So lets get on with the comparison then, we all know  our starters well : Szczęsny, Santos, Vermaelin, Kos, Sagna, Song, Arteta, Wilshere, Walcott, Gervinho, Van Persie.A very good team no doubt, maybe I would change Gerviho for the Ox just because I really don’t feel he’s a top player. He’s direct and has pace but he just lacks composure if Arsenal only get one chance in a very tight importan

It’s been frustrating to say the least. Watching us fail to win any trophies for the past few seasons has been hard. Why it’s so frustrating is because I feel that we have brought this onto ourselves, by “we” I mean the board and Wenger. This is not an anti Wenger article, I truly believe he’s the best coach we could have at the moment. But its still makes me so angry how things might have been if either the board or the coach were stronger or firmer when handling some situations.

We’re a big club, one of the biggest infact. We are the fifth richest club in money generated, we have one of the highest prices for tickets in all of europe ( Tickets for Milan-Arsenal in the san siro are around £35!!!! thats the price of the emirates cup ticket) yet wenger and the board act as if we’re a small club. One thing I read on the arsenal website that really bugged me was when asked what was the highlight of the 2011 calender year, Arsene Wenger answered “the win over Barcelona”!!!! That’s a small club mentality if I ever saw one, yes it was a great night but we ended up losing the tie anyway. Yes it was the highlight of last season but thats because it wasn’t a good season. I would have rathered they didn’t ask such a stupid question at all.

Anyway the main point of this article is that I’m comparing our current starting 11, our sub + reserve 11, 11 players that we sold that we didnt want to and players that we sold because we wanted to sell or loan out. Before anyone tells me if said players wanted to leave what could we do about it, well we could act as a big club and let them stay anyway where they should buck up and do the job they’re payed to do or rot in the reserves where no one would want to buy them. Wayne Rooney wanted to leave Man United but they made him stay, Luka modric was made to stay, Henry would rather extend his loan but the red bulls are making him go back, heck even bolton managed to keep Cahill for 6 more months. These are just some examples that came to me but I’m sure there’s more.

So lets get on with the comparison then, we all know  our starters well : Szczęsny, Santos, Vermaelin, Kos, Sagna, Song, Arteta, Wilshere, Walcott, Gervinho, Van Persie.A very good team no doubt, maybe I would change Gerviho for the Ox just because I really don’t feel he’s a top player. He’s direct and has pace but he just lacks composure if Arsenal only get one chance in a very tight important game, I wouldn’t want it to be him on the end of that chance.

Our subs: Fabianski, Gibbs, Per, Djourou, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Ramsey, Benayoun, Ox, Chamakh, Arshavin. An adequate team but obviously not good enough, with the exception of ramsey a very weak midfield and in attack no goals whatsoever.

Players we didn’t want (shouldn’t) to sell : Clichy, Toure, Lassana Diarra, Fabregas, Seb Larsson, Merida, Flamini, Nasri, Adebayour, Hleb. Obviously besides the fact that this team lacks a goalkeeper ( we haven’t really sold any…I wonder why) This team is quite strong especially the midfield, which might be even stronger than the one we currently have. Adebayour has a rubbish personality but i would have him over Chamakh and Park any day of the week. Maybe if he was our striker at the camp nou instead of bendtner he might have scored that last chance.

Finally lets look at the players we bought that are useless plus those we willingly sold or loaned out and where they are now and at what level they are playing at: Amaury Bischoff currently playing for aves, a division 2 side in portugal, since leaving arsenal he played 23 competitive matches!!! Eduardo a very good striker but not Arsenal good, was better before his injury but really not even close to van persie. Now playing for shakhtar where he scored 11 goals in 2 seasons. Denilson was never good, should have never played for Arsenal, we couldn’t sell him or loan him to a club in europe. Now playing for Santos with 14 appearances and 0 goals. Squilacci need I say more. Diaby great talent but always injured, to put things into perspective a little, what Arsenal pay for Diaby’s wage and treatment is equal to or even more than Van Der Vaart’s price when tottenham bought him!!!! Nicklas Bendtner if he had half the talent he thinks he has, he would be immense. 15 appearances and only 3 goals for sunderland.

So to conclude the players we willingly sold or loaned out, should have never played for Arsenal in the first place, none of them is playing for a top european team, actually none of them is doing well for their average teams, how they were starters for Arsenal is beyond me. While the players that were unwillingly sold could have made a huge difference for us in the past few seasons, what if we had lassana diarra when flamini left, or if we had made fabregas stay for one more season until we got an adequate replacement. Football is a job to these players, The board and Wenger should have acted as a big club and prevented at least some of these departures no matters how the players sulk at the end of the day they have a job they should perform, having a sulking fabregas is much better than a bed ridden Diaby, an unhappy Diarra is better than a Denilson.

