gun fire that follows the supposedly careful plan. If there was one, we ballsed it up. We've been linked with Lemar all summer, yet have been unable to close a deal with a club that's clearly willing to sell its best players. As an upgrade to the summer of 2011, we've moved to 3 players (rather than 2) who are undergoing painful, failed contract negotiations that we've left too late to resolve. Ask yourself - does any other major club in Europe let so many of its major assets reach contractual crisis points like these. While I would dearly love Sanchez and Ozil to stay, if it was clear at the start of the summer that no renewal was on the horizon, surely cashing in and reinvesting would be wiser than subjecting ourselves to the caprices of two individuals playing for contracts at other clubs, who will clearly look to ensure they don't pick up serious injuries along the way next year. As for the Ox, he can do one, in all honesty. Barely ten goals in seven years, and no sense of his role in the team, says it all. Again, a player we should have let go and reinvested. And that is before we even get to the likes of Wilshere, Gibbs and Theo, who should all have been moved on years ago.<br />
<br />
Indeed, Arsenal are in a fairy incredible position this summer of not being able to get rid of the players we want to sell, while not being able to get the players we want to keep to commit to the club. If we are periodically collecting huge stores of deadwood at the club, while failing to tie down the players we want to keep to long-term deals, something is badly wrong with our internal negotiating strategy. Yet nothing changes. Arsene bristles and acts indignant at the idea a Director of Football would deign to help out.<br />
<br />
And this is all before we get to the problems on the pitch. The fundamental issue here, and it is quite simple, is this - Arsene will *never* change. He is stuck within a vortex of his own beliefs and prejudices about how football should be played, no matter the reality that faces him. This was fine as long as his brand of football was still among the best played in England. It no longer is.<br />
<br />
That he would seek to self-sabotage a tactical formation that almost saved our season is no surprise. The man got to the final of the champions league using a tactical outlook focused on defence, and never repeated it because he was so disgusted at the quality of football it produced. He does not value the defensive side of the game. When a virtual cavalcade of centre-backs fail at Arsenal, it is not to do with individual quality; it is a philosophical decision to deprioritize the protection the team affords them.<br />
<br />
And so we start a game against Stoke with a 3-4-3 formation including 1 centre back. We sign a left wing back who made the Bundesliga team of the year and shoe-horn him in at centre back. We play a right back at left back to accommodate a contract rebel who's not worth keeping. The one centre back we do play, the most expensive in our history, we are apparently looking to sell. We play two central midfielders who have no inclination at all to protect the team's defence. And we lose. We hog the ball, as Wenger loves, but we lose because we're not good enough to do anything meaningful with it. Wenger will soon return to his beloved 4-2-3-1 comfort zone, and we can go back to losing in the way we know best. All so we can sooth Arsene's arrogance.<br />
<br />
And so we enter into the last week of the window in a state of total shambles. We could lose our two best players for nothing next year, along with a raft of squad players. We have, to my knowledge, made no effort to tie down any of the 2019 renewals, such as Aaron Ramsey.<br />
<br />
I have read a variety of theories over the years about why Wenger refused to leave Arsenal. A popular one has always been that he wants to leave the club in as strong a position as possible. Instead, unless some serious signings or renewals happen imminently, he will have done quite the opposite. If we thought last year was bad, we still have a long way to fall over the next two years.<br />
<br />
GbGbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-49331043263432792072017-05-28T18:05:00.000-04:002017-05-28T18:05:00.697-04:00The Arsenal Finally Show Up: One for the Ages <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PIvJ0YKXLao/WSscdeuDkuI/AAAAAAAAAB8/Viu7rE0VZQoYZOzZLPmODVaXaIb2AdvFQCLcB/s1600/skysports-aaron-ramsey-arsenal-chelsea-fa-cup-trophy-win-celeb_3964479.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PIvJ0YKXLao/WSscdeuDkuI/AAAAAAAAAB8/Viu7rE0VZQoYZOzZLPmODVaXaIb2AdvFQCLcB/s640/skysports-aaron-ramsey-arsenal-chelsea-fa-cup-trophy-win-celeb_3964479.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Where to start? I've been fortunate enough to see Arsenal win a load of trophies over the 25 years that I've been following the club. This ranks up there with the best of them. A tale of triumph against the odds, and a victory as sweet as any I can remember.<br />
<br />
Some thoughts:<br />
<br />
* The build-up to the game reminded me a lot of our win over Parma in 1994. No one gave us much of a chance - we were playing against (supposedly) superior opposition, and we had our share of injuries. Back then, we were missing our best striker (Wrighty); now we were missing, essentially, our entire defence. It meant some big game-time calls for Wenger - Monreal as a CB, Mertesacker recalled, and Chamberlain as a LWB. When you add the faintly ludicrous decision to play Ospina, our defence, a weak point all season, looked ripe for the picking by Chelsea.<br />
<br />
* In terms of Ospina, he was one of many players who had a good game - although one could argue he was somewhat at fault for the goal - but the system of playing back-up keepers in finals really needs to end. While I will take almost any opportunity to link to this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvRTnXaDRjU">video</a>, playing back-up keepers in finals has almost rebounded on us catastrophically in the past. Let's not do it any more please.<br />
<br />
* As for Mertesacker, something weird has clearly been going on with him and Wenger this year. He has been fit - as far as I can tell - since January, yet Wenger has shown no inclination to pick him at all. As it turned out, he was MOTM. He must has given some indication in training he was capable of such performances, so why he has been locked out the team is something of a mystery. For Per to come in, after such a long time away, and put in one of the all-time great Arsenal performances in a final elevates him to legend territory. I don't think its hyperbole to call it The Mertesacker Final - he was immense.<br />
<br />
* A special word too for our other two CBs. Holding is now a member of the starting XI, regardless of whether Mustafi and Gabriel come back. He looks composed, reads the game beautifully and, crucially, can take care of himself on the pitch. To be a truly world-class defender, you need to have a dark side. Telling Costa he's mental, on top of taking out Arnautovic a few weeks in Stoke, is a major difference between Holding and a half-dozen other defenders Wenger has bought over the last few years. To directly compare him to Chambers, for instance, both are very technically proficient, ball-playing centre-backs. At the moment, Holding has an edge to his game that suggests a very promising career in a way that's less easy to see with Chambers. As for Monreal, we all need to step back and appreciate his contribution to the club since he joined. A true pro who went through a ragged patch of form, and surged back into the first team, he was brilliant.<br />
<br />
* Much praise has gone to Xhaka, and it's no surprise that he has blossomed when playing in front of a more stable defence and with Ramsey as his partner. You can't fault Coquelin's commitment, but he is not good enough to start in midfield for Arsenal, and he seems to drag down the performances of those who play beside him (Cazorla excepted).<br />
<br />
* Ramsey has also gone up a level when playing next to a partner who properly compliments his game. He's scored two FA Cup winning goals - if you don't appreciate him at this point, you never will, and you don't deserve him. He ran 14.4km in the final; a record. I have long maintained that Ramsey gets stick because he never hides. He will make mistakes, but he is an elite central midfielder when used correctly.<br />
<br />
* Who knows what the future will bring for Alexis and Ozil, but if this was their last game, it was a fine way to bow out. The amount of rubbish I have read about Alexis this season is incredible. He wins games. He scored over 30 goals this season. I couldn't care less if he gives the ball away a lot; it's his job to make things happen, and he does it. It is hard to overstate what a massive loss he will potentially be to the team. Ozil has had a more frustrating season but stepped up for the final, and really should have capped a great performance with a goal. I think there is a fair chance he will stay; it's hard to see another elite club offer him the same role that he has at Arsenal. On days like yesterday, his technical leadership on the pitch is vital, and he simply needs to add goals to take his game to the next level.<br />
<br />
* I felt that the change to 3-4-3 would be a temporary fix for a deeper problem, and the match against Spurs showed that it is hardly a foolproof system. Yet the overall picture since its implementation is now fairly clear - we've won almost every game we've played using it. Moreover, we've won games while rotating personnel. For a long time, it felt that Arsenal only bought rubbish centre-backs; but i think that using a system that leaves the defence almost entirely exposed is going to make life difficult for almost any centre-back. It's great - and long overdue - that Arsene sorted out systematic reasons for our defensive difficulties, and it begs the question why it took him so long to do so. Our best run in the Champions League, for instance, came on the back of a system that prized defensive stability. I can only assume that we will persist with the system moving forward, and it would be mad to go back at this point.<br />
<br />
* The game hammered home that winning a cup is infinitely more rewarding than finishing in the top four. It's a false dichotomy to suggest that we even have to pick one or the other. But yesterday meant much more than anything but winning the league. Just look at the players and the fans' reaction - everyone knows this. Look at Rob Holding showing off his medal to the fans, or Ramsey's face above. Players want to win. It's one of the greatest myths of modern Arsenal that we don't have the resources to compete on multiple fronts. We have huge amounts of cash, a massive stadium and an enormous fanbase - trophies should be the norm. It's one reason why I hope we treat the Europa League seriously. We haven't won a European trophy in over twenty years, and we should go into the competition as favourites. Moreover, you only have to look at Atletico Madrid to see that some clubs have been able to use the competition as a spring board to further success in domestic competitions.<br />
<br />
* We have to end with Arsene, and ask whether this is <i>the</i> end for Arsene. Until yesterday, I had been 99% sure he was staying. But there was a notable change in his tone in the interviews he gave before and after the final. This didn't seem like a man who was certain of his future, nor one that was, crucially, even in control of his future. He is clearly angry at what he considers a betrayal. The media have largely pinned this on the fans, and I imagine Wenger is surely angry at the sub-section of the fan base who have embarrassed the club over the past few months. You can't argue we are a club with 'class', then hire a plane to fly a banner over a stadium, or promote barely intelligible interviews given by fame-hungry morons on social media. Some "fans" are clearly more interested in their grubby personal brands than how the club is perceived. They will obviously argue otherwise, and there is clearly a legitimate case for the removal of Wenger from the club; but don't forget that some people profit from the advertising linked to the idiotic ramblings of supposedly adult men.<br />
<br />
Fans aside, however, Wenger's ire is probably more squarely aimed at the board and, in particular, our seldom seen CEO. If I were to speculate, I would imagine that Arsene felt a renewal was likely until around the time of our meltdown against Bayern. He may well feel that the board did not back him during this difficult period, and essentially hung him out to dry as anger in the fan base grew. His anger here is justified to a certain extent; if I had done a job for 20 years, I would expect a little more loyalty from my employers. But it highlights the dilemma the club faces. Arsene has been an incredible manager, yet on the basis of this season (let alone last year, when we blew the easiest title race in twenty years) he should go. This should have been announced before the final, and this should have been his magnificent send off.<br />
<br />
* Whatever the outcome, sometimes Wenger gets it completely right: “Look, let's enjoy the win tonight, not worry about the future, and live in the present.”<br />
<br />
Yesterday was what you live for as a football fan. We played like The Arsenal of old, and showed we can win when it matters most. Ten, twenty years from now, you probably won't remember some of the low points of this season; you will remember Aaron Ramsey stooping to head the ball barely a minute after Chelsea had equalized, and how those last ten minutes felt like an eternity before an explosion of joy.<br />
<br />
Cherish days like yesterday. They are the reason we love the game and this club of ours: <i>The</i> Arsenal.<br />
<br />
Gb.<br />
<br />Gbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-72986841042210428872017-03-07T22:32:00.003-05:002017-03-07T22:32:30.724-05:00Gazing into the Abyss: Bayern 10 Arsenal 2What did we expect today? To go out of the Champions League. There was maybe a small part of me that felt a comeback might, just might, happen, but the odds were so long that it was basically a fantasy. Beating Bayern 4-0 at home was never really going to occur. And if you believe it could have happened, you're almost part of the problem. It's one thing to support the team; it's another to so blindly believe that the best might happen, that you ignore how bad things really are. Enabling is destructive.<br />
<br />
The officials certainly changed the game. Had the penalty been given for the trip on Walcott in the first half, and we go in at 2-0, then maybe things might have been interesting. But they didn't. There isn't a conspiracy, it's just incompetence. Just like it was blind, mad incompetence to upgrade Koscielny's yellow to a red, and end the game. So what. Those are the breaks. Deal with it.<br />
<br />
The real crime tonight was what happened to the team at 1-1. It's the difference between Arsene and the truly great managers of our time. Had this been a Ferguson managed team, the final result would have been 1-1, maybe 2-1. Why? He would have shut up shop, put his players behind the ball, and told them to grind out the rest of the game. Keep it boring. Keep it respectable. Focus on the battles you still might win.<br />
<br />
Instead, we fell apart. Who knows what, if any, instructions were issued from the sideline. Maybe at 1-1 there was still some mad belief that we could get 4 goals and win it 5-1. The fact is there was no order. No semblance of sense. Just a bizarre, self-pitying collapse. No shape, no discipline. Players openly abdicating responsibility as the goals rained in. Sanchez trying to dribble it out before being dispossesed by Robben. Costa having enough time to light a cigar before scoring the third. Ozil not bothering to press properly for the fourth. Wide open spaces for the fifth.<br />
<br />
I can't stress this enough. This is a total disgrace. A <i>total </i>disgrace. Teams get players sent off. It happens. The best teams show substance, passion and pride when they're backs are against the wall. You can lose with a semblance of honour. This was a team who couldn't be bothered; leaderless, rudderless, spineless. I'm watching clips of Sanchez laughing on the bench, and this is where we are.<br />
<br />
The final result was the heaviest home defeat in Arsenal's European history. Bayern scored 10 (ten) goals against us in two legs.<br />
<br />
It's over. It's been over for years. I'm sure we'll beat Lincoln and might even have a run at the FA Cup this year but please, <i>please </i>leave before this gets really ugly.<br />
<br />
