So Who Is To Blame For All This Mess?

If we weren’t upset enough at the statement Robin van Persie left on Wednesday, Alisher Usmanov also released an open letter to Arsenal, criticising them for the way they run the club.

So who is to blame for all this?

And what are the problems?

The main problem for Arsenal fans is the lack of silverware, the idea that 4th spot in the Premier League is more important than a trophy and the fact that our best players don’t believe in the club anymore and leave year after year.

And those are the key themes from both of those statements.

Listening to Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily Podcast, it is reported that Robin van Persie had a meeting with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis on May 16th, just after the season ended. They discussed plans for the future and apparently, Van Persie was shocked and clearly taken aback when Arsene revealed that he believed that in the season just gone (where Arsenal finished 3rd and 19 points off both Manchester clubs) that current Arsenal squad was good enough to challenge for the title. It is reported that there was even arguments about where the club was going, the currently playing squad and transfer targets.

So if that is true, then Robin van Persie was long gone before the Euros even began.

But who’s fault that we’re in this mess?

Is it Robin van Persie’s fault for having some ambition and wanting to win things? While he was not right in what he did regarding the statement, that does not mean the contents are any less true.

Or is it the Arsenal boards fault?

Arsene Wenger has done wonders at the club and I saw a clip on Sky Sports News yesterday where it showed that Arsenal were 19th in the spending charts, with a total of -£21 million spent over the last 5 seasons. There is no doubt Arsene is a genius and has done so much for the club, but imagine what he could do if his hands weren’t tied? I think MAnchester City and Chelsea were top of the spending charts, spending around £380 million (I can’t remember the exact figure, but it’s a lot!), just to think if Arsene had even a fraction of that to spend then what could he do with Arsenal.

The fact is this has been bubbling under the surface for the last 5/6 years now. Arsenal fans have been disgruntled at why we haven’t been realistically challenging for honours and with statements from our captain and talisman, and now a major shareholder, it is just now all out in the open.

Where do Arsenal go from here? Resentment towards the club and departing players has never been so high and I wonder if Arsenal can turn this around and make this team we love so much into a successful one.

 

16 thoughts on “So Who Is To Blame For All This Mess?

  1. Are we really in a mess or has the media stirred all this crap out of proportion.
    We have bought 2 strikers already and we may sell one and perhaps Theo.
    So what it happens all the time on the continent.
    and a russian (cough) buisnessman who wants to get his grubby hands on our club gets his wooden spoon out and all our so called supporters fall for it.

     
  2. wow so much nonsense spoken here and elswhere! there IS A PROBLEM! there has been since the day danny fizman in spite kicked dein out 7 years ago, that had been brewing for a decade, the irony is of course danny booted him out for bringing kroenke in and then on his death bed sold out to kroenke to stop david getting back in via usmanov, this is the REAL STORY everything else about arsene and gazides is a side show, they are managment, both doing their best and to be fair they have done very well under the circumstances, under dein arsene won doubles, unbeatables and thierry thru with he keeper to beat in paris… the problem is danny took over but didnt have the same skills to run the football side and then his spite for david (i know the story but its just childish ego nonsense really) then kroenke bought in his mate gazides from usa soccer and he has no vison whatsoever – i personally asked him this question at the recent Q&A, he just waffled for 20 minutes about our business model and other clubs it was pathtetic, zero vision, however usmanov has come out with his vision, now some people dont like him for his supposed background, i cant comment as i dont know him or his background but what about kroenkes background? how did he get his money? off the back of his wife thats how, good for him but im not sure i see what others see in writing off the richest man in the uk who has now come out with the vision we all want, to get rid of the debt and build a team to win trophies! oh and he actually comes to games and supports arsenal… bottom line:
    here is the stark choice stay with kroenke and his manager gazides who have no vision whatsoever but to follow fizmans which failed…
    or usmanovs which is to win trophies and pay off the debt and im sure to bring dein back
    i personally hate kroenke this useless silent american who says nothing owning our club.

    as for van persie, he makes me sick, in my view we should not sell him, see out his contract and buy another striker next summer to replace him and buy the 4 players we need to compete ie a goalscoring winger, a defensive midfielder, a right back (maybe a left too depending on how gibbs/santos does and a goalie, do i blame him going well no i understand its his last contract and he wants a change like many players but if we still had cesc, nasri and had the class around him he would not be going

     
  3. It is becoming a joke! And even if Podolski is a success that would only mean that in three years, just a year before his contract expires he will look for a move too! And then the board have the audacity to ask for the most expensive tickets in europe.
    As for Mr Kroenke, he must be rubbing his hands as what he has achieved in 2 summers was to sell Fabregas, Nasri and RVP. That obviously is what makes him happy. And on the last day of August after we get some kind of humiliation like last year Arsene will go out and look for last minute loan players to get him through the season. PATHETIC!

