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Yesterday was frustrating.
Let me correct that. Yesterday was frustrating for some. And for good reason – there is plenty to mull over.
The transfer window is always a good way to start. That the club haven’t spent on key positions that require spending on is something that bewilders many. We did buy Granit Xhaka for £35m or so, and then went after Jamie Vardy. It felt like a huge step forward in decisiveness, if not ambition. However, once the deal dissipated for whatever reason, as unexpected as that was, to not react from that is simply unacceptable.
It felt like Arsenal were stunned by Vardy’s reaction and lost the confidence to do anything after. With £200m or so in the bank and obvious holes needing to be filled, here we are at the start of the ‘new’ season, those holes still gaping. It’d be hugely shocking and vitriolic… if similar things hadn’t happened not too long ago.
The lack of preparation going into the new season is frightening. Calum Chambers and Rob Holding is our new central pairing, at least until Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker come back, which could take till Christmas. We don’t have a right back to support Bellerin, assuming Mathieu Debuchy is on the way. We don’t have a discernible forward line and were forced to start Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez, all three of them who shouldn’t have played yesterday for very different reasons.
It’s chronically negligent from a huge, huge club, which makes the joke all the more unfunny. The negligence is not unheard of from Wenger. God knows he has a track record of throwing players under the bus. Carl Jenkinson, Francis Coquelin, Yaya Sanogo, Chambers… today he adds Iwobi and Holding to that list. It’s no wonder that sometimes they buckle under the pressure.
Laying out the cards out on the table begs a solution. Many have presented themselves over the years – Wenger, Stan Kroenke, Ivan Gazidis, the players, the fans, or (the most laughable of all) sheer dumb luck. By and large, regular readers of this blog know I pinpoint it to Arsene. If you disagreed back then, fine, but I’d be thunderstruck if you still did now. Say what you will about other elements playing a role – and I’m not really denying them – but the underlying cause has been Arsene Wenger alone. It’s a point that has been repeatedly validated over years (especially the last couple), and not a point I wish to reiterate again.
Anyway, I’m digressing. Yesterday was frustrating for some, but not really for me. It obviously wasn’t the best moment of my life to see Arsenal 4-1 down to Liverpool at one point, but admittedly, it didn’t feel something hugely catastrophic either. Maybe because the entire scenario from the summer till today felt like a ticking time bomb. Maybe because the entire predictability of the disaster didn’t give it the impact of a disaster. Maybe because there’s the inherent knowledge that nothing much will be done to solve this problem. It could be any of these reasons, it could be none of them, but the result is a rather apathetic reaction.
I, like many of the people who live and love Arsenal, feel a lot for the club at times and care a huge deal about the paths it takes. Keeping that in mind, it feels mildly embarrassing to admit that my interest in the club has waned considerably. For what is the virtue in harping over issues for the tenth time over? Meltdown after an 8-2 spanking at Old Trafford is fine. Meltdown after embarrassments against Aston Villa and West Ham are understandable too. However, yesterday felt like an embarrassment overkill to fret over. It was one too many, and the tame boos encapsulated that.
It’s difficult to be upset over the same disappointments. Football is a sport that is meant to be filled with unexpectedness and unpredictability, be it good or bad. By that definition, what we are witnessing isn’t football, it’s a badly written soap opera where the casting changes but the director doesn’t.
Is there any real point fighting The Wenger Debate when the fight will probably be irrelevant a year later? There’s hardly any way Wenger is staying at the club beyond his current one-year contract, for one. The board wouldn’t mind keeping him on, but will be wary of the reaction the fans. It’s true that Kroenke doesn’t really give a fuck about Arsenal, but he cares for his image, and he’s a smart guy. I’d be surprised if he vehemently advocates his stay, especially if the season ends in tatters (which is far from unlikely).
A year. That’s all it might take, really. Just one more year of the same shenanigans and the same problems before it all hopefully comes to a halt on May 31st. A new regime will enter, a new power structure will formulate. The process won’t be smooth, and it will bring with it conflicts, but at least they will be different ones. The pure freshness and originality of these conflicts may bring back emotion into supporting the club. I don’t know about you, but that’s something I need.
So, save the vitriol. It will all be over soon.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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