I read Gunnerblog's excellent article on Arseblog this week about why he's struggled to maintain his passion for blogging about Arsenal. I couldn't agree more. I started this blog a few days after Arsenal beat Real in 2006. That might not have been the best team in Arsenal's history, but it was an exciting one. The future seemed full of possibilities. Now all we've been left with is the abyss.<br />
<br />
"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.'<br />
<br />
GbGbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09206727029714096039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-59805954318281186242017-02-16T09:00:00.000-05:002017-02-16T09:21:20.540-05:00Arsene, Arsenal and Hypernormalisation <br />
I recently watched Adam Curtis’ documentary Hypernormalisation – you can find it on the iPlayer and YouTube. It’s an interesting yarn about why the world is in such a mess at the moment, but this blog is not about the connections between Syria, Gaddafi, Blair, Trump et al. Instead it’s about the concept of hypernormalisation. Curtis borrowed the title of the film from a book about the Soviet Union by Alexei Yurchak, a professor at UC Berkeley: “Everything was Forever, Until it Was no More.” To quote a review of the film in <i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/adam-curtiss-essential-counterhistories" target="_blank">The New Yorker</a></i>, Yurchak contended that in the final twenty years of Soviet rule:<br />
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<i>[The] Soviet system had been so successful at propagandizing itself, at restricting the consideration of possible alternatives, that no one within Russian society […] could conceive of anything but the status quo until it was far too late to avoid the collapse of the old order. The system was unsustainable; this was obvious to anyone waiting in line for bread or gasoline, to anyone fighting in Afghanistan or working in the halls of the Kremlin. But in official, public life, such thoughts went unexpressed. The end of the Soviet Union was, among Russians, both unsurprising and unforeseen. Yurchak coined the term “hypernormalization” to describe this process—an entropic acceptance and false belief in a clearly broken polity and the myths that undergird it.</i><br />
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Remind you of anything?<br />
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Look – I’m aware that comparing Arsenal and Wenger to one of the most brutal governments of modern history is ridiculous. I know. But read the quote above again.<br />
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Arsenal exists in a state of hypernormality. There is an inherent falseness to the picture we are painted each season as supporters. We are told we can compete with the top teams in England and Europe; we never do. We are told that Wenger can change things this season; he never does. We are told that this our season in Europe; it never is. We will win the league this season; we don’t. We're always 2-3 players from glory.<br />
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We lose by huge margins each season in the first knockout round of the Champions League, never showing any improvement; yet we celebrate finishing fourth, and qualifying for the same competition. We cannot even beat Leicester City to the league title, when, finally, all our rivals flounder; yet we are told that finishing second is a great achievement, proof of Wenger’s consistency in qualifying for Europe.<br />
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We have the same injury crisis each season, involving the <i>same players in the same positions</i>, but nothing can be done to prevent it. It's just bad luck.<br />
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Look at Giroud’s statistics! He failed to score in any of the games during the crucial run-in last season. Koscielny is a world-class defender! He makes catastrophic errors on a regular basis. Petr Cech will win us 15 points a season! He hasn’t. Cazorla, a 32 year old with knackered Achilles tendons, can be the lynchpin of our midfield! He won’t play again this year. The team is entirely composed of players who are both good enough and not good enough at the same time. They are Schrodinger's players - both world-class and not world-class simultaneously.<br />
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And what it all comes back to is this: Arsene Wenger can build a winning team this season! No, he can’t. Hasn’t been able to do so for a decade. He can build a team that gets the requisite points for the Champions League cash cow, but the days of him building a winning team are years gone. Thirteen Years to be precise. The same mistakes, the same self-destruction, the same limp capitulations are replayed each year. But who can imagine an Arsenal within Arsene? Who could possibly do better?<br />
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Pundits know this, yet engage in the same nonsense. Gary Neville gives extended tactical analyses on Arsenal’s shortcomings almost every week, and then calls supporters ‘embarrasing’ when the ask for change in the club’s management. But I suppose he can give a cheeky grin, get on AFTV, and pretend to be a man of the people.<br />
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This is Arsenal’s hypernormalisation. We are painted a picture of a well-run club that plays great football with a fantastic manager. So why have we not won the league in 13 years? Why have we not mounted more than 1 or 2 credible title challenges in that time? Why have we had only 1 or 2 decent Champions League runs in <i>twenty</i> years. Why have our performances, if anything, regressed against the big sides, both domestically and in Europe. 8-2, 6-3, 6-0, 5-1, 5-1, forever. Either our expectations are too high (they aren’t), or the reality is not what it is purported to be (it isn’t).<br />
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In the end, Wenger will leave Arsenal, and the club will continue. Everyone knows the system is failing and one day it will end. When? Sooner rather than later. We will look back at the final years of his reign and wonder why it was allowed to carry on for so long, how a legend of the club was allowed to tarnish his reputation in this manner. <br />
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So why does it continue? As with all decaying forms of governance, ask the simple question: <i>cui bono? </i>The answer lies in the boardroom. Because for all Arsene’s faults, he is the only true football man in the senior ranks of the club. Kroenke and his idiot son don’t have a clue. Gazidis has been chancing it for years. The fans are told to pipe down if they dare raise a point of dissent at the AGM. Give us your cash and shut up – the system is working. "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." The banal inertia of Wenger’s reign makes a lot of money for a lot of people. They literally do not care if we lose 5-1 away at Bayern every single season as long as the cash keeps coming in.<br />
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But for the fans it’s not enough. All we can hope for is that, one day, reality will return, and the club is honest about where it currently stands. And if nothing else, when the end comes for Wenger, it will certainly be both “unsurprising and unforeseen.”<br />
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Gb. <br />
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Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-20278211541372629132015-09-02T09:40:00.000-04:002015-09-03T10:21:07.952-04:00And Now is the Window of Our Discontent<br />
It all started out so well.<br />
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Finally, after ten years without a world class goalkeeper, we acted ruthlessly and bought one. And from a major rival no less. Petr Cech was coming, and Almunia, Mannone, Fabianski, Szczesny and Ospina would all be consigned to the dustbin of history. Smokey McShowerson was even sent off to Rome. It was a statement of intent. Ozil, Alexis, now Cech - we were serious about getting elite players, and constructing a squad that could challenge for the big trophies.<br />
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And then nothing. Even as things sped up in the last week, there wasn't even the usual avalanche of half-baked rumours that usually surface before the window shuts. I was reduced to ever more desperate searches on Twitter. Benzema posed in his Real kit and laughed at our transfer hopes. Arsene was pictured in Paris, for reasons unknown. And as the De Gea deal broke down, Stones stayed at Everton, and United punted a fortune on a teenager, the Arsenal negotiating team was presumably down the pub enjoying its third pint of the evening. We are the only club in any of the top five leagues in Europe who didn't sign an outfield player this summer, unless you count the mighty one known only as "Jeff". Barca signed more players than us while being under a transfer ban.<br />
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So where does this leave us?<br />
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In summer's past, the debate would inevitably have revolved around money. Namely, did we have any. We can't afford to compete financially! We'll do a Leeds if we buy a player for more than 10m! FFP! Financial doping! Despite the ample evidence from Arsenal's accounts that we were loaded, this excuse was bounded around for years. But it took the arrival of Ozil and Sanchez on whopping fees for the it to be finally dispelled. We have financial firepower. We have loads of it. We are a billion pound club with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/datablog/2015/may/20/psgs-record-wage-bill--worlds-biggest-clubs" target="_blank">the tenth biggest wage bill</a> of any team <i>in any sport</i>. Arsene is on 8 million a year. We've just concluded massive deals with Emirates and Puma, and are receiving the benefits from an enormous new TV deal. If you are really still using the 'we can't compete financially' excuse you probably have difficulty counting your fingers and toes.<br />
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So a new argument has emerged, essentially a variant of the above - "there were no players available who a) are better than those we have b) who wanted to come and c) we could afford". Let's just assess this for a moment. Arsenal have 25 players, give or take, in the squad. Are these the undisputed 25 best players in the world? Are they all such titans of their profession that the mere idea of upgrading any of them is patent nonsense? No, of course not. Arsenal have a core of elite players - Ozil and Sanchez for sure, Ramsey just about, and now Cech - who are near to being the best in their respective positions. Beyond that, everyone in the squad can be improved upon. Are there no better full-backs in world football than Debuchy and Gibbs, for example, that we could afford and who could provide real competition to Bellerin and Monreal? Tomas Rosicky barely played a game last season yet is taking up a squad spot and wages. Joel Campbell failed to GET OUT WHILE HE COULD and is now deadwood.<br />
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And then there are the real problem positions. Arteta's legs are so badly gone that he can barely play twenty minutes of football. Yet he was given a new deal, and takes up a spot and wages. It's very nice that he 'has experience', but I'd rather have someone who can, y'know, play football for an entire match. Flamini is so bad we couldn't get rid of him on a knock-down price. I'd rather we pay off his contract than worry about getting a paltry fee. Coquelin seems to have risen to superstar status by having some degree of defensive nous, but is so inept at building from midfield that Wenger has to play Cazorla next to him as a passer by proxy. I simply refuse to believe that we tried hard enough here. I wonder if Wenger is now caught up in the vanity project of Coquelin's resurgence, and, again, just won't take that risk to see if we can truly upgrade and push on. Kondogbia took our midfield apart in two games against Monaco this season - he was available for a price we could afford and we didn't buy him. But of course there are no players in the world better than what we have who were available.<br />
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We also now go into the third season since van Persie left without a world-class striker. Giroud is petulant, lightweight, wilts in big matches, and simply misses too many chances. Arsene has now reached a point where he is dropping OG for big games, yet there are fans out there who would claim he couldn't be improved upon. Theo is, conversely, a big-game player. He's also injury-prone, drifts almost completely out of games, and is one-dimensional. Against Newcastle, I think he fell asleep at one point he had so few touches on the ball, save where he missed an open-goal from less than five yards. I like Welbeck, but he is not a clinical goalscorer, and, as shown at United, will end up being deployed on the wing ultimately. Again, the notion here that there is not one striker in the entirety of world football who we could afford who is better than these three is utterly absurd.<br />
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The idea that we can't upgrade on this squad is the refuge of the unambitious, or of those with a near cultish devotion to Arsene. We've been making excuses for Arsene and Arsenal's transfer activity for so long now that fans have arguments outside the Emirates about the correct accountancy terms to use when discussing the market, fella. We have enough money to make big, big transfers happen, but we are choosing not to do it. This is fundamentally how a huge amount of transfers work - clubs don't want to lose players, so you effectively bribe them into doing so. Arsenal can make that happen, but chose not to this summer.<br />
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What are we doing as a club? Where is the money going? We have the highest ticket prices in Europe yet we are content with a collection of players that have proved incapable of mounting a credible title challenge. The inertia of the club is startling. We would rather slip into the comfortable familiarity of the third-place finish, than think long and hard about whether what we have is good enough, and whether we can really do better.<br />
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Indeed, it is interesting that Arsene continually argues for 'cohesion' and 'stability'. It's almost as if he might have a vested interest in doing so, as the longest running manager in the Premier League. Two trophies in ten years would hardly seem to provide substance for Arsene's arguments of the need for continuity over change.<br />
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And this is the rub. The need for change goes all the way to the top at Arsenal. Watching us fall apart in big games, playing the same tactics every week, losing to the same teams in the Champions League each season, there is a profound sense that this is as good as it gets under Arsene. We have the recent FA Cup wins, which have been great. But we are now at a plateau. Ozil, Sanchez and Cech aren't enough to gloss over persistent failings in the transfer market. Bu they are enough to show we could build a better squad, headed by a better manager. There are no transfers that happen, or don't happen, at the club without Arsene's rubber stamp. Until he goes, we won't build a squad capable of a title challenge. The problem is, he shows no sign of going. A sobering thought.<br />
<br />
Gb.<br />
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<br />Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-72021797459397309762014-11-01T17:33:00.001-04:002014-11-01T17:33:21.828-04:00Is Alexis Football Club as good as it gets?I've realised that my - albeit infrequent posts - seem to only appear after defeats. So here's one after a victory:<br />
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* The line-up for the match was interesting. The defence, faute de mieux, essentially picks itself at the moment. Bellerin seems like a nice lad but is, let's face it, out of his depth. As a lesser of two evils, Monreal at centre-back rather than Bellerin at RB and Chambers in the centre is preferable. The rest of the selection showed some interesting choices on AW's part. The lineup was essentially a 4-4-2, a formation that we might as well play against lower-half of the table sides who are going to sit deep against us at home. Choosing Flamini and Arteta as our central-midfield partnership probably represented something of an insurance policy on Arsene's part, to ensure we we had enough defensive cover were Burnley to break. This did mean Ramsey not getting a start, which was a little bit of a surprise, but this may also have been to preserve him a little for our two forthcoming matches.<br />
