In my humble opinion, Arsene Wenger has spent so much time misleading the fans and the media that he may have mislead himself and has totally “lost it”. I have a really, really bad feeling about what Wenger has up his sleeve, as underhanded as that may sound, and after watching our game against Grampus today my heart sank to an all-time low.
Arsenal have cleaned house so well that our senior squad is now so thread bare – this nutter is actually contemplating playing Bacary Sanga as the world’s smallest centre half. Maybe as a third option in a pinch, but come on!
The fact that we had to play him there once last season should have already set alarm bells ringing that our squad has no quality in its depth. First order of business; buy a quality centre half. We have just shed ourselves of two liabilities, and Thomas Vermaelen is out for at least 3 months. Why aren’t we bedding Ashley Williams as I speak/write?
Arsenal have struggled in defence for 5 seasons now, with only “some” improvements when Steve Bould entered the picture. Our team has no height or strength in the middle or at the back, save for Per Mertesacker who lacks physicality.
What we really don’t need at the back now is a make-shift centre half who is smaller than the mascot he has just lead out! Especially playing alongside tug boat Mertesacker, the Premiership’s slowest centre half .
My God does Wenger really get paid 8m a season to do this to us?
Where is the cover for Carl Jenkinson? What if one of our back 4 gets injured? How has it come to this? Did we learn nothing from the 8-2 humiliation for exactly the same reasons just 2 years ago?
Micah Richards is up for sale, as is Ashley Williams, Marouane Fellaini and Phil Jagielka! Are we so preoccupied in trying to sign players that we have no intension of actually signing, that we have forgotten where our real weaknesses lay?
It is the biggest grin in sport at the moment that Wenger is playing us all. Paddy Power actually tweeted Wenger’s “5 Steps to Not Signing Players (a little funny, sad and true),and now they have invented something called “Warchest Watch”! That’s damn embarrassing.
The only people that don’t seem to see through Wengers tricks are the very Gooners who keep their optimism going with their endless unfounded rumours of impending signings or their wait-and-see mentality.
To me and many millions of Gooners, Arsenal is our daily bread. If things go as they are, then I have no choice but to think that to Wenger, Arsenal is just a daily wage. Harsh? I don’t think so.
Watching the match on ESPN, the commentators speculated on the Wenger Warchest and who might sign. Talksport drone on endlessly about our lack of ambition and Wenger’s failings in the transfer market. Many former Gunners are bewildered as to what and why he is doing this to us.
Watching yesterday’s match, we looked a bit like Aston Villa did last season. It looked like some of our kids could be okay, but do we really want them put to the sword, like Cocqulain, Traore and Jenkison were by a rampant Manchester United or a Manchester City ?
Our front line players can manage without a major signing if need be, but our defensive frailties will not survive a Premiership season, neither will our current squad get us into the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Hopefully I have just wasted two hours writing this doomsday scenario, and Wenger indeed has a plan. Watching our squad play today, there is not much real quality beyond Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Santi Carzola and maybe Mikel Arteta and Olivier Giroud. I am praying that someone with Wenger’s ear has convinced him to sign some experienced Premiership quality defenders. He never has done that much before, but he needs to start now.
There are new rumours linking us to Brazillian wonder kid Bernard, who is primarily a winger. Why? I don’t know, it’s not what we need most. We need to improve in our own end. Fellaini, Williams, Richards, and then maybe Higuain, would transform Arsenal to genuine contenders – not winners of leagues, but perhaps a cup side challenging for the league .
On a day when a new heir to this countries throne has been born, Arsenal also need a new King.
Richie Rich
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