Dear Arsenal fans: Are we too harsh on our own Players and Club? by MN
I have been following closely on what we expect of our players and coach and what we tell them, and for over a decade the story has always been the same – Criticism of the highest order – I understand the importance of criticism, however too much of it has become too obnoxious. Among those who have been a target are Olivier Giroud, Jack Wilshire, Ramsey, Koscielny, Wenger, Wojciech Szczesny the list is long.
So soon we forget that learning is a process: Read this quote from Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” Well, we all know what he became afterwards…
People fail at some point and that is why the most successful people around the world once failed in their lifetime. Olivier Giroud is 27 years we have seen him miss golden opportunities at critical hours in front of a goal but this does not necessarily mean that he should be crucified and sent to hell. According to ‘Rich Dad’ he encourages people to make mistakes in their lifetime and says, “The faster the mistakes are done, the faster we learn.” In our own terms, we are asking OG and company not to make mistakes and in that case we are telling them not to learn. Henry and Van Persie made mistakes too in their initial days in an Arsenal Jersey but later turned their miseries into opportunities by breaking records for club and country. Players like Messi, Ronaldo (Brazilian and Portuguese), Rivaldo, George Weah, Ronaldinho, Pele, Maradona – the list is long, made mistakes too at some point.
Its by fact that Arsenal has negotiated a decade without any BPL titles, however we can all see what happened in that period; we were busy improving our infrastructure while the two Manchester clubs and boring Chelsea were winning trophies. In this period we were selling our best players; our financial status was in shambles, and no player wanted to play for Arsenal despite the fact we were always playing in the Champions league.
The last few years has been the opposite though, we have brought in quality players in the name of Ozil, Sanchez and Cech; we stopped selling our stars and that is why Ramsey, Walcott, Cazorla, Koscielny and Wilshire are still with us today. Our club is in a good financial position and the transfer business is quite encouraging, this can only be emphasised by the two FA trophies we have won back to back and still in a good position to compete with English and Europe’s top prestige clubs for now and in the future.
Now that we can see light at the end of the tunnel, I am calling all Arsenal fans to change tact while criticizing our coveted club, manager and players by substituting ‘satanic words’ of ‘F’ and ‘S’ characters into words that can add value into the club’s vein and steel, write more articles that can encourage Arsenal players rather than kill their morale, unite and dissolve abuses coming from rival club fans and club enemies like Jose Mourinho. This will benefit the team psychologically, emotionally and tactically, but also remember to reasonably criticize errant players.
Long Live Arsenal
Do you Agree with me Gunners?
Maurice Nyamoti is the founder of Manyamfranchise.com and ArsenalFCsoccer
~Ruiru-Kenya