There seems to me to be no reason for this intransigence about us having such a great squad that there are almost no players around to improve it unless they are cheaper foreign imports. So what if you pay over the odds for one or two players or if

Letter submitted on 23rd August 2011

Welcome to another season. Although i realise that you are a very busy man and I really appreciate your taking the time to reply to my letters, I thought that even at this stressful time (for both you and us Arsenal fans), I would take this opportunity to write to you again with the thoughts of us fans. I have decided to break down this letter into a couple of segments, the squad and experience.

The Squad

Back row

Most of us fans are perturbed and mystified by the fact that we still, after at least 3 seasons have not bought (what we the fans would call) a “proper” centre back to partner Vermaelen, in fact we would suggest that we need perhaps 2 new centre backs. The likes of Squillaci, Koscielny and Djourou are not made of the sort of stuff that will win a Premiership title, let alone a cup; they lack the basic defenders instincts that the likes of Tony Adams, Vidic, Dawson and others have. We have also not replaced Clichy although we all knew he was on his way out of our club.

We like Jenkinson but again he is one for the future.

Sagna is a class player, but can’t operate on his own

Midfielders

We have lost Fabregas and Nasri, as we all knew we would but we seem to have made no strides to sign some more experience to replace them.

That leaves our midfield frail with the likes of, Diaby (constantly injured and unable to play a full or even half season) who even when he is fit does not have the basic requirements to help our club win trophies on a regular basis.

Song (who at times has no self control, witness the stamp on Barton) almost always finds himself out of position.

Arshavin (who now never looks the player everyone thought, although the world cup gave a clue of this) i am afraid does not suit the premiership does not like to track back and might be better off playing in Italy or Spain.

Rosicky (another who seems to always be injured) has never fulfilled any promise he may once have had.

This leaves us with the following:

Wiltshire, Eastmond, Ramsey, Frimpong, Lansbury, plenty of promise but no real experience.

I can only describe this as a very inexperienced group, some of whom have no self control, (witness Frimpong’s lack of self control)

Where are the experienced players in the middle of the field who can take these guys aside and guide them??

Forwards

Van Persie, Chamakh, Bendtner, Walcott, Gervinho, Campbell, Oxlade Chamberlain

Van Persie is built in a frail manner and we will never get a full season out of him.

Walcott, the games seem to pass him by, almost as if he were watching from the sidelines.

Chamakh is not a premiership player and is always at least a yard off the pace. If he was going to make it as an Arsenal player, you would be playing him on a regular basis – but you are not.

It seems to me that we have got ourselves into a 1 up front situation, however when someone actually crosses the ball into the penalty area, there is hardly ever anyone there to get on the end of it?? Walcott is not a winger, he does not have a “trick” to beat players, so why not try him up front with Van Persie or if that is what you are doing, we are in more trouble than i thought!

Bendtner has done almost nothing in the last 6 seasons and he is not even the best player in his own front room!

Again all of the rest are young or in the case of Gervinho banned after 1 game because he too has no self control.

Experience

When you put the invincible’s together, there was a blend of youthful vibrancy and experience, we had experienced players that the youngsters could turn to for advice of the field and guidance on the field, where is that in this team?

Where are the older heads that can slow down the game or grab a younger player during a match and calm him down. All of our players are of the same type, all without the experience and stature of a Bergkamp, Vierra, Petit, Henry, Overmarrs!

Any team needs balance, a great team is built from the back and contains players with differing skill sets and needs not only balance, mixed with skill but pace and most of all a leader (i give you Adams, Vierra etc), where is our leader like these past legends?

We (the fans) are unable to understand why a great club like Arsenal have not dipped into the transfer market for well established, senior players, when the whole footballing world knows that Arsenal need at the very least, 2 experienced and established centre backs, at least 2 midfielders and a strong centre forward and we need them now!! This is not a time for dithering, rather it is a time for decisive action in order to arrest what may be the start of a decline.

