There’s really not a lot left to say after yesterday’s blog. We’ve had no further reaction from the manager or any of the players and I suspect there won’t be much coming out of the club this week.
Goodplaya makes a point about not thinking the young players are overrated, I think in response to something I said yesterday about Denilson. The point I was trying to make was that there is this tendency amongst fans to build up, very quickly, the ability and potential of a young player like him. He was fantastic in the Carling Cup, really fantastic, and showed that he’s got something about him that could give him a long term future at this club. However, he’s still played barely more than 10 or 15 games for us, he’s learning and to expect the same level of performance from him is wrong. In the Carling Cup he was coming in with no pressure on him, no expectation. Now when he plays everyone is expecting him to be as good as he was in that competition and that creates pressure on a young player.
Gunnerblog mentions Bendtner who practically everyone has put on this pedestal because the hype created around him has gathered its own momentum. He’s being lauded as someone who can break through immediately and score goals week in week out when the reality is he’s an 18 year old who has done reasonably well at Birmingham this season. With all due respect the difference between playing and scoring a dozen goals for Birmingham and doing it for a team that wants to challenge for the Premiership and Champions League is immense. Many players find it impossible to make the step up. Julio Baptista is a perfect example. He was awesome at Sevilla for two seasons but flopped at Real Madrid and Arsenal where the weight of expectation is obviously too much for him. Look at Alex Song who can’t do it for Arsenal but has performed at Charlton where there’s less pressure. Who knows if Bendtner can do it? If we get a half dozen goals out of him next season that might be considered a success for a young player but perhaps we need a striker who can do more that.
East Lower says:
Clearly, the team needs some surgery in the summer, but that’s a discussion to have in the summer. For now, we can only work with what we have got, and Wenger must use all his skills to pick the team up off the skids.
Correct but that’s not to overlook the point that the team does need surgery in the summer, no question about it. There are players that have underperformed consistently and they have to be the ones addressed. In particular the wide players and given the fact it’s they that haven’t been up to scratch it seems likely they’ll be the ones sacrificed to bring in new blood. Gunnerblog reckons Freddie and Hleb will be here next season. I have my doubts about both of them. The club’s finances mean we can’t let players leave for free like we did with Wiltord and Edu. We can get a reasonable fee for both those players and make a significant dent in the wage bill allowing the manager to bring in at least one wide midfielder. Even if those two go we still have Cesc, Diaby, Gilberto, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott and Denilson for midfield. Add a scorching winger to that and it looks ok to me.
Anyway, that again is something we can discuss tirelessly this summer when the season is over. At the moment we’ve got to concentrate on matters at hand.
Going back to my original point though about Denilson and the fact that, in my opinion, people are inclined to believe the young players are better than they really are. I’m not saying they can’t be top class players. Lots of them have shown flashes of skill and put in performances that suggest that they can be. What I’m saying is that at the moment they’re not and perhaps we need to adjust our outlook accordingly.
Is this a squad that can win the title? No. This is a squad which is capable of 4th place, 3rd at a push and so, while compared to previous seasons we have underperformed, the reality is we’re doing pretty much as well as we can in terms of league position based on the players that we have.
What we need now, in the short term, is a reaction from the players who simply must show more effort and commitment and, in the longer term, from the manager who has to accept and address that the current crop is ill-balanced and essentially flawed.
