Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Arsene Still Believes

Arsene_Wenger_Pat_Rice

by MIKE HARVEY Wherever we finish this season, I believe it’s fair to say that some of our players just aren’t good enough, and in an ideal world, some of them should be sold in the Summer to make way for new and better players. I think we can all agree on the fact that a few individuals in our side are far from good enough, to be in a team that wants to win the league.

Realistically, I just can’t see a summer clear-out happening.

This morning, Arsene Wenger stated that he has “no doubt at all” that his team can still win the league, as long as we “keep our belief“. He claimed “Arsenal will win the title if they win their last five games“.

I agree with what AW has said, but I don’t have concrete faith that we’ll be able to win every one of our remaining games, which will see us visit Bolton and Stoke – while also having the honour of hosting title favourites, Manchester United.

Based on recent weeks (probably months actually), our performances have suggested to me that our team probably isn’t good enough to win the title this year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never lose hope until it’s mathematically impossible for us to become champions and won’t stop supporting the team until the last game of the season. However, it seems that we’re way too capable of throwing a lead away – no matter how large, and no matter how long we have left to hold on.

Of course, there are players that I would like to see depart North London in the summer, and would show some of them the door myself – but I believe it’s not as simple as that.

In his press conference this morning, the Frenchman also went on to uttered that not many players will be packing their bags for an Arsenal exit. Arsene asked “Our team is 23-years-old – why should we have a huge turnover in the Summer?“.

For a club like Arsenal, I feel we run on a “one in, one out” policy. This suggests to me that our activity in the transfer market this summer will be limited, as usual.

Despite that, I will admit that I agree with this system. There’s no point in buying Gary Cahill if we already have 5 (6 if you want to count Alex Song) centre-backs who are competent enough to play in the Premier League.

During every transfer window it seems, AW seems to be crucified for “not signing anyone”. And when he does sign someone, people are immediately on his case demanding that we should have bought players that would have a £40m price tag, as well as a £150,000-a-week wage bill.

Some fans need to get real and face facts that we are restricted at times in the transfer market, given our circumstances. Whatever Wenger does, he’ll always be criticized – even if he’s right in the end!

 

 

{jcomments on}

 

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Mike Harvey

I'm 20 and have been an Arsenal season ticket holder since 2006. My family has had Arsenal links since the 1920's, and the support is still going strong. I am at every home game, and also manage to get to multiple away games, when I can. I have been writing for various blogs and websites since I was 15, but have now settled down and have become a regular writer for Arsenalinsider. I also run my own Pro Evolution Soccer blog, Only Pro Evolutions. Arsenal is my passion. Writing is my passion. I was never good enough to play for The Arsenal, so I'll do the next best thing!

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  • mats

    dont make excuses for wenger, years before the new stadium was built, the fat cat board members that have just made hundreds of millions from asrenal, along with wenger were telling us that the new stadium will let us compete finacialyl with the likes of man utd, rela madrid and barceloan. WTF has happened there? tyhey were saying we will be competing in the transfer market with the top teams in the world, wtf happened to all that? This is what makes me laugh we have fans that like to pretend eveyrhting is rosy and fine, but forget everything about what was said about the new syadium. Now the arsenal fans that go the stadium, pay the highest tickets in world football,w hile lining the pockets of the fat cat shareholders. So dont blame the fans or anyone, bastards.

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  • GunnerFromIndia

    [quote name=mats]dont make excuses for wenger, years before the new stadium was built, the fat cat board members that have just made hundreds of millions from asrenal, along with wenger were telling us that the new stadium will let us compete finacialyl with the likes of man utd, rela madrid and barceloan. WTF has happened there? tyhey were saying we will be competing in the transfer market with the top teams in the world, wtf happened to all that? This is what makes me laugh we have fans that like to pretend eveyrhting is rosy and fine, but forget everything about what was said about the new syadium. Now the arsenal fans that go the stadium, pay the highest tickets in world football,w hile lining the pockets of the fat cat shareholders. So dont blame the fans or anyone, bastards.[/quote]The stadium wasn’t going to help us compete financially right after the ribbon was cut, mats. I bring your attention to the concept of payback period. Talk about giving Squillaci, Denilson, and maybe Diaby a right one up their butts, and there’s going to be a bunch of people behind you.

