I was furious yesterday after news broke that Arsenal had opted out of re-signing Cesc Fabregas. It makes no sense whatsoever. We need to build a world class squad if we want to really compete in Europe and in the Premier League instead of being also-rans in both. Next season will see another fourth spot finish (if we’re lucky with United and Liverpool strengthening) and possibly a last 16 finish in the Champions League.

When we went the whole season unbeaten our midfield consisted of Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Edu, Ray Parlour, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Jose Antonio Reyes.  We also had David Bentley coming through the ranks as well as a very young Cesc Fabregas, who would become more of a regular the season after.

In 2004 we had 7 really top midfielders, most of which you could consider world class – and three of them were World Cup winners. Arsene Wenger (seemingly knew) that we needed an extremely strong midfield to compete at the very top. 10 years later however, it’s a different story.

Currently our midfield consists of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, Tomas Rosicky, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil and er… Abou Diaby. Whereas in 2004 we had 7 really excellent midfielders, today we have probably three? Mesut Özil, Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey are the only ones you could consider top drawer. Wilshere is injury prone, and Rosicky and Arteta are getting on a bit.

If you put the 2004 and 2014 midfields against each other there is absolutely no contest.

So not strengthening and bringing Cesc Fabregas back is criminal. How often is the signing of a world class midfielder handed to you on a plate? And for good measure, he actually wants to return to us!

I mean honestly, it is completely f*cked up.

Unless Arsene Wenger has a trick up his sleeve and has two world class players lined up to appease the fans, then I can’t see how Arsenal fans will forgive him for snubbing the chance to bring back one of Arsenal’s most popular and inspirational players.

Most Arsenal fans are furious (myself included) about Arsene Wenger’s decision to “opt out” of re-signing Cesc Fabregas, a player who is world class, would improve ANY team in Europe and also has invaluable Premier League experience.

Not forgetting the fact that new players need time to settle at a new club – and with Cesc there would be no such problems. He could literally walk back into the club and continue where he left off.

You have some Arsenal supporters who are saying not signing Cesc is the right call – and most of these fans seem to be in the Arsene Knows Brigade. For those fans, my simple question is this:

If we didn’t want him back, then why the hell did we have a first refusal clause in the first place?

Arsene Wenger has signed a contract extension, taking his reign as Arsenal manager until the summer of 2017.

But what do you think?

There are some supporters who still remember the pain of 9 seasons without a trophy, and the stubbornness the boss seems to have over certain issues. It took a few years for him to realise that we needed a strong defence to compete for major trophies, he refused to sign a striker last summer and in the January transfer window – even when it was obvious we badly needed support for Giroud.

But then he’s won the FA Cup now. Is that enough for Arsene to deserve a new deal? He is the highest paid manager in the Premier League and I suppose the question I’m asking is does he deserve it?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

In 2013, Arsenal were virtually unstoppable. From January 2013 until the end of the season, our form was the best in the league – it was title-winning form. From August until Christmas, it was similarly good, albeit it with a couple of blips (mainly in Manchester). But since the new year, and especially February and March, our form has been awful.

From the last 6 games, we are 11th in the form table. Liverpool are top with 6 wins from 6 and have 18 points from those games (which is championship-winning form) while Arsenal have dropped 10 points, only getting 8 from a possible 18.

Only if we could combine the start of this season with the end of last eh? Combine those two half seasons and we’d be league winners.

If our form was as good as Liverpool’s, we’d be 4 points clear at the top of the Premier League.

But the fact is, Arsene Wenger has lost the dressing room.

There’s rumours that Arsene has already told the players that he’s leaving at the end of the season and it wouldn’t surprise me as the players have basically given up. Yes, we’ve had injury problems but we still get to field 11 professional footballers and in recent games that literally haven’t turned up. I mean our reserve or youth sides would have given a better account of themselves against Chelsea and definitely wouldn’t have lost 6-0 like the first team did.

Even against Swansea we were limp. Arsene has lost the dressing room – either because he’s already told the players he’s off in the summer or just because the players who have played for him for so long have lost faith in the manager.

Just look at the last few seasons. Samir Nasri and Robin Van Persie left so that could win things, and that they did. Would Cesc Fabregas have left if we were winning Premier League titles? And we know Adebayor and Clichy went for the money but having trophy-less season after trophy-less season probably helped them jump ship. All of those players played under Arsene for at least 5 seasons and what do they have to show for it? Nothing, except a nice bank balance.

