He seems to me as too much of a long term kind of man. Sometimes sacrifices must be made, and so be it, for the sake of the short and mid term, which in turn will benefit the long term. I mean, to me it makes perfect sense: why are some of our best players leaving? Had we won the league a couple of times and a Champions League with cesc would he have left for Barcelona?

First off, i’d like to point out that i am, and have been, a huge supporter and fan of arsene wenger, his methods and footballing philosophy. The belief in youth and talent, not overspending, financial stability, so on. He has made the club bigger, better prepared to face the future. I do believe he was the right man to bring us in this direction, and if it hadn’t been for his contributions a lot of wonderful history would have been lost, and god knows where we might be, both in footballing and economical terms.

That is not to say that the man is perfect, because he certainly isn’t. He is the best, bar none, in making a club grow and play wonderful football, also in cultivating young players and getting the most out of certain footballers, that might not flourish elsewhere. Think of how a club like atletico de madrid or valencia could benefit from having a man like him. The man has dedicated a large part of his life and efforts in bringing us as far as he has, and for that alone the club and fans should be grateful.

It is difficult judging him, because he overachieves with the resources he has, but at the same time, had he done some things differently, and not been as stubborn in certain situations, spent money when needed instead of hoping for the best has kept him from the success he could have had.

In recent memory, it would be difficult to argue that he has sabotaged himself, and as a result a complete season that seemed so promising has literally come to an end (in all competitions!) in the space of a week. As a fan, what makes it more painful is the fact that this hasn’t happened once, is not a mere coincidence, but the norm as of late, and made all the worse since it seems so obvious, to anyone, either inside or outside the club, except to him.

For him not to know what is needed, is inconceivable. There must be something else going on. Is it him being stubborn? No money available to him at the time? clubs shooting a player’s price through the roof when they find arsenal are buying? I understand not wanting to be held hostage by another club when shopping for a player, but at certain times you have to compromise, and those couple of millions you spent on an overpriced player could have been the difference between winning the league and finishing fourth.

He seems to me as too much of a long term kind of man. Sometimes sacrifices must be made, and so be it, for the sake of the short and mid term, which in turn will benefit the long term. I mean, to me it makes perfect sense: why are some of our best players leaving? Had we won the league a couple of times and a Champions League with cesc would he have left for Barcelona? probably, but it would have been a much more difficult decision and we would have been in a much stronger bargaining position. Would Henry have left had we won a Champions League with him?

Sometimes players get to a crossroads in their carreers when they must move on, when both clubs benefit from that move. I think in the case of players like Vieira, and maybe Henry, it was probably the right time, in the case of others like Cesc, flamini, Nasri, Hleb, Diarra, even some that are not remembered fondly, like cole and adebayor, you could argue that it wasn’t, they could still contribute to the club.

You might argue that they are mercenaries, and that are solely motivated by money, but you’d only be half right. Look at players like Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fabregas, etc. They move to different clubs for different reasons, but right at the top or close to it within those reasons lies the likelyhood of winning trophies.

Sometimes it is mostly money, but still, when a player like Yaya toure or Kun Aguero moves to Manchester city, you know finances are a clear motivator, but the prospect of playing in a team full of great players and potential is an added bonus and very tempting to other footballers, such as Nasri, that see an unsettled team and fanbase, without a clear future. I do not believe some players would leave if some things were different at the club. In the end the player needs to be loyal mostly to himself, and rightly so.

What is troubling to me, at the moment, is that history is repeating itself. It is clear for everyone to see, perhaps with the exception of Arsene Wenger. Our season is likely to be over in the space of a week, and it hasn’t even started! We needed backup before Cesc, Clichy, Eboue, Vela, Denilson (and probably Nasri) left. So even if he brings a couple of good signings, like Mata and Samba, we’re worse off than we were last year!

We needed reinforcements before Wilshere, Diaby, and and half our defenders got injured, let alone now, with Song, Frimpong and Gervinho suspended.