When you look at the players we had start for us and those we sold over the past few seasons it’s not shocking at all that we won nothing, thats why its so frustrating, if we had just been firmer and better at tackling player situations I think we might have fared better on the trophy front.

P.S. I didn’t even include allowing the likes of Henry, Pires, Edu, Reyes and maybe even Viera leaving, when at least a few of them could have stayed a little longer, especially Pires.

Mean Lean’s Response

Thank you for the article and you bring up some very interesting points.

I am going to give another side to your arguments though. Firstly going back to your annoyance with the manager saying that the highlight of the season last year was the victory over Barcelona at home.

I bet you would struggle to find many an Arsenal fan around the world that wouldn’t agree that a victory in the Champions League against the best team in the world, in that manner was not the highlight, even more so given the fact that we were the only team to have beaten them in the Champions League.

What you are essentially saying is that you cannot have a highlight of the season unless you win a trophy. If this is the case then I strongly disagree with you.

Football is about a series of moments over 90 minutes, days, weeks, months and years. The feeling that I had at full time was just sheer joy even if it was only the first leg of two. Thierry Henry’s goal against a lower league club in his first game back will be the highlight for many, does this mean that we have a small club mentality?

In terms of the Arsenal squad, it is very easy to speak about the players in hindsight. Pointing the finger at the likes of Bischoff as an example seems a little pointless. It was a punt that cost relatively little and we may have even made profit on that transfer, it is difficult to know because the fees were undisclosed.

I have read many Gooners point the finger at Arsene for signing the likes of Squillaci, Park, Chamakh etc etc as if football managers should get every transfer right. So much goes into a player transfer, whether they can adjust to the league, the country and the team. It doesn’t always end up perfect and often ends up wrong for every single team in world football.

I remember a number of bloggers, posters etc stating that Squillaci was the better player over Koscielny. That Squillaci had the experience to help this team but then a season later this is wiped away and the manager gets the blame for buying a poor player. Who is to say that Squillaci (a former French international) wouldn’t have settled down in Italy for example and become a big player for another team who play a different system, with different players around him who bring the best out of him.

In hindsight I believe that Arsene Wenger would not have bought Sebastien Squillaci, given the number of games he has played so far, I believe this is the case but then I believe that in hindsight Alex Ferguson would not have spent £30.7m on Berbatov, £7m on Bebe, 17m on Hargreaves. How about Kenny Daglish spending £35m on Andy Carroll, £20m on Stewart Downing, £16m on Jordan Henderson. All managers have a history of bringing in players that haven’t lived up to expectations.

The way I see it, is that we should judge managers on the balance between good signings and bad signings. When a manager consistently pulls out rabbits out of the hat with players like Cesc Fabregas for £500k, Robin van Persie for £2.75m, Koscielny £10m, Vermaelen £10m, Sagna for £6m then it is safe to say that he doesn’t just waste money on players who do not make the grade. His quality vs spend record is probably one of the best in world football.

As for quality players who wanted to move on. Yes, I agree that we could have done with many of those players today. We have lost a lot of quality, so much so that if it was our decision to keep those players then we would have won titles and cups on a few occasions since our FA Cup victory over Manchester United.

That said, I think it is far too simplistic to say we should have just kept them regardless or indeed let them ‘rot in the reserves’

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever from a business perspective. While we see the game through the eyes of a fan, Arsenal football club and indeed every other club is a business.

Manchester City are a prime example. The richest club in the world were desperate to get rid of what was their best player last season. He was a disruptive influence and managers do not want to have that in their squad. I could give countless examples of other managers letting go of good players because of this reason.

Lassana Diarra was a player who refused to play in a cup game so he could move. Do you suggest that we build a squad full of these players just because they are good players? What will banishing all these players to the reserves so they can just run down their contacts and leave for free, do for the club? How does the manager then reinvest into the team while we have let a Diarra rot?

It is nothing to do with being a big or small club, it is about having business sense. It is about keeping a good atmosphere between the players. Arsenal are a self sustained business and have always been this way. Before Wenger, before Kroneke even before the likes of Peter Hill-Wood. We sell before we buy, that is what we do and keeping hold of players who do not want to be there is a recipe for disaster.

Last note on Gervinho. While I agree that I wouldn’t want an important chance falling to him, I would want him on the ball skipping past a diving in full back to create that important chance for someone else.

I give you Udinese away to put us into the Champions League. Pretty important I’d say. At least more important than double the transfer fee Stewart Downing.