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Today’s
2-0 loss to Liverpool should have come as a surprise to no one – Liverpool are
a side on the up, lead by Kenny Dalglish and backed by John W. Henry. Arsenal,
on the other hand, look depleted; their problems are clear but their manager,
be it through stubbornness or sheer naivety, refuses to budge from his ideology
of paying reasonable fees for footballers – it’s commendable, but it’s just not
realistic.
On
the pitch, Arsenal look inexperienced, have little known-quality in certain
areas and are seriously lacking in added options – there doesn’t appear to be
any kind of plan b at present. Even on paper, where even fans of the worst
teams manage to muster that little bit of optimism, Arsenal look depleted.
Yes
they’ve had a pretty horrific time of injuries of late; but beyond Thomas
Vermaelen, Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny, who else is there to play at
centre-back in case of injury? Sébastien Squillaci should be barely seen as the
last resort in a Carling Cup match, never mind a back-up first-team member and,
while Ignasi Miquel has impressed, the Arsenal defence is far too thin on the
ground for Arsenal fans to feel at all comfortable with their squad.
Samir
Nasri could, it seems, be set to stay with the club and that would be a
monumental boost – but the fact that the club is forced to rely on one player so
heavily must be worrying. Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey are fantastic central
midfielders but, beyond them? Nothing.
This
is nothing new, of course. Arsenal have been linked with a whole host of
players this summer: Joey Barton, Thiago Motta, Mathieu Valbuena, Arturo Vidal,
Scott Dann, Juan Mata, Jose Enrique, Keisuke Honda, Bojan Krkic, Chris Samba,
Charles N'Zogbia, Romelu Lukaku, Falcao, Karim Benzema, Phil Jones, Gary
Cahill, Eden Hazard, Scott Parker, Peter Odemwingie, Axel Witsel... the list
goes on. And what do all of these players have in common? None of them are
Arsenal players.
It’s
all well and good Arsene Wenger saying that he has a price for every player and
that he will not pay over the odds – in fact, it should be rewarded – but, with every other title-challenger quite
comfortably spending money and paying inflated prices, it’s just not going to
work, Mr Wenger. If you want to win the title – which I presume you do – you’re
going to have to conform to this system that you hate so much. If you don’t, with
your current squad, you won’t even make the top four.
Arsenal
fans have defended Wenger time and time again over the past few years, clearly
very thankful for everything that he has done for the football club, and that
should not be forgotten. However, that does not mean that it is perfectly
acceptable for him to fail this summer – which he has done, time and time
again. Mata, Jones, Lukaku, Witsel – they’ve all slipped Arsenal by because fees
could not be matched.
Why?
The money-men at Arsenal clearly aren’t that reluctant to spend given that Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been signed for £15 million, as well as Gervinho (£10
million). It’s Wenger who is the reluctant one, sometimes coming across as
almost delusional. At the start of the summer he clearly stated that changes
were afoot, that players would be brought in and that next season would be
different. Now that his failures this summer have become apparent, he’s backtracked
quite significantly.
One
of the most frequently used (and weakest) defences of Wenger is that his method
of buying rough diamonds and making them into world beaters clearly works, as
shown with Viera, Henry et al. Fine, it worked in the past, but that’s not to
say it will work in the future. Plus, it’s perfectly fine to have a system, but
when the system is failing, what’s the point?
If
Wenger’s system is working – as some Arsenal fans suggest – then why, with just
over ten days of the transfer window to go, have Arsenal still not signed an
experienced centre-back or a ‘destroyer’ for the midfield? These are two key
problem areas for Arsenal – there are more – yet Wenger hasn’t done anything
about them. There’s been a lot of talk, but no concrete action.
To
have a system is fine but that system has to work and, currently, Arsene
Wenger’s system is not working. These clear failures create unrest and sheer dismay
amongst the support which then leads to agitation and, rightly or wrongly, booing
inside the stadium. You want the booing to stop? Then spend less time bemoaning
the current state of football and more time improving your squad.
Welcome
to football in 2011 – it’s ruthless but there is no time to feel sorry for yourself.
The clock is ticking, Mr Arsene.
