Proof That Arsene Wenger Has Actually Lost The Plot

We all know about the shambolic summer. And we all know about the shambolic display against Aston Villa. And unfortunately, we all know about the shambolic state of our squad, and the numerous injuries we have. The end result of which that it looks like, despite having a “war chest” to spend, we have started the 2013/2014 season with a squad that would be lucky to reach the Top 4.

And at the start of the summer, the club (through Ivan Gazidis) were the ones who raised the expectation levels. They were the ones that came out and said we could compete. But obviously either that’s a complete lie and we have no money whatsoever, or for some inexplicable reason we are reluctant to spend.

The general consensus is that it’s the latter. And that means this is the result of Arsene Wenger and his (lack of) actions.

Look, I love Arsene Wenger and I’m not one of these Wenger Out Brigade or some other term fans use to define the increasingly segregated Arsenal fan base.

He has done miracles for the club, of that there is no doubt, and I am annoyed that I have to actually point that out before making any point about Arsenal – just because I am critical of something he has done doesn’t mean I hate him or want him to leave. But by the same token, supporters shouldn’t think he’s perfect, because no-one is.

But over the last few months, it seems like Arsene has lost the plot. Is the pressure getting to him? I go through some of the more famous quotes he has come up with over the previous few weeks:

“At us, Chelsea, Machester United, it is difficult to find the quality players to strengthen the team and the squad who are available at the moment but there are a shortage of top, top, top players who are available.

“It’s not a question of spending the money, it’s a question of finding the right players. As I told you, you are well informed, you certainly heard that we are not scared to spend money. But we want the right players.”

But that is just not true. You can be petty and argue about how good the following players are, but the fact is they were available (for a price) and we could have afforded them and it is undeniable that they would have improved our squad. But for whatever reason we couldn’t get them.

Players who have moved clubs this summer and we could have afforded were Gonzalo Higuain, Stevan Jovetic, Luiz Gustavo, Maarten Stekelenburg, Simon Mignolet, Jésus Navas, Loïc Rémy – and there’s a lot more besides. Then of course there are players such as Marouane Fellaini, Lars Bender, Luis Suarez and others who want to move clubs but no team has stumped up the required cash.

Every player has their price, and the question is whether Arsenal know what the market value of a footballer actually is and if their “lower” valuations are realistic.

When he was asked about why money hasn’t been sent after the Villa game, his response was:

“I can return your question. Could we have won the game with the players that were on the pitch today? That’s for me the real question. And I say yes. After that, if we do not spend the money, it’s because we do not find the players. I’m not the only one to work on that.

“We are a team who work on that. We are ready to buy the players if we find that the players are good enough for us. That’s all we can tell you.

This brings up a couple of glaring points. Were the players that were on the pitch good enough to win? Whatever the answer is, that being yes or no, then it still doesn’t look good on Arsenal.

If there players were good enough, then why didn’t they win? Surely it’s because of the match preparation and that is solely down to Arsene Wenger. Why weren’t they suitably motivated? Why did they play so lethargically? Why did the team still make the same fundamental mistakes defensively? The answer is because of Arsenal Wenger – he is the man who puts the players on the pitch, sets the formations and tactics, and “motivates” the players for the game.

The other answer to his question to whether the players were good enough could also easily be no. Because we didn’t win did we? We didn’t perform and do enough to get all three points so therefore, the players who were on the pitch were not good enough were they?

When asked why is it so difficult for Arsenal to buy players:

“We take our work seriously and believe me, we analyse every single player in the world. We work 24 hours a day for that. When we make decisions, we take it seriously.

“People try to think we do not want to spend. We want to. We are ready to buy players.”

Arsenal analyse every player in the world? You work 24 hours a day to recruit players? I’m sorry, but they might be working hard to bring in players but that’s a slight exaggeration. Obviously he’s saying that for effect but that’s slightly dramatic. And the bottom line is, there is no proof that Arsenal have been working hard on buying players because apart from “a few lowball bids” we haven’t seen anyone join the club.

And there was the famous quote a few weeks ago where he challenged journalists to suggest who he should buy, insinuating that it’s hard to identify players to bring to Arsenal.

But my response is that is his job, not ours or anyone else’s. He is the one who should be identifying weaknesses in the squad and addressing them, he is the one who should be seeing which areas of the pitch need improving and recruiting accordingly. To even suggest something like “who should I buy” smacks of complete ignorance.

And he started off the Aston Villa press conference with his gem:

“You got what you wanted, you should be happy.”

“Before the start the season that was all you write in the papers so what do you expect?”

All the papers talked about was the lack of signings from the club – not that they wanted Arsenal to lose football matches. I could go into more reasons why that quote is wrong but I’m sure you get the idea by now.

It will be interesting to see what will happen over the next couple of weeks before September 2nd. The latest is we’re after Yohan Cabaye from Newcastle United.

Will we get him or will it, once again, fall through? Who knows.

Source: Some quotations taken from Arsenal.com.

 

14 thoughts on “Proof That Arsene Wenger Has Actually Lost The Plot

  1. As a retired business man who has spent many millions on capital goods I am amazed we announced to the world that we had £70m to spend…madness or was it a cynical announcement to (1) placate the baying fans and (2) to force Arsene to spend big on a marquee signing when his policy has always been to buy good vaue and add value before selling.
    If Cabaye was a target from the start of the transfer window then I would be amazed??

