In Arsene We Rust? or. . . 15 Reasons Why Arsene Needs To Change Now Or Resign And Go Coach Marseille

At YouAreMyArsenal.com I’ve tried to maintain that this site will allow all views to be heard and that regardless of what any side of an argument thinks – the other side has a right to be heard as well.
Two days ago I presented my rationale on why Wenger should stay. Today I am giving you a guest opinion on why Wenger should change or resign. This one coming from one of our long standing regulars – CARIBKID.
Read it. Love it. Hate it. Debate it. – DAG (Michael Price)
This is an extremely difficult article to write given my fondness for Arsene and what he represents to me as a human being rather than a Coach/Manager. A compassionate, caring man with firm beliefs who supports his “family” till the very end . I could go on and on about his humane concepts and desire to play beautiful football in a gentlemanly fashion (although somewhat sullied by his behavior this season).
Let’s take a look on his football philosophy and what he’s trying to achieve. He wants to recreate a glorious Ajax team lead by Johan Cruyff and coached by Rene Michels which consisted mainly of relatively small, very mobile and intelligent players with exceptional skills who could play multiple positions. This coined the term “Total Football” and was translated to the Dutch national team which became known as Le Orange and its style of play as “Clockwork Orange”.
Wikipedia describes “Total Football” as: “ A system where a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus allowing the team to retain their intended organizational structure. In this fluid system, no footballer is fixed in their intended outfield role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender.”
Enjoying immense success at Arsenal in his early years, 3 League, 4 FA and 4 CC cups although somewhat tainted by his inability to win the CL or back to back league titles, he was handed the keys to Arsenal in 2006 as they were about to move into a new stadium and he saw the perfect opportunity to create “Clockwork Red” using France as his base for incoming talent. David Deins ouster in 2007 provided the perfect forum as he was now the “Anointed One” with no one else to argue his football decisions as long as he kept Arsenal profitable so they could be financially self sustaining and rapidly pay down the stadium debt.
After winning the FA Cup in 2005 and being runner up in the 2006 CL, he slowly started to reshape the team in his own image. Campbell, Cole and then Henri all left and a young Spaniard, Cesc Fabregas now became the lynchpin upon which he would build his “Immortals”. Gallas and Toure were the perfect small, mobile CB’s required for the system. With other such mobile, attacking WB’s as Clichy and Eboue we were half way there. Now, let’s get rid of our 3 DM’s in Gilberto, Diarra and Flamini and install the genius and gifted Brazilian Denilson. Song was a backup CB as he didn’t have the stamina to play in the MF. Let’s get the maestro, Rosicky and add a young Henri in Walcott. We have a blossoming RvP and we can add a Togo flavor with Adeby”whore”. Top it off with a Russian playmaker in Arshavin and a French playmaker in Nasri and some more steel at the wing back position in the form of Sagna and the recipe was “clocking” good.
So far so GOOD? Right?
No, the recipe is flawed.
- His Jack Rabbits have no leadership on and off the pitch.
- Making light of the Captaincy and parading it in for Henri, Gallas and then Fabregas and letting every other player at some time or the other wear the band further reduced its importance.
- Playing a team of Midgets out of position in the toughest and roughest league in the world is just well, plain dumb. Common sense 101: Square pegs do not fit in round holes.
- Failure to obtain a world class GK.
- Horrible man management, which was never his forte, results in players under performing and eventually leading to their departure.
- Poor practice habits like not working on set pieces, defensive rotation, offensive rotation and GK 101.
- Poor tactical preparation by not reviewing film, not adjusting formations to suit opponents and predictable and unimaginative substitutions.
- Instead of allowing players to accept responsibility for their actions on the pitch Arsene continues to make excuses and deflect the blame. There is no player accountability as regardless of their performances they know they will be in the lineup.
- Instead of rewarding young players for their performance we install lavish long term contracts and reward mediocrity. Hence, our extremely high wage bill and inability to trade many players if we wished to do so.
- His inability to create a team which does not need opponents to play in a particular manner in order to show their flair and style. How do you beat or draw with Arsenal? Park the bus and counter attack! What adjustments have been made to alleviate that nagging problem.
- His inability to add clinical finishers is also another grave area of concern.
- His purchase of young players who can’t get work permits is also another grave area of concern. Spending Millions on the likes of Vela, Wellington, Galindo, Bothellho, Myachi and farming them out for 4 years while we pay salaries all fall under that banner, whereas Manu get’s Chicarito, Fabio, Rafael and Bebe, Spurs get’s Sandro, and the list goes on. Don’t we have any Contacts at the Home Office? Manu shows it can be done, why can’t we?
- His willingness to spend mega bucks on unproven talent and hoping it pays off down the road while being absurdly stubborn in spending similar funds on proven talent is dumbfounding. Theo Walcott being one example.
- His extremely aggressive, erratic and unsportsmanlike behavior on the touchlines this season is reflecting poorly on the club.
- His inability to perceive that we have squad weaknesses and deficiencies in the current state of the game is archaic and misplaced. Now that we have “mental strength” and are no longer babes in diapers, our squad is excellent as we are 2nd in the EPl, (oops, no longer), still contending for the title (oops, no longer), still finishing in CL contention for next year. Dementia anyone?
To summarize this flawed vision is simple. What worked for Ajax many years ago in a different League may not work in today’s world, especially in a radically different style of league. Players are bigger, faster and stronger. There is only one Cruyff. Maybe Messi is close. Barcelona is similar, but they have a host of established players who have specific roles. Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Villa, Alvez and Valdez are all world class. Busquettes is getting there and Mascherano is not far behind. Messi, Pedro and Villa are clinical strikers. Their WB’s produce numerous assists and goals. Abidal, Adriano, Busquettes and Keita are extremely versatile and play varying positions without much of a drop off in quality.
Arsene’s vision of ‘Total football” is predicated not only on having talented players, but also players with extremely high football intelligence. His recruiting policies have yet to bear out the latter.
OK, time to bring this long winded diatribe to an end, go have a brew and decide whether I should still go to the PUB for the remaining games so I can find solace with other disappointed Gooners or should I bear it alone in front of my big screen Plasma.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.