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* The other interesting decision was Campbell being dropped from the matchday squad, apparently in favour of Sanogo. I have never been on the Joel bandwagon but thought he did OK in his recent substitute appearances, without necessarily producing anything spectacular. That AW sees Sanogo ahead of him in the pecking order is quite telling, and you get the impression that Joel's days at the club are numbered, perhaps begging the question of why we didn't just sell him in the summer. I do think Wenger settles on pet projects, and, unfortunately for Joel, "it's Sanogo" for him.<br />
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* We started the game well with a good tempo. Although, really, if you're not able to dominate Burnley from the start then we might as well just pack it in and go home for the season. This didn't really translate into too many tangible efforts on goal aside from some world-class shots from Alexis, and even these curled wide. One thing I have felt, and which hasn't been much remarked upon, is that we lose a little bit of subtlety as a team without Ozil. I know subtlety isn't necessarily a characteristic you think recent Arsenal teams need, but without Ozil we have quite a lot of players whose instincts are to use pace to beat players and flash shots from distance when they get frustrated. There were a few instances in the first half were I thought we tried to force the play, and where a little of Mesut's nuance might have been nice.<br />
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* Burnley were predictably quite quiet. There was, however, still a few opportunities where we nearly contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot, as is our wont. The particular culprits here were Mathieu <a href="https://twitter.com/foxrocks10/status/523511230062141440" target="_blank">"a disease on our game" </a>Flamini, and Szcz. Flamini, put simply, is rubbish. He was a welcome shot in the arm at the start of last season when the club was in a bit of a mess, and his performance in last year's North London derby deserves to be remembered as massive. But there has been a slow regression in his performances since then to his current state, where he is barely able to dominate Championship-level midfields. The sooner we buy a competent DM the better. As for Szcz, he seems to be metamorphosing into what I would call "full Almunia". This is a condition where a goalkeeper is unable to stop himself from blundering, whether it be rushing off his line, incorrectly positioning himself, failing to catch basic crosses, or clearing the ball so terribly that it should be recorded as an assist. His confidence, so welcome after the gaunt, hollow eyes of Manuel, now appears to be little more than hubris. Had we not bought an injured goalkeeper - side note STOP BUYING INJURED PLAYERS - I have no doubt Ospina would be getting minutes in the league at this point.<br />
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* The breakthrough, when it came, was somewhat inevitable. Despite the clock ticking down, it did seem that Burnley would have the one lapse of concentration that is fatal in games such as this, and with Chambers' follow-up occurring so soon afterwards, the final twenty minutes were among the most enjoyable this season. Podolski contrived to miss despite hitting the ball about as hard as it's possible to legally do so in a match, and Walcott made a welcome return. How Theo fits into the first team will be fascinating to see. He essentially missed the whole of last season, and the prospect of a team with Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott all fully functioning is quite exciting.<br />
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* Indeed, Alexis has hit the ground running at the Emirates. Where we would be without him this season is not pleasant to think about. He is clearly a player capable of scoring all types of goals - long-range efforts, scrappy shots in the six-yard box, headers - and can, critically, make his own chances when others are unable to provide. He reminds me hugely of Suarez - without, of course, the "unpleasantness" shall we say - an elite attacking force capable of bending games to his will. The flipside to this is that he is operating at another level to the rest of the side at the moment, in a manner reminiscent of van Persie in 2011-12. He seems to relish responsibility in a way that is almost the complete opposite of Ozil, and I hope that this will improve the latter's performances as well. The only concern I have is that we become "Alexis Football Club" - a team that is too reliant on one player, and which falls apart when he is either injured or fails to perform. I suppose we will just have to see how that plays out.<br />
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* In the final analysis, and despite the wonder of seeing a world-class player absolutely slay a team, this is all a bit predictable at the moment. We seem to be sailing gently towards the pattern established since 2008 - defeat the stragglers in our Champions League group, do enough against teams outside the top six in the league, and struggle in the remaining matches. Looking at the table, we're already in fourth place, and given how poorly Liverpool are playing this season, I don't think Champions League qualification will pose too many difficulties this season. The question is whether we can now use this modicum of momentum to actually kick-on and go further - something we probably won't find out until the game against Man Utd in three weeks' time. Otherwise, Alexis Football Club may be as good as it gets this season.<br />
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GbGoonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-27185240204645471622014-10-05T12:35:00.001-04:002014-10-05T12:35:25.666-04:00Arsene Wenger: The Testimonial YearsFew thoughts on today, this week, and this season:<br />
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* We came into the game on a high, battering Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday in one of those games that we still seem able to cruise through. Unfortunately, this leads to the conflation of our ability to win games against mediocre opposition to our overall ability to challenge for trophies. We are capable of the first, but a million miles away from the latter. As long as the two are confused, AW defenders will continue to trot out the same defences for his tenure, and the club will not progress. Anyway, I digress...<br />
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* There were a lot of things about this game that served as subtle indictments of Arsene's current management of the club. One of these was the happiness that we had not conceded three goals in the first ten minutes, as we did during out meltdown at the Bridge last year. Really, that should be the absolute least you can expect of an elite football team - to not be comprehensively destroyed in the first minutes of a match. Yet that is where we are as Arsenal fans nowadays.<br />
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* The reason for this was, however, somewhat positive. Clearly, lessons had been learned (to an extent) and our suicidal defensive line of last year had been abandoned. Chambers and Gibbs only pushed forward with caution, and Mertesacker, Koscielny and Flamini actually formed a decent defensive triangle for good portions of the first half. Chelsea played a high pressing game, predictably, but we were not overawed and kept our composure for the main part. Arsene, at last, seems to have realized that we can't just play versus the big teams away in the same way that we would against weaker teams at home. But would this be enough?<br />
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* Well, no. Because, predictably, a calamitous defensive error undid our good work. Hazard (another player we missed the opportunity to sign) made a brilliant surging run from midfield, ghosting past two players before arriving in the area. Koz thought "why not stick out a leg?" So he did. And thus a penalty. Koscielny, for all the hype, is an accident waiting to happen in every single game he plays. According to Orbinho on Twitter, he has given away more penalties than any other player in the premier league since 2010. <i>Any other player</i>. This is on top of the red cards, own goals, and general errors that blemish his otherwise good defensive performances. Essentially, you have a player who has the potential to be world class, but who is always a moment away from disaster. That's not really good enough, and it's why I advocated to buy a central defender this summer who would challenge Mert and Koz, rather than just being a back-up. Of course, we did neither, so there you go.<br />
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* Despite playing quite well in the first half, we really didn't do much with the ball. We'd win the ball, counter briskly, then things would fall apart at the edge of the area. After Welbz's goals vs. Galatasaray, I'd hoped that there would be a little more incision to our attacking play. Instead, we allowed CFC enough time to organize, and things would gently fall apart. Indeed, the real highlight of the first half was Wenger beasting Mourinho on the sideline after Cahill should've been sent off for a challenge on Sanchez. Small victories.<br />
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* I thought we actually also started the second half well too. But again, where was the cutting edge? A goal in the first 10-15 minutes after half-time would've thrown the game wide open. Instead, our final pass was lacking, and repeated periods of good pressure fell apart. With the introduction of Mikel, there was the slightly odd sight of Chelsea, at home, parking the bus. But really, they were just biding their time for the right moment, content to keep us at arm's length while we feigned danger.<br />
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* The moment, when it came, was utterly, utterly predictable. I'm not a betting man, but this was the type of bet you take out a 2nd, 3rd, 4th mortgage to make. Fabregas with a killer assist to Costa, who danced through our defence and chipped the ball over Szcz's head. Again, massive questions to be asked about Koscielny's positioning for the goal, while Mertesacker's lack of pace was completely exposed. But it was the sheer predictability of it. Fabregas playing an inch perfect long ball, Costa beasting our defenders. This was every Arsenal/Chelsea game in the last ten years in ten seconds.<br />
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* And a word on Fabregas and Costa - let's be absolutely clear on this: we could've afforded both. We could've signed both players. They could literally be playing for Arsenal right now. Instead, Arsene refuses to work with Jorge Mendes, so we couldn't get Costa. You might say it's a bit of a problem if our manager refuses to work with the world's biggest agent. You might. And then Fabregas. Again, Orbinho tweeted a killer stat during the game: Fabregas has more assists than the <i>entire Arsenal team </i>this season. The decision to not re-sign Fabregas was yet another self-inflicted wound in the transfer market, borne from Arsene's hubris. Given our inability to make and score chances when he left, to not sign him was an act of gross negligence, which will pay for heavily this season.<br />
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* So what of our attacking options? I like Ozil but I increasingly get the feeling that there is a poor fit between what we need from him and what he can provide. For 42m, we need and want the next Bergkamp - a guy that not only runs a game, but who will step up and seize the moment when required. Instead, Ozil seems content to drop deep and try and orchestrate things from afar, picking passes that are effective in terms of maintaining pressure and possession but not necessarily ones that are going to scythe through the opposition ranks. Now, part of this is due to the lack of runners in front of him. Yet theses are the games that you want Ozil to dominate, and he is not doing that at the moment. If we're going to build the team around him, you expect more.<br />
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* I would still say, contrary to many, that Ozil was one of our better attacking options. Sanchez, for example - I love his attitude and his pressing, but he gives the ball away far too frequently. Cazorla did not take the chances that fell his way, despite playing well in a deeper role than normal. And Jack continues to confuse. What is his role in the side? An attacking midfielder? Deep-lying playmaker? Box-to-box player? Who knows - and this is a problem.<br />
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* After the second goal, the game might as well ended. Wenger sent on two of his biggest frauds - Podolski and Rosicky - who contributed next to nothing as the clock ticked down. And for all our attacking options, we did not manage a shot on goal till stoppage time. That is a massive concern, no matter how nicely we countered and knocked the ball around at times. In many of these away games, we simply seem to end up in a holding pattern of sterile domination. Too many of our players are unable or unwilling to seize the moment, time slowly slips away, and more dripped points have been recorded before you know it.<br />
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* To sum it all up: this is it. This is the next three years - same as the last three years. I tweeted at the end of the game that expectations have now been lowered under Wenger to the extent where not getting a thumping at the bridge is considered some form of minor triumph, and I said that only partly in jest. Wenger's record against Mourinho says it all - he simply cannot beat the man. He's tried everything- taking the game to him, not taking the game to him, even playing a team of kids in the 2007 league cup final. Wenger cannot get the best of him. And so Wenger's record against Mourinho stands as perhaps one of the most damning pieces of evidence for his decline as a manager. The start of his travails against Mourinho lines up almost exactly to the start of the "one trophy" era that has spanned approximately the last ten years. Mourinho may be a monster, but he's a modern manager. Arsene increasingly looks like a dinosaur with each passing game.<br />
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Wenger has been left behind. Sure, we can all celebrate the cup win last season, but that should have been the triumphant endnote to his Arsenal career, a moment to say goodbye on a high. Instead, we've gone into the season after another transfer window in which we failed to build a squad capable of challenging for the league. We look like we will continue to lose the big away games that decide the CL and the league. Wenger is either out of ideas, or he's unwilling to change. And so the next three years have become his testimonial seasons; a long, sad unwinding, a few great wins interwoven with long periods of dross. As long as Kroenke gets to keep lining his pockets with higher ticket prices, he won't intervene. The club will continue to do the bare minimum required to be considered "elite". And we'll have to keep watching YouTube vids to remember what is was like to see a title winning team under Wenger.<br />
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Gb.Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-10952657566546249882014-06-08T17:45:00.002-04:002014-06-08T17:45:33.931-04:00Reasons Why we Should, and Shouldn't, Re-Sign Cesc FabregasI've been going over this subject in my head a lot over the last few days, and thought I'd share my ramblings with you. So here's the case for and against bring Cesc back home, or taking him away from home, it's all quite confusing really.<br />
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<b>Why we shouldn't re-sign Cesc:</b><br />
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- He's a bit of a knob, really. Imagine someone gives you a massive break in your career, enabling you to perform a job you love for millions of pounds. How do you repay them? Well, by saying, on almost a weekly basis, how you will leave this job and go back to your former employer - the one you left in the first place precisely because they refused to give you a chance. I found Cesc's continuous flirtation with Barca during his Arsenal career both tiresome and deeply disrespectful to both Arsene and Arsenal. I get it - you're from Barcelona. If you loved it so so much there, why did you leave? Arsenal are a massive club, and the whole "Barca DNA", "We all know I'll go back one day" story annoyed me hugely. We are not some kind of finishing school for footballing prodigies before they go on to the true club of their dreams. We are Arsenal and you should be honoured to play for us. Basically, don't come crying back to us after running off with your high-school sweetheart and finding out, or in fact remembering, they're a total psycho. You made your bed and you can lie in it.<br />
