Good morning from dreary, wet Dublin. Quite an amount to get through this morning and we’ll start with last night’s shareholder’s Q&A with Arsene Wenger.
In a good analysis Gunnerblog describes it as ‘lover’s tiff‘ which seems quite accurate. Things did seem to get quite tetchy indeed but as GilbertoSilver points out the quotes we have are out of context so it is worth bearing that in mind. Supposedly the Q&A will be aired on Arsenal TV tonight so those of you with the channel can have a good look.
I think it would be fair to say that if you were asked for the ideal time to have a shareholder’s Q&A it wouldn’t be on the back of a crushing home defeat to Chelsea and a Champions League exit to Manchester United.
In an ideal world we’d be still fighting for the title or at least have made one of the cup finals but this season has been far from ideal and on the back of three trophyless seasons it was always going to be a difficult night.
On criticism of his players, Arsene said:
It is the easiest thing to sit in the stands and say they are not good enough, that they do not fight. It is always that negative way of thinking, that the players do not care. We are playing in the best league in the world and you do not go 21 games unbeaten if you do not stand up and fight. What these players have done this year in a negative environment shows they can stand up for their own responsibilities.
There’s no doubt the players deserve credit for going 21 games unbeaten but ultimately the fans are reacting to what they see on the pitch. What came before, and even during, the 21 game run was deemed by many who pay their money, and a lot of money, as not good enough.
The fans reacted to players who thought they just had to turn up to beat the likes of Hull and Stoke, to players who even admitted there was a lack of effort and focus in the squad. As I’ve always said fans will forgive players for lacking quality but they are merciless when it comes to those who fail to put in the required effort.
I would agree that it has gone a bit too far at times but I think, genuinely, that the players were the easier targets when most of the frustration fans felt was with Arsene himself.
Can you really blame fans for being negative when you’re out of the title race by November? When you’ve suffered five losses? When the issues that the manager spoke about (a centre-half to deal with the ball over the top, for example) in the summer remained unaddressed? Is it any wonder fans were negative when the manager said we would be ‘reassured’ by the players he brought in and he then brought in Bischoff, Sylvester and the talented but far from ready Ramsey? Nasri was the only player signed last summer who strengthened the team in any way.
Now, I watched Arsene’s press conference yesterday and he was stressing at all times that he would work within the resources available to him. He would not bankrupt the club and I got the feeling that he was trying to say he’d spent as much as he could. He said:
I believe every manager has the same problem, to manage within his own resources. I look now like I do not want to spend money, but I have nothing against spending money. I just feel we have a team who can be very competitive and we want, as always, to manage this club within its resources and I will do that.
Perhaps it’s the mixed signals that are so confusing. On the one hand the Chairman and Danny Fiszman are saying there’s money if the manager wants it, even Arsene himself the club had never refused him money for a signing when he wanted it, but he seems to have let player after player go without adequately replacing them.
Did we lose Flamini, Gilberto and Diarra and not replace them because we couldn’t afford to or because Denilson, Diaby and Song were such fantastic talents that it was time to give them their chance? To me the most obvious explanation is the former. The three players I mentioned have really done nothing to prove that they were ready. Song has improved this season, no question about it, but considering his starting point it’s not really something to write home about.
Maybe fans would be more understanding if they knew the manager didn’t have two pennies to rub together but at the same time we hear there’s money there, we see the club make £10m+ in sell on fees, players like Hoyte generating £3m and once again the manager making a profit in his summer transfer dealings. It’s confusing.
Arsene took umbrage at one shareholder calling Sylvester ‘geriatric’. He said:
I cannot accept that you speak about the players of your club like that. You are attacking the players and that is much worse.
When you think about some of the words that could be used to describe Sylvester he got off quite lightly. And just because players play for the club you love does not make them immune from criticism. Sylvester, I’m sorry to say, is one of the worst signings Wenger has ever made. His purchase was like buying something on display at the check out in the supermarket. He was having a medical elsewhere, Wenger heard about his availability and bought him.
A player who Manchester United deemed not good enough, and who was certainly never a favourite of Arsenal fans when he played for them, was now supposed to answer our defensive problems? How can Wenger not understand fan’s frustration with this? He told us fixing the defence was going to be a priority, instead he paid it lip-service by signing a shit player who was already past his best. That he was going to sign for Man City or Sunderland tells you everything you need to know about his ability.
So while I can understand Wenger being hurt by the criticism of one his players and sticking up for him, he must know in the back of his mind that this was a gamble and one that has not paid off. French does not equal good and frankly I fail to see the logic in sending Senderos to Milan and buying a crock like Sylvester. I can see the logic of sending Senderos off and buying a commanding centre-half to play alongside Toure or Gallas but not that.
