The last few weeks have been disappointing. We first saw our side throw away an Wembley cup final triumpth, when we gifted Birmingham City their first major trophy in 48 years. We then saw a very cruel sending off crush any hopes of processing against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. And more recently, we witnessed far from clinical Arsenal side crash out of the FA Cup, despite dominating the proceedings at Old Trafford.
Being an Arsenal fan has been pretty tough in recent years, but I can’t remember us going out of so many competitions in such a small space of time, in such a depressingly miserable manner – last minute mistakes, poor refereeing decisions and losing games where we’ve dominated our opposition. Despite that, we should remain proud that we’ve never been “on” for the quadruple this far into the season before. Obviously doing so has caused us to be upset, but at least we were in that position to start with.
Of course, fans are allowed opinions. And with blogs, social networking sites, radio phone-ins and other forms of modern media, I have no problem with fans expressing such opinions – whether I agree with them or not.
But recently, I’ve heard a lot of outbursts that has left me bitterly disappointing with my fellow Arsenal fans. Like I’ve said, I am a fair person and can accept opinions from fans, whether we share the same voice or not. But in some instances, I can’t help but let my blood boil.
The thing that has aggrevated me the most recently, is the fans who have expressed their desire for Wenger to be sacked. There have always been people who have felt that he shouldn’t continue as the Barcelona boss, because the absence of trophies we’ve had over the last 5 years. But not once, has any anti-Wenger Arsenal fan has given me a realistic suggestion to who should come in as a replacement for AW. The only name I’ve been given is Pep Guardiola. I admire his desire for his sides to play beautiful football and his success at Barca has been outstanding, but let us not forget that he inherited that squad. That’s why I will always have more respect for Arsene Wenger, despite the dry-up of trophies (and let’s face it, he would never leave the best club in the world out of choice anyway!).
You may have read some of my stuff in the past, and if you have, you’ll know that I’m a great believer in Arsene Wenger. Although I admit he isn’t perfect, I believe he’s the best manager we’ve ever had. He’s transformed a – let’s be honest – rather small English side, into a soon-to-be global footballing superpower. While spending significantly less funds compared to every other footballing force, he’s brought in many world class players which have won us titles, FA cups, reach European finals and of course, go an entire season unbeaten – a feat that I’m not expecting to see again in my lifetime.
I admit that Wenger could and probably should have spent a little more in January, investing in a few more players in the positions where we are now deficient. But I can only say that in hindsight.
Before the season, if you were to tell me that Johan Djourou would be one of the best and most consistent defenders in the league this year, I would have laughed at you. I always believed he had the potential to do great things, but never expected him to actually deliver. Laurent Koscielny is a great defender too, in my opinion – especially considering he’s our third choice centre-back.
Unfortunately, Djourou is out for the rest of the season now, and if I’m being perfectly honest, you might as well rule out Thomas Vermaelen as well – I’m not usually pessimistic about things, but I will be genuinely shocked if I see him again this season. It’s probably a physcological thing, created by the repetition of seeing TV5 is only “three more weeks away”. Of course, I can’t wait to see him back in the red shirt. Not only is he a great centre-back, he’s a natural leader that could drive us on when things look grim.
Of course, it’s easy to criticize Wenger for not buying a new centre-back. But if these two didn’t pick up their respective long-term injuries, we would have 5 decent centre-backs in our side – which quite frankly, would be ridiculous. Although we’ve come to expect injuries, you can’t argue that our 2 sidelined central defenders are unlucky.
But anyway, I’ll move on from the centre-back topic. I’m sure, like me, you’ve had enough of it by now.
It’s safe to admit that football nowadays is a business. Of course, the sport side is vital for but I believe the financial side bears more importance to a club, rather than what actually happens on the pitch.
Here’s an example that should brighten yourselves up;
Let’s say you were running a business that produces constantly high profits, while also having the ability to connect with millions of customers from pretty much every country in the world. You would be proud to think that your firm once started off as a small corner shop, but now have become a Tesco-like force, producing incredible financial results – and unlike your competitors, have had no government income or any other finance that you didn’t produce independently. You may not be the biggest company in the world, but in a few years, you will be. But don’t worry, you will be in the most comfortable of positions until then!
What I’m trying to say is that we should be proud of what our club has done. And more importantly, what Arsene Wenger has done – and will continue to do too.
I have said it before and will say it again, there is simply no better man for the job. I’m not asking for you to have blind faith in Wenger, but I just wanted to remind you all of what the man has done for us, on and off the field.
Without him, where would we be now?
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