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- Beyond his yearly flirtation, there was the actual manner he left. Trying to push through a move after the 2010 world cup, failing, and then sulking for a season. Let's take a step back here - again, this is a guy being paid millions of pounds to play football, and he's sulking. It was a pathetic, shameful farce. That we allow such things to occur is a major reason why western civilization is ultimately doomed. Then, in 2011, there was the alleged "strike" - again, the self-entitlement and disrespect here is unbelievable. Yes, Cesc is far from alone in the self-entitlement stakes when it comes to football. But, do we want to re-sign such a person? There seems to be a good culture in the dressing room, with very few of the current squad in the primadonna mould that previous squads used to have in spades (I'm looking at you, van Persie, Adebayor, Nasri, etc.) Could Cesc re-adjust to being a squad member, rather than being club captain? Could he take on a auxiliary, rather than central, place in the team?<br />
<br />
- He's certainly had an odd time at Barca. Despite creating and scoring tons of goals, the club's fans have never really taken to him. He doesn't seem to have grasped what many thought would be his destiny, and become the new Xavi. There is a school of thought that suggests he is incredibly undervalued by Barca, and this is probably true. But his inability to fit neatly into the team ethic of Barca is interesting. There is only player allowed a free role at the club, and that's Messi. Cesc doesn't seem to have the discipline to play a more controlled deep game, or play further forward. Spain have also seemed to be unsure of where to deploy him - he basically started the European Championship final as a false nine, blowing the minds of hispters around the world. One of the Barca coaches basically said he was a very chaotic player, if I remember correctly. This kinda fits in with the primadonna personality - I play where I want. This pays off most of the time - like in the European Championship final - but it's hard to build a team around such a player, or even to put your full trust in them on the field.<br />
<br />
- The club would seem to have a plan for transfers this summer that doesn't include Cesc. In terms of our priorities this summer, a new right-back, striker, goalkeeper and (please please please) a holding midfielder are surely higher up the list. There is an argument that Cesc would be a luxury signing that would take up a large chunk of our budget. I can definitely see this argument in some respects (although I will entirely dismiss it later).<br />
<br />
- Which brings us on to my main area of concern - I didn't actually like the style of play, or the footballing culture I suppose, of the Cesc-centric teams seen between about 2006 and 2011. Think about the best teams under Wenger and the attributes that they had - power, strength, and speed. You would be hard pressed to use any of those adjectives when describing Cesc. I read a great quote from Lehmann the other day, who said that when we transitioned from the invincibles side to that centred around Cesc, the team basically slowed down. Two touches were replaced by three or four. We went from a team that destroyed teams on the counter-attack to one that tried to pass the opposing team to death. Remember how many games in 2002 to 2004 were over by half-time? How we would come flying out the traps and knockout our opponents before they had time to settle? And then think about all the games of the Cesc-era where the first half would pass everyone by. Where we would allow the opposition team to park the bus, rather than drive their bus off a cliff. Endless passing triangles involving Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky, Nasri, Denilson, etc. At its worst, the Cesc led teams were the definition of sterile domination. And I do put a large slice of blame on Cesc for this style (and, of course, Arsene for enabling it). Cesc essentially replaced Vieira in the side. We went from a guy who was so direct that he would tackle and pass the ball <i>in the same motion</i> to one that would want about 3-4 touches before even thinking about the next move. For the life of me, I can't work out why Wenger abandoned the mould that had brought his so much success - speed and power - and replaced it with the wimpy, tiki-taka football that made us a laughing stock. The only reason I think he did so is because he had Cesc, he believed in him, and he built a team in his image. People often call Cesc direct, and he is in a Barca team where passing is treated as an almost holy event. But for Arsenal, he was the orchestrator, and he often orchestrated not a lot. A return of Cesc would upset the balance of a team that could, if everyone was fit (please stop laughing) have a good deal of power and directness to it, as typified by its new leader, Aaron Ramsey.<br />
<br />
So this, for me is the case against Cesc - a disrepectful brat who would disrupt the balance of the team, both on and off the pitch, and who might see us return to the dark days of the weakest teams of the Wenger era - teams that were regularly bullied off the pitch, but only after completing hundreds of meaningless passes. He might also take up a big slice of a transfer budget that needs to be focused on other positions.<br />
<br />
<b>Why we should sign Cesc:</b><br />
<br />
- As mentioned above, he's hardly alone in the acting like a knob stakes when it comes to transfers. From Odemwingie to Berbatov to Bale to even our failed bid for Suarez, footballers have a very loose idea of contract law. Namely, the contract is great in terms of the money they make from it, but the idea this is a binding agreement to actually keep them at a club is something that footballers appear to be astonished by on a regular basis. Ronaldo described himself <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jul/11/manchesterunited.premierleague1" target="_blank">as a slave</a>, lest we forget, because United tried to hold him to his 100k+ a week contract. So, yeah, while Cesc didn't cover himself in glory during his departure from the club, very few footballers do. I'm not saying he deserves a pass on this one, just that most footballers act like knobs most of the time.<br />
<br />
- Seeing him come back will undoubtedly be very emotional, and it would almost be a symbolic statement of how, after years of selling our best players, we are now committed to not only keeping ours, but buying top players from other teams. In other words, it would help to prove that Ozil was not a one-off signing but the start of a parade of top players coming to the club.<br />
<br />
- For 30m, it's a bargain. And what was the point of spending months of the 2011 summer window haggling over a buy-back clause if we're not going to use it? It just looks like a colossal waste of time, another damning part of a summer that should have cost Arsene his job. Players like Cesc don't become openly available on the market very often, and certainly not at knockdown prices.<br />
<br />
- If we don't buy him, he will go to Chelsea. Chelsea. Let's just repeat this again - he will sign for Chelsea if we don't sign him. The worst club in world football. And he will play against us, and score against us, and we'll have to watch as he celebrates winning all kind of stuff with Chelsea, and it'll be gross. I would be up for paying 30m just to make sure he didn't play for Chelsea.<br />
<br />
- The most compelling reason, is pretty simple - he's really good at football. Really, really good. This might seem at odds with my takedown of the "Cesc-era teams" above, but I'm not <i>that </i>stupid. He was the bright spot in some of the worst teams I've seen Wenger put out at the club. A midfield combining Cesc, Ozil and Ramsey would surely be the best in the Premier League. If, and this is a big if, we could harness all the great parts of Cesc's game - his creativity and vision - and find a way to put them into the team without destroying the nascent balance that seems to exist there...it could be very fun to watch.<br />
<br />
- Wenger's transfer "plans" have, by and large, utterly failed in the last few summers. Let's not pretend there was some kind of master plan last summer. We signed Yaya "competition winner" Sanogo (still yet to score an Arsenal goal), re-signed Flamini (who has been rubbish since about December ), a goalkeeper who played 2-3(?) games, and, of course, Ozil. But we only signed Ozil after failing to sign Higuain, Suarez and god knows how many other strikers. If you think there was a Wenger masterplan to wait until the 11th hour to sign Ozil, then you probably have a figurine of Wenger in your bedroom who you pray to every night. And what about January? No striker, despite Giroud's form having fallen off a cliff. Instead, we signed an over-the-hill midfielder who was <i>injured</i>. And let's go further back. The debacle of 2012 - selling the lynchpin of our midfield, and the best striker in the country to our supposed rivals. As for 2011, where to start? Selling our best two midfielders. Signing Park Chu-Young and Andre Santos. Haggling for months over Joel Campbell, who, to date, has still to make his Arsenal debut.<br />
<br />
In short, I'm not convinced there is a plan. Or to put it another way: if there is a plan, recent summers have shown that Wenger is terrible at executing it. I'm fairly convinced, for example, that Jenkinson will start the first game of the season. We are already being linked with a host of strikers, but we have failed to buy a striker in the last four windows. (Bonus trivia question - when was the last time Arsene bought a world-class striker in his prime?) So, rather than rely on Wenger's masterplan, how about we actually sign a top player who's a) available and b) cheap.<br />
<br />
- And my final piece of the puzzle - we have loads of money and should actually spend it on top players. This for me, is really important. We heard a lot of guff this week from Gazidis about the "strict budget" that Arsene is working with - this is patently nonsense. It is total spin, and I have no idea why the club is doing it. We are coming off the back of the biggest TV deal in history. We have massive, new sponsorship deals. We are charging the fans an extra 3% on top of the highest ticket prices in England. We have 100m in the bank, at least, <i>already</i>. We could sign Cesc for 30m and still have more than enough money to buy a world class right-back, defensive mid, striker and goalkeeper. We really do. If you think we don't, someone has lied to you. The money is there, in black and white, in the club accounts. We <i>already </i>have the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27046221" target="_blank">11th highest wage bill</a> in the entirety of world sports. We are loaded - totally loaded. We can afford multiple, big transfers this summer.<br />
<br />
Why we don't spend this money is an interesting question. There is the issue, of course, that the club's large cash balances make our absentee owner richer each day. I don't think that should ever be ignored. But I think there is a wider issue here. Despite the purchase of Ozil, Wenger is ultimately a conservative in the transfer market. He is already talking up "internal solutions", because he prefers to work with what he knows, than take risks. I imagine that Martinez will be promoted to back up keeper, for example. This is the strategy that saw Bendtner become our second-choice striker for parts of last season, and which saw us re-sign Flamini instead of the clearly more talented Gustavo.<br />
<br />
If Wenger doesn't re-sign Cesc, it smacks of a fundamental conservatism to transfers that, to be frank, is holding the club back. Once you have gone big, as we did with Ozil, the secret is out - we can afford these deals. My concern if we don't go in for Cesc is that it shows that Wenger hasn't really changed. The FA Cup win of this year will not be the start of a new era, but a poignant moment of unjustified hope that fizzled out as soon as it arose.<br />
<br />
It's the start of the summer, so we shall see how things play out. Maybe we will get all the players we need. But past windows under Wenger suggest we won't. There's only so many disastrous periods of transfer activity, or inactivity, I can take.<br />
<br />
And, my very final point, as Gunnerblog pointed out, is this: is there really a scenario where we regret buying Cesc? It's hard to imagine. On the contrary, there are loads in terms of the opposite - Cesc scoring the winning goal for Chelsea in the Champions League final. Cesc celebrating with Mourinho. Cesc having to do the "non-celebration" as he completes his hat-trick against us at the Emirates. Imagine all of these for a moment before saying you don't want him back. This isn't just knee-jerk emotionalism - it is the potential scenario of watching a top player, who we could have signed, bring success to another club.<br />
<br />
But the biggest reason for me to re-sign Cesc is I want to see real proof that Arsene has changed. That the new contract was justified beyond largely sentimental reasons. If not, we may be looking down the barrel of another summer farce, with at least two more to come.<br />
<br />
I genuinely hope I'm wrong.Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-61293871076637612632014-05-18T15:36:00.000-04:002014-05-18T15:36:04.058-04:00Season Review - Trophies Matter There was a moment during yesterday's game, I think after Cazorla had scored but before Koscielny had equalized, where I had my head in my hands and was mumbling to myself, in a near catatonic state - "please don't lose", "please don't lose". I'm surprised I wasn't asked to leave the pub I'd found myself in, as I probably represented someone on the edge of a full-on, falling down-esque collapse. Even after we've won, I still think about how I would have felt yesterday, today, and probably for a long time to come if we'd lost the match yesterday, and it isn't nice. It would have been some form of perma-gloom, a constant headache of how the club just can't win things anymore, an open sore of misery.<br />
<br />
So, you know, I'm quite glad we won. Because this is what supporting a massive club like ours is all about - winning stuff. This is what it all comes downs to - winning - and this is why I moan so often. We are in a privileged position of being a club that expects to win trophies each year. There's probably only 3-4 clubs in England who can say the same, and maybe less than a dozen in all the major European leagues combined. I love the camaraderie of watching and following Arsenal, and I would happily do it even if we got relegated down to the conference, but we are a massive club and this is the pay-off we can, and even should, expect: trophies and open-top bus parades.<br />
<br />
To go nine years without a trophy at a club like Arsenal: it's justifiable to question the position of senior management. And this season has been a rollercoaster ride that has, through luck as much as skill, thankfully ended with us not stuck upside down on one of the loops.<br />
<br />
I am so happy for Arsene, for the players, for everyone associated with the club. Watching Arsene with the trophy yesterday, you know that he knows the "fourth place trophy" line is total rubbish, and he probably hates it just as much as we do. He is a phenomenal man, and manager, and has won us a trophy on a sustainable basis, while competing with clubs that are, to all intent and purposes, cheating. We can take the trophy we won yesterday and use it as a springboard for further success. The squad really only needs additions in a few key areas for us to compete for the title next season. And, overall, I consider this season a success, because we improved our league performance, and finished it with a trophy.<br />
<br />
But....yes, there is a but. There have been times this season where I have felt as low as at any time of my twenty-plus years following the club. There have been times where Arsene's entire legacy was on the line. The epic thrashing at Stamford Bridge, the Etihad and Anfield rank among the worst performances I have ever seen from this football club. And, only about a month ago, we were staring down the barrel at Wembley, 1-0 down against a Championship club, and seemingly out of ideas. Per's equalizer that day saved us from humiliation, and, probably, saved Arsene his job.<br />
<br />
