We are being lied to- Dan Smith
There has long existed a myth that anyone who does not want Arsene Wenger to leave the club is blinded by loyalty, refusing to notice any of his flaws, believing it’s Arsene FC instead of Arsenal FC. While that is often patronising to fans entitled to have an opinion, not even the Frenchman’s biggest loyalist can ignore his sins recently. The evidence was last Sunday…… and it hurt.
Arsene Wenger had plain and simply lied to us. No arguments, no debate. He told us one thing, when he knew the opposite would happen. As recently as the post match press conference at Chelsea our manager said he expected Alexis Sanchez to at least be an Arsenal player till the end of the season.
Equally no one had a gun to his head when less then a month ago he said it would take something outrageous for ‘the club’s decision’ to alter from the summer. Then we were told, that it was worthwhile turning our backs on millions of pounds for the sake of the Chilean firing us back into the Champions League. Of course no one was to envisage that his form would fall off a cliff or he would continue to alienate team-mates. His employers had every right to expect him to be a professional, even Van Persie gave it his all till the day he was sold.
The day the Dutchmen was sold to Manchester United, our manager said it would never happen again. A lie.
Allowing our best player to go to Old Trafford was part of the process of paying off the debt from our new stadium. Accepting that hurt in the short term was meant to be worth it in the longer picture. The famous quote was that once the Emirates was paid off ( which it now is) we would be the English version of Bayern Munich. To be fair we don’t know if that was lie or if at the time Arsene Wenger truly believed in the project.
Here we are though in 2018 with our board yet again open to negotiations from our so called ‘ title rivals’. As recently as the third game of this campaign at Liverpool it became clear that if we could of turned the clock back to July we would of sold Sanchez, that’s how early it was clear that forcing your two best players to stay in North London was not ideal.
There’s nothing wrong with making a mistake but essentially we as a club have had 4 months to reconsider our stance . So why does it feel we are making decisions on the fly?
30-35 million is an offer our owner must have assumed we would receive in January, Man City were always going to test the water having done so in August. In today’s market it’s hardly earth shattering money. Before we kicked off against AFC Bournemouth a top 4 finish was not an impossibility, neither is winning some silverware. Is it worth making our squad so obviously weaker just for a fee that will sit in the bank? We were told that would never happen. Another lie.
So is if you believe the rumours that we are interested in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Arsenal of course cannot be responsible for what newspapers report, but leaked details of their interest smacks of a PR stunt. Knowing that they face a fan backlash, Aubameyang would be considered a world class replacement for Sanchez…
It was only Last weekend that I realised Arsene Wenger’s been lying to us for over a decade…
Dan