In football or other sports in which anything can happen on any given day, there is nothing like being an optimist, but judging from the comments of one former Arsenal star this week, being Paul Merson is nothing like being an optimist.
I saw last week that someone said Arsene Wenger is and always has been a glass half full sort of manager and person, whereas it seems to me that Merson is the type who thinks that not only is there not enough in his glass, but that the glass in question is about to shatter and leave shards of class in his eyes.
How else are we supposed to see the predictions of doom and gloom from the football pundit and former Gunner after the current Arsenal team, or more honestly squad because Wenger had to do without some key players like Alexis Sanchez, Koscielny, Ozil and Ramsey at Wembley, produced a fine performance to lift the first trophy of the season at the expense of Antonio Conte and his reigning title holders.
Metro reports Merson glossing over that completely and bringing us Gooners back down to earth with a bang as he predicts that we are about to lose the services of our Chilean striker and then go on to have another poor season which will end up with arsenal once again outside the top four and missing another year of Champions League football.
He said, ‘I don’t see Alexis Sanchez staying at Arsenal by September, and when you look at the rest of the team, I don’t see it happening.
‘Alexandre Lacazette is a good player, but not everybody else was going after him. If you’re good and playing in France, PSG will be after you, or Monaco, who lost a lot of their players.
‘That’s my worry. He plays that one-two, which will be good for Arsenal, but he’s not going to beat three players.’
The former England international added: ‘People talk about Arsenal in the Europa League, maybe suggesting they won’t bother trying in it, but Arsene Wenger still has to fly out somewhere on the Wednesday, won’t get back until the Friday. It is still tiring.
‘Therefore, I would tell Steve Bould to be in charge of the Europa team, and Wenger could work at home with the Premier League team.’
Don’t beat about the bush Merse, why not predict that the Emirates Stadium will burn down and we will get relegated? How about just a little bit of positivity eh?
Bob.
You could’ve written an entire article on the last bit of his comments and given all the readers something to actually discuss. The idea of leaving the Europa league campaign to Bould to manage is fantastic in my opinion. I know it’ll never happen as Wenger is a control freak but designating a specific group of our squad to focus on the Europa league and leave Bould to manage and train that group seams an entirely sensible way to make a real push for the premier league and the group stage of the lesser competition. Saves our star performers the grueling travel schedule and let them give it all at the weekend in the premier league and gives our younger players a chance in the first team.
Sounds like a good idea, but I wanna know if such a thing has ever happened before or done by any other clubs? Will the Arsenal team be divided into two sets? Will some players participate in both the EPL and Europe? All I am asking is, is this type of planning practical for a club like Arsenal. My sincere question.
I don’t think it has been done but yeah I’d divide the squad into two sets with some overlap with our more experienced squad players. That way each group knows its responsibilities for the season and what they are trying to achieve for the club. The Europa squad would be used in the EFL cup as well. It would give Wenger all the time, focus and preparation he would need to finally mount a genuine title challenge.
OT: Lemar has grown frustrated with arsenals lack of negotiation with monaco. Showdown talks between monaco/arsenal/Lemar agent. Lemar wants the move. Arsenal haggling over certain numbers that were believed to not be an issue. News was always that last minute issues needed to be sorted and monaco replacement. Monaco seem to have their replacement, arsenal are haggling. Same old penny pinching from arsenal. Will update you as and when my source has some more info. In all likelihood deal should still happen. Arsenal have lined up riyad mahrez and seri as back up options. Worst case scenario we are looking at a deadline deal for mahrez..
OT: Arsene has flown today/yesterday to monaco, followed by nice this week. This is why we were far more successful as a club with dein taking care of all this and arsene focussing on coaching.. a few days before the start of the epl and arsene has taken off for transfers. Entire structure is flawed at afc…
OT: I’m told that lemar wants guarantees of the game time as well. All these small issues are holding up the deal..
So much for your done deal info. ‘just waiting to be announced’
Your previous comment shows you really have no inside info and have been feeding folks here most likely scenario gossip as facts.