     
  2. It’s laughable and this it is difficult to identify players is a smokescreen. I could give you a list of players good enough and realistic enough to play for us. If there aren’t any players good enough then that must mean we have all the good players and are winning everything in sight. I think he has taken us as far as he can and has to go. Unfortunately it’s too late for us this summer so both he and the chief executive must resign will have to go next May. Alas the owner can’t resign.

     
  3. What most of you dont realize is that Arsene has presided over the worst decline of any club in of Arsenal’s calibre in History from 2005 till date. He lacks passion for football am not even sure he knows what that means. You only need to watch Jose Maurinho run barefoot the whole length of a pitch like a lunatic when chelsea scores to understand passion. Arsene Wenger is a greedy business man and quite frankly is clueless as a coach..year after year he thinks he can do the likes of Kolo toure…Yaya Sanogo…..Alex Song…like business of picking up a player for a couple of hundred grand and selling at a huge profit 2-3 yrs later? If Arsenal is to progress and if Wenger really loves the club he should please resign so Arsenal can get a decent Football manager/coach. Last saturday was tragic…but for God’s sake he had it coming for 9 years now

     
  4. Can’t understand why Arsenal would be in for a player like Cabaye. Do we need a player like this when there are so many other areas where the team is struggling?

     
  5. And its only just sunk in that Wenger has lost the plot?
    Dear god – year after year of selling our best players and bringing in dross and now they are selling the dross and leaving us threadbare and you have just realised that things are not quite right ?
    All things point to the obvious and that is Arsenal are getting rid of the dross like Gervinho so they can maximise their profits – i mean, Gervinho on £50k a week would really cut into their profit margins wouldn’t it ?

    Arsenal fans need to put loyalty aside for the time and vote with their feet – will Kroenke and Gazidis stick around if they start losing money ? Of course not – we need Usmanov in, – some one with some ambition…

     
  6. “This brings up a couple of glaring points. Were the players that were on the pitch good enough to win? Whatever the answer is, that being yes or no, then it still doesn’t look good on Arsenal.
    If there players were good enough, then why didn’t they win? Surely it’s because of the match preparation and that is solely down to Arsene Wenger. Why weren’t they suitably motivated? Why did they play so lethargically? Why did the team still make the same fundamental mistakes defensively? The answer is because of Arsenal Wenger – he is the man who puts the players on the pitch, sets the formations and tactics, and “motivates” the players for the game.”

    They were good enough but too much went against us on the day. Koscielny got sent off without making a foul and even the first penalty was a bit dodgy given they had a shot well before the penalty was given. We also had 3 clear goalscoring chances, aside from the goal we scored, and didn’t play anywhere near as badly as many have described overall until right near the end when we had been a man down for 15minutes or so. No manager is perfect but I don’t find fault with what he said regarding the game. Had this happened during a good run of form the backlash wouldn’t be so strong against the team. Doesn’t help that the headlines are all about “told you so” and that we’re rubbish, totally ignoring the awful decisions that went against us during the game. Wenger get’s called a whiner but had that happened to Ferguson or Mourinho they’d make sure you knew that something was up and there’d be a serious conversation about the referee – even if they were wrong about it! And it is perpetuated because refs can know they can give big decisions against Arsenal like that, and Wenger will be blamed, not them. We actually had a particularly good season for decisions last year, for the first time I can remember I felt like we actually got a bit lucky with them overall, but it’s all coming back again but everyone is more interested in jumping on the manager’s back than actually assessing what really went on in the game. Villa won the game off dodgy decisions and didn’t look like winning it otherwise. The ref inspired them with confidence by giving so much in their favour.

     
    • I can see we need a couple of players but I was talking about this particular game. Everyone is using it as an excuse to jump on the manager’s back and those are the people who have closed their eyes because it’s not as simple as losing to Aston Villa means we’re shit. The match was a joke. Koscielny got sent off without making a foul for crying out loud. There are legitimate criticisms to be made but this match isn’t a reason to express them particularly. I can see us meekly bowing to defeat against the Chelsea-level sides again this season, it’s certainly possible if we don’t sign a big player or 2 (and it’s the most frustrating thing that has developed in recent seasons), but that’s not what happened here. We were screwed.

       
  7. Right players??? you cannot find right players? Fellaini? Remy Cabella? Ashley William? Isco who joined Madrid? Falcao? Everton is obviously collapsed get baines , get ben arfa from Newcastle United , get Fabregas who man utd seemed more interested than arsenal, get Gundogan , Rooney???

     
  8. It was totally disrespectful to make a bid on the morning of a Newcastle game. Coming on the back of the Suarez shambles with the 40+1 Arsenal are rapidly becoming a club no-one will want to do business with. It seems their only tactic is to try and unsettle the player to try and force through a transfer irrespective of how the other club feels. Totally classless.

     
  9. Wenger is not checkmated at Arsena fc,he calls the shots…kronke & Gazidis are only intrested in the healthy business side of the club…..wenger freestyles with arsenal,top 4,no problem.

     
  10. Wenger is not checkmated in Arsena fc,he calls the shots…kronke & Gazidis are only intrested in the healthy business side of the club…..wenger freestyles with arsenal,top 4,no problem.

     

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