“IN WENGER WE TRUST” OR “WENGER MUST GO”! – TO BE OR NOT TO BE?!

The end of the last five football seasons and very possibly six seasons by the end of this season has seen Arsenal fans having to endure with the same heart-break of a trophy less and nearly season. In all the previous seasons including the current one, the team would have been lauded by various football aficionados for its scintillating displays and how if there’s any team they would pay to watch in the Premier League it will be Arsenal.

The team since the last triumph in the Premier League (2004) and FA Cup (2005) no doubt deserves all the plaudit it gets or playing football the right way and being pleasing to the eye to watch but one thing deserting the team and which it’s fans and even opposition fans that love good football has been yearning for all those five and soon to be six seasons is at least a trophy to show for all the beautiful football Wenger’s team has treated football fans to both home and abroad.

It will seem the situation is getting to a head this season as what has been a negligible murmuring among the club’s fans is actually threatening to become a full blown issue which most Arsenal fans, at least those who only started following the club during the Wenger era; the call for the club to part ways with the most successful manager in the club’s illustrious history after nearly 15 years of being in charge.

Since the loss to Birmingham City at the finals of the Carling Cup, the “WENGER MUST GO” brigade has grown from being a mere negligible murmuring to a serious question that is actually being asked all over the country by not only the Arsenal fans but by football fans all over the country. While the current situation of the team is a bit of concern to Arsenal fans all over the world, the “IN WENGER WE TRUST” brigade will argue that parting ways with Wenger now will be a disaster of epic proportion which might signal a downward spiral for the club. So who is right? Should Wenger go or shall we continue to trust in Wenger?

I have tried to see the argument from each of the brigades’ point of views and have come to the conclusion that for the immediate safeguarding of the team and club’s future we have to continue to TRUST in Wenger at least for now.

My reason is simple; Wenger got us into this situation and he should at least be afforded the opportunity to get us out of it!

Few questions for the “WENGER MUST GO” brigade;

• Where would we be as a club if we are still playing our home games at the Highbury? – Thanks to the forward thinking people like the late Danny Fiszman, David Dein, Arsene Wenger and the most members of the board that is being criticised today we now have a state of the art over 60,000 capacity stadium that is full almost every single game we play.
• Just like Wenger asked journalists recently; would we be happy winning trophies especially in the last five seasons at the risk of dropping out of top four thereby missing out of the Champions’ League and it’s revenue leaving a huge hole in the club’s financial position while still carrying the debt from building the new stadium?
• How many clubs in the Premier League has spent more than Arsenal in the transfer market and still haven’t come close to getting into the top four? I can only think of one club and that is Everton in 2005 and was not even at the expense of Arsenal but their neighbour Liverpool.
• Do Arsenal fans actually believe that we have enough money at the moment to make all these big money signings as the likes Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and to lesser extent Tottenham, Aston Villa and all the other pretenders that has been hoping to break into the top four or years?
• Are we going to suddenly start making big money signings once we part with Wenger and bring in a new manager? I don’t think so because the club is built on certain beliefs and ethos which if not changed the new manager will also have to follow the same path as his predecessor.
• Have we over or under achieved based on the budget the club has operated within in the last six seasons?
• Wouldn’t we have labelled Wenger as a loser by admitting defeat if at the beginning of the inaugural season at the new stadium he had come out and told us that the team will not be able to win trophies for the next X numbers of seasons due to the repayment of the loan to build the stadium instead of glossing it by saying the club will not be able to compete in the transfer market as it use to do?
• Who do the “WENGER MUST GO” brigade what to replace him if they have their ways and chase him out o the club?
• Has Wenger actually become that bad a manager that he cannot re-enact those glorious feats he and his team has spoiled Arsenal fans with until 2005 again?

Finally, like I pointed out earlier, I still TRUST IN WENGER and will want him to carry on but and this is a big BUT, he will have to compromise on certain ways in the set up of his team, from the playing to the non-playing staffs. It is an understatement that most of these players have let him down big time while he has stuck with and protected them even taking blames for their glaring flaws in games after games maybe due to the fact that the resources are not there to replace them in the past seasons but I think we should be able to rectify that now with the impending changes in the boardroom. It is now time for him to cut loose the dead weights in the team and for those that remains to stand up and be counted by being ready and willing to shed blood for the badge, jersey, fans and club in general.

IN WENGER WE TRUST!!!

SPURS 3-3 ARSENAL! “SAME OLD ARSENAL…..”

Last night’s North London derby lived up to its billing as one the most eagerly awaited derbies in the history of English football. Some might even argue that the way the game was played last night by both teams could rival the famous El-Classico in Spanish football between Barcelona and Real Madrid which incidentally has its second part of a four part series last night almost at the same time as the battle at White Hart Lane rages on.