I had written last summer that our squad seemed perilously light, and so it was, despite the last minute, and surely unplanned, capture of Ozil. With a squad that benefitted from no pre-season international tournaments, and which had a favourable run of league fixtures in the first half of the season, we came racing out of the blocks, and flew to the top of the table. This was, admittedly, unexpected. I have always been a fan of Aaron, but had never expected him to become quite so deadly in front of goal. Things were going so well that a 6-3 tonking at the Etihad was largely ignored as an aberration, and not a hint at how the second half of the season would be considerably more challenging than the first.<br />
<br />
To maintain ourselves at the top of the table, Arsene stuck, as much as he could to a core of 13-14 top class players that we have in the squad. This led to him burning out several players - notably Ramsey and Walcott - who may have made a difference in the run-in. I don't actually buy the line that we were unlucky with injuries because we were fortunate in many respects. Sagna - a total warrior once again - didn't pick up a serious injury at all this year, meaning we thankfully didn't even have to rotate and rely on Jenkinson at all. Koscielny and Mertesacker were also fit for the vast majority of the season, meaning that exiled "club captain", and error machine, Vermaelen did not have to be called upon too frequently. Arteta, our only decent holding midfielder, got through most matches. And, up front, we relied on our only proven striker - Giroud - so frequently, that his performance finally fell off a cliff in February, and we were forced to give Yaya "competition winnner" Sanogo a chance.<br />
<br />
So injuries were a mixed bag. Where we failed again was to build a squad that could challenge on all fronts in the two transfer windows. We have failed to sign a world class striker in four consecutive transfer windows. In January, when Giroud was on his last legs, we messed around with Draxler for a month, before signing an injured central midfielder on loan. This was total, inexcusable madness.<br />
<br />
This was a season of change in the Premier League's top teams, and one we should have exploited. A bigger squad, rotated more frequently, might have been fresh for the big matches in the second half of the season. A more pragmatic tactical approach in the games against Chelsea and Liverpool might have seen us pick up a point, rather than a traumatic beating.<br />
<br />
So this is why trophies matter. Because I think that while we showed progress in the league this season, it was ultimately an unsuccessful league campaign. But, when you've won the FA Cup, who cares? The inanity of caring whether you finish in the league other than first comes into focus when you win actual silverware. When you get to have the victory party with the oldest club competition cup in your hands. When you look at Arsene's face full of joy and it almost brings you to tears.<br />
<br />
It's nice to qualify for the Champions League; it's much nicer to win things. That's why, ultimately, this season was a success. I remember reading a Wigan fan blog last year after they'd won the cup - "We got relegated but who cares - we won the cup". Well quite.<br />
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I may post a few more pieces this week because of my giddiness at winning the cup. But, if not, I'll hopefully see some of you in New York in July - hopefully with the cup on display, and a pint in hand.<br />
<br />
Gb.<br />
<br />
ps - thank you for putting up with my moaning on twitter this year. i promise to do it less next year.<br />
<br />
pps - that is a non-legally binding promise.<br />
<br />
<br />Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-4081805461553446632013-09-03T13:06:00.001-04:002013-09-03T13:06:08.483-04:00Arsenal go big: Transfer Window Review<br />
So, at the eleventh hour (almost literally), Arsenal pulled it out the bag and finally went big. What a window - thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* Was there a plan? I suppose we'll never know. It's easy to say that the window was a shambles, but it may be the case that we simply had lots of high-profile targets, at high-profile clubs, who are simply harder to buy. The rarer the commodity, the more difficult it is to acquire. It did seem to me that we were fairly methodical in how we moved from one target to the next, and there may have been a more orderly approach behind the scenes than that which played out in public. It also didn't help that our biggest rivals bought a number of good players before the season started. So, for that, I a willing to be fairly forgiving about how things went overall.<br />
<br />
* But one can't escape the idea that there was a strong sense of chaos to our window, and it may well be that we were saved by Real's ridiculous transfer policy in the final week. OK - getting Suarez, Rooney, Higuain etc. is hard. But there were other areas of the team that could have been strengthened at an earlier date. Did we really have to wait until the last week of the window to get Flamini and Viviano? I don't think so. The fact is that we started the season in a mess, and get absolutely thumped by Villa because of it. We may have saved the window in its final week - but we surely have got some more bodies in before then.<br />
<br />
* So, Ozil. This transfer was not mooted until the end of the window, and was largely written off by the ITK mob, until abou 20 hours before it happens. Given the talk of shenanigans that had been going on for a week before the deal was confirmed, I find it amusing that anyone talks with any real authoriy about the transfer market. No-one really knows what's going on.<br />
<br />
As for Ozil the player, well, he's brilliant. A marquee signing, one of the best 10 or so players in the world. The notion that he's "not what we need" is absolutely baffling. Did Manchester United "need" van Persie last year? Probably not - but you buy world class players when they become available. I genuinely think he takes our already decent midfield, and elevates it (along with the Flamster) into one of the best in Europe. The size of the fee is a statement, and the transfer has the potential to be a game-changer in the way that Dennis's arrival was all those years ago. Well done, Arsenal - you got this one right. <br />
<br />
* But I actually think the re-signing of Flamini will also prove to be an inspired move. I had been slightly skeptical, but the way he instantly resumed his c.2008 performances on Sunday was breathtaking. Flamini is a high-tempo scrapper, but with a refinement to his passing that should only have improved further after his time in Milan (who, after all, offered him a new deal). Given he can fill-in across defence, and with Vermaelen's impending return, I actually thnk we are pretty well stocked defensively, especially given that Sagna hasn't left (a massive coup in itself). <br />
<br />
*I am broadly happy with the signing of Viviano, who does seem to be highly rated in Italy. I would have preferred, however, if we had simply gone big on a new keeper. This seems like a signing to keep Szczesny on his toes, and I'd rather we'd bought an experience keeper to simply replace him. Maybe Szcz will make good on his promise, but I have real doubts about his ability, and whether he really has what it takes to become an elite keeper. <br />
<br />
* The one absolutey glaring omission to our spending was a striker. Yes, we got Sanogo, but, at present, he looks like a midget thrown into the deep-end of swimming pool - completely out of his depth. Signing a striker is just about the hardest thing you can do in football, given their cost, but I refuse to believe we couldn't have gotten anyone. Given Podolski's injury, we are now a Giroud hamstring twinge away from being completely light up-front. One wonders if our relunctance to pay Ba's 3m loan fee may prove to be a bit of an error. Here's hoping we can get Bendtner to stop running over cars for a few weeks. <br />
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* Overall, then, I give this window a solid 8 out of 10. The deadwood were finally swept away (although who know where the hell Park is). We didn't lose any major players (koz, santi, jack, etc), brought in two players of proven quality, and a keeper who may to prove to be a decent option. If we'd pushed through a striker as well, I'd be in wonderland. As it stands, I'm very excited about this season, rather than being completely terrified, as I was only a few days ago.<br />
<br />
* This window has also ensured two other very big things. Firstly, Wenger will now get a new deal with minimal protest. He's done the dirty and spent big, and, it would seem, been key to our acquisition of Ozil. I would expect a three-year extension before Christmas, despite the fact that one marquee signing does not make up for all the years without a trophy, and all the years in which we could have gone big but didn't. Secondly, Kroenke's presence in the statement accompanying Ozil's arrival might as well have been marked out in 30 feet high, flashing neon letters. Who knows what role that Stan played in all of this, but it will certainly be used as a means of justifying his continued stewardship, after conspicuous levels of (justified) grumbling from the fans. Given that this wasn't his own money that was being spent, I imagine Kroenke is chuckling to himself as Arsenal's enterprise value ticks up another few million pounds. <br />
<br />
*A few quick thoughts on other clubs. Spurs have certainly got a lot of new players, but who knows if they'll gel or not. And they also certainly now appear to be short in the creativity and goalscoring stakes - I think we will finish above them again. Liverpool bought quite a few good players, but I still think they have weaknesses in their side that will keep them out of the Champions League. Chelsea bought some exciting players, yet still have Torres as their main striker (megalolz), and let Lukaku go out on loan (why or why?) Manchester City look like they've bought well, but showed fragility against Cardiff that may reflect bigger problems in the squad. As for Real Madrid - essentially buying Bale for 50m and Ozil is surely one of the worst transfer deals in football history. <br />
<br />
* A special word must go to Manchester United, who's window was surely nothing short of a shambles, despite keeping hold of Rooney. The cracks that Ferguson's aura helped paper over have surely now emerged with a vengeance. Signing a player for more than his release fee beacuse they thought they could get better; failing to get Real to register Coentrao's loan deal with La Liga, thus scuppering the transfer; and having, it would seem, a group of chancers represent them in the Herrera negotiations - it's not very good really. This is hardly the well-oiled machine that Ferguson presided over. I think they will be the big story this season. <br />
<br />
Anyway, roll on September 22. And prepare to see a lot of umlauts at the Emirates this year.<br />
<br />
Gb. Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-88181299807531572492013-08-17T14:01:00.003-04:002013-08-17T14:09:19.271-04:00A Shambles Three Months in the Making: It's time for a ChangeWelcome to the new season! What fun! Thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* It was good for five minutes. Rosicky received the ball, spun and released; Chamberlain played a delightful outside of the boot pass into the box; Giroud timed his run to perfection, and neatly slotted home. All was for the best in the best of all possible worlds.<br />
<br />
* And then we all woke up. The tantalizing five minutes of hope evaporated, and what we all knew came to pass - the club is a shambles, and so is the team. We can bang on about the terrible refereeing (and it was bad) but, again, it benefited us to an extent, such as when Woj rushed off his line and gave away a penalty through sheer, bloody-minded, terrible decision making. He should have been sent off, but instead had to suffer the indignity of saving a terrible penalty, only to palm it straight back to the penalty taker. Good times, 1-1.<br />
<br />
* After the equalizer, did we ever look like winning it? I don't know. We seemed to get progressively more and more wound up, that's for sure. We bossed possession, but ended up with just four shots on target. That's pathetic. The referee, while terrible, can't be held to blame for the totally mediocre performance that we saw today.<br />
<br />
* As for Szczesny - can we finally agree that he's just not that good? He was all over the place today - sprinting off his line for the penalty, rooted to the spot for the third goal, attempting to play midfield at one point when he came charging out of his box for no apparent reason. At this point, I don't care how good he might be - I want someone who's good today. We haven't bought a world-class keeper since 2003 - that is a disgrace, and who knows if Arsene even thinks it's a priority. Crazy. Begovic is openly available for around 15m. Buy him.<br />
<br />
* After releasing almost all of our defenders this summer, and buying no-one in return, it was fitting that we got a defensive injury today, and a red-card for Koscielny. I'm almost surprised that chickens didn't literally come home to roost on the pitch, because the defensive shambles we saw today was months in the making.<br />
<br />
* Koscielny was unlucky, but both cards were the result of us being overrun in midfield. Koscielny is a reactive defender, and if there is chaos, he reacts in turn with more chaos. He has now had multiple red cards during his time at the club, and, in all honesty, they all seem to be because of the chaos that is strewn across our side.<br />
<br />
* The third goal - well, we're down to ten men and chasing the game, so it was almost inevitable. Szcz's positioning was so poor he might as well have just ushered the ball into the net.<br />
<br />
* A few remarks on indviduals:<br />
<br />
* Giroud scored. Other than that, he was utterly, totally, completely useless. Still, one more goal for the statisticians! Who cares if he moves slower than a snail, repeatedly misses the target, ambles around the pitch without a care in the world! Giroud will never, ever be good enough to start for a team with pretensions towards the title, but don't worry, he scored twice against Brighton last year!<br />
* Walcott - what do you do, apart from the occasional useless set-piece? I wish we'd sold him last summer.<br />
* Rosicky is the ultimate Emperor's new clothes player, a shining beacon of the mediocrity that has engulfed the club. He missed a one-on-one chance today by a margin that would have embarrassed Chris Kiwomya. He runs around a lot, has a nice few flicks, but he is a fundamentally limited player. Look at his goals and assists record for Arsenal - it's pathetic. He's mutton dressed as lamb, a Carling Cup player masquerading as a Champions League one.<br />
* Wilshere - less aggro, more actual contribution please.<br />
* Ramsey - a squad player. No more.<br />
* Cazorla - so anonymous he could have committed the Zodiac murders.<br />
* As I write this, van Persie has just scored a second goal for United. Two words: footballing. reasons.<br />
<br />
* When the third goal went in, the boos rang out, and rightfully so. This is *The* Arsenal, one of the greatest sporting clubs in the world. Yet we have a dictator as manager who has now completely, lost the plot. One so wrapped into his world of absolute power, he vetoes deals for players that would manifestly improve the squad. Higuain? Pah. I refuse to pay his fee. Gustavo? Pah. Why pay his wages when we could get *three* Bendtner's for those wages.<br />
<br />
We have all known, all summer, that this squad is not good enough. Spurs, who finished one point behind us last season, have spent big under the auspices of a young, energetic manager with new ideas.<br />
<br />
I want, and have always wanted, Arsene to succeed. But it's time for a change. He has had three months to prepare for this date, and, instead, we put out a team that embarrassed Arsenal Football Club. That is dereliction of duty. That is allowing your own ego to outweigh the good of the club. Wenger was a genius. Now he is a sad, almost ironic, parody of his former self, a reactionary figure spewing falsehoods to keep himself in the job.<br />
<br />
He has two weeks to do the job he had three months to complete. But, whether he finally gets the players we need or not, it's time for a change. The Emirates turned on Wenger today, and I think this is the beginning of the long, sad, slow end to his time as manager.<br />
<br />
And I honestly think he only has himself to blame.Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-38200850264085025942013-05-26T17:08:00.001-04:002013-05-26T17:08:05.340-04:00Season Review: You Can Ask For More.
