By Guest Writer Marvin Williams.
With all the credentials held by the Arsenal scouting team the football world can only speculate on how they’ve overlooked a signing that’s been staring them in the face.
…The latest addition to the Arsenal squad, A much… needed… Centre back …Pair of glasses.
Once the infamous four words, ‘I didn’t see it’ were brushed off as a flippant Arsene once again acting the role of sore loser. However over the years Wenger’s Arsenal teams’ have weakened so much so that the validity of the statement should now be reassessed. Was Arsene’s eye site really deteriorating and no one took any action? He spoke of his symptoms, the fans felt his pain and now the Arsenal team reflects that.
Ex pros, fans and pundits diagnose Arsenal with the same problems and prescribe the same remedies.
‘They need a Vieira in there’
‘They need a top class centre half, centre midfield and keeper’
‘They can only play one way’
But Wenger’s persistent refusal to address what is so blatant to the entire football world makes the ‘eye sight theory’ a very valid one.
The yearly increasing stat is the Gunners trophy drought which now stands at 5years and their decline from the days of the Invincibles. Now I’m not one to harbour on past memories or the ‘glory years’ we have enough Newcastle, Spurs and Liverpool fans already doing so but Arsenal’s great years are so recent it’s fresh in all of our memories, unprompted by an episode of Premier League Years. It seemed like only yesterday MOTD opened with that Dennis Bergkamp flick, Tony Adams goal sealed the championship and the title was won at White Hart Lane. Harbouring? Maybe just a little but are memories all that are left for the Arsenal fans now? The club has become an academy where young players learn their trade and depart for a fee.
The claim that Arsene has done it before and can do it again in principle works but unfortunately it isn’t that simple. Arsenal with a few additions could be converted into the best side in the country and could win the title next year but without them they could go another five years without winning anything. Paying of the stadium has put everything on the backseat and its initial intention of moving the club forward has done the opposite. Football doesn’t stop! Other clubs will continue to progress and Arsenal could be further adrift by the time they wish to start spending again.
Arsene Wenger has built a wall around himself which even the closets of colleagues are unable to breach. His ego isn’t helped by the lack of pressure he is put under and the amount of power he has. You get a sense that Pat Rice is merely a ‘yes man’ and the board have no problems as long as the turnover each year is decent. Mental strength and belief are no substitutes for quality and experience and as Sol Campbell single handedly distorted his ‘over thirty policy’ he should re-evaluate aspects of his management.
Suggest departing with the manager, the cannon comes out and the ‘Arsene loyalist’ start some firing of their own. The culprits are labelled glory hunters, Arsene’s honours are recited and the last five years are swept under the carpet. How the suggestion equates to being a glory hunter I would never know. The Scousers did the same last year branding the Liverpool fans down South the fickle ones who called for Benitez’s head, a year later that all appears a distant memory. Ideally no Arsenal fan wants Wenger to leave but it has come to the point that he may need to in order for the club to move forward.
Arsene loves a bargain and Specsavers have a 2 for 1 offer on, if anyone has the address for North London’s branch please forward it to the Emirates.