This particular derby was further spiced up than usual as both teams still has something to play for at this stage of the season; Arsenal still has a flickering hope of winning the Premier League while Spurs having tasted the thrills of the UEFA Champions League football this season are still pushing to finish in the top four this season to have a go at the completion again next season.

So the stage was set for one of the most eagerly anticipated North London derby since the battle for the fourth place by both teams in the 2005/2006 with Arsenal narrowly edging out their neighbour on the last day of the season which some might argue is all due to the famous “Lasagnagate”.

Arsenal who as usual have flatter to deceive since the beginning of the season went into the game with what most of its fans and even players would have thought was a divine invitation back into the title race after the shambles of the last couple of minutes of the game against Liverpool on Sunday with Newcastle shutting out Manchester United on Tuesday evening at St James Park.

While some section of the Arsenal fans and players like Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny who even tweeted thanking the Newcastle players celebrated after the United draw on Tuesday night so were sceptical about Arsenal making most of the lifeline it was handed on Tuesday night against Spurs last night and rightly so.

The last few weeks has seen Arsenal failed to take advantage of situations whenever it has presented itself like it did last night. You will think a team that is searching for its first trophy since 2005 will have more desire and hunger and will gobble up any slight opportunity to actually achieve their goal at any slightest chance but like we have seen season after season the team buckles at the business end of the season, dropping silly points which make fans wonder if the team is actually good or strong enough mentally and physically to take the last few steps, go the extra yard, pull the rabbit out of the bag or come up with the unexpected when the chips are down.

Arsene Wenger has been hailed as a revolutionary manager with his meticulous attention to details both on and off the pitch and has been lauded for making the ugly looks desirable in the way he sign unknown players and make them into stars and rightly so but there are couple of important aspects of art of football that I believe his current team as well as his teams since 2005 has lacked and is lacking now are SELF BELIEF AND MENTAL STRENGHT.

Arsene prides himself praising his team for possessing these two qualities game after game but I believe they are the two qualities that his team actually lacks and that I believe is the cause of all these nearly years without trophies to show for their brand of football which is pleasing to the eyes.

Some might argue that the problem with the team is lack of leadership and/or experience players but I disagree on one single fact and that is looking at the team, it can’t be labelled as lacking experience as Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of something or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event.

Based on the above definition of experience, it beggars believe to label the team as inexperienced which I believe is an excuse to deflect the fact from their shortcomings when most of the first team players are international players including World and European Cup winner who have been plying their trade in the Premier League for better part of the last decade now. So what experience of playing in the Premier League do the players need to hold on to a lead, see out a game, defend set pieces or never give up until the final whistle? You only gain these experiences from doing these things over and over again and I don’t think anyone will argue with me when I say as a professional footballer you must have been doing these every season which made me sum the problem of the team being lack of SELF BELIEF AND MENTAL STRENGHT.

Some will argue that the team lacks experience in winning trophies as none of the ‘Invincibles’ are still in the team bar Gael Clichy and the recently recalled from retirement Jens Lehman, yes I agree to that fact but before Chelsea won it first Premier League title in 50 years in 2005, none of the players have won the League before but the broke the metal barrier and had the belief they can do it and did it same can be said of Manchester United when they ended their League trophy drought after 26 years of not winning it in 1993.

I believe this Arsenal team has hit the wall need a thorough psychological evaluation that will instil that MENTAL STRENGHT AND SELF BELIEF in its players to be able to overcome this impasse that the team nay the club has found itself.

This is my personal summation of the team at the moment in a 90 minute match scenario; the team is comfortable when the games are in a draw state, playing contented football and showing little or no SELF BELIEFAND MENTAL STRENGHT that they can go on and win the game e.g. Sunderland and Blackburn at the Emirates (both 0-0) unless they go behind, this is the part of the game that we see the best of the team and it will fight tooth and nail to bring the game back to its drawing state and then “relax” as if the job is done e.g. Carlin Cup Final and West Bromwich Albion away (2-2) . The last phase of my scenario is the most terrifying phase; when the team is winning or leading a game; this is when the team goes into what I call panic mode and commit every schoolboy error one can ever imagine until they either draw or lose the game e.g. against Spurs at the Emirates (2-3), Newcastle (4-4), Liverpool (1-1) and last night Spurs again (3-3).

Finally, like the headline implies; it’s the “same old Arsenal…..” but this time instead of “…always winning” by the club’s fans or “…always cheating” by the rival fans, I think the best way to complete this chant at the moment will be “….always choking”
              

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