Keep the faith Gooners..
It’s been a long time since I blogged. Lots of travel (both personal and work-related), plus a change in job (which included a hell lot of transition) and most of all, Arsenal’s poor form, kept me away from 11G, something I feel very apologetic about. I sometimes doubted my allegiance towards the lads, as the trend suggested I kept away at a time the team wasn’t doing well. But I’m sure that’s not the case, it’s never been, and it never will be.
Infact the end of this season marks my decade as an Arsenal faithful – a decade filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, the speed of Henry and the skill of Silvestre (remember his 1-2-1 with Messi!?), the vision of Bergkamp (who btw celebrates his birthday today!) and the strength of Eduardo (and Diaby, and Ramsey, etc), the invincibility of Vieira’s men and the ineptness of Cesc’ charges, the calm on Arsene’s face (first half of the decade) and the callousness in his demeanour (offlate) – I’ve been through them all.
That brings me to Arsenal’s recent loss of form, and how! I won’t bore you with the stats or an entailing account of the games, but I can still recall ‘that’ moment of madness between Koscielny and Szczesny. From being the only team in all 4 competitions at the end of February, to the only one which repeated the same mistakes for 6 seasons running, it’s been quite a tectonic journey.
I can go on and on with the likes of FC Barcelona and Manchester United and their dubious ‘winning ways’, but I leave that for my more experienced peers. Either way, history will remember season 2010-11 for who won the European Cup, and not who stuck to his principles come what may; so what he (ref: le boss ofcourse) ended up facing failure all over again.
The fact remains that Arsenal have now spent 6 trophy-less seasons – the day is not far when the idea of a ‘trophy cabinet’ at the Emirates is permanently shelved! On a serious note, although I am saddened by Arsenal inability to close seasons and emerge champions in whatever little capacity, I can still quote enough reasons to keep believing. Again, I would refrain from giving a telling account on how we’re now financially stable (and others are not), we have a robust youth set-up (a lot others don’t), we ‘make’ players (others ‘buy’ them), referees save their worst for us (never against our oppositions), and lastly how we play the game beautifully (and not cheat occasionally to get the job done). A bagful of reason to keep the faith I say.
Moving on, I would ideally want to see wholesome changes at my club. Changes which include doing away with atleast 5 of the first-team starters including Denilson (simply not good enough), Rosicky (respect him, but never been the same post-injury), Diaby (too injury prone for a club as big as ours), Almunia (no point having both him and Fabianski in the squad – ain’t one calamitous player good enough?) and Eboue (love him off the field, but seriously not him please, no offence!)
Off-loading 5 squad players’ raises the obvious question, ‘whom do we replace them with?’ Fellow bloggers (with much better insights than yours truly) have been pitching in for the likes of Samba, Cahill, Parker. Not that I’d sidetrack them, but going for them would supersede the bigger question. Experts, pundits and former players alike, have unanimously pointed out a lack of ‘winning mentality’ being Arsenal’s biggest nemesis over the past 5-6 seasons.
We’ve lost proven winners like Vieira, Henry and even Gilberto – players who know how to inspire fellow team-mates and up the ante when the going gets tough. I doubt if the aforementioned Englishmen are armoured with the pre-requisite credentials. Agree that they know the physical nature of the English game inside-out, and have proven themselves with lesser sides, over a period of time. But pre-assuming that they alone can guide Arsenal back to winning ways would be too naïve a thought in my earnest opinion. The eventual decision rests with boss himself, and in him I’ll always trust.
In Arsene We Trust. Period.
This brings me to Arsene himself. First things first, exactly how many of you want him out? I’ve got just one sentence for you all, ‘I pity you.’ The man is a legend and sticking to the routine, I’ll avoid going into the details. I just hope he turns a little flexible and slightly does away from the ‘all-for youth policy’ for once. A right balance of exuberant youth (mind you likes of Cesc, Nasri, etc are still in their early twenties) and proven winners (hopefully a couple of new signings) will take us afar.
Amen to that..
Here’s to Arsenal returning to winning ways before the season bids adieu. Then lets gear up for changes galore. Cheers!
PS: A decade as an Arsenal fan is simply not good enough. I want a lifetime more of red & white! Fingers crossed x x
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Note: If any of you want to share your views/opinions on the club from N5 (read: Arsenal!), leave Us a comment at the bottom. We’ll get back right away & be glad to give you a chance. Keep Gunning..
May 10, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Well written young man. I really like your feelings and thinking about the players and the great man. Very well put – a good bit of analysis and writing. Enjoyed it. Keep up the good work. Life is a journey and we will be visiting some wonderful places in the years ahead – as long as Arsene is with us. We are so lucky.
May 10, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Are you all on drugs or don’t you go to games. We are weak all over the pitch. Take a reality check I go home and away and don’t see any progress at all. The starting 11 is not good enough and the back up is weak. That’s why he choses either not to play them or to send them out on loan. The problem is simple we did not replace like for like when players left.
We all love our club but we need to all be a little more honest.
May 10, 2011 at 9:46 pm
This starting 11 finished top of the mini top-four league. This starting 11 beat Barcelona (allbeit in the first leg). This starting 11 IS good enough. There is no denying that there seems to be an unprecedented deep lying mental issue in this team that restricts them from achieving what they are capable of. However, they ARE good enough. Arsenal have the best team in the Premier League. If they can overcome this mental hurdle they will dominate. With a couple of astute buys in summer, this team will come up with the goods.
May 12, 2011 at 9:43 pm
@Joel Well put. Its mental resilience which leads to our demise each season. We need 1-2 proven winners in our squad asap.
