The BIGGEST problem with Arsenal is the FEAR of change

Wenger will not win the title in 10 years, not 3 by KM

Sorry for the long post, but the reasons for Arsenal’s situation are more complex than just one factor. Arsene Wenger came out with some pretty ridiculous statements about winning the Premier League title in 3 years. I mean, we all enjoy a good joke, but he hasn’t done it in 10 years, another 3 will not be enough.

I’ll list the things that are giving us a chance to be champions and the things we are lacking to become one. So on the positive side, we have a great stadium. The Emirates is really a gem and a modern superclub has to have a supreme venue. Bayern Munich did the same with their transition from the old Olympic stadium to the state of the art Allianz arena.

Another plus is that we have quality. Our side is not terrible, it’s just missing a few pieces, but this will be covered at the negatives. We are rich! I mean look at Italy. Teams like Milan and Inter Milan (who have won the champions league in the last 10 years) sitting mid tabled with no money to buy some sort of decent players. And the best part, we are an attractive prospect. Arsenal can attract any top manager if he’s given the money he needs to plug the gaps in the squad.

So all and all the pre-requirements are here, but the biggest stumbling block we have is the board. We have no ambition. Kroenke doesn’t care about titles, as long as we generate money. No one on the board will sack a doomed manager. We’re in a deadlock. A long time will pass until Arsenal regain former glory.

Yesterday’s win against Southampton was another highlight as to why we won’t win it. With Giroud in the side against WBA, we produced one of our better performances, and yesterday he was stuck on the bench. But his introduction (although late as always) made the difference in the end. The problem is that, we play the exact same formation, every single time. When you time and time again repeat the same mistake, it’s not suddenly going to happen for you.

So no change of formation and no rotation as well. We have Podolski on the bench. Explain to me how he couldn’t find a place in a midfield that was pretty much terrible yesterday. Sanchez scored with a Ramsey assist, but the contribution of Ramsey, Cazorla and Sanchez was terrible throughout the game.

Wenger doesn’t trust his bench. Mourinho said – no Costa, no Problem, we have Drogba and Remy and they both scored! We have Rosicky and Podolski, who might as well just be sold in the transfer window. And because Wenger doesn’t trust them, we overplay players, until they are run down to the ground and get injured.

Another thing to note is that Arsenal have not been playing that all so “attractive football” of late. We blew Southampton away 6-0 in the first season in the PL. This no longer happens, we really struggle. We still lack a defensive midfielder, and we lack something nobody talks about – a solid keeper. Martinez looked solid in his last 2 games. He made an immense grab at one of Southamptons free kicks. Something Chezzer would never do.

And finally bad transfer policy. We only paper the cracks, never actually fill the holes. No keeper, no DM, we played 3 seasons with only 1 striker, and when Giroud got injured only then did we bring in … Welbeck! The fans are unhappy though. There were some booings yesterday and i think most realize that a change is needed.

The biggest problem with AFC though is the fear of change.

Konstantin

Tags AOB Kroenke Podolski Wenger

60 Comments

  1. Wenger did not said he will win the EPL in 3 years from now, stop spreading this bull$hit. He was asked if he thinks Arsenal can win the title in his term at the club. Jesus, you lot are really dumb. I can say something else based on his statement : that Wenger said he will win the title next year. And nothing would be far from the truth. You lot really, really need a change in attitude for the club you support. Because picking phrases out of context does not help anyone and probably will bring another idiot with a banner in Stoke. Funny how they thought there will be more supporters asking for Wenger out. Nope, you were alone. Keep up the good job.

    1. in fairness alot of people with banners were stopped at the gate. an stopped in the stands by stewards

      plus fans in there were being hostile , even threatening to anyone saying anything anti wenger.

      i do hear what your saying though.just think people are fed up an want to add fuel to it

      1. Sure, because they really give a crap about Wengers out banners at the Hawthorns. I understand at the Emirates but then again, if there are SO MANY supporters wanting Wenger out nobody, but nobody can stop them yelling out loud exactly that.

