Arsene: The man you must respect

2004/2005 is a season where expectations are soaring and dreams are to be made: The dream of breaking the unbeaten record held by Nottingham Forrest, the dream of retaining the title and the dream of doing the treble. We achieved the first dream in style and people were expecting us to achieve the other two dreams. Alas, we were cheated out of a 50th consecutive unbeaten run at Old Trafford and since then, the team has never find it's fantastic form at the beginning of the season.

Draws against teams in danger of relegation and losses to Manchester United, Liverpