Will AKB’s finally see the truth? By ThirdManJW
In the aftermath of yet another insipid display from Arsenal, I ask myself, will all Arsenal fans finally be on the same wavelength? Which is, we badly need a new manager. ‘Same s*** different season’ is a saying that immediately springs to mind, but I wonder if it’ll finally be enough to sway the unmoveable blind faith some fans have in Wenger.
Whilst the result against West Ham may have come as a surprise considering our good pre-season, the performance certainly shouldn’t. I’ve completely lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen that type of performance. It also makes me laugh how many times the fans blame the players and not the manager. One cannot blame the players (although Cech did have a shocker), because we’ve seen these types of performances for years and years.
Players have come and gone in that time, whilst one thing has been a constant…Wenger. He’s the one that decides on the tactics, positioning, style of play, etc. We saw at the end of last season that we still had major problems with Wenger when teams decide to sit deep and play counter-attacking football. We saw it again today. Even at 0-2 with the clock ticking and plan A not working in the slightest, you’d think we’d stick Mertesacker up front, and start pumping the ball long and hit a lot of early crosses, but no! We just carried on creating almost nothing with short passes into congested spaces. For me, that is tactically awful.
Another area which infuriates me, is Wenger in the transfer market. AKBs have defended him for years because of the lack of funds, but even with huge funds, Wenger has proven them wrong over the last three summer transfer windows. Although he’s brought in some fantastic players, it’s come at the detriment of the team, because Wenger keeps ignoring the blatantly weak areas of our squad. So we keep starting each season in a weak position. The current transfer window is a fantastic example. Everyone (apart from Wenger) knew what the priorities were: another DM to provide competition and cover for Coquelin, and the main priority…a world class striker or just someone better than Giroud. So what does Wenger do? Obviously he buys a goalkeeper! Don’t get me wrong, Cech is top class and definitely strengthens our squad, but did we need a first choice keeper when you consider the form Ospina’s been in for club and country for a long time now. Obviously players shouldn’t be judged on only a few performances, but it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of fans and Wenger who were so eager to replace the brilliant Ospina, when you consider Cech’s horror show today.
Even if Wenger were to get a striker on the last day of the window, one still has to ask, why so late? A new striker should have been in place before the start of the season because he’d need time to integrate into the team and a new culture (if joining from a abroad). By the time we sign a new striker (if we sign one), we may already have a couple of defeats under our belt and have a nice little gap between ourselves and the top of the table.
Fans of Wenger will now no doubt churn out the same drivel like they do every season: In Wenger we trust, he needs to given time, and my favourite – from Wenger himself – ‘judge me at the end of season’. So my question for the Wenger supporters is…how many more years does one keep saying these things when defending Wenger, having this blind faith and ignoring facts? How much more time does one keep giving Wenger?
Mourinho’s back only two seasons, and he’s already delivered two trophies, one major one and a Champions League
semi-final appearance, despite a lot of the squad not being his signings. Arsenal fans can only dream of this kind of achievement. AKB’s need to remember that belief and faith are not based on factual evidence. The facts have been
there staring them in the face season after season after season, I just hope that the performance against West Ham
will open some people’s eyes.
By ThirdManJW