Transition ???? We are Arsenal Damn It by Dan Smith
Needs more transfer windows, learning about players and the dreaded…… ‘we are in a transitional period’.
I am not advocating for any manager to change his footballing beliefs, all top coaches should believe their ethos will work eventually, only the weak sacrifice their principles to appease others. What is paramount though, is it is never good to be losing football matches. Yet strangely some of our biggest critics have found positives in losing our opening two games, something that last happened in 1992. Most of these gooners are one’s who preached for change so have to now stick by it even if the grass proves to not be greener.
I got a lot of abuse in the summer for questioning our recruitment in terms of our managerial and player appointments. For me it yet again proved our lack of ambition. In my opinion many of my peers were left celebrating change for the sake of change. Parallels are being used that Guardiola, Klopp and Pochettino all needed an adjustment period to find out who could/couldn’t cope with their style of play. Yet Man City and Liverpool did that with owners willing to buy the very best while Spurs have been ruthless in tieing down their best talent to lengthy contracts. To be a big club you have to act like a big club and make no mistake every possible data points to the fact we should be a big club.
Yet look how we handled replacing Arsene Wenger, look at our transfer policy, look how yet another star name is playing out his contract. Does Uni Emery really need a year to see if Cech at the age of 36 can be good with his feet, why spend 20 million on one you think who can – yet not play him? How many months does a man need to decide Lacazette should start? Why was he so sure that Wilshere had no future, yet Xhaka did? Why is our brand new midfielder not starting because of World Cup fatigue, yet Pogba, who won the whole thing, starts on the opening night. Worse, surely you knew that a defense which already had no confidence was not going to cope with extra demands when they can’t do the basics?
My fear is the Spaniard knows the answer. That in reality this squad needs the kind of investment we just wont get under the man soon to be our 100 percent owner. It’s the only reason Emery got the post, other candidates pulling out when they saw how much was in the kitty.
For Emery, once PSG didn’t want him, the juice is worth the squeeze. A decent pay day for a few years at which point we will blame the board. If we wanted to be serious contenders he wouldn’t have got the job. I never understood how winning a French title after you are given Neymar and Mbappe qualifies you to work with the most unambitious billionaire in the games history. Give us those two and trust me there is no adjustment period.
Yet I, as a paying season ticket holder, have to accept this change for the sake of change while we continue to lose time and ground on and off the field to our rivals.
Three games in and Emery doesn’t know his best eleven. People applaud him for subbing Ozil, something Mr Wenger would never do. So we have reverted back to type. Without Wenger to shield the politics in the board room lets blame Ozil who in reality deserves a higher quality of teammate.
Again; change for change, doesn’t mean anything if you are losing football matches. Once we start accepting defeats, Stan Kroenke wins.