Then Adebayor. I’ll refer you to Gunnerblog’s analysis of him because it’s spot on. He won people over with his enthusiasm, energy and work-rate, not to mention some cracking goals and some seriously purple patches last season. We all know what happened, his head got turned by ridiculous offers of money and he wanted to leave.
His behaviour, frankly, was piss poor. At times he contradicted himself in the same interview, on one hand saying he loved Arsenal, then moments later saying he’d be open to leave if the right offer from one of the big clubs came in. He was even talking about Milan in the week we were playing United in Europe, way to focus, Ade.
This season has seen all the things fans appreciated about him go by the wayside. It’s easy to point at his big pay-cheque and say that’s the issue but it’s hard to look past it. Sure, he’s had a couple of injuries, sure he’s been in and out of a team that has struggled for form, but at the business end of the season, in two Champions League semi-finals he strolled around like it was all beneath him and that is simply not good enough.
The manager knows it too, dropping him, not resting him, for last Sunday’s game against Chelsea. On selling him to Chelsea, Arsene said:
Yes, of course, it’s unusual. Cole to Chelsea and we bought Gallas so you can never say I never do it because I’ve already done it.
Hardly the ‘not for sale’ message he’d send for a player he really wanted to keep. He went on to talk about Adebayor’s season, saying:
I believe he has been disturbed by bad feelings from the fans because he was close to leaving and it unsettled him a little bit.
Poor love. Fans aren’t stupid. They saw what he did last summer, essentially hold the club to ransom, get a big payrise then doss about. He had the temerity to kiss the badge after scoring a penalty in a pre-season tournament, he thought people would be ok with that. They weren’t. They aren’t. I think of all the players in the squad at the moment he’s the one most of us would like to see leave. Cash him in, use the money elsewhere.
You hear stories at the moment about Adebayor’s off-field behaviour too and coupled with what’s going on on the pitch, or not going on on the pitch, you have an ego so out of control it would make Elton John blush.
Yesterday in his press conference someone asked Arsene if he had any regrets about this season. He said:
Erm … with my committment certainly not. I worked harder than ever this year.
Skillfully avoiding the question, really. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Arsene has made mistakes. Nobody is questioning how hard he worked and if we step back and look at what we’ve got – to achieve what we did deserves credit. There probably isn’t another manager in the game who could take this squad and keep it in the top four.
You can point to the weaknesses of others (Villa’s slump) but we did go 21 games unbeaten in the league, we finished 4th, we got to two semi-finals and all that with what many of us consider Arsene’s weakest squad of players since he took over. So he has undoubtedly worked hard, it must have taken everything he had to do what he did with these players.
Let’s remember as well that we’ve reached a Champions League final and a Champions League semi-final in the last three trophyless seasons. The Invincibles were Wenger’s best group of players, a team of incredible quality with brilliant individuals who never got to a CL final or a CL semi-final and it’s easy to overlook that. Arsene wants fans to see the bigger picture, that there’s a long-term strategy in place, but while most of us can see that it’s difficult to reconcile it with a sport in which you’re only as good as your last result.
But in general I think Arsene will have to seriously take stock this summer. Players who he professes to have such faith in have let him down. He treats them like adults, like experienced men, they treat some games like training sessions.
I can understand fully him being defensive, when you have done your best with what you have it’s hard to take criticism for it, but sometimes the words that hurt most are those with a ring of truth to them. Nobody likes to be criticised but I’m quite sure none of the fans there wanted to be in a position where such harsh words were spoken. But as is often the case a lot of positives can come out of a good argument, grievances and things that have been bottled up and then spewed forth can be cathartic, and we have to hope that’s the case, on both sides.
Phew, what a lot of guff. Now, a very brief round-up of the other news. Tomas Rosicky is back in full training, good for him. Fingers crossed he can stay fit but it’ll be next season before we see him.
Arsene says the difference between us and Man United is the defence. Can’t argue with that really. They’ve only scored three goals more than us in the league, we’ve let in 12 more than they have. His priority this summer is to fix that, it means buying better defenders, of course, but the job of defending is not solely the preserve of the back four. The team in general has to do better.
The Man United game we can preview tomorrow, there’s been enough said today already, so now onto this week’s Arsecast. Joining me on the show to talk stuff is Goonerholic and on the menu is the manager, Gazidis, Usmanov, tomorrow’s game against United and more. Plus there are the usual bits and bobs in there too.
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Right so, till tomorrow.