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  • Angelo1971

    “There’s no point in buying Gary Cahill if we already have 5 (6 if you want to count Alex Song) centre-backs who are competent enough to play in the Premier League.” Stupid Arsene Knows Best opinion. By the way nobody said we should spend 40 million on 1 player. How dare you say we have 5-6 competent centre-backs and blame fans? Is that why we throw away matches, though we have 2-4 goal leads? Though I do not support mindless spending, but there were/are very good players for a relatively cheap price. Suarez was 1 of them. We pay Bendtner and Vela (who’s on loan, so useless for the team) instead of having a natural born winner Suarez, who revs up the team and can actually play football. Wenger let Liverpool have him. Apart from you anybody can see the sortcomings of this team. I respect your support, but your short-sightedness insults my intelligence. If he does not get rid of the Denilsons (and does not start using tactics) he will fail us again.

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  • GunnerFromIndia

    @Angelo1971
    Just so I’m clear, you wanted to spend 25mil on a cup-tied striker and play him out of position? And that would have been the answer to our team’s defensive shortcomings?

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  • Angelo1971

    By the way how come they’ve made a negative balance? The high ticket prices for fans, the extremely high prices for the businessmen in the business lounges in the stadium. The food/drinks at the stadium, the match programmes/magazines and the souvenirs/shirts sold on match day bring in loads of money. Not mentioning the worldwide sales, as we are still 1 of the most popular clubs on Earth and revenues from cups/tournaments. There might be some corruption in the background, as well. The staff’s salary has been the same for years and it’s not so much. To win we need to sell at least 7 useless players, bring in a world class or quality goalkeeper (this one is not the worst in the team), a world class centre back, a world class midfielder if Cesc goes and a world class striker/finisher. The rest we should buy should be good-established players and 1-2 youngsters like Jack, if we have any. These players should go: Almunia, Squilacci, Denilson, Eboue, Diaby, Rosicky and Bendtner.

    These are optional: Fabianski (not necessarily, as he developed a lot), Arshavin (if he refuses to play his best), Chamakh (if he does not recover from his “recent” terrible form), Carlos Vela (if he does not develop), Vito Mannone (if he does not develop), Cesc (if he wants to go, as he might only be convinced by massive changes; sorry for him) and the rest of those on loan if they are not in prospect to play for us. And start using bloody tactics man. If there are no changes Wenger should go.

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  • Angelo1971

    No man. You don’t seem to understand. Suarez was just an exemple to show there were/are good players for cheap. Why do you play dumb? I’m not stupid to play Suarez as a defender.

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  • Angelo1971

    By the way I wrote this: “We pay Bendtner and Vela (who’s on loan, so useless for the team) instead of having a natural born winner Suarez, who revs up the team and can actually play football.” That’s about the attacking options or do you think Bendtner and Vela are defenders?

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  • Angelo1971

    And when criticizing the balance we are supposed to have a cheap team.

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  • GunnerFromIndia

    Dude! Why are you so insecure about our attacking options? We score lots of goals, but cant defend leads! Suarez was a good buy for Liverpool because they had a wantaway misfiring 50mil striker getting paid 100+k on their books.

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  • Angelo1971

    You are partly right, but nowadays we cannot score as many goals as at the beginning of the season or looks like we are struggling to score (pointless passing around till we lose the ball/no creativity; slow build-up). Yes 1 goal would be enough to win, if we could defend it. Why did I say that? Take it this way. Apart from van Persie whose good commitment and goals cannot be questioned who have we got? Bendtner is a Sunderland level footballer. His technical abilities and finishing are not good enough. He need loads of chances to score and his stupid miss against Barca still echoes in my mind (typical him). Vela is on loan. He’s young and talented but without enough confidence and experience. Walcott had some very good games and if he’s not injured that much can get into form and score. I did not criticize him. Chamakh totally lost it. It hurts me as I became his ardent fan, so I would give him time, but he needs to overcome his terrible form. Also don’t forget that many times the midfielders and sometimes defenders helped out our poor attacking. That’s not their (main) job. Briefly if van Persie were injured as usual we would have considerably less points.

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