” Worst case scenario we are looking at a deadline deal for mahrez..” yeah, like every man and his dog does not already know that.
you’re that Moley dude from Twitter aren’t ya
I don’t take what some pundits say too seriously, they pundits hate Arsenal because most of them are from different other clubs. Even these that have no clue about football management. And there are some that were Arsenal players but like their voices to be heard ahead of the club eg Tony Adams saying it is a slap to Jack Wilshere when Wenger bought Ozil (I wonder where Arsenal would have been if it had been waiting on Wilshere) not that he is a bad player but he is not really available. I know the club has not won the league in a long time but are they really that bad? Carragher spoke about Liverpool yesterday and insisted Coutinoh to stay for another year at Liverpool despite Barcelona interest, Danny Mills expected Sanchez to leave this summer( even though Wenger has said it for the 250 times that he is staying) , and if he doesn’t leave he will not give his 100%. Owen excluded Arsenal from top 4 and I expected it because he has his two clubs that should be there Liverpool and Man united, Steven Gerrard, they are countless. The only pundit with an objective assessment is Gary Neville. So, my dear Gunners pundits are not always right, they say what opinions they have putting their interest ahead of a proper judgment or assessment. Watch Carragher speak about Liverpool and you will see how passionate he is about his old club. Thierry Henry is diplomatic at best! But Ian Wright is faithful. It will be a bad idea to divide the players into 2, what we want is everyone pulling and working together towards a common goal that is win as many trophies as possible!
I know it’s not quite the same but Barca Real etc. have a second team playing in league
Don’t see why we couldn’t do similar – that said will always be some overlap
Whilst all the travel maybe tiring , fatigue has little significance for a manager. So for me it’s right that Wenger is still manager of all competitions, or there will be no evolution / stepping-stone from one to the other
The only thing I would say is that the manager would still have to prepare for the midweek competition if he were in charge of all competitions, so it’s not as much a fatigue issue but a focus one. I would rather Wenger have an entire week to prepare for the Premier league with a more select group of players to manage.
Merson is right. Like Lemar, only few clubs are after Lacazette, like Arsenal and Atletico Madrid.
But perhaps the other big clubs missed something. Umtiti and Alba didn’t have many suitors, yet they have been playing very well for Barcelona.
Of course Barcelona made a lot of wrong purchases as well, such as Andre Gomes, Paco Alcacer, Vermaelen, Hleb, Song, Afellay, etc. Basically making a purchase is always a gamble, the club would never know whether the target would be really suitable for the team or not.
The better way to ensure the success is to promote talented youths that are accustomed to the team’s football philosophy. Barcelona can dominate Europe because of their homegrowns, such as Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Puyol, Busquets, Pedro, Thiago, etc.
The problem is inside Arsenal itself. The same person has been managing Arsenal for more than two decades, so they should have been able to create something like La Masia system.
Picture this, we don’t come out of the gate firing on all cylinders, Wenger speaks of how there wasn’t enough time for the first-teamers to build chemistry, several key players aren’t even playing because of Wenger’s utterly ridiculous policy regarding players who played in the Confed Cup or the under21s and the boo-birds have returned in full flight…if these things were to happen, which is quite possible considering the Groundhog Day mentality of this club, how long do you think it will take for Wenger to recant his earlier statements regarding Europa…I would suggest that it’s these sorts of comments from Wenger which are often his undoing…why would any manager worth his weight in salt make such a definitive statement before the season has even started…why would any manager who fashions himself an educated man make such pronouncements before even knowing what his starting 11 will be come Friday, let alone on September 1st…why would any manager who has a tenuous relationship with a great many supporters offer up such a potentially contentious talking point considering how many times his own words have come back to bite him in the ass…I think he does this because he doesn’t care what you or I think, in fact he’s more than slightly infuriated by the very idea of having to answer to the likes of you and me…that might have been acceptable during his formative years in charge, when the fans were rewarded with an scintillating brand of football and success felt like a forgone conclusion, but this new Wenger led team barely resembles that team of ore…whereas in times past we relished a few words from our seemingly cerebral manager, in recent times those words have been replaced by a myriad of excuses, a plethora of infuriating stories about who he could have signed but didn’t and what can only be construed as outright fabrications…it’s kind of funny that when we want some answers, like during the whole contract debacle of last season, we can’t get an intelligent word out of him, but when we just what him to show his managerial acumen through his actions, we can’t seem to get him to shut-up…I beg you to prove me wrong Arsene
The only reason for him saying it would be because it’s what the fans want. The fans want this, so why are you trying to twist it around. He said himself that it could change if we get to the latter stages of the competition, but in the early rounds he’s going to try to rest some of the more important players ( in so many words). If he went out there with the full squad against some unknown team, that would be something to complain about. I understand his reasons completely, esp seeing how previous seasons finished, but what I don’t understand is some AFC fan likening Vieira to a woman. Unless your name is Vera Lyn[n]
I do not have any respect of some of former Arsenal players when starts criticizing, Why is he saying silly things about Lacazette ? For the past years ppl were screeming to Wenger to buy a striker now Lacazette is not good , Come guys give someone a break and support the boys.