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The end of the season is usually a time for reflection, but
I wondered this year how much I really wanted to reflect on what had just come
to pass. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s be honest, this season was a bit rubbish. Yes, we
again won the top-four trophy, and, yes, again, we humiliated Spurs in the
process – but is this enough? I suppose it depends. It depends on what you want
from football. Do you just want to use football as an excuse to socialize,
develop friendships with people you otherwise wouldn’t meet, and sink a few pints
in the process? If so, I suppose any season would satisfy you. Don’t get me
wrong – I love all the gooners I’ve met around the world while supporting this
club. But I also want to be proud of the club I support, not just the people
with whom I support the club. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In that sense, I don’t think anyone can say this season is
going to be remembered as any sort of triumph. Smashing Spurs again was
obviously fun, and a 2-0 win against the now European champions at their home
ground is also something to be savoured, even if occurred in a match that was,
to all intent and purposes, a dead rubber. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We got to watch one of the world’s best players, Santi
Cazorla, play for our team on a weekly basis, and he provided a host of magic
moments that enlivened a multitude of otherwise dire matches. It was also nice
to see the club rediscover the art of defending, although you could argue this
was a necessity to make up for the lack of firepower at the other end of the
pitch. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beyond that, and a few other games, like Liverpool away or
West Ham at home, it’s hard to take too many positives from this season. It
supposedly gives us the basis from which to kick on – but have we not been in
this position for some time? The stadium payments haven’t really gotten any
more or less onerous this year, even if new commercial deals, and TV revenue,
will imminently start boosting our finances. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I simply feel that, as Arsenal fans, we have been sold the
future for almost a decade. We have been told to celebrate each top four finish
in that period, as it supposedly allows the club to attract and retain the
world’s best players. Instead, we’ve lost a host of top footballers, and done
the bare minimum to paper over the cracks, and keep ourselves in the Champions
League cash-cow. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, this season ended the moment we sold van Persie to
our supposed rivals. The club hoisted the white flag before a ball had been
kicked in anger, and we still haven’t entirely recovered from this rank act of
cowardice. To those who say we scored more goals without van Persie this year
than with him last year – please, get a grip. If we keep van Persie, and add
Cazorla with either one or both of Podolski and Giroud, we score MUCH more than
we did last year. In fact, I think we would have had an outside chance of the
title had we kept van Persie. After all, look at how far United pulled ahead of
City simply through the addition of one world class goalscorer. Instead we sold
him, and the title, to a club that operates under some form of bizarre,
kleptocratic regime, and yet still shows more ambition than us in the transfer
market. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our season was only saved by Arsene’s realization that we
could only get the results we needed by grinding them out. And grind them out
we did, with a series of almost unwatchable, narrow wins against the detritus
of the Premier League. Yes we did it, but surely we can expect more from a club
with our resources.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this is what this season review ultimately comes down –
you can ask for more. Setting aside all blame for the moment, we can ask for
more from the club than we currently get. We can ask for a club that treats the
most prestigious domestic cup competition with respect. We can ask that the
club, as a bare minimum, <i>challenges</i>
for the title, even if it doesn’t win it. And we can certainly ask that our
best players are not sold year-in, year-out, to teams that we are supposedly
competing with for the highest honours. The failure of the club to do all that
led to this mess of a season. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this is where we do have to start playing the blame
game. Because someone is primarily responsible for this mess. Is it Stan
Kroenke, our absent owner? A man who doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude
of responsibility that he has as owner of THE Arsenal Football Club. We are not
some two-bit franchise – we are one of the world’s most historic
social-cultural enterprises, a sporting institution that deserves an owner that
at least regularly attends matches, and pretends to understand why fans might
be a bit peeved by his refusal to say <i>anything</i>
to us about his intentions for the club, beyond the usual, bland corporate
statements. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it Ivan and his backroom team? Are they dropping the ball
when it comes to closing deals? How many other Juan Mata’s are there – deals we
should have completed, but failed to do so? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or is it Arsene? And ultimately, it perhaps has to be
Arsene. He is the one who makes ludicrous statements about the top-four
“competition”. He is the one that chooses to let us meekly slip out of the FA
Cup, year after year, despite the fact that he <i>must </i>know how much this trophy means to the fans. And he is the one
who was critical to the sale of van Persie, taking a call from his former Scottish
nemesis when he should have hung up and told Robin to shut up, and get back to
work, potential transfer fee be damned. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some fans will read this post and criticize me as negative.
Fair enough. But I simply feel that many of those fans that are deemed
“negative” are actually optimistic. They believe that Arsenal can do more. That
this club can actually compete on all four fronts each season. That we don’t
have to consistently sell our best players. That we can be more ambitious in
the transfer market without going into some Portsmouth-esque spiral - and as
side-note, even if we did, if the club came out owned by the fans, would that
be so terrible?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Arsene gets one more season. One more season to prove
that he still has the guts to be ambitious, and the guile to change his
approach and make us competitive again. I hope he has it in him. With Chelsea,
and both Manchester clubs in flux, now is the time to go for it in the transfer
market. Because if he doesn’t, and we’re here again next season, celebrating
fourth place like a trophy – it’s time for him to go. Let’s hope that it
doesn’t come to that. But let’s also forget that no one is replaceable. Given
the number of top players sold during his tenure, Arsene surely knows that more
than anyone else. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gb.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-56321190733250275032013-03-03T17:29:00.000-05:002013-03-03T22:16:04.176-05:00Time for Some New Ideas: Thoughts on Arsenal 1 Sp*rs 2Another week, another defeat. Thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* The line-up was probably as good as it was going to get, given our current squad. Personally, I would have started Podolski instead of Giroud, and Koscielny instead of Vermaelen, but more on that on a bit. The amount of poor players in the squad has reached such a point that it's actually quite hard to rotate the team. Gervinho may, be the best player in Africa, according to Arsene, but he can't even get off the bench at the moment. Oxlade-Chamberlain's form is in the toilet. Who else is there to choose?<br />
<br />
* We started well, for a change, but weren't able to turn our dominance into goals. This isn't a surprise, given that we have a painfully average striker as, seemingly, our first choice forward. Giroud did practically nothing all game. He's incapable of dropping deep to help make things happen, and he can't capitalize on the kinds of half-chances that RvP used to thrive on. There was a moment before Spurs scored where he was fed the ball in a promising position, and preceded to miskick it, and lose the opportunity. It summed up not only his game today, but possibly his entire season. Also, given that he's a pretty big bloke, he has a bizarre reluctance to get in the area, and try and win headers. I've seen enough of him this season to know that he's not going to turn into a world class striker we need, and that we can't rely on him to win us games. I feel like I say this every week, but replacing RvP with Giroud sums up our entire season - when excellence replaces mediocrity, standards slip, and games are lost.<br />
<br />
* So, naturally, despite dominating the early phases of the match, we spectacularly self-destructed. When a suicidally high-line is mixed with a complete lethargy towards tracking runners, goals follow. Frankly, watching Vermaelen stand there, nonplussed for both goals confirms the lunacy of making him captain, and thus an automatic starter. He is, simply put, not a very good defender. Koscielny deserves a run in the team. Also, Szczesny hardly covered himself in glory, once again, by neither coming for the ball nor standing on his line for the first goal. Standing in no-mans land, Bale was able to easily prod the ball past him. Another error for the Pole in a season littered with them - but hey, we can't kill his progress and buy an experienced pair of hands. That's cheating!<br />
<br />
* At half-time, the game felt like it was lost. I know we've had a lot of great recent comebacks against Spurs, but this did not feel like one of them. For the 5-2 last season, we had the likes of Sagna and van Persie in the mix to create huge moments that swung the game back in our favour. We also had the advantage of facing a Redknapp-managed side - an individual with even less tactical nous than Wenger.<br />
<br />
* So, I was a little surprised when we scored almost immediately after the interval. A nice freekick from Theo was flicked into the net by Mertesacker, with assistance from Bale. At this point I half expected the commentator to start sobbing, as the whole things had been portrayed as the Gareth Bale show up to that point. He's obviously a great talent, but the idea that the entirety of Spurs' recent good form is down to him is simply not true. Their midfield and defence was very well organized today, and AVB even dropped his defensive line in the second-half that ultimately helped to keep us contained. All joking about Spurs' history (or lack thereof) aside, this is a good Spurs team, who could be even better if they had managed to pick up a striker in January (sound familiar?). As it stands, I see no evidence that they are on the verge of the typical Spurs end-of-season implosion, and I fully predict them to finish above us come May. They may not have won the league for fifty years, but they look like a club going in the right direction at the moment, which is more than can be said for the current shambles going on in our part of London.<br />
<br />
* I suppose you could say we dominated the rest of the match, but what did we really produce? Two shots on target in the entire game is not good enough. Ramsey should have scored when put through, but Spurs also had very good chances to go three ahead. Even when six minutes was held up by the fourth official, there was no real scramble in the box, or last-ditch defending by Spurs. Other than our goal, our set-piece delivery was again abysmal, and Lloris and his defence was able to deal with most of it with relative ease.<br />
<br />
* Another game, then, where we self-destructed and largely handed the victory to our opponents. And at some point the question has to be asked: who is more to blame? The players or the manager? If we consistently make the same types of ludicrous defensive mistakes, surely this is a case of the players not being drilled properly on the training ground, or playing in a system that allows opponents to regularly open up our defence. Even at our best under Wenger, he's always built teams that leak goals. The problem is these leaks have become more and more frequent in recent years, and, bereft of a world-class striker, we are no longer able to overcome goalscoring deficits.<br />
<br />
Watching Spurs today I was struck by how astutely they have acted in the last twelve months. They got rid of manager in Redknapp who was ultimately lacking in the requisite tactical ideas to make them into a top side, and took a gamble on a young manger with new ideas about the game. This appears to have played off. In addition, they recruited a host of good players for very reasonable prices - Lloris, Vertonghen, and Dembele. All three of those players should have been bought by Arsenal. We weren't priced out of buying these players - we simply made poor decisions. We failed to do the necessary business in two transfer windows, and now we staring at the very real possibility of failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in a decade.<br />
<br />
As Amy Lawrence put it, there is a weariness to this Arsenal side. Not necessarily in their energy levels, but in terms of their whole approach to the game. A tired, outdated approach to the transfer market, combined with tired, tactical inflexibility has led to this point. There's no sign that our downward slide will be arrested unless a big change is made - a takeover, a new manager, or a real clearout of the squad. Who knows if any of those things will happen - but we all know Wenger has a job for as long as he wants it, and as long as he does, it's hard to see us really challenging for honours again. It's time for change of ideas, and if Wenger isn't capable of that, we need to find someone else to take the club forward.Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-77507339683372919702013-02-24T14:15:00.000-05:002013-02-24T14:15:07.291-05:00Getting Away with It - But for How Long? Thoughts on Arsenal 2 Villa 1A scrappy win, but a win nonetheless. Thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* I didn't like the starting line-up, and the midfield looked particularly shaky. There didn't appear to be much of a sense of balance in that eleven. Yes, it might only be Villa at home, but who was going to do the dirty defensive work in midfield?<br />
<br />
* But, for once, we got off to a good start, with Cazorla knocking home a shot at the second time of asking. I have been critical of Cazorla at times this season because I think he has the potential to play at an even higher level to the one he's currently at. Yes, he's not helped by our paper-thin squad, which necessitates that Arsene has to play him every week. But he's been wasteful with his shooting, particularly when he seems to snatch at opportunities from outside or near the edge of the area. Both his goals yesterday were measured, placed shots. He has a good goal tally this season - I think he can score even more next year if he continues to place his shots like he did yesterday, rather than thrash at them like he has done a little too often this season.<br />
<br />
* The remainder of the first-half, and indeed the game until Villa scored, was a little odd. Both sides had chances to score. We were, overall, on top, but there was a clear sense that we could be opened up with relative ease. As mentioned above, there was essentially no sense of who should be playing defensively in our midfield. Normally this would fall to Arteta, but it's now become abundantly clear that we need a dedicated holding midfielder, not a converted attacking midfielder, like Arteta. The space between our midfield and defence was constantly exploited throughout the game, and if Villa were not absolutely terrible they would have scored more than the once. When up against better teams, like Bayern, our lack of defensive organization as a team, is fatal. More on this later.<br />
<br />
* Regardless of our defensive failings, the game shouldn't have been as close as it was. However, until we get a new striker who is clinical in front of goal, we will struggle to see out matches such as this one. Yes, Giroud has got a fair few goals this season - but he is not good enough to lead us to trophies. It's notable, in my opinion, that barely any of his goals have come against opposition in the top-half of the premier league. He looks like what he is - a player with one good season under his belt in Ligue Un, who has struggled to adapt to a much higher quality league. He's a good back-up option, but he should not be consistently starting games. Unfortunately, that miss against Sunderland on the opening day of the season was a fairly accurate representation of his level of ability.<br />
