In football or other sports in which anything can happen on any given day, there is nothing like being an optimist, but judging from the comments of one former Arsenal star this week, being Paul Merson is nothing like being an optimist.
I saw last week that someone said Arsene Wenger is and always has been a glass half full sort of manager and person, whereas it seems to me that Merson is the type who thinks that not only is there not enough in his glass, but that the glass in question is about to shatter and leave shards of class in his eyes.
How else are we supposed to see the predictions of doom and gloom from the football pundit and former Gunner after the current Arsenal team, or more honestly squad because Wenger had to do without some key players like Alexis Sanchez, Koscielny, Ozil and Ramsey at Wembley, produced a fine performance to lift the first trophy of the season at the expense of Antonio Conte and his reigning title holders.
Metro reports Merson glossing over that completely and bringing us Gooners back down to earth with a bang as he predicts that we are about to lose the services of our Chilean striker and then go on to have another poor season which will end up with arsenal once again outside the top four and missing another year of Champions League football.
He said, ‘I don’t see Alexis Sanchez staying at Arsenal by September, and when you look at the rest of the team, I don’t see it happening.
‘Alexandre Lacazette is a good player, but not everybody else was going after him. If you’re good and playing in France, PSG will be after you, or Monaco, who lost a lot of their players.
‘That’s my worry. He plays that one-two, which will be good for Arsenal, but he’s not going to beat three players.’
The former England international added: ‘People talk about Arsenal in the Europa League, maybe suggesting they won’t bother trying in it, but Arsene Wenger still has to fly out somewhere on the Wednesday, won’t get back until the Friday. It is still tiring.
‘Therefore, I would tell Steve Bould to be in charge of the Europa team, and Wenger could work at home with the Premier League team.’
Don’t beat about the bush Merse, why not predict that the Emirates Stadium will burn down and we will get relegated? How about just a little bit of positivity eh?
Bob.