Cesc will not carry the whole load alone and cannot play as many games as he did last year. If he does not have partners (not one but at least two) matching his ambitions he is gone by this time next year

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR VISION ARTICLES ARE SENT IN BY READERS AND ARE NOT WRITTEN BY ARSENAL VISION WRITERS.

By Monsieur Robert

I have been a season ticket holder since a few months before Monsieur Wenger arrived.

I am from the continent but have always been fascinated by English football.

That is not the point…

We (the arsenal) have to be careful not going completely off the track.

Most of Arsene’s moves are the sign of a genius, especially under the currrent constraints, but it goes too far when the average fan starts feeling abused.

what is ok and what is not:

1) Arsene has positioned Arsenal as the home of attacking fancy football where talent, whatever the age, makes the difference! that is OK…because of that have we become a prime destination for superior young talent!

2) we have to operate with tougher financial restrictions than the clubs which have become billionaires’ little toys. That’s OK as well. There is some value in keeping some of the basic principles in place, with the idea of a community behind the club, and local identity!

3) we privilege youth, speed and talent over experience and big money super stars. That is OK as well that is part of the integrity and identity of the club. We are true to what Arsene believes and we follow him on that road to adventure following the same key principles.

4) we charge the highest ticket prices in the entire premier league. That is OK as well because we just built a great new stadium and everybody has to chip in to keep the show on the road at the highest level.

5) we decide which trophies we will deem of interest and the rest (carling cup) we use for the reserves”PLUS”. That is BORDERLINE as a loyal fan is entitled to have Arsenal play their most competitive team on every occasion. Given that we reached the semi-finals or final with the reserves “PLUS”, this is harder to debate.

6) everybody speaks about Flamini, Hleb, Gilberto and forget Diarra. Compared to a year ago we are down 3 defensive midfielders with nothing in return. That is NOT OK at all. Wenger started the downfall by not being able to rotate last year. We got lucky last year with Flamini stepping into a position which was “earmarked” for Diaby and playing above all expectations. He was so good that Wenger naively did not rotate and we ended up loosing Diarra first and Flamini completely worn out towards the end of the season followed the same direction.

7) the talk about the breadth and depth of the squad are NOT OK at all. We have seen today that it requires very special talent to influence and if possible (Patrick Vieira was King) dictate the game from central midfield. If you do not win that battle, the wingers won’t get any ball, won’t have the confidence to get involved and switch/rotate etc. We were dictated terms of play by Jimmy Bullard and Danny Murphy who hardly build the ultimate midfield partnership. Cesc is not the answer because he cannot fix it for all of us in all 60 games of a season. We saw troday that we have nothing to change and/or force the course of a game in central midfield.

8) there is so much belief and talent in this team and it would be a shame to destroy that by bringing new experience players. That is NOT OK at all.

Cesc will not carry the whole load alone and cannot play as many games as he did last year. If he does not have partners (not one but at least two) matching his ambitions he is gone by this time next year. Arsene has to learn to rotate without loosing substance and that cannot be doen right now.

9) we want to challenge for trophies. That is NOT OK! Who is being fooled here? No team has ever been able to challenge without controlling and at times totally dominating midfield.

10) Gallas as a captain has a lot to work on. That is OK. He should start by avoiding “rookie” mistakes himself before shouting senselessly at his partners. He has to shape up drmatically and do it very quickly. His credibility is under attack and how he got abused today on the Fulham goal will not help.

Time to stop kidding ourselves: we are not a club where we train big talent so that they can move on to bigger clubs for bigger contracts…or somebody needs to make it clear and we all adapt. The first thing that fans will want to see changed in that case is the ticket price. If we are just a “lauch pad” type of club we cannot charge top prices!

Ok so we are not just that…well in that case Arsene cannot think that his current stories will fly, especially after watching helplessly the Bullard & Murphy show!

We need not 1 but 2 midfield marshalls which will give us:

-flexibility to adopt a more defensive set-up with 2 defensive midfileders…able to stop and overcome the Bullard & Murphy type of situation!

-allow rotation to be fresh at the beginning of March when it really counts

-bring leadership to the team and release Cesc of too much pressure right now.

I am more concerned now than I have ever been in the last few years!