If we get Lemar and a top quality CM we will be fine.
Lacazette doesn’t need to be the best in the league. He does not need to be another Henry. All I’m hoping for is 20-25 premier league goals.
Chelsea won without having the best striker in the league. They had an excellent striker but overall an excellent team.
One person like a striker won’t win us the title. Having a team of quality players who work well together and work hard will win us the title.
The thing is though that he did have a suitor – Athletico Madrid. If Merson’s brain hadn’t been ravaged by coke and booze he would see that Athletico have signed some of the best strikers in the last 5-10 years.
Also, if we are to get very to the point, Wenger has had some striker flops where he has signed players cheap hoping for a good turn around. However his record in buying in too strikers is exemplary. Very rarely does he pay going rate for a player, particularly French, and that striker goes on to flop.
Park chamakh sonogo giroud ….that’s one out of 4 from French league and even the one isn’t a triumph …. That’s worse than tossing a coin!!!
Did you read what I said? I said players he pays going rate for. Two of the ones you mentioned were free and the other was a couple of millions and the last around £10m. And only two of them were french.
Talk about lack of comprehension………
who told u Giroud is a flop???? despite the fact that arsenal is not playing to his strength he’s still not a flop
I agree with Mers.
please we re all allowed to say our views on our team.. what makes us uncomfortable what makes us happy and what we are expecting from our team but to create a negative environment against our team is suicidal.. that is what have learned in recent times . and the fa cup is a quick reminder of being supportive that is why I was not wavering in my support for the community shield. if we keep it up against Chelsea we can create a mental block for Chelsea against us we can make them scared facing us..Chelsea wanted to win us at all costs but we could see that our team were ready and had their plans to deal with them.. if you are not ready to support my arsenal u re free to go support Blackburn…. just get out of here
I don’t understand what this Merson guy is trying to say. Take Kolasinac for example. Best left back in the Bundesliga last season. Does the fact that we got him for free without having to fight Bayern Munich and Real Madrid mean that he is not good enough? What will it take for people to understand that Wenger’s ingenuity is what has kept us competitive in Europe in the past twenty years and not Kronke’s deep pockets? It is weird. We have been in for Mbape for the past three months. Are we any nearer to buying him? No. The only thing that has come out of it is that Monaco are now raising their price for him every other day. Last I checked, they were asking for 160 million pounds. How exactly does arsenal compete in that kind of situation? Good scouting and player development must play a major part in our player acquisition strategy or we cannot compete. We just bid for Dembele and Dortmund knocked it back. Now Barcelona is after him with their Neymar money and Dortmund is rumored to be asking for somewhere between 90 and 100 mil. Again how do we compete with that? We cannot blame our people in arsenal for every unrealized dream of ours. Getting the best players now is extremely difficult because teams love to start a bidding war so they can extract maximum cash from interested clubs. You cannot blame Wenger for that.
We did a poll here on where we think Arsenal will finish this season. Only 22% thinks we will win the PL. If you are a competitor that means 78% predicted doom. Is Merson so far of this group of fans with his assessment?
Personally, I am very excited to see what Laca can do because I was tired of watching Giroud and I am even more excited about Kolasinac. They were great purchases IMO. Having said that I am not naive enough to believe these two guys can bridge the gap of 18 points to the top of the table. Neither am I naive enough to believe that we did better in the transfer window than our competitors.
Finally, Wenger is still in charge and I just don’t believe he has changed and is the man to land us the other PL title. He doesn’t have his finger on the pulse any longer. Kolasinac on the bench? Ox on the left? Ramsey our future?
You don’t just “bridge the gap” by buying players.
stop taking that Mersin serious.that’s a stupid prediction I arsenal will find difficult to win d league but not finishing 6th like he said bcos I read that his stuff too.
degrading Lacazette saying other big clubs were not after him is d most stupid statement I hv ever read. does he even know football?
Lacazette is not the guy that can beat 2 or 3 players? I recon Diego Costa can’t either and has won the league twice with Chelsea. People should stop hating on Lacazette
Well, I really don’t think Mersons comments about Lacazette are bad/wrong.
First of all, in the French national team it seems they rate Giroud above him. Do we know something they don’t?
From what I have seen so far, Lacazette is certainly a good player, but I honestly haven’t been overwhelmed by him
So will he be a great improvement. Maybe, maybe not.
But anyway, the area where we have been lacking for a number of years is defensive midfield, and before we see real improvement there, I doubt we will see us competing for the title.