     
  4. And as for loan players?? How many one, bought in at the last minute.
    Perhaps that coincided with Wilshers’s injury results making his comeback a little doubtful.
    Great bit of buisness from Arsene.

     
  5. @davio
    by winning things…thats how…AW threw away trophies when we had them in our grasp..remember the CC trophies( finals where he claimed he would play kids than pros to get that trophy and cool off the fans tempers???..No instead he went and played kids and lost against a professional chelsea side…,likewise with FA cup, playing diaby and flappy, dropping AA for the FA cup semis which we could have won..)Wenger is a part of this problem too.he went out and bought mediocre players like chamakh,park and squillaci in the last 3 yrs.these ppl had no background and yet they somehow got into arsenal, thanks to AW.(dont give me the crap abt chamakh scoring well before RVP cameback etc…they were all tap ins..)
    The board have not had the guts to put proper goals before the manager and hes not the balls to admit he messed up with certian players and sell them(or atleast let them go for free).All these makes good players really feel like carrying the team on their shoulders…Why is it that even bench warmers in our team talk smack when players in similar situations for clubs like manu,barca dont?coz they are winnign things and when u are winning the positivity spreads thru the whole team.even bench warmers know they will get their chance to shine on the pitch when someone is injured and that might potentially lead to silverware.in our club, benchwarmers are happy to lay back and collect. we have created a mentality of losing and feeling great about getting 4th.no one gives a f**k about how many years we are in the CL if we dont try to win it.and lets be honest weve never tried to really win it.
    so why would cesc, nasri,rvp,hleb,bendtner( i know,,,dont laugh)…want to stay with us?why wouldnt chamakh,park,squid not want to stay with us( theyll be exposed for the flops they are elsewhere..hence they are in their comfort zones here…”fight for my chance”…sitting on the bench).

    unless there is a mass exodus of deadwood and influx of new players and even new coaches and change of paradigm for the club, we are doomed to continue being the feeder club to mancity,barca,madrid etc…enjoy the show while it lasts…coz we sold our soul when we brought in that idiot kroenke…another usmanov wont change that fact…

     
  6. Well, alot has been said over the last three years about arsene, financial we are sound, however this was not what the fans wanted to hear for seven years, davio if buiseness was so good we would of not be on a PATHETIC 8-2 beating, if things do not change we will continue as we did last year.
    alot needs to be done if we are to win silverware, by the looks of things the players can see the lack of ambition at the club!
    transfer market deals, we all know arsene is not a big spender, this is ok! but every now and there you can push the boat out a bit further!!
    we selling major players and get nothing back, we are fastly becoming a Higher end West Ham fc, clubs who buy cheap and sell big.
    is was not the ARSENAL i grew up supporting.

     
  7. Indian.
    What type of player would we manage to attract if we one the CC. The same quality players that Bimingham have managed to.
    Yo attract players with money and status of competion the Champs league qualifiers nets £30 mill winning the CC nets about 10 weeks of Rvps wages .
    We also attract the best young talent to our club knowing that they will get a chance and what better place than the CC.
    The facts are we are the fourth richest club in the League and we finished thiird.
    That’s punching above our weight.

     
  8. look guys, we spend less than Aston villa, liverpool , and even qpr last season. l I love arsenal very much and I want to win titles but not at the cost of losing the club I love like Leeds or rangers. This Russian thinks he can do a better job. The stadium was built without his money so can the club. In Arsene we trust.

     
  9. I tot they have learn from last season…Arsenal is a mess, yes!!! absolutely. Still remember the super cool 8-2 score line? i still can imagine SAF troops scoring for fun during that day, the super penalty save by Szc against udinese? or else we would be playing in the Europa league.
    If you wanted to argue, then tell me who score the lot last season, i see the boss panicking while RVP rally the troops to fight on in the pitch??…We are dam lucky during the final match against west brom, Fulop having a flop. If not now we would had been talking about the Europa league by now and Arry would be busy like hell doing the necessary transfer dealing for champions league instead of receiving a sacking letter. The Gooners would be mourning while the tott would be laughing till today.
    WTF Ivan Gazidiz having a 2 weeks leave, while we still have a pending issue on hand to sort out RVP and also walcoot new contract. So he is the problem, thats why we always do the the transfer dealing on last minute time. Ivan should be in office during these time doing the transfer dealing or player contract. When the league kick start, who care if he is in office or not. He does nothing in the football pitch, and who cares if he went to see the match or not. Either he is there or not it would not reflect on the match result.
    These year we might be loosing rvp, next year we would be loosing song or sagna. You can mark my word if thing don’t change….