If i am completely honest, i have to admit that Udinese looked a better team than us, at our own home. substancially better, enough to beat us by the margin they need at their home, and it will probably happen, i’d be surprised if it wasn’t the case. We could miss out on Champions League Football for this year completely, and next year very likely also, because at the moment, with the team we have and the injuries we have had, and our injury record, we’ll be lucky to make 6th.

Then what happens? We do not look so attractive a place to go, except for youngsters looking for a shot. We miss out on Champions League money. Our remaining good players leave next season, and rightly so. They take pay cuts just to be able to leave because the buying clubs know we are in a precarious bargaining position. Poor players remain because they get payed small fortunes every week, and no other teams will do it for them, so if they leave, they leave on a free.

But wait… that is happening already.

But how did it happen so fast? I mean, last season we were contenders in every competition, could have won the Carling Cup, managed beating the best team in the world at home, and were in a two horse race with United for most of the season. Then… Collapse, again, in the space of a week. A couple of injuries, suspensions, bad ref decisions, bad luck, call it what you will, and we miss out on everything.

I have come to the conclusion that Wenger operates in such a way that there’s a fine balance in the team, and when things go right, we forget about it, but when things start going wrong, they are intertwined in such ways that everything starts going wrong. In which ways, you might ask? Well, he buys young players, lacking in character and experience, usually injury prone, phisically weak compared to the rest of teams in the league. There aren’t enough leaders around them to keep the team from falling apart when a ref decision goes against us or in hostile environments, such as Camp Nou, Old trafford, etc.

There aren’t enough leaders around them, because when they came in years ago there weren’t a huge amount of leaders on the team either. In a sense, the manager has made the team evolve differently from the rest of the league, with smaller, creative, but weaker players, and bet on him being on the right path, and he might have, but he simply left himself very little margin for error. Had he brought reinforcements in when they were critically needed, he would have widened that margin, especially in the last four or five years, when he has had more funds available to him.

So when it comes down to it, who’s to blame? The finger has to point in Arsene’s direction, because he has not learned from his mistakes. He has failed many times in adapting to the needs of the team in certain critical moments, and has let the club down by being stubborn and too concerned on saving pennies, while relying on the loyalty of his players for them not to leave when things go wrong. His arguments or excuses have gotten old, and are the same as last year’s, and the years before that. He has become predictable. His situation is close to being unsustainable, and it is sad, because it could have been so different.

I would love it if the man stayed with us for a long time, but i don’t know if it should still be as manager, but surely in some shape or form. The one way that it occurs to me he might be able to turn things around is by doing something unpredictable, to get the backing of the fans, and one way he could do that would be by breaking the bank and bringing in a guy like Teves, who would surely come in and do a job, make a difference, and a couple more guys like Mata, Samba, Cahill, whomever. Then you could start seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I doubt he will do it, but i’d like to be surprised, proved wrong. I’d love it for us to win the league, to at least be competitive, to be a contender, because if you’re not even that, what’s the point?

I don’t think we can question Arsene’s commitment, his loyalty and love for the club, but what should be is his ability to change, admit his mistakes and adjust to the realities of the league and footballing world in the present. Maybe he has underlying motives, to insure the future of the club for the next 125 years and leave it well off, secured. Maybe we cannot compete with teams like City, Chelsea, Madrid and Barcelona at present, perhaps moving to a new stadium and have a sustainable model wasn’t enough to compete financially with these teams, but something has to be done.

Inaction is not the answer, the waiting game is over, so go out and buy already. You have to pay 3 million more for Mata than he’s worth? So be it. Be a betting man Arsene, but for once bet on proven talent.

If you were with your children in the middle of the desert, on your way to a giant pot of gold, and midway through, a man came and offered you a big bottle of water for a quarter of the gold you might find, and you knew that you might need it to survive the journey, but at the same time your calculations told you that you had more than enough to make the trip, would it still be worth getting it? I don’t know the answer to that, i just hope the man who is responsible for that decision doesn’t get it wrong this time around, because we’re all on that desert, and we all want to believe.