So it’s hardly surprising the current squad have given up. Bacary Sagna, one of our most consistent players has obviously given up. If he had any faith that Arsene’s methods would bring success then he would have signed a new deal years ago. He joined Arsenal in 2007 and has seen team-mates  Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri and even Kolo Toure all leave and win major honours. So he’s obviously sitting there thinking what the hell is going on at Arsenal? This is obviously a club who have no ambition of winnings things and are happy to settle for 4th place in the league.

And it’s not surprising that players such as Mikel Arteta, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny has lost form – they’ve given up as well. Nothing about Arsene Wenger or Arsenal suggests we are genuine title challengers, or even close to winning a major trophy.

The FA Cup may provide better performances and it would be unbelievable, even for Arsene Wenger, to somehow lose against Wigan in the semi-finals or mess up the final. Jose Mourinho was widely slated for calling Arsene a “specialist in failure” but it’s hard to argue against that. How else could you explain performances from the players like the ones at Anfield and Stamford Bridge. Arsene Wenger has obviously lost the dressing room.

His rhetoric doesn’t work any more. There’s only so many seasons players and the fans can believe what he says. The performances from the players had dipped so dramatically because they don’t believe any more. Being top of the league gave the players belief but when they needed their manager to instil some fight and determination he was found lacking.

I’m not being funny, but I give more fight (possibly too much to be fair) when I play football on a Sunday. I hate to lose and people who know me know that I always want to win. It comes out when I play and the other players know it. The Arsenal players are so comfortable and devoid of belief that it’s almost unbelievable.

Flamini aside, half of the players don’t look like they’re bothered anymore.

The Internet is a great resource and place to interact with other Arsenal fans. But there are some Arsenal fans who say things like people who abuse Arsene Wenger are a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves, as well as saying Arsene deserves our respect.

Now I appreciate what Arsene Wenger has done for the club, that is obvious to see. He brought success to the club, was involved in the new stadium and has set us up for the future.

And to some fans, that means he is invincible and immune from criticism.

But that’s not the case. Since 2005, Arsenal fans have experienced the same old story season after season. And while he has done great things for the club, there are many reasons why Arsene Wenger should be criticised:

• His teams have no mental strength. Collapses against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City are all too common – the whole club is mentally fragile and that comes from the manager. How can a manager not motivate his team to perform in massive games such as these?
• We have no leaders. Arsene Wenger has consistently sold his captains from 2005. Any players that had leadership qualities have been moved on. Vieira, Henry, Gallas, Fabregas, Van Persie, the list goes on. Arsene Wenger doesn’t like players who speak their mind and would rather have a squad full of “yes men” than have anyone question his authority.
• Olivier Giroud is awful and no good enough for Arsenal. And again, this is Arsene’s fault. He had a chance to sign a new striker in the summer, and in January, but didn’t. In 2004 we had Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord, Nwankwo Kanu and even Jose Antonio Reyes would could play up top. Arsene knows you need a top quality striker-force to win the league but put together a squad that has Giroud, Bendtner and Sanogo as their strikers. Bayern Munich would struggle to win anything as those three as their striking options!
• Arsene Wenger is tactically inept. When Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea all scored early, every Arsenal fan knew we were going to get thrashed. Any other top manger would have changed things, saw the threat and steadied the ship. What does Arsene do? Nothing. He lets the team play the same way and we end up conceding an obscene amount of goals. If you’re defensively fragile then surely the logical thing to do is rearrange the formation or team and make sure you don’t keep conceding? Or is that too simple?
• Arsene just wants to finish 4th. We have a manager who has no ambition to win the league. Arsene has the board wrapped around his little finger and as long as the Champions League money keeps rolling in his job is safe. Talk about winning the league is just a PR exercise to sell season tickets and merchandise.
• Same old excuses. Every season the same old excuses come out – we have too many injuries, we were unlucky, blah blah blah. The only thing that chances is which month we are out of the running. This season it happens to be in March.

There seems to be this strange mentality that because he brought success and pioneered the stadium move, he is untouchable. So does that mean it doesn’t matter if he gets Arsenal relegated it doesn’t matter, he’s still the man for the job?

That whole ideology is seriously flawed and makes no sense whatsoever. By that logic, any manager that has enjoyed success should never leave a football club. But we never see that anywhere. Jose Mourinho is the perfect example of that. He did well in his first spell at Chelsea but when things turned sour he was told to leave. Football is ever-changing and seem to be the only club in Europe that is stuck in the past and relies heavily on sentiment.

Brian Clough was a great manager but he was immune from criticism so why is Arsene any different? It seems to be the whole charade of “will he, won’t he” sign a new deal is pathetic. Arsene Wenger will be Arsenal manager until he wants to leave. The board have show they have no balls and are full of yes men. Arsene Wenger has so much power over the club it’s unreal. No other manager in European football enjoys the control Arsene has at Arsenal.