My message to the haters is this: I cannot urge you enough to continue to follow the mantra ‘In Arsene we trust’, to follow the man with the sleeping bag looking coat, the man with that symbolic red tie, and to ignore the likes of Piers Morgan championing the term ‘In Arsene we rust’. You must must must must MUST have faith, he is the man and we will return soon enough. With the announcement today that Pep Guardiola will be stepping down from Barcelona at the end of the season to take a few years out, much talk has emerged

Evening all,

With the end of this Premier League campaign approaching, I thought that I would take the time to write my first blog. The topic I though that I would address is Arsene Wenger and his continued management of Arsenal, and my reasons for hoping that he remains manager for as long as possible.

One of the most common criticisms of Wenger is the 7 years without a trophy, and whilst very few attempt to downplay the achievement of the Invincibles, the dry spell since then does certainly need addressing. I believe that the reason we have struggled so much in challenging since those days is that Wenger has not rebuilt this squad only once. I believe that there have been 3 squads built up since the ‘Glory Days’, the first of which was almost perfect and would seriously have contended for the title if it weren’t for the departure of Flamini, Hleb and Reyes. I do not really begrudge Flamini for leaving as he spent several years at the club waiting patiently as second choice behind Gilberto, and though he enjoyed a season long spell in the side with Gilberto’s injury, you can’t really blame him for accepting the call from AC when it came. As for Hleb, well as everyone I’m sure will believe, we have had the last laugh with that one (although still a shame he left, he was great for Arsenal), and with Reyes, he never felt settled in and therefore we never got to see the true player he was.

The second squad was the squad of last season, which was then once again ditched by the integral two midfield players (Cesc and Na$ri). If you look at our 1st team now, very very few managers would have given faith to Sczcesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Gibbs, Song, Theo, and even RVP with his injuries. You can’t buy what Wengers faith gives you. I genuinely do believe that we are better off with the squad that we have now and personalities that are within the squad, motivating it game to game, and I feel much better as an Arsenal fan than when I did feeling indebted to Cesc and Na$ri.

Now our current squad with the likes of Arteta and Rosicky (as he wasn’t really available or at his best for last season), who have had to work exceptionally hard to get where they are now, is one that plays with far more positivity and synchronisation than the individual ego’s of Cesc and Nasri. And if the rumours are true of us signing Podolski, being the front runners in Yann M’Villa, and possibly in for Vertonghan then I really think this squad can have a go at the title next term.

Now, I know that with the Na$ri case Wenger holds a lot of the responsibility, but I do genuinely think he has learnt from this and will use the experience to keep RVP and push on with signing players whilst remaining the responsible Arsene that we have come to know, at times to loath, but most importantly come to trust. As many before me have highlighted, the alternative to how Wenger has conducted himself over the last 7/8 years in terms of transfer policy would be to have a transfer period similar to Liverpools over the last 18 months. We were rumoured to have interest in the following players: Downing, Adam, Henderson, Carroll, Enrique, Bellamy and Coates, and probably more that I cannot think of right now. Look how that turned out, that point doesn’t even need elaborating (cough *eighth place*).

My message to the haters is this: I cannot urge you enough to continue to follow the mantra ‘In Arsene we trust’, to follow the man with the sleeping bag looking coat, the man with that symbolic red tie, and to ignore the likes of Piers Morgan championing the term ‘In Arsene we rust’. You must must must must MUST have faith, he is the man and we will return soon enough.

With the announcement today that Pep Guardiola will be stepping down from Barcelona at the end of the season to take a few years out, much talk has emerged of him being the man to take the place of Wenger when he feels it is time to step down. Whilst Guardiola could be a great choice for Wengers successor, my preferred solution would be another 5/10 years of Wenger.

As for the rest of this season, I have a horrible feeling inside that I hope is wrong that Chelsea will win against Bayern, although I feel they have a bigger chance then perhaps Real would have as I feel that the players of Chelsea would have just been urged on to an unbelievable extent to win against Jose, and against Bayern they actually have to try and play and I feel the likes of Robben could undo them. This means 3rd is integral and a win against Stoke this weekend would really help cement that spot with Newcastle’s deadly run in.

I’ll try and write again post Stoke, but I have enjoyed writing this first blog, it is nice to get my feelings out into word.

All the best to everyone who reads this and to everyone travelling to this weekends game, try bring home 3 points!

Harry Townsend, half-season ticket holder, student at the University of Sheffield.

Mean Lean’s Response

Thank you Harry and apologies for the late posting of your article. Firstly I absolutely agree about the problems of having to rebuild. It has been very difficult for Arsene to try and gel teams together before being ripped up by players itching to leave for larger pockets.

“You can’t buy what Wenger’s faith gives you”

I like that line and it is so true. So many players have been dismissed by all and sundry before they turn around and prove Arsene correct.

I agree completely that our squad this season is better than that of last season. Maybe not even technically better but certainly in the head. I have said so many times but the togetherness is evidently much better this time and many of the new players are responsible for that.

I am not sure I agree with the notion that Arsene has learnt from last summer. I think the circumstances are much different to that of last season. Today we have the money from the Cesc and Nasri sales, we are not waiting to find out the futures of half the squad.

Arsene is known as being obsessed with preparation and he would have wanted all his signings as soon as possible but for one reason or another that couldn’t happen.

There is a great new blog that explains the Cesc situation last season. It is very entertaining and well worth a read