<br />
* But Giroud can't take all the blame. Walcott is as consistently inconsistent as ever. Yes he has 18 goals this season, but the fact that he has become the team's main goal-scoring threat is slightly terrifying, given his propensity to completely hide during games. I have said this a few times - Walcott's representatives played Arsenal perfectly - they were able to achieve a deal that reflected the club's fears that the fanbase would not tolerate the loss of another "star" player. Until he consistently produces, he's not worth whatever inflated wage he is now on. If any good comes from the Bayern game, it's that hopefully the absurd experiment of deploying him as a lone central striker is now at an end.<br />
<br />
* Podolski must also come into some blame for a lack of prowess in front of goal. I have heard conflicting reports on the reason for his absence yesterday. There is the suggestion that he has been struggling with an ankle injury for some time that will require surgery at the end of the year. Others, have simply said he was dropped yesterday after a string of lethargic performances. So, what to make of Poldi? He's our most clinical player in front of goal, and I still think he deserves a chance in the central striker spot. But, does he deserve the chance if he can't even be bothered to run for a full 90 minutes? It's a tough call. In defence of Giroud, I know we're getting 100 percent effort and commitment from him, despite his failings as a player. I'm not always sure that this is the case with Podolski, unfortunately.<br />
<br />
* So, after squandering a series of chances, it was inevitable that Villa would score. And, being Arsenal, that they would score in risible fashion. After another wasted corner, Villa countered. Total chaos reigned in our defence, with Monreal not knowing whether to move to the player, or move to his position, and Jenkinson generally not having a clue what to do. But, Weimann's shot was not a spectacular effort and should have been saved. Instead, it went through Szczesny and into the net. It's now clear beyond any shadow of a doubt that we need a new goalkeeper. I love Woj's spirit, and he has had big games for us this season. But the mistakes now clearly outnumber the positives, and he has cost us games and points this season. Let's man up and make Stoke an offer they can't refuse for Begovic. If this "kills" Szczesny, so be it. We don't owe any of these players a career. If they're not good enough, they're out. Enough coddling.<br />
<br />
* The same goes for Jenkinson. Yes, he's a gooner, and celebrated our winner with enthusiasm. But so what? Is he good enough to replace Sagna as our starting right-back. No way. At the moment he is a mid-table player, at best, who would actually benefit from a loan. If we do make the mistake of letting Sagna go this summer, I really hope we have a plan beyond Jenkinson.<br />
<br />
* But the defence can't take all the blame for the goal. The chaos in our back-line stemmed from a certain unearned nonchalance to defending in our midfield. The question is - what type of players are Diaby and Wilshere? There role within our midfield yesterday was not clear at all. Wilshere is a brilliant player. But is he meant to be staying deep? Is he a box-to-box player? Does he have a free role in the side? And as for Diaby, is he some form of bizarre attacking midfielder who never contributes significantly to our attacks? What does he really bring to the team? Not a lot, in my opinion. I hope that we finally get rid of Diaby this summer, but he's clearly a pet project for Wenger, who'll be at the club as long as Arsene is. Unfortunately, our bizarre reliance on a player who continually suffers from injuries will probably mean we won't buy the dominant central midfielder that we've needed for years.<br />
<br />
* Our second goal was a moment of absolute joy in a much otherwise characterized by dross. Wilshere floated a ball over the top to Monreal, who cut the ball back to Cazorla, who then finished with a neat curling effort. It's easy to forget at the moment, but it's moments like these which make it so difficult to turn against Wenger. At his best, he produces teams in which players express themselves, and create moments of beauty on the field. It was nice to see Nacho pop-up with an assist as well.<br />
<br />
* So, a win. A poor win, but a win. And as we try and climb the mountain to fourth place once more, it's a vital three points.<br />
<br />
But it's a win that raises a lot of questions, especially in the light of our defeats to Bayern and Blackburn. From around 2006 to 2010, I was firmly of the belief that Arsene was the right man for the job, and that we were simply 1-2 players away from greatness. Now, I'm not so sure. The total lack of organization and tactical discipline that we've seen on the pitch time and again this season hints at wider faults in Wenger's management that signings potentially don't rectify. There's only so many times you can see a poorly defended set-piece, huge swathes of space left open by disorganized players, or a lack of resolve to get the job done before you start to wonder whether the players on the pitch are the only problem in terms of our performances.<br />
<br />
I'm fairly sure that we'll up our game in the next few weeks, and we will probably get fourth place. But this season has really shaken my belief in Wenger. For the first time I wonder whether new signings are enough to make us title-challengers again, or whether more substantial change is required at the club in terms of how we approach the game. Maybe we don't need a new defender - we need a new attitude towards defence. And maybe we don't need to replace Giroud - we need to rethink the entire way we tactically approach a match. Does Wenger have this in him? I don't know.<br />
<br />
Gb. Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-71846125825191487432013-02-17T20:48:00.000-05:002013-02-17T20:48:16.502-05:00The Best Man for the Job? Thoughts on Arsenal 0 Blackburn 1I had, by accident, scheduled to have my cable replaced during the game yesterday. This meant I missed about a third of the game, for which I should probably be grateful. This was another season-defining moment, in a season that has largely been defined in terms of absolutely dreadful results. Thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* The team selection was fine, other than Coquelin starting at right-back. He's not a right-back, and clearly doesn't want to play there. Indeed, I'd go one further and ask what Coquelin brings to the squad. I'd genuinely rather have Denilson in his place at the moment. As Arse2mouse put it, Coquelin's main ability seems to be running around a lot - i.e., the minimum of what you should expect in a game that is fundamentally based around, yes, running around a lot.<br />
<br />
* So, I missed most of the first half, but that's not really a problem with Arsenal nowadays. Our first-half performances have become the equivalent of an extended warm-up. We saunter around a bit, stretch our legs, hit some range-finders. The days in which we put three goals past an opposing team in the first-half are long, long gone.<br />
<br />
* Still, we certainly should have gone in at half-time at least one goal ahead, with Gervinho scuffing the ball wide when put through one-on-one with the keeper. He may well have lit up the ACN, but he still looks rubbish in the Premier League. I fear that he is soon going to be added to the lengthy list of recent signings at Arsenal who we can't get rid of once it's become apparent that they are not good enough for top-level football. Yes, he probably was really good at Lille. And I'm sure he has stood out while playing for the Ivory Coast. But the standard of much of Ligue Un, and, to be frank, international football, is not anywhere near the level of the Premier League or the Champions League. He looks out of his depth, and we need to ship him out in May.<br />
<br />
* There was no marked increase in urgency after half-time, which was strange. You might have thought that the team would feel somewhat embarrassed at not being able to dispatch a very mediocre Championship side, but no. Rosicky, who I still feel should be no more than a squad player, did at least try to make things happen, and was unlucky not to score with a thunderous strike from outside the area which smacked against the bar.<br />
<br />
* So, naturally, Arsene took Rosicky off when he finally decided (20 minutes too late) that we needed to make some substitutes. Abou "lovechild" Diaby was naturally left on, for reasons unknown. So far this year, Abou has played about two good games of football, both at the start of the season. Then he, predictably, had a "3-4 week" injury, that saw him miss three months of a 9 month season. Since he's returned, he's gone back to default Diaby mode. Tacking 50 touches of the ball where two will do, and generally strolling around the midfield, slowing down play. For some reason, I've always thought of Diaby as a young player - but he's now 26. Considering the position he plays, he should be dictating matches, and dominating in the midfield. He doesn't really. Our baffling, continued reliance on Diaby has meant that we haven't gone out and done the business in the market that we really need to do. Another one that needs to leave in the summer.<br />
<br />
* The goal, when it came, was a predictable comedy of errors. Where to start? Coquelin being all over the place? Walcott not bothering to track his runner? Or Szczesny palming the ball straight back into the danger zone? It was that classic mixture of incompetence and laziness that has seen us concede so many goals in the last few years. It's one thing to be beaten by moments of brilliance by the opposition; it's quite another to consistently self-destruct in the manner that we do all so often. It's pathetic and embarrassing.<br />
<br />
* We have to sign a goalkeeper in the summer. Szczesny needs more than Mannone and Martinez as competition. Szcz may well grow into a brilliant keeper, but at the moment he costs us more points and more games than he wins. Yes, he was amazing at Sunderland last week. But how many times has that happened this season? And how many times could the opposite be said? Too many.<br />
<br />
* But, in fairness to the defence, their errors are always going to be magnified if we can't score at the other end of the field. And when Theo Walcott is your leading goalscorer, you know you have problems. Giroud, well, I just don't think he's good enough to be our starting striker. A willing back-up, yes. But nothing more than that. I think we've again got a player who looked fantastic in Ligue Un, but who has struggled when introduced to a higher level of competition. It drives me mad that we have one of the most clinical strikers in Europe, Podolski, but we refuse to play him centrally, and instead seem to have given this season over to developing Giroud.<br />
<br />
* There was a bit of a scramble towards the end, but for once I just didn't see a comeback occurring and it didn't. The boos were loud at the end, and expected. Another trophyless season beckons, and this time it's happened with an extra layer of humiliation. Knocked out of the League Cup by a League Two side, and out of the FA Cup by a Championship side. And, in both cases, we put out teams that should have had enough to win the game. We may well get a draw or even a win on Tuesday, but anyone who thinks we will win the tie over two legs has a level of optimism with which I have no empathy.<br />
<br />
* And so, here we are again. Arsenal's most successful manager is now presiding over an era that will go down as one of the most barren in the club's history. The quest for fourth place has now become more bizarre than ever. If we, supposedly, don't have the resources to compete on more than one front, then what's the point of qualifying for the Champions League. The pay day that the group stages bring? Because that's all we've really been getting over the last few years. A few good performances against group stage teams, then a swift exit in the knockout phase.<br />
<br />
At this stage, any other manager at any other top-level club would have been sacked. No other club has given their manager as much power or as much leeway as Arsenal and Arsene. Yes, Chelsea and City are committing the equivalent of financial doping. But are United? No. They just have a vastly superior manager who refuses to accept mediocrity in the way that Arsene has at Arsenal for so long now. Would Ferguson allow players like Squillaci and Almunia to hang around the club, picking up paychecks for doing F*ck all for years? Would other top managers play the same tactics week-in, week-out regardless of opposition? Would other top managers continue to see defensive organization as a mere afterthought in comparison to pretty, possession football? No.<br />
<br />
I have wanted Arsene to turn this around because he clearly loves Arsenal, and he has taken this club to a level that few could have dreamed of in 1996. But he is now stuck in a rut. The flaws have piled up and multiplied, and I don't know if he is capable of performing the sytematic overhaul of the playing and coaching staff that is required to make the club successful again. Because, as much as we can argue over the finances available to him (and really there is no argument - just look at the annual report), if players aren't "focused" or motivated, or continually play "with the handbrake on" that is largely due to his coaching and his management of the squad.<br />
<br />
The final nail in my belief that Arsene is the man to take the club forward was the January transfer window. Yes, we signed Monreal, of whom the jury is still firmly out. But that was it. We still haven't replaced Song. We are still, essentially, gambling on Giroud gaining the consistency that has eluded him thus far. Wenger essentially said that left-back was the only position in the squad that needed strengthening. That, I'm afraid, is mental. We are 21 points behind Manchester United - everyone's position in the team should be under examination.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, the question is simple: Is Wenger still the best man for the job? I think it is very hard to answer that question positively at the moment. And, for the first time, I think a majority of Arsenal fans feel that way too.<br />
<br />
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<br />Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-24170274926088508232013-01-13T16:17:00.002-05:002013-01-13T16:17:27.389-05:00Either Wenger Strengthens the Squad, or We Get Someone Else who Will. Oh January, you've been great so far. Thoughts as follows:<br />
<br />
* I thought Arsene again picked the wrong team, which is a worrying trend from games this season. There were three decisions that I thought he got wrong, and I'll go through them separately:<br />
<br />
- Koscielny and Vermaelen are not an effective partnership. I think Mertesacker's form has dipped in recent games, and he was made to look a bit of a mug by Michu last week. But he does, overall, bring a calmness and sense of nous to the defence that is always badly missing when he is absent. TV and LK together just seems to be a purely reactive partnership that frequently descends into chaos. I imagine that Wenger was worried about us dealing with city's extremely mobile forward line, but, and just like against Chelsea earlier this season, it was the wrong decision and it cost us.<br />
<br />
- Diaby's selection was ridiculous. To be frank, it smacked of desperation and arrogance in almost equal measure - desperation that we don't have better options in central midfield, and arrogance in that Arsene appears desperate for his prolonged faith in Diaby to be repaid. Diaby, on his day, is a fantastic footballer who brings a unique blend of qualities to his midfield. Unfortunately, those days are few and far between because of his appalling injury record. The fact that Diaby was removed after 60 minutes, in what appeared to be a pre-planned move, was incredible. This was not the type of game that you use to re-build a player's fitness. Players are either fit enough to play and compete, or they're not. His performance while not terrible smacked of a player who hadn't played a league game since since September. He is a player that badly needs to be released, and with talk of Fellaini having a release clause at about £22m, this would appear to be a no-brainer for me. But then I suppose I am actually somewhat ambitious.<br />