        1. i meant at the emirates.

          listen ive been to the emirates 3 times this season,
          two times out of that 3 i saw wenger out chanting an people arguin over it.
          one of those times a guy offered other guy to ‘go outside’-the emirates is outside lol

          believe its not that simple

    2. Fear not, Budd. I have not seen any other site that has the vitriolic comments coming from Arsenal fans. To compare Arsenal’s finances to Italian clubs who been tainted by the financial fraud of one of the biggest clubs, Juve, does not make for a useful comparison. Also, the author writes that we’re rich. Budd, I think you had a discussion about our finances the other day with someone (I could be mistaken, but I read some comments on them on this site). I respectfully request that the authors of the articles on this site look through the financial statements, do some background research to understand what they actually mean, and then write an article about them–or even a string of articles as there would be much to cover. That would actually be useful discourse if we want to claim how rich Arsenal are and then we can actually pin point the issue of where our club is financially and, in turn, our transfer approach with some real firepower. Just take a stab at it.

  2. There’s too many negative posts being put up.
    The team won’t excel if we aren’t backing them.
    It’s like our fans focus on how we can lose or not win the title rather than how we can win and win the title.
    We’ve got a quality team with the potential to win any of the Tournaments we’re in.

    PS Martinez is a beast We didn’t need Ospina (don’t tell me about getting beaten by a 1 on 1 with Rooney 9/10 keepers would of conceeded)

  3. I don’t doubt Arsene’s qualities as a people manager. The biggest problems are his failure to adapt his tactical approach to equal (or better) opponents. This Arsenal squad is 1, maybe 2, players away from being a serious title contending side. Buy them in january and who knows what’s possible in Wenger’s final years.

          1. chambers is unproven as dm-an is young-alot to learn

            no more tests we need proven

            we pay high prices- we should get proven

            1. Being young is not an excuses anymore. Besides, Chambers was an unproved RB as well until he came to Arsenal. In all fairness he was also an unproven CB. Looks can be deceiving .

              1. why risk it?
                why experiment like wenger has for a decade?
                im bored of it.
                anyway we need two dm’s! extra one for cover.
                southampton have proved this
                you say are dm problem solved by one 19 year whos never played there? smh ok

                1. What do you mean by risk it? Chambers is fully integrated in the team playing even in different position. The risk can come when you bring someone from outside in that position in the middle of the season. BTW. And yes, you are never wrong with two DMs.

                2. @ Budd, Chambers loves attacking too much for a DM, in order for him to maybe become succesful on that position he really needs to learn to balance attacking and defending without fouling too much in every game. Picks up way too many cards imo.

            2. @muffdiver
              But if you’ve noticed, Chambers is one of our only players who commits “tactical” fouls. Santi has done it once or twice, Flamini does it by default(lol) But Chambers has no problem grabbing a shirt or pushin a head down for the team. I think he needs to be thrown in against Stoke and blooded there. Give Bellerin the nod at RB. And save Flamini for back up CB
              Anderlecht had a 17 yr old DM Tielemans holding their midfield and keeping us at bay. And he did a damn good job of it…

              1. very good point about the tactical fouls.
                an about the anderlecht dm.

                i just don’t see why buying a quality dm an getting chambers to learn from him would be a bad thing.

                matic was such an obvious choice-
                as was kondogbia-

                1. @muffdiver
                  We need a seasoned DM. One who is not cup tied and who can hit the ground running in Jan to help us with our CL push as well as EPL. But until then, I see no problem with deputizing Chambers for the role.

              2. @NY_Gunner,

                I believe Tielemans is a CM. More of a Lampard type of player and a DM. Probably one of the brightest youth prospects out there.. which means we are not getting him..

              3. Thats not a great idea. Essentially chambers would be covering for cb, dm and rb. Imagine if he got injured! If we are able to compete financially (to a certain extent) like gazidis says, what exactly is stopping us from spending the cash to get a world class dm?

                1. @tubby
                  Not really. We still have Bellerin, who is much better at RB and Debuchy is coming back. Flamini is adequate cover as a CB also until Jan.

  4. 3 wins in a row, 3 clean sheets and people are complaining. Southampton are a strong team this season, there is a reason why they are sitting where they are. They play as a unit and extremely hard to break down. Yes, some of our final touches were poor yesterday, but as usual it was a case of having some great chances, only to miss by inches or get blocked by casper the friendly ghost. That ball just did not seem to go into the back of the net, we had several shot ON GOAL, but their keeper played out of his skin, just like de Gea from United and several other teams we have drawn to this season. Wenger still has his work cut out for him in Jan, he still must bring in another top defender and a DM if possible but lets give credit where its due and stay positive.

