Arsenal - I scratch my head - Lots of questions - A bit of a rant.

Arsenal - I scratch my head - Lots of questions - A bit of a rant.

In the wake of the Bayern Munich and Blackburn defeats there are a lot of people crying out for change. Some want Wenger out, some fancy a change at board level and some want new improved players. On the one hand it is easy to demand change after (effectively) being knocked out of two cup competitions in a week. On the other hand we have to finish the season as strongly as we can, so would rocking the boat further make a positive change? The desire for change is not something new or knee jerk but what needs to change?

The sports press love times like this as it is easy to fill column inches with stories of “Club in crisis”. The design team get to have a half day, as all they need to do is break out the old broken Arsenal badge and stick it next to a badly punned title and away to print they go. All interviews are pulled apart, distorted then analysed by halfwits until the resulting article is so far removed from the source it is unrecognisable. like vultures the press circle, waiting for their prey to get wounded, they gather in numbers and eventually gorge themselves picking apart the bones of a carcass, taking the limelight, credit and getting fat off something they had little care for when living.

Arsenal are in decline, there is no hiding from that. We have grown in: stadium capacity, revenue, facilities, sponsorship deals, global reach, etc etc. But we have shrunk in playing football ability (footballistically). What is the stem of the problem? Nobody seems to know, it seems so many things are wrong with the club, is anything going right? Or is that just the press stirring it all up, getting in to my head and making me think that we have a divine right to glory and trophies?

Some say the board won’t reinvest, as they want to make lots of lovely money. Some say that Arsene won't spend the money he has available as he has lost his cheque book and is embarrassed at his clumsiness. Some say that Dick Law, our chief contract negotiator is a bad negotiator and we need David Dean back in to do that. There is the Usmanov argument; should he be allowed a seat on the board so he can invest in new players? What is up with our transfer policy? Why are we crippled with such a high wage bill (£140,000,000) when we have so many fringe/ rubbish players? Why do we have this crazy wage structure, where we have to say goodbye to our top players so that Denielson/Bentner/squillaci/etc/etc/etc/ don’t feel hard done by at earning much less. “you want to earn more money, play better football” should be said to them.

Who knows, but I hope they sort it out. I like Wenger and I don’t think he is fully to blame for the recent decline we have seen. He has done so much for the club in so many ways. Although, is he the right man to turn it round, start again and have another stab at it?

If another manager comes in he/she will need time and money to improve the squad. Having spent so much time with his hands tied financially would it be cruel to let go of Wenger and let someone come in and feast on the fruits of his labour? We have a lot of the deadwood squad nearing the ends of their contracts. We have some large sponsorship deals with cash to spend at the ready. I believe there will be a quite a lot of movement in the summer, in and out. I would love for Arsene to lead us to glory again. I wish he had done so in the FA Cup this season, but we must look forwards and just hope he can motivate this bunch of players to get over the line.

On another note, I was alerted to a news story regarding how many medals ex-Arsenal players had received since Arsenal last won a trophy. Although I was initially surprised at how many the total number is, when looked at in more detail it isn’t that alarming.

64 in total looks bad but:

Thierry Henry 7 - We parted ways quite amicably. He served us well.
Patrick Vieira 7 - We sold him. He served us well.
Jose Reyes 5 - He never settled in london and left at the time the club was on a high
Alex Hleb 5 - We sold him and I doubt he did much to win those trophies
Eduardo 5 - After a horrific leg break, when we were on to win the league, he returned a different player and we didn’t have time or space to get him back up to speed.
Cesc Fabregas 4 - Returned home to Barca.
Lassana Diarra 4 - Never really played for us much, don’t know what he has won.
Then there are 16 others that will include Nasri and a bunch of other bench warmers.

There is also Ashley Cole 8 - I didn’t know he had won the “who is the biggest weapon in world football” trophy that many times. Oh well.

So yes, some players have gone on to win, but that is hardly surprising and we did quite well out of them.

We have a home match against Aston Villa on Saturday and we will have a chat about that match tomorrow.

See you then.

Pumpkiii