Arsenal are the masters of their own downfall by ThirdManJW
Although super rich owners and the big TV deal, have reshaped the landscape of English football, I have to come to realize that Arsenal’s deep and long regression is actually down to the decisions made by those running Arsenal. All clubs get it wrong from time to time, but Arsenal have made such huge mistakes, with such consistency, and that is the reason why our club is a joke!
An absent owner, a once great manager who lost his way, a clueless CEO, and rubbish players, is why we are a complete mess. This didn’t happen overnight either. It’s about 12 years in the making. There are just too many different areas of mismanagement to cover in just one article, so I thought I just take a look at some of our most shocking decisions made over the years in regards to the players, and I dare not imagine the amount of money wasted, and missed out on.
Injuries
Patience with injury-prone players was taken to the absolute extreme, time and time again. Mainly during the Wenger era, given he had his favourites. Arsenal became more like a charity than a football club, with contract extension after another, for players the club knew would rarely be available. It was a complete waste of money, and replacements were often not made quick enough.
RVP
Letting a world class player, or any player at Arsenal for that matter, run their contract down would become a very familiar theme at Arsenal. RVP’s contract situation should have been resolved at least a year earlier because he then had all the power in his final 12 months. Selling him to Man Utd was a disgrace! Any club bar Utd, or Spurs I could have handled.
Sylvestre, Welbeck, Gallas, Luiz, Cech, Mhki, etc…
I have decided to put all of our rival’s ex-players into one category to save time. It’s another area that has severely damaged the club’s reputation. Our rivals only take our best players, whilst we keep signing up their rejects. This policy has been an absolute disaster! We can only pray that Luiz will be the last time this happens.
Ozil
Even from day one, this signing made no sense, because we had only just signed Santi a year earlier. Santi had already proven to be our best player, and one the best playmakers in the league. So why on earth did we need another playmaker, especially as we also had Rosicky, Wilshere, and Ramsey that play in similar positions? Was Ozil even an upgrade on Santi? Not from what I have seen from the pair of them in an Arsenal shirt.
Another playmaker should have been at the bottom of the list in terms of what positions needed fixing at that time. We desperately needed a top-quality CB, DM, and CF at the time, amongst other positions. Then we have Ozil’s insane contract extension, which is another example of gross mismanagement. He hadn’t done enough to even earn a new contract, let alone a monstrous pay raise. Why was he allowed to get down to the final 6 months of his contract? His extension will go down as the worst contract in our history, and in the history of English football.
Alexis
Like Ozil, yet another one of our high valued assets is allowed to get down to the final 6 months of his contract. Unlike Ozil, he was our best player, and one of the best in the league. We turned down 60 million, for then Wenger to use him sparingly over the next 6 months, and then swap him for yet another one of United’s rejects. Zero logic in that at all! About as bad as it gets! To compound matters, Mhki then flops very badly.
Aubameyang
The world class striker we had been begging for since RVP left, but yet again, what sense was it in spending over 50 million on striker, when we had just spent almost 50 million on a striker only 6 months earlier, knowing we always have a limited budget as well? Hardly any managers used two upfront any more anyway, including Wenger (who was our manager at the time), which meant more unbalance to the team. Similar to when we spent big on Ozil, so many other positions needed strengthening first. I love Auba, but yet another bizarre signing.
Luiz
One of our most illogical signings of all time! How was a poor defender ever going to improve a terrible defence? If a team is lacking goals, do you buy a forward that rarely scores? This signing literally made no sense at all! Yet again, our rivals have the last laugh!
There many other examples of player debacles within our club: Koscielny situation at the end, Ramsey on a free, Perez, Walcott’s crazy extension, the Cole swap, and so on… Like I said before, all clubs make mistakes, but Arsenal are the King of mistakes by an absolute country mile, and we now have Auba and Laca down to the last 12 months as well! Will this nightmare never end?
ThirdManJW