There have been times in the past when Arsenal fans and football observers have been left scratching our heads at some of the things that Arsene Wenger has done, but it seems to me that the Frenchman has gone into overdrive this summer, making some very odd decisions that I think should be a big concern for the club.
Why, for instance, did he choose to play Alexis Sanchez through the middle once again at Leicester yesterday? Irtr is not as if the Chilean gave any indication in the Liverpool match that it was a good plan, whereas we all know what an impact he can have in his usual position on the left.
It is not as if Wenger did not have any option either, with Giroud and Walcott both having played through the middle with some success. Then you have the baffling decision to leave Joel Campbell out of the squad altogether for the second game in a row, after the Costa Rican had an impressive pre-season and could have given us some much needed cut and thrust in the attacking third.
The boss left Cazorla on the bench and risked an unready Aaron Ramsey instead in the opening game and a lot of people questioned why he did not rush Koscielny back when it was so clear we needed him. So just two games in I am starting to wonder what is going on in the mind of our manager and that is before you start looking at his bizarre transfer policy of refusing to accept what is clear to everyone else and spending the money that is so desperately needed.
Are you guys as worried as me about the increasingly odd decisions Wenger has been making?
Dave N.
Joel campbell was out of the squad because he has gone on loan to sporting lisbon, it is on arsenal.com.
It is another odd decision
Why is it odd?
Joel campbell is hard working and is one of our more defensively minded wide men, but other than that he is quite average.
We currently have
Walcott, Ox, Sanchez, Iwobi and Gnabry all of them are wide players, then we have Wilshere, Cazola, Ozil, Ramsey and Gibbs who can do a job out wide as well. Even Welbeck can play out wide when he returns…
This is quite cruel, but I think it is best for Campbell to go out for loan.
Also I’ll like to add… if you analysis all our players that can play out wide then you know why Wenger let Campbell go.
Sanchez, Ozil and Cazola is all world class and there is no way any of the 3 will be let go.
Iwobi and Gnabry is young and both showed their talent. Iwobi last season and Gnabry in olympics.
Ramsey is useful in other positions and can be world class if he can replicate his Euros and 13-14 season form.
Gibbs is an important backup for us and if we were to let him go we would need to find a replacement… so there is no point.
Wilshere showed his talent in previous seasons and can be world class… but his stock plummeted due to injuries, we property get scrapes if we were to sell him. So we might as well keep him on the roster, hopefully he can do a RVP and overcome his injury problems.
Walcott is in similar position to Wilshere, he had 1 great season but then injury broke his momentum and currently his is kind of worthless (transfer value) due to injury and wage concern. So we keep him as well and hope his form pick up.
Ox is young and he is prone to mistakes, but anyone watching him can see the talent he is.. he have the ability to cut through the defense like a hot knife cutting through butter. To this day I still believe Ox can become our 2nd Sanchez if he can make better decisions!
Unfortunately when I think of Joel all I can think of is his 1 decent game at the world cup, other than that all that is coming to my mind is hard working, hard working and hard working. Hard working is a great virtues, but unfortunately it is not enough at Arsenal, I believe it is time for the club to cash in on Campbell.
if hes quite average – what the hell is walcot??!!!
i think its best if someone who has been very humble in all this ,kept quiet, worked very hard, constantly being benched an loaned out when hes shown he would give us something different, should be sold.
joel does not deserve this. ffs theo gets 140 k a week. joel gets 30k
The problem here is that walcott is difficult to sell, he would have to agree his personal contract with the buying club. So either walcott agrees to a pay cut or we have to find a club willing to pay his £140k per week. Its the same problem we had with bentdner and we could not sell him.
Campbell under wenger is not getting the playing time to improve, not good for him or us. Lets hope he has a good loan spell and then we can see. Next season we may have a new manager and he can decide what to do with Campbell.
On reflection I think loaning campbell is best all round, better than playing in reserves or sat on the bench with occasional run out with the first team, which is what would happen this season.
I personally think this is unfair too, but that does not change the fact that he is not good enough for Arsenal. He is at an age where he is approaching his peak and he need to be playing week in week out, this is for his own benefits… so he can improve his competitive edge and thus improve his pay…
Walcott does not deserve his 140k and I never said he did, but Walcott is at a point where his stock plummeted so badly that if we were to sell him 1st we get jack all, 2nd we have to subsidies his wage. So we might as well keep him on the roster and hope he can get his pre-injury self back.
Heard there is a buy out clause included in the deal beside the loan fee, he is sacrificed to raise some money. He is a very good all-around wide midfielder but he is not particular good at anything. Sad to see him go, but for now I take it as a good sign that a wide attacker or striker may join us before deadline day.
Wenger did say that Cazorla may not be ready for the Liverpool game in pre-season as he is still recovering from some injury problem. I do not trust Wenger with transfer, but in squad selection, I rather trust him than random Journalist trying to get page click from us with controversial headlines
Wenger has become very stubborn with age. Maybe he needed to rest some players but keep playing Sanchez through the middle is just blindness. He had Akpom for example to try, he’s played a good chunk of games in the Championship and could’ve played on Saturday.