    1. And are you one of those fans that was complaining before 3 wins and 3 clean sheets? What if we lose our next 3? What about the last 10 years? does 3 wins and 3 clean sheets wipe the slate clean?

        1. It’s so simple you all, just buy a faking decent DM and CB end we can all get behind AW and unite all of us here, and AKB and AOB will be the thing of the past, what’s so difficult we have the funds Yes @BUDD we do have the funds.

  5. and a well founded fear if you ask me, 2 great examples liverpool and manu. changing for the sake of change is not always a good idea.

    1. I like to think Arsenal would have more sense than to employ a manager that hasn’t proved themselves like Man U and Liverpool. Surely the board isn’t that stupid!

      1. hodgeson, dalglish and moyes werent exactly unknown mate. in fact there were alot of people jumping on band wagons and off again as quickly as they jumped on.

  6. At last!! Someone has written a post that I agree with fully! You have captured the essence of what I have said many times on here in different posts. ‘Change’! We should embrace it, take a risk on a new manager like we did with Wenger all those years ago. Change the way we play our football etc. I was starting to think i was the only person who saw things the way I did.

    @Budd. I assume you’re one of the supporters who has money to burn? Happy with Arsenal not competing for your £100 outlay every game and then some no doubt.

    Wenger did well in the times when money wasn’t available. But now it is we only seem to compete somewhat when we are out of the title race. And don’t start bangin on about last season and the 120 odd days we spent at the top of the league because when it mattered where were we? Fourth again! And even that was skin of our teeth squeaky bum time at the end of the season.

    Wenger cannot and will not win the league again with Arsenal. His system has been found out, he won’t change it and because of that teams will exploit us and beat us. As they have done for the last 10 years.

    This club will not move forwards until a manager comes in and stands up to Konke and tells him I need money and I need players. ‘His’ club is paid for by ‘Our’ money, simple. He then watches as ‘Our’ money inflates ‘His’ bank account and he goes on his merry way. We the fans get the occasional present (Ozil, and Sanchez) as means of thanking us for his ever increasing bank balance. I wonder what Kronke knows about soccer?! How doe his other american sports clubs perform? Well lets say they don’t exactly win a great deal.

    Wenger has been immense for this club, has brought so many good times, but things have become stale and stagnant at this club and have been for a long while now. I don’t even attend the matches any more because I can’t stand to line Konke’s pockets anymore in return for nothing. Before anyone starts questioning my loyalty to the club because this let me put it another way. Imagine your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend not working but happy to take your money and go off spending it on themselves. Would you not feel resentful? Would you allow yourself to be walked all over in that way? Ok that was the first comparison that came to mind there, but you get my point. It wasn’t a simple ok I am going to stop supporting Arsenal now. I still feel passionately about them. So much so that this was my way of sticking two fingers up to the manager and board for taking the pi** out of me for so long.

    The FA cup last season was paper to the Arsenal cracks. I don’t blame the players, I blame the manager and board for what is happening to this club. The great players we have deserve to have other great players around them to support them and help them win. Instead our threadbare squad gets over used, and inevitably many get injured.

    1. No, I have no money to burn. I save each year cutting on beers, walking to work instead of taking the bus, renounce all presents I could have just to have the money to pay for a ticket. Every bonus (if there’s one) from work I spend in the next second to buy myself an affordable ticket at the Emirates (around 100 pounds). I will never regret spending my last money on Arsenal. I feel privileged to support this club for 27 years and hate to say it, until 2003-2004 I never seen Arsenal fans like you. Every game was never won before but Wenger spoiled you with Invincibles. Boy oh boy, and you call yourself supporters.

      1. @BUDD if you win the lotary let’s say 10 Million would you still walk to work,cut back on beer or Champaigne, buy only two or three tickets a season to see Arsenal play? or would you have a Box or a season tickets for you and few for friends and famalie, would you walk to the stadium or go there with a taxi or with your private driver??? Well the reason I’m asking is that Arsenal as a club/business and fans went through the pains taking Dacade of cutting back on glory and now it’s like we have won the lottery thanks to new sponsorship and incom from the 60k stadium so why are we still holding back.

        1. If I win the lottery I would buy a season ticket for life and give one as lottery to any gooner. I don’t need 10 mils for that, I am pretty sure.

