There are some Arsene Wenger press conferences you just cannot ignore. Yesterday was one of those.
With the air of change around the club, no one could really blame journalists for asking pointed and real questions at Wenger, pressing for answers. The responses were quite startling, and to be perfectly honest, a sad reminder of the kind of people we’re gonna be stuck with for the next years.
“When a club cannot enjoy anything anymore it is in trouble.”
His acknowledgement of the situation is accurate – Arsenal are in trouble. Never has there been more apathy and indifference at the club at a time where, really, we should have been a world beater.
However, when are we really going to see some solutions to that? Why can’t the club enjoy anything anymore? Why isn’t there any sense of hope or aspiration? Why have the players given up on this season, and why have the fans given up on the next?
The way Wenger says this, it’s like he’s some kind of third-person analyzing a situation objectively, and can’t really do anything about. You can, Arsene! You can sort out the injury problems. Negotiate the lessening of ticket prices. Buy a marquee player to get the adrenaline flowing. Motivate the players so they actually feel like they can defeat every team.
Why don’t we hear any solutions from the man? It’s not like he wasn’t given an opportunity to offer them. A journalist made a rough equivalent of Arsenal to Liverpool, trying to say that there’s a more vibrant atmosphere around Liverpool despite them being lower than Arsenal because there exists actual hope and ambition at Anfield.
Wenger avoided the question.
You know, for once I’d really love a Wenger quote that adheres to “Guys, we’re sorry. We’ve been outdated for years and stood perfectly still while others have raced ahead. We’re making you pay higher prices than Barcelona and not showing much for it. We are looking at any and all possible solutions to fix our transfer negotiations, scouting network and medical staff. Please give us another chance.” That’s what instills true optimisms, not half-baked sentences like “we’re taking things one game at a time.”
“We have to realise that away from home we are championship winners.”
This really amazed me, because I went on the official Premier League website and found out that we are not championship winners on away form. We’re third!
What’s worse, his added implication that Arsenal have suffered this season because of the fans falls flat on its face, because Arsenal garnered more home points than away ones (albeit only by a point).
Even so, how can you possibly lay all blame on the fans? I’m not saying fans aren’t a factor. The Emirates Stadium crowd is – no offense to anyone particularly – one of the worst to play in front of. They fight and get on the players’ back. They boo and raise banners.
But, come on. The fans didn’t want Gabriel Paulista to give Palace a cheap equalizer. They didn’t want Per Mertesacker to slide into Diego Costa. They don’t want a fourth title collapse in eight years.
When you price out the locals with exorbitant “ticket structuring”, this is what you get. The Emirates crowd is, in every way, a product of the lies Arsenal have sold us over the years. They were taken for a ride by board members who don’t care about the club. They were promised paradise by this time, and look like they don’t get it. And when they ask for accountability, all they get is a big up-yours from the administration.
“In football you can go down very quickly and come up very slowly.”
Another accurate statement, but when was the last time we were truly ‘up’? I understand he’s talking about the past twenty years being a significant rise over the two decades before that, and he’s right. But in the last ten years, have we progressed but at all? Apart from bulging checkbooks (which, let’s face it, we won’t reinvest into the team) we’ve been hung up on 3rd/4th for the better part of a decade! What is even the point of almost willingly staying in the same spot for eons?
Around the thirteenth minute of the press-conference video, Wenger said that the quality of Arsenal’s game was not related to our title challenge collapsing. I’m honestly surprised an absolute clanger of a quote like that wasn’t picked up by the mainstream.
The way we play is a HUGE problem. We pass without moving, we defend set pieces with our eyes closed, we panic when the opposition counters and we collapse at the slightest sign of trouble. The fact that the manager hasn’t noticed that all those limp-lettuce performances were at the roots of our title bids failing is really alarming.
Then came this clanger.
“There are some groups of people that try to manipulate our fans, but I believe apart from a personal agenda and a big ego there’s not a lot behind [the criticism].”
Jesus Christ. What can I even say.
To suggest that there are people out there who have wanted Wenger to fail all his life, is ridiculous.
Every modern Arsenal fan was born and bred with the assumption that Arsene Wenger is an Arsenal legend. It happened to me too. In my initial years of supporting the club, rarely did I question him. It felt unnatural, rude and ungrateful. It took me a long time to realize the depths of Wenger’s ego and incompetence, and when it did – trust me – it felt like betrayal.
No #CampaignAgainstWenger organization or supernatural power changed my opinion (and a million others) on the manager. Nothing except cold, hard truths on his performance levels. “There’s not a lot behind the criticism?” Failing to win the league when all the top teams were in transition is not reason enough?! Punching way beyond your weight and not accepting responsibility is not acceptable enough?!
How dare you suggest millions of people have been hoodwinked in some sort of conspiracy, instead of just accepting blame?!
I’ve had it. I’ve absolutely had it. I’ve had it with a manager who refuses to accept his incompetence, and who thinks is too above the club to see out his contract. I’ve had it with board members who won’t lift a finger to save the club.
I’ve had it with all the repetition, all the predictability, and so have a lot of people. Those people will be out there protesting today, and even though I know it’s not going to make much of a difference, I support them. If yesterday was a ringing reminder of anything, it’s that action has to be taken, and it has to start from the fans.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
Comments