Let’s hope he puts Alexis back on the left and see if Giroud scores some goals vs Watford
No nothing odd.
Its the same situation at Arsenal.
As usual we have 15 decent players.
but as usual we still need two more
potent players to make us serious title contenders.
But as usual there are “no suitable” players available.
Below that we have a dozen 2nd tier players
a hoch potch of old over the hill players ,quota players
injury wrecks and so called “promising” youngsters.
It’s the classic Arsenal Top 4 formula.
It has been exactly the same every season for a decade.
Sanity is doing the same thing and expecting the same result.
Makes me so mad 🙂
Wenger does things his own way.. No matter what we want, he goes with his own ideology..
Wenger really thinks outside the box.. I mean he is from Mars..
Playing Sanchez as a loan striker, not having an outright striker yet in the team apart from Giroud, loaning Campbell again.. Now that’s some odd issues already after just two games.
On the positive note, we can still get a striker and CB. The boys can start winning again but when you realise we won’t win the league, then the better for you.. .
OT. Did anybody see Skhodran Mustafi? Arsenal medical checker couldn’t find him. Hahaha…
Vieira says it all. Arsenal lacks leadership and physical presence. In a way, you can understand why clubs wants players like Costa, De Jong, Wanyama, Kompany. Their presence alone is a boost for the younger players and the fear on the opponents.
xhaka is a leader, give him time.
viera an wenger fell out, id be wary of his comments
I see Wenger is being called “the deluded one”. When you see Wengers odd and self harming decisions it may be possible the break up with his wife has left him blaming Arsenal and he is subtly trying to harm the club. I also think Kroenke is trying to raise capital to invest in his American Footbal team. He does not care about our team at all. It’s time for mass protest. Even the most diehard Wenger supporter must realise Wenger has cracked up. Only the supporters can force change.
think your theory on wengers behaviour has alot of flaws.
This just like politics when long time regime gone mad.
The dictator will says : Lets the insanity continues…
wenger is a legend in his own mind so other peoples opinions … fans, ex players, journalists, etc … have no bearing on his greatness or the righteousness of his own decisions … from end of last season it was clear we needed two quality attacking options to put up a serious challenge (getting rid of walcott and campbell or ox and bringing in a serious upgrade over giroud) instead he brought in another midfield option (having done the same in the winter window) which only makes sense in his own delusional world rather than the reality of facing up to serious and strengthening competitors and which defines the job at hand …. we have zero chance of winning epl or cl untill he leaves …
His unwavering love for his British core shines through once again at the expense of a very loyal and good player in Campbell.
He’s not going to buy anyone and arsenal will most certaintly not make top 4 that’s the best secanaroo for every frustrated fan. Most likely the board even with that would still give him a contract extension such is his control over this club.
#laughingstock#listentoviera#
We can complain all we want but if the people at the club (Wenger/Kroenke) have different objectives than us, ie we want trophies and competitive teams, they want profit and a solid business, we will always seem to make strange decisions or want strange things from each other.
When we say “spend the money” we mean buy the best players for the postions we clearly need them. When they hear spend the money they seem to think “Why? That could harm profits and our balance sheet. After all we did better than our target (4th) last season so we really don’t need a lot of strenghtening to stay where we want to be.”
The only thing that will change things at the club meanighfully is if Usmanov were to buyout Stan.
Wenger walks, not much will change as long as Stan is the owner. He won’t bring in or convince a top manager to come manage his squad with no investment.
Choosing Gabriel over BFG vs Carroll last season was odd.
Picking BFG over Gabriel to face Vardy was odd.
No striker vs huth and Morgan was odd.
I’m used to it
The worst possible result for us last season was to finish 2nd.
We still won nothing and get no glory as fans for that , BUT the board sees it as an improvement so no real need to spend a lot of cash strengthening the squad. Stan will be happy as it increases his corporate brand some more. Wenger sees it that he was right only to sign Cech and that you don’t need to spend, and they all go back to their BS towers and spout more nonsense to us idiot fans.
This is what we get for coming second as fans….nothing!
I am really liking the theory of arsenal not spending the funds to strengthen the team, is due to the false impression of success in arsenal finishing second so the team does not need much improving.
I can actually hear in my head arsenal wenger telling the board that is team has stability and cohesion, therefore the need for reinforcement is minor and we should only look for upcomers for conitinuity hence no need to pay major funds for new players.The idea now is to stall until the end of the market coming out with statements such as ” we were looking for quality but none were available in the market” or “arsenal has a large squad and its only fair to give them the right opportunity for their development” which we have already heard sanchez, akpom, sanogo and walcott as forwards.
I think however wenger does not understand the anger brewing amongst the arsenal fans, which will continue to grow while wenger and the board lead us to an apparent destination which all arsenal fans think is obvious DISASTER.
Teams such as Manu, chelsea and aston villa could not remove the negativity around the club which gradually steeped into the team, affecting their performance in games.
Wenger and the board has lost touch with the arsenal fans and really do not know that they are putting arsenal in jeopardy of a mass fall out