          1. well Budd we suport Arsenal just like you and Arsenal can do us a favor by spending some of that windfall by buying DM and a CB after all we the suporters made it happen, I am not a recent suporter of arsenal my first match that I saw Arsenal at Highburry was in 1972, I was there when AW took us to the great hights and he can do it again but for some reason after wining the lottery he still likes to walk instead of shofer driven.

      2. @Budd. Can i ask what all the BS was about then when it came to building the new stadium? Why did we need it? I do believe we were told it would help us compete with the cream of Europe etc and here we are with you walking to work, cutting back on beers and we’re only marginally better than most mid table teams. Hey we might get best pitch or nicest pies at a ground

  7. This is becoming tiresome.

    You say Wenger doesn’t trust his bench and plays the same players without rotating (causing injuries), then on the other hand you say we should have played Giroud who is just back from three months injury. You say the formation doesn’t change…yet I would say we’ve been playing with a more balanced philosophy for the last few games. Then you say we aren’t playing as attractive football as we used to…well if we are more balanced personally I’m not too bothered right now. The rest is more rambling about stuff we’ve all heard before…

    Yesterday wasn’t our greatest ever victory but it was a victory and takes us forward. That’s three on the spin and we have players starting to return.

    We have an important set of games coming up, so just get behind the team and please put the anti Wenger, anti arsenal stuff on hold. It’s getting very boring and the arguments are becoming pathetic.

  8. Simple way to win the title imo:

    1) Rotate!!! use your whole squad- where’s Campbell/gnabry/poldi
    2) Make subs earlier- not the 90th min
    3) Against the big 4 sit deep and defend then counter attack- look what Sunderland did to Chelsea
    4) Spend big on DM
    5) Press press press (barca under guardiola style)

    will AW sacrifice his attractive football for more pragmatic approach?

    1. If we change our tactics I won’t be a fan. I love our brand of football and that is what attracted me to the club. Waiting for a counter like Man U or Chelsea um no thanks.

  9. the problem is Wenger. he needs to leave. I’ve been following arsenal for seven years now in I’m sick and tired Wenger thinking that had knows best. for all those years fans, experts, former, players and etc have been calling for arsenal to buy DM but what Wenger did was to sell those we had and not replacing them. and these stupid mistakes by Wenger just don’t seem to come to an end. i can’t really see why people protect Wenger and make ridicules excuses for him. we haven’t even played a single good game this season where there has been nothing to complain about. seriously fellow gunners open your eyes

    1. in fairness youve supported arsenal 7 years? so you werent here for the glory times.
      even some of the non glory times where the football was beautiful
      so your view is a bit limited, which is maybe why u dont understand peoples support for him.

      1. i get your point but i don’t think my view is limited though. at the end of the day we all want arsenal to succeed and that is just not gonna with these mistakes repeating

    2. why don’t get a new manager who faces the problems and has the balls to do what is necessary. who probably has a lot lower wage-demand

    3. Which manager you want for Arsenal now? You think wenger does not know what players we need? You need CB and DM of world class? You always ask buy and buy, where money? You think Mouthinho is still clever ang brilliant without bottomless funds from Abramovic? Once again, pls dont think Arsenal is a giant, we do not have enough money to think of tilte. Instead of blame every day, you must satisfy with what we have. In wenger I trust

  10. I genuinely do feel Arsenal fans need to back their team more. The fans need to introspect as well instead of just throwing all the blame and criticism on Wenger and the team. I could not believe the fans booing our team when we trailed MU after they got the first goal with a bit of luck. We had dominated the whole match. Yes we were bad defensively and lacked incisiveness in their penalty area. How low must have the players felt? Chasing the game and their own fans not believing in them that they could get something out of the game. I really think the team could do with better support especially in big games.

  11. What if instead of Rosicky we had Gotze and instead of Podolski we had Benzema? How will having a World Class bench affect Wenger’s tactics? We’ll have Sanchez, Gotze, Ozil, Benzema, Giroud and Walcott. They can’t all play at the same time. Would he still continue with his little or no rotation policy and bringing subs 5-10 minutes from time?

  12. Off topic but wack media keeps saying ‘where would Arsenal be without Sanchez’s goals?”
    Well why don’t they do the same for City without Aguero, and Chelsea without 6 yard specialist Costa?