Mean Lean’s Response

Hi Luis,

Thank you for your well written article, plenty of food for thought there.

I have known of your views for a while now and you are certainly not the trolling type but you are understandably frustrated as are many of us Gooners around the world.

You are not the first person to call Arsene Wenger a stubborn man and I am sure you will not be the last. I wonder where that attachment has come from though because surely we are all stubborn people to a certain extent. If Arsene believes in certain methods, especially methods that has gained him plenty of previous success then surely he should stick to his beliefs. I would be far more concerned if he changed his mind willy-nilly, or did his job based on the views of pundits, former players or journalists.

I think many people, including myself are making judgements on our spending policy, transfer strategy etc without having any real evidence as to what is going on behind the scenes. There is an article doing the rounds on the Arsenal Times about a disagreement between our manager and the board over player recruitment and while I have absolutely no proof of this, going by Wenger’s cryptic media speak and comments made by Liam Brady on RTE a few weeks back, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this being the case, or at least some form of disagreement between manager and board.

Basically I find it inconceivable that a man famously known for his preparation and routine would not want all his targets in as quickly as possible to prepare for this new season, especially given the turmoil of our end of season collapse and departures of Cesc Fabregas, as well as the likely departure of Samir Nasri.

I share the same concern that we have gone into the Champions League qualifier without our team fully assembled. That is a massive gamble by someone but I do not know who. Obviously, if we expected Cesc to leave then a replacement should have been on standby. That player should have walked passed Cesc as our former Captain walked out of the door. It is a strange decision and plenty of pressure will be stacked on the shoulders of this young squad.

I think it is too easy to blame the man standing in the front though. Wenger’s job is to identify the targets he wants, he gives his input about the valuation and priority of the player and as far as I know, the rest is down to the money men to negotiate and secure the deals.

I think we ought to wait until the season finishes or at least the transfer window closes before we can categorically say that Arsene hasn’t learnt from his mistakes. He is an intelligent man, who has made many changes over the years since he has arrived at the club. I do not buy the painted picture of a stubborn, control freak who wants to go against everyone else to prove himself right. That has come from people like Myles Palmer which is now seen as fact. An inflexible manager would not have changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. An inflexible manager would not have changed from a powerful team to a technical more mobile side.

Arsene looks to do what he thinks will be best for Arsenal. We are written off as finishing outside the top four time and time again. If we do not add quality to this squad then the chance of that could be higher than at any previous time. I just do not believe that quality will not be coming in. Once it does then I expect us to be challenging again for the title as we were last season.

I look at the core of this group and find it hard to write our squad off completely. Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Song, Wilshere, Van Persie, Ramsey, Gervinho and plenty more. I think I could add to that squad and produce a team capable of beating anyone and I am no football manager. I think we often think so hard about what we do not have, that we often forget about what we do have.

If the transfer window closes and we do not see any new faces then I shall worry but until then we’re all non the wiser.

I like your final analogy about the desert but listen to this. What happens if you are in a desert and there is a man with a water stand. You and your children are desperately in need of a drink to survive and you have no cash of your own but you do have a bank card.

The man tells you that a glass of water is £35 million and nothing less. You know it is overpriced but you and your children desperately need the water to survive. You know you have £50 million in the bank so you are willing to make that sacrifice.

You drag your feet to the bank, dehydrated and gasping for refreshment. When you get to the bank you request to withdraw £35 million but the bank turn around and tell you the maximum amount you can withdraw is £28 million. The rest is needed to pay off last month’s overdraft facilities, card protection and insurance.

One of your kids who knows you have £50 million sitting in the bank is screaming at you and kicking your leg demanding a cup of water. What do you do?

Ok, I may have gotten a little carried away with that but you see what I mean? The blame is falling at the feet of the manager as to why we are not paying Manchester United wages or Chelsea transfer fees but as many have said before me. This is Arsenal FC not Arsene FC.