The Mysterious and baffling case of Arsene Wenger by Dan
I am tired of Arsene Wenger, as tired as the Arsenal manager himself looks most days sitting pitch side no doubt. As it can’t be argued that he hasn’t given his all for the club, no matter how you view him. But I fear, time and the monopolistic power he acquired with the early years of success has affected his reasoning and consequently his ability to take our great club forward.
Aside from the usual tactical/systematic naivety he displays by playing players out of position (when better options are available) and generally over packing the midfield with like minded players, This transfer window has thrown up the same baffling questions for me in relation to our manager and his actions (or is that in-action?).
Why when we have the opportunity to push on and build a deeper and better quality squad do we not do so? Well it seems that even with a network of scouts on our payroll there is not, in the entire world of football, better quality players than what we currently have, to be found! Aside from showing no interest in attacking talent like Tevez, Dybala, Pedro to name three, why can’t our eagle eyed scouts find us someone akin to West Ham’s ‘Payet’ who helped rip us apart. Is it just that Wenger can no longer identify the glaring holes that the world can see or perhaps his stubbornness is in his ideology? Perhaps it is a mixture of the above elements.
How can players like Arteta and Flamini remain at our club when there is an abundance of better, younger and faster midfield talent available on the market? If it is for loyalty’s sake then it is well misplaced, as his role is to create the best squad possible to compete on all footballing fronts, and not to be charitable to ageing (yet good servants) to the club.
But then Wenger does display what can only be called ‘loyalty’ to certain players in the team at the expense of good and effective rotation. Some may argue that it is because players such as Ozil and Sanchez are irreplaceable, but then the counter argument to that is they wouldn’t be if our bench options were better. No player in a club like ours (which hopefully endeavours to be the best?) should be guaranteed a starting place, just because even with a hangover and club foot sustained from a bee swarm attack he is the best option. In the case of Sanchez, the man who’s will to win drives him ever onward, he could hardly stand at the end of last season due to fatigue.
So, depth and quality is needed to win things – as is money to obtain it (it has been proven year in year out). So why on earth with a healthy bank account are we 5 days away from the transfer deadline with only the mercurial Cech as our purchase so far?
I cannot understand this, can you help me out here please?
Dan (ArseOverTit)