An afternoon that began with a fan protest against the Arsenal board ended with a chorus of boos as Swansea condemned the Gunners to their fourth defeat of the season. This result leaves Arsenal in 10th position on the league table. The North London club have made their worst start to a Premier league season under Arsene Wenger with four defeats and a run of three games without a win.
The sad part of the
defeat to Swansea was that the Gunners looked bereft of ideas and they were out
passed and out classed by the Swans.
This is the pain that many fans have had to endure with many now calling
for the sack of Monsieur Wenger.
Wenger has been in charge at the club for 16 years taking
charge in the summer of 1996, he is the longest serving and most successful
manager in the clubs history winning 11 trophies so far. However, the club has
failed to win any trophy in the last seven and a half years. Arsene Wenger ‘s team has produced world class football in the
past, he over saw the brilliant “invincibles” that were unbeaten in the entire 03/04 league campaign(26wins & 12draws)
and went 49 games unbeaten smashing the previous record of 42games set by
Nottingham Forest.
Since then Wenger has strongly adopted a policy signing and
sticking with young players. He let many
of the “invincibles” leave the club, the likes of Patrick Viera, Robert Peres, and
Freddie Lungberg and stuck with young players.
The problem with this policy is that you have young players with little
or no experience and no leader on the pitch. This is bound to yield no results.
The 63 year old has also failed to spend big in the transfer
market, with rumours rife that the club actually has the resources to do so. Arsenal
has fallen behind to the Manchester Clubs and Chelsea in its ability to attract
world class players but Wenger insists that he will not pay over the top for
players.
Wenger has said that finishing in the top four in the Premier
League is a very good achievement and that qualifying for 13seasons into the
group stage of the Champions League is commendable. However, since playing in
the final of the champions League in 2006, the club has failed to progress
beyond the quarter finals. The closest Arsenal have come to winning a trophy in the last 7 years was in Carling cup in
2011, they reached the final, took the lead and capitulated losing out to a Birmingham City side that was
relegated from the Premier League that season.
Wenger has failed to keep his best players at the Emirates,
choosing rather to cash in and not bringing in adequate replacements. He failed
to keep top striker Thierry Henry losing him to Barcelona and the player exodus
has continued. Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasir, Cesc fabregas, Alex
Song and Robin Van Persie have all left the club in search of trophies. The fans feel a real sense of betrayal with
the sale of Van Persie the club’s leading goal scorer last season with 30goals
to Man United, betrayal not just for the sale but for the failure to bring in a
world class striker. The only quality addition to the squad this season is
Santi Carzola, the Spaniard has shown
real quality but has over the past few games looked exhausted, both French
striker Giroud and German Podolski have failed to make real contributions to
the team.
Over the past 2 seasons Arsenal have made about £90million
from player sales and last week the club announced a £150million extension of
their shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates Airlines. Chief Executive Ivan Gazidiz says Arsenal’s
financial stability and projected revenue growth will soon put them “in the top
five clubs in the world” it seems Wenger
and the board are content with not being the top club in England and simply
want to make profit for the shareholders.
Arsene wenger seems to have lost his skill of discovering
talent over the last few years, the only real talent he has discovered is
England international Jack Wilshere. The player missed most of last season and
the beginning of this through injuries.
With Wenger facing the biggest scrutiny of his managerial
career at Arsenal, can the Gunners faithful trust him to wade through this
storm and bring the glory days back to the club? Can they still trust in
Arsene?
Very nice historial lesson bit it is time for him to be shown the exit.
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