Wednesday 19 November 2008

The sky is falling in

If you know the Chicken Little story then you'll know what I mean when I say that some people need their umbrellas and some don't. It's very easy to criticise and polarise the argument, for example the 'with us or against us' strategy is a classic of this slightly unsubtle and inflexible strategy. I guess that some people just love to stick their fingers in their ears while shouting "I'm right, you're wrong, nah nah nah nah nah".

The other day I wrote about where I felt we were going wrong, it was criticism of sorts I know, however I like to think I kept things in some kind of perspective. A lot of the criticism I've read elsewhere has also been very reasonable, however some of it has been typically childlike and disrespectful to a man that has done so much for Arsenal Football Club. I would be very interested to know if there is any credible evidence that Arsene Wenger has 'lied' to supporters, personally I very much doubt it exists, there is either no evidence at all or some people have believed what they read in the Sun again.

I must reiterate that the majority of Gooner reaction has been very sensible. However if we choose to believe the 'all or nothing' brigade then we were world beaters after the Manu game and hopeless failures after the Aston Villa game. Of course neither is true, the truth is somewhere in between. For example I am amazed at some of the criticism that Manuel Almunia has received in recent weeks, he's been one of the most consistent keepers in the premiership for a while now. The point is that we have excellent individuals in our squad and our squad is not short of numbers, we just lack a certain type of player in certain areas.

Just to finish, it's always much easier to criticise than to suggest practical ways of improving things, so given that so many people are criticising Arsene's transfer policy this summer, just who would you have bought this summer? By the way you can only name players that were actually transferred or definitely available for transfer in the summer. Flashing the cash is not always the answer, ask Tottenham for one, their situation does put things in perspective somewhat, but some Gooners still shout loudly for the indiscriminate cheque book flashing.

So rather than indulging in mindless criticism and kissing the badge while pledging undying loyalty to the club that they show so little respect, I shall be interested to see if these people can suggest some actual solutions to our problems. It's very easy to suggest that we need a six foot eight centre back with Walcott's pace and Bobby Moore's tackling skills, bit it's a very different thing to actual go about bringing one in.

Honestly I don't think any of us would have a hope in Arsene's position, to go about bringing in the world class experienced players we need is much easier to talk about than to do, at least I have enough insight to realise that Arsene's judgement of players in the transfer market is a damn sight better than my own, it appears that not everyone has this insight. At the end of the day we're 4th in the league, still going strong in the cups and there's no need for the umbrella quite yet...........

ps Good luck with your recovery Theo, he is likely to require surgery and will take a few months to get over this before he gets back on a football pitch

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not all about who you bring in but also about who you let go.
Diarra would have been a revelation alongside Cesc. Senderos would have dealt better with the Delap throws and the aerial bombardment by Hull.
Also why can Wenger not see that Cesc and Denilson can't play together - Diaby should be playing in the middle every week..

K man said...

Good point Anonymous. I miss Gilberto - good player and would've been a sound captain. After the undignified outburst from Gallas yesterday (what a cripple) Wenger's decision to let him go seems very strange. Flamini and Hleb wanted to go, Gilberto did not.

1979gooner said...

Indeed.

I always felt that Gilberto should have been captain, such a model pro, always well behaved and respected by his fellow pros and the media alike.

Obsinho said...

I think "model pro" and "respected by his fellow pros and media" sum up everything about our current captain though.

Oh.........

Obsinho said...

You do have to say that the whole Gallas-saga that is brewing nicely really is a further indication of Wenger's rapidly deteriorating decision making ability.

When Gallas was appointed, most of us went "Eh?!", but assumed Wenger has a masterplan. He doesn't, Gallas has been a crap player and a crap captain. ANd none of this he was fine to Birmingham will wash. He wasn't even playing until December anyway, and I coiuld have been captain the way we were playing then, and we'd still have looked great.

My money is on Wenger doing nothing, a fight breaking out in the next match, and the hole we are falling into to get deeper and darker before Arsene thinks about doing something pro-active.

K man said...

I assume Gallas was referring to RvP as the insulting player. He has been known to send team-mates to hospital as Schneider will testify - I think a Gallas v RvP ruck could be quite interesting - my money would be on RvP and a huge FA fine for Arsneal for bringing the game into disrepute.

Obsinho said...

RvP clearly has screws lose, and I would suggest that his sending off against Stoke was still a hangover from whatever was happening.

He looked pissed off from the moment he stepped onto the pitch.

Si said...

Agreed, RVP is mental. Give him the arm band.

Obsinho said...

Myles is claiming Gallas has quit, and the playersare voting on a new captain....

http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=1127&cntnt01origid=30&cntnt01returnid=42

If we all shut our eyes, and think really hard I think we could influence this. All together now...Bischoff....Bischoff.....Bischoff....Bischoff....Bischoff......

K man said...

If they are really voting our next captain will be Eboue - they all love him....now that would be a turn up...they'd all be doing their prayers together on the pitch before kick off!

K man said...

Why don't they let RvP and Gallas fight it out - the winner is the captain...