     
  10. Get Usmanov in forget kroenke he has not added anything to afc and is turning arsenal into an average club. If Usmanov will invest in the team and help keep afcs best players at the club by helping arsenal compete with the likes of man city and chelsea financially im all for it get dein back in and lets get back to winning ways

     
  11. davio…i understand that winning CC may not be much but it is better than nothing…remember we threw away 2 CCs and 1FA cup. we also lost a 9pt lead(9/11? i dont remember) when eduardo broke his leg.These things expose the soft underbelly in the team.a kind of “its ok to lose” attitude that will run across the whole team.

    Yes we are the 4th richest team, yes we finished 3rd( we were helped by the lot down the road, self destructing and chelsea not doing well), but does this matter when we dont try to win? im not and most gooners are not asking for marquee signings (like beckham to sell shirts), but good quality additions year in year out is what we expect.we pay squillaci 50-60per week? but refused to sign shay given who was around 5-6mill.is this business?we have so much dross now that we cant sell them to anyone…this is all due to AW and his man management, the board and its incompetence.we as fans have to make our voices heard and it better be loud and clear.they cant ignore us…have a mass boycott of the season ticket and itll send the alrm bells ringing…they want money…we wont give them any…then thell start putting the club before their own needs.

     
  12. How come Spurs, who are not in the Champions League, can convince Gareth Bale to stay with the club yet Arsenal has, once again, failed to convince a star player to stay?

    When was the last time the Arsenal negotiating team persuaded a major Arsenal player to stick with the club? I can recall, Flamini, Nasri, Adebayor, Clichy, Fabregas – all players either in their prime and/or with their best years ahead of them – leaving. I cannot bring to mind a single player of note that has remained with the “Project”. What message is this giving to the supporters and players?

    Who will be next, Walcott? or God forbid, Willshire? It is time for a major re-think amongst the Decision Makers at Arsenal, a fundamental re-evaluation of how things are done. I understand that Financial Fair Play is meant to be just around the corner and that, in theory, this will provide a more even playing field, but do you really think the likes of Man City et al have not devised strategies to circumvent this issue? That clearly, would be naive in the extreme.

    Arsenal supporters have now reached the point where talk of jam tomorrow just isn’t good enough. We need to see firm and positive action and a strong response to the RVP issue; else we will be seen as weak, relegated to the status of being a lowly feeder club

     
  13. This is typical of people whose glass ia always half empty they always remember the bad times yet forget the good.

    When we lost 8-2 to Manu.we had in our team.
    Wojciech Szczesny
    Carl Jenkinson (second choice (RB)
    Laurent Koscielny
    Johan Djourou (Fourth choce CB)
    Armand Traore (Gone)
    Francis Coquelin (bit early)
    Aaron Ramsey
    Tomas Rosicky
    Theo Walcott
    Andrey Arshavin (loaned)
    Robin van Persie

    Arsene saw the problem and started to put it right. We went on to beat Man City Chelsea and if we hadn’t of had such a bad start with injuries etc we would have been fighting for the title.

    As for the if’s and buts .
    What if Charlie had of hit the bar in 71′
    What if Brady had of mistimed his pass to Rix in 79′
    What if Mickey T had of fell over in 89′
    It’s football if you want definates go and watch a film 10 times.

     
  14. Not certain what happened to my earlier comment but here goes again.

    Brady’s Left Foot: Are you seriously including Flamini in a list of top quality players who have left Arsenal? He had one good year (sound familiar) but he was and is a journeyman player only.

    Adebayor? Seriously?

    While Spurs have kept Bale, it is quite possilbe that they will lose Modric and van der Vaart, both of whom were far more important to the team’s success.

    “We need to see firm and positive action and a strong response to the RVP issue;”
    Absolutely, and it should be “don’t let the door hit you on the way out”.

    Indian Gooner: You say ” im not and most gooners are not asking for marquee signings (like beckham to sell shirts), but good quality additions year in year out is what we expect.”

    Are Arteta, Podolski and Giroud not good quality additions? What about Mertesacker? Vermaelen, Koscielny, and Nasri are also “recent” transfers: were they no good?

     

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