    1. because chelsea without costa still beat spuds 3-0. where as we scrape a draw
      man city im in agreement though- aguero is carrying them

      1. True. Even at the age of 36 Drogba is still able to filling out. I remember Chamberlain celebrating 1-1 goal like a trophy at the Emirates. That’s how low we’ve stooped.

        I agree that Aguero is carrying City, yet they are still what, 7 points ahead of us? So either Aguero that much better than Sanchez or City have few other guys to chip in.

        We seriously don’t have anyone else at the moment than Sanchez. Welbeck got 3 goals in 14 matches and he’s our second best scorer.

        1. Man City squad had been build in the last 4-5 years. They have bought 2,3 star player every season.
          We only rebuild last season when we do have serious money. We need at least 1,2 more seasons to have the same squad as City. Unless our young players like Ramsey, Ox, Gibbs stepping up big time.
          The years before are all about to keep ourselves as nearer to the top as possible and pay the debt as fast as possible. You win peanut when you spent less than the like of Newcastle

  13. You know my biggest fear is Wenger and other players wont match Alexis’ ambition and not build a team capable of winning big trophies. My biggest fear is Alexis might prove to be too good for Arsenal. And if this happens, we will lose him. A player of his class to have graced Emirates in such a long time and it would be heartbreaking to see him go. Ever.

  14. Cant shake the feeling that Giroud + Sanchex might work like charm for Arsenal. Looks like its Wellbeck who would be worried for competition from Giroud rather than the other way round.

    1. Because of his performance yesterday? Didn’t he score the only goal against West Brom? He was a hero then wasn’t he?

  15. Football is always going to be based on peoples opinions, whether your in a pub or at work we all think differently. What i find hard to accept with wenger is every year we seem to get further behind and the others 2 or 3 get stronger. When was the last time we beat man u, chelsea, city or a big side in champions league? When was the last time we stopped our star player leaving? When was the last time we had a truely balanced team between attack and defence? The fact is wenger is responsible for all of the above and whether you want him in or out the truth is if he was at any other top club he would have been sacked 7 or eight years ago.

  16. Its tragic what this site has become, its all the worst of the arsenal fans, the most short-sighted, stupid and overly expectant. All the articles are becoming more and more unnecessarily negative, basically its just rehashing the most negative opinions heard from the main anti-arsenal news sources or the pundits who seem to know less about football than you or me (honestly I’d say neville is the only pundit with any sense).

    You know for a long time I used to hear arsenal had the worst fans, its only in the last few years ive actually begun to see it and I have to say I fully agree now. Myself and other sane fans have spent years repeating the same lines about building the emirates and how we would need to wait until its paid off and we get the new sponsorships become top competitors again but no one listened, instead expecting to beat teams spending 100s of millions of pounds to build superstar squads to trophies with our own team where we were forced to try to turn a profit each window.

    Then when we actually do win a trophy, coincidentally the exact year we got the new sponsorships (hmm who would have seen that coming) its forgotten in under a few months before the wenger out cries started again because of a couple of bad results. No one seems to think about who would replace wenger (most hoping either for the latest manager with even semidecent results over the last season, or klopp who has almost the exact same managerial style as wenger and suffers from the same faults). Or that if we did sack wenger he’d be coveted and immediately snapped up by one of the biggest clubs in football. Or that all the most knowlegable managers coaches and other people in football as well as our current and ex players all rate wenger as one of the very best, or even that all our best players have said wenger was the whole reason they signed. Instead they cling on to this stupid notion that firing the most successful manager in our club history will somehow make us start buying all the superstars they dream of, like its fifa or something (if you notice most of the players the fans were screaming for turned out to be absolutely shocking i.e. sakho, fellaini, m’vila and many others ive forgot because they’ve made absolutely nothing of themselves) .

    Personally I think the problem stems from the fact that you (that is those stupid fans) all think you know more about football and players than wenger one of the top managers in the world, and think signing players is as simple as just saying who you want and *poof* they’re yours. I’m sad to say it but youve all been spoiled by wengers early years to think you can just expect trophies every year, because that never happened before wenger.

    Basically to cut the long winded rant short, what im getting at is you’re all a bunch of ungrateful retards so I’m leaving this site (and others like it) for good so feel free to downvote this to hell if it makes you all feel better. Have fun with your hypocritical, over-reactive, hot headed articles and just wait for wenger to prove you all wrong 🙂

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