Please do not repeat the tired excuse, that our scouts are scouring Europe and we will only bring in players that are better than what we already have because that does not now ring true with us. When we look at the players that Man Utd, Liverpool and others have purchased, we cannot believe that Suarez, Phil Jones, Enrique, Mata, Downing, Adam, Aguero, Young, Johnson to name just a few, would not have improved our squad. If our scouts are unable to come up with names like these, then i suggest we may need to change our scouts!!

Why have we not purchased a Jagielka, Samba or even the like of Scott Dann or Roger Johnson? We desperately need to strengthen the back or we will spend several more seasons in the wilderness. We the fans do not count qualifying for the Champions League each year as ample reward for OUR efforts!!

Why did we not have a readymade replacement for Fabregas, when we the fans have known for several seasons that he would sooner or later be a Barcelona player? You of course would have known even more!!

Why did the Nasri situation get to the stage where there is only a year left on his contract?

Why is there not a readymade replacement for him when it has gone this far?

Why was there not a readymade replacement for Clichy, Gibbs although a great prospect is also always injured??

There seems to me to be no reason for this intransigence about us having such a great squad that there are almost no players around to improve it unless they are cheaper foreign imports. So what if you pay over the odds for one or two players or if they are 30 years old, just so long as they can perform in the manner that we need them too.

I must point out though that we loyal and long time Arsenal supporters have no wish to have you the manager replaced. Upon this fact we are adamant, what we do want however is action. We want a squad built just like the squad that made up the invincibles, strong, pacy, clever, bullish, skilful, with a strong leader. Instead we have a small, team all built up of the same type of slight players that are forever injured and are unable to last out a whole season.

Mr Wenger, if we are ever to challenge Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City again it is time for a change of attitude!!!!

Mean Lean’s Response

Thank you for your views Steve. I wonder what that letter would have been like if it was sent after the full time whistle at Old Trafford. There are a lot of question marks floating around our heads right now. What is happening? Why haven’t we replaced Cesc? Why are we waiting until the end of the window when we are facing some very tough fixtures and are currently sitting on mega amounts of cash.

I can see where you are coming from which some of what you say but I have to respectful disagree with much of it.

Our manager has been verbally beaten black and blue over our transfer activity this season. Some people genuinely believe that it is Arsene’s decision to wait until the end of the window before he brings in the rest of his targets while others simply want the manager out so are happy to lay all the blame at his doorstep.

I have been banging the drum about the manager having his hands tied for a while now. There is no way of knowing that for sure but there is no way any football manager would want to be without two of his big players at the start of the season without replacing them. Arsene Wenger is an employee of the club so it is unlikely that he will come out and say ‘I haven’t been able to bring the players I want because the club have restricted my actions’
However, Liam Brady has indicated that there has been a discrepancy between the manager and the board about targets.

As Arsene Wenger said, 20 people are in charge in bringing players to the club and not just him. It is the same for every club so I don’t know why the perception is that it is only down to Arsene to scout, approach, negotiate and choose the wage and transfer budget. That is not realistic.

There are a couple of great Arseblog articles that touch on that.

Arsenal react but do we have problems behind the scenes?

Inviting Italians, Murderous Mancs

I hope Arsenal fans consider the fact that transfers are a little more complicated than ‘penny pinching Arsene won’t spend our cash’

Touching on a few of your points.

• Koscielny is made of stern stuff. He is a fighter who has never given anything less than 100%
• Theo Walcott is not playing as a winger, he is playing as a wide forward who makes strikers runs
• I also believe that Thomas Vermaelen could be a massive leader for us
• As for Aguero I have a feeling that he doesn’t quite slot into the ‘clubs’ pay structure.

Anyway, it looks as if things are moving forward. Park Chu Young has signed and Per Mertesacker along with Andre Dos Santos are soon to follow. We may see a few more faces before 11pm tomorrow so let us see where that takes us.