<br />
- Diaby's selection raised big questions about Coquelin - is he good enough to be a part of this Arsenal squad, or not? For me, if he can't be trusted to fill in for Arteta, he shouldn't be at the club. He is taking up the space of a player who could contribute. Personally, I think Coquelin is not a the level required for a club that's serious about competing for trophies. Arsene either needs to give him a chance, or get rid of him at the end of the season.<br />
<br />
- A final point about Diaby's selection - it meant that it was not clear who was meant to be playing as the holding midfielder. Given that we operate with almost zero tactical discipline, Silva was given the freedom of the Emirates to run about in the space between our midfield and our defence. It frustrates me hugely to see this, because this is down to a simple lack of coaching.<br />
<br />
- Lastly, Theo started centrally again. More on this later, but perhaps some tactical flexibility would have been nice here, given that he was going to be playing against Kompany. Giroud should have started, in my opinion, and I say that as someone who has serious doubts about Giroud's ability.<br />
<br />
* People will probably have forgotten most of the game's first nine minutes, but City were already on top when the pivotal moment of the match occurred. It's never a good idea to play the "what if" game, but I think they would have won narrowly with or without the sending off. That's not just me being pessimistic - it's based on the fact that our defence was already a mess, and City have better players than us. That's all. It's also worth remembering that City were without Yaya Toure and Kun Aguero today - I can only imagine the carnage if they had both played.<br />
<br />
* Should Koscielny have been sent off? Yes. If Kompany or Lescott had done that to Giroud, we'd have been fuming if they'd escaped without a red. It was an obvious goalscoring opportunity, and Koz deserved to go. After a brilliant, apparent breakthrough season last year, Koz seems to have regressed this year. He always seems to have a calamitous error in him, and he needs to be taken out of the firing line for a while.<br />
<br />
* Which brings me onto Vermaelen. Maybe it's the captaincy, but he seems to have regressed as both a player and a leader since August. His positioning is frequently terrible, and directly led to the first goal. Can he improve? I'm not sure. And, at a certain point, you have to wonder whether any player could come in and magically improve the defence, or whether we have a systemic problems that require a complete approach in terms of how we approach the game as a team.<br />
<br />
* After the first, a second appeared to be only a matter of time and so it proved. The scoreline ultimately did not reflect City's dominance in the match. Only a few bizarre passages of play in the second half, where they procrastinated over who was going to take the decisive shot on goal, meant that the scoreline stayed at only two. It always felt that they had another gear within them, and I think they will come away from the game with the feeling that it was a closer much than it should have been for them.<br />
<br />
* Gunnerblog joked on Twitter, and it's probably true - Theo's wretched performance was undoubtedly evidence that he's signed a new deal. Theo is infuriating - he frequently drifts out of games almost completely, and, I feel, he often outright hides in certain matches, which is unacceptable given the fact he is now an experienced player. I think the "Theo through the middle" experiment has had decidedly mixed results - notably, when up against quality players, like Kompany today, Theo was almost completely out of the game. That said, he almost scored when he did pop-up late on. Ultimately, it says a lot how far the club has fallen that we are being held to ransom, effectively, by a player of his calibre.<br />
<br />
* So, Giroud should have come on. But not for Podolski, who remains the only reasonably clinical finisher at the club. Instead, Cazorla should have been removed, who was having, not for the first time, an extremely quiet afternoon. Santi is obviously a great player, but we needed him to step up today after the sending off, and he didn't. It seems that substituting Podolski is Arsene's go-to move at the moment, and I wish he'd leave him on the pitch because he is someone who will take that half-chance when it arrives.<br />
<br />
* We were much improved in the second-half, although, as I stated earlier, I do think City were very wasteful in possession. Wilshere stood out and had probably his best game since returning from injury. Not only did he show a huge amount of talent, he has character and determination, which is more than can be said for a lot of other individuals at the club at present.<br />
<br />
* It seems that we are really missing someone who can make intelligent runs in the final third. Our play often seems to reach the edge of our opponents penalty box, before breaking down. Losing van Persie has robbed us off someone who creates goals through intelligent movement off the ball. We desperately need to get someone who can open up space in the manner that he used to do.<br />
<br />
* What it all comes down to, for me, is this - we need substantial investment in the squad. We are weak in almost every area of the pitch. We have three centre-backs who all seem to have one fatal flaw. We are incredibly reliant on Arteta - someone who has now finally broken down after being massively over-played. Cazorla is knackered and his form has dipped. We lack a spark in the final third. We have a goalkeeper who, penalty save aside, had a mixed game and distributed the ball terribly.<br />
<br />
We need new blood and lots of it. If Coquelin and Frimpong have their careers at Arsenal "killed" by bringing in an experienced central midfielder, so be it. If Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain or Theo complain about a lack of opportunities because we bring in new attacking options, so be it, etc., etc.<br />
<br />
If Arsene claims, as he did today, that it's too hard to find quality players in January, then he needs to go, and be replaced by someone who <i>can</i> find quality players in January. If not Arsene, then our scouting network needs to improve. If it's not the scouting network, then Dick Law, or whoever negotiates our myriad, failed deals, needs to go.<br />
<br />
After a disastrous summer transfer window, which perfectly set up this mess of a season, I cannot tolerate another window where we fail to make the necessary improvements to our squad. As 7 AM Kickoff said this week, Arsenal's 2004 side was almost entirely built through astute purchases in the transfer market. Much as it pains me to say this, if Arsene is incapable of effectively operating in the transfer market anymore, we need to find someone who will go out and get us the players we need.<br />
<br />
As far as I can see, we have two weeks to find the players to save our season. Otherwise, a humiliating experience at the hands of Bayern awaits, as does the Europa League next season. Because too many of the players that we currently have are simply not good enough for a club like Arsenal, and that's why we are where we are.<br />
<br />
Gb.Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22806182.post-91605181721359117522012-12-13T11:38:00.003-05:002012-12-13T11:38:43.437-05:00Where do we Go from Bradford? Painful Times Ahead for Arsenal.<br />
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As is customary for me now with midweek games, I turned off
all contact with the Arsenal world on Tuesday afternoon, and waited until I got
home to watch the game “as live.” Since moving to America I’ve discovered that
while getting up early on the weekends to watch games is a pain, missing matches, or having to watch them on
delay, because they’re played midweek while I’m at work is even worse. It’s a
major reason why I think some form of European competition will start to be
played on weekends sooner rather than later. Anyway, I digress.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I accidentally loaded Facebook at about half-time while the
game was playing, and was surprised to see no updates about the match. This
meant that Arsenal hadn’t scored, or that we were behind, as Arsenal’s Facebook
page apparently refuses to allow for the existence of opposition goals. When I
sat down to watch the game, I thus had an inkling that we may have started it
poorly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the game started, I tried to explain to Mrs Goonerboy the
rules of the League Cup, and that Arsenal were almost certain to win because we
were playing a team in the fourth division. She nodded, and then looked on in
bafflement as Arsenal conceded, and played out the remainder of the first-half
in some sort of deranged, half-baked manner. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t have the energy to replay every moment of the game,
so here are just a few of my thoughts on the game:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> * </span></span><!--[endif]-->Gervinho. When Gervinho signed, I felt much
better about losing Nasri. The ridiculous fee that we received for Nasri from
Manchester City has led to an inflation of his actual worth as a player – I maintain
we got about six months of good performances out of him over three years.
Gervinho, I hoped, would provide a more consistent goal threat. Instead, he’s
been rubbish. A few instinctive goals aside, he just doesn’t look good enough to
play at the highest level. This had been, I hate to say, my opinion of him when
I had watched him play for the Ivory Coast in the 2010 World Cup. He runs down
blind alleys. He almost constantly chooses the wrong option. He not only misses
the target with headers, he usually puts the ball out for a throw. His
shooting, when not instinctive, is almost comically wayward. Maybe he has a
future as a squad player, but as a member of the staring XI – please, be gone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"></span></span><!--[endif]-->* * Podolski. I mentioned this on Twitter the day
after the game, but it’s well worth re-reading Goonerboy correspondent Bobby’s
<a href="http://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2012/03/exclusive-scouting-report-lukas.html" target="_blank">scouting report on Podolsk</a>i, as he basically nailed him. Bobby said that if we
played Poldi on the left: "his mobility, fitness, and defensive abilities
will be open to question." Check. Bobby also said Poldi was like RvP
except "only heavier, less destructive, who moans more, and who is
slower." Again, hard to disagree. Gervinho, for all his many faults, is a
trier. He never hides. Part of the reason we think he’s so poor is that he’s
constantly on, or showing for the ball. I have a degree of respect for Gervinho
because, in a tough season, he’s never gone missing, regardless of his ability.
Podolsksi? Almost the opposite. He clearly thought this match was below him. And
he has been, if we’re being charitable, “inconsistent” since his arrival at the
club. His inability to finish 90 minutes has become a joke and it’s only
December. Poldi needs to start pulling his weight because he’s beginning to
annoy me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><br /></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> * </span></span><!--[endif]-->Szczesny. He has a winner’s mentality, but does
he have a winner’s ability? If Almunia had collapsed into the net in the
fashion that Szcz did for the Bradford opener, there would be pitchforks and
torches outside his house the next day. Yes, Szcz made a few stops in the shoot-out,
but I continue to believe that he has fundamental problems with his positioning,
hence why he fails to save so many shots from outside the box, with players
taking advantage of the fact he is in the wrong place. I would put a goalkeeper
fairly high on our list of transfer priorities, because, at the least, we need
someone better than Mannone and Fabianski to challenge Szcz.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I could probably go on for some time listing individual
player faults, such as Vermaelen’s periodic inability to defend, or Cazorla’s failure
to hit the target with about 90 percent of his shots. But the defeat at
Bradford really came down to higher issues – the management, both in terms of
the team and the club as a whole. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I said this on Twitter immediately after the game, and I
stick by it – almost any other manager in the Premier League would have been
sacked if he were in Arsene’s position. I desperately don’t want Arsene’s time
at the club to finish on a sour note, because he is a demi-god. But, it’s hard
to escape the feeling that, leaving all other things aside, another manager
might be able to get better performances out of the current squad than Arsene
can at present. And, it’s also hard to escape the feeling, that the majority of
signings that Arsene has made since about 2008 have been poor. As 7AM Kickoff
asked on Twitter, can you really name any signing that Arsene has made in the
last five years that has been an unqualified success? I can’t. Arteta, maybe?
Nasri, maybe? The majority seem to have some form of fatal flaw – Koscielny’s
own goals, Cazorla’s shooting, Arshavin’s laziness, and that’s before we even
get on to the Deadwood Saloon of Squillaci, Park, Chamakh, and former patrons
such as Silvestre. In short, even if money is available, should Arsene be the
one to spend it? It’s a legitimate question.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What is becoming increasingly apparent, is that the board
are pushing a line that money is there to spend, and that Arsene is unwilling
to spend it. During the Q&A with Gazidis and other management figures, this
line was firmly put out by the club – Arsene doesn’t want to spend. The AST has
predictably lapped this up, rushing to make some very strongly worded comments
about Arsene in the press yesterday. I fear this is the beginning of an
extremely messy stand-off between Arsene and the board, and if Arsene decides
to take the gloves off and fight back, an extremely difficult period in the club’s
history could be approaching.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But it isn’t all Arsene’s fault. Not even close. During the
Q&A, Gazidis said that Stan was “obviously […] not happy with the way the
team is performing” (quote, possibly paraphrased, via <a href="https://twitter.com/DarrenArsenal1/status/278956226941972480">Darrenarsenal1</a>).
Why is it obvious that Stan is unhappy with the way the team is performing? We
are still well on course to challenge for fourth, thus keeping our place in the
Champions League, and <a href="http://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2012/09/as-long-as-share-price-goes-up-why.html" target="_blank">keeping the value of Stan’s shares ticking</a> ever upwards. That is his only motivation for owning the club, as far as I can tell. Stan has said virtually nothing to supporters. He has attended fewer home games
than Park Chu-Young. There is nothing obvious at all about how Stan is feeling
because Arsenal fans have virtually no knowledge about what this man wants from
Arsenal football club. We are a ship
with a silent captain, with no idea where we’re going. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For a competition that supposedly our lowest priority, the
League Cup has been fairly devastating to the club in recent years. In 2007,
Arsene perhaps submitted to his greatest moment of hubris by putting out a side
of kids and reserves in the League Cup final against Chelsea. In 2008, we
suffered a morale sapping 5-1 defeat at the hands of Spurs, just before that
promising season began to unravel. And, of course, most of our current problems
can be traced back to that fatal moment of miscommunication between Szcz and
Koz in Wembley in 2011. The quality of the squad has diminished at an
incredible rate since that day, and we’ve never really recovered as a club.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, where from Bradford? Who knows. But it’s clear that
Arsene’s actions during January are now not just pivotal to the club’s future,
but also to his own. Or, at least they should be. But it’s also clear that Stan
needs to drop the “silent” façade, and make clear that he actually gives a damn
about this club before we spiral further downwards.<o:p></o:p></div>
Goonerboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10489244017423718503noreply@blogger.com2