May 12, 2011 at 9:25 pm
our first 11 on their day is nearly good enough give or take 1/2 players but apart from that are players coming in our not upto much like rosicky, bendtner, denilson etc if we can take 1 or 2 world class signings and a new version of tony adams i guarentee we will win the league (and yes i go to alot of the games before you ask!)
May 12, 2011 at 9:54 pm
@Fred I agree that few of our squad players aren’t good enough, but you just can’t question the entire first xi mate. Its just few key positions which need a replacement.
May 12, 2011 at 9:58 pm
@Terry Thanks for the kind words mate, always appreciated.
May 10, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Wonderfully uplifting article. It is too true that we who can see the brilliance of our current club and manager should “pity” those who cannot. Mark my words these are the glory years. I hate it when Arsenal “fans” say those who support the manager are acting in a form of “blind-faith”. As you have done in this article, you can completely objectively say why the most successful manager in our history, not to mention the manager of the decade, is absolutely the right man for the job.
May 12, 2011 at 9:45 pm
@Joel Thanks (again) mate!
May 11, 2011 at 12:43 am
Arsene Wenger is tactically inept and has no bottle in the transfer market. I loved him up until he sold our captain and talisman Patrick Vieira for nothing more than Juve’s loose change. It was that summer, when I saw a boy outside Juve’s training ground saying ‘Thank you, Arsenal for Patrick Vieira’ that I knew something awful was going to happen.
The Nutty Professor, since then, has stumbled around accepting mediocrity and persisting with a project that was doomed to fail from the offset. I’m sorry Wenger Apologists, but he’s fallen off! It’s sad seeing him praying in his technical area, throwing his water bottle around and pleading with fourth officials… I just want to grab him and say: ‘you could have shipped off Denílson, not signed Shitmakh, listened to Robin and signed his mate Rafa van der Vaart’ or ’4-5-1, at home, against Blackburn… why???!!!’ or this weekend ‘You’re playing Bendtner… as a left winger? Have you gone mental?’.
Wenger must go! He shows us fans very little respect (calling us an ‘irrelevance’ and ‘impatient’), cheats on his wife and behaves like a spoiled brat! His project has failed! We will plummet next season, unless he radically changes his ways. As much as I’d love to see the old deluded fool replaced with Jurgen Klopp, it’s not going to happen… so I guess we’ll wait for this time next year and all of you would still be spouting on about how he’s the best man for the job after a sixth-placed finish to another trophyless season!
WENGER OUT!!! KLOPP IN!!!
May 12, 2011 at 9:48 pm
@Dan Agree that boss made a few tactical blunders here and there, but then who doesn’t? As per finishing 5th, 6th, 10th, lets wait till that happens. That’s ‘cos skeptics say the same for us each season, and we end up surprising them.
I have just one question for you mate, ‘if not Arsene, then who? And what makes you so sure that he’ll win us the title in his first season in-charge’?
May 11, 2011 at 8:59 am
in arsene we trust!!!!….so when exactly does this “trust” expire???? In any walk of life if you continually fail at something (and it comes at a price), then the people you affect surely will question your continuance in that particular line of work. As mourinho pointed out if he was anywhere else than arsenal he would have been sacked.
There are no excuses for blatant errors of judgement and continued mistakes in the transfer market. Its not about the lack of money, we gained 40 million from the sale of toure and adebayor and bought squillaci, and koscienly for a fraction of that and they have proven to be the worst CDEF pairing in the prem league. How can you trust a manager that believes in these 2?????
6 YEARS IS WAY LONG ENOUGH. he hasnt learned anything from since those defeats away at bolton blackburn some 5 or more years ago when we were out-muscled convincingly. All he had to do was to introduce some big gritty players like nolan into the squad and rotate for these games…just simple matching to the opposition strengths. But no, like a crazed professor, it had to be in his style only, to bring in players like nolan would be like admitting his theory of the infallability of his total football dream was flawed. Stubborn, egotistical and irresponsible!!!!! wenger out!
May 12, 2011 at 9:26 pm
mate you think 6 years is long, do you not remember the trophyless 17 year period but yeah for a big club like supposedly we are we should be winning trophies
May 12, 2011 at 9:51 pm
@Big Tone It hurts me the most when fellow Gooners doubt the boss. Its use who must back him the most, ain’t!? Again, given the way the Invincibles disintegrated over 2 seasons, and we built a new stadium from scratch, our show has been decent. A top 4 finish ain’t as bad as its made out to be. Topping that, we play amongst the best football in Europe, by far the best in England. We don’t cheat, nor dive, nor buy the god-damn refs. What more do you want?
May 14, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I think you should be focusing on consolidating your top four position, to be honest. City are very close to overtaking Arsenal, and a resurgent Liverpool next season could see Arsenal slip out of the CL places.
May 18, 2011 at 10:46 pm
It was Aston Villa two seasons back, Spurs last season, and Man City as you say. for the upcoming season. Don’t worry, no one’s displacing us as far as the UCL is concerned!
May 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm
there is no us you are a plastic fan
May 23, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Hahaha Liverpool!!
Oh dear the Jobsless ones from Self Pity City are almost as deluded as the armchair idiot who wrote this piece
There is one reason and one reason alone Arsenal flopped, becuase they are shit, if anything they were lucky to have finished fourth!
As for Liverpool, a dire side of cloggers. Suarez will get found out next season
Dalgliesh inspired them to 6th but thats probably as good as it gets
May 17, 2011 at 4:42 am
arsene + arsenal shld do smth bout our deffence.da french influence shld hardly fucked.cant stand 2 c trophyless Gunners nxt czon.re-shafle da mid.we dn nid da kidz no more bt trophies.
May 18, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Agree on that. Almost all our defenders can’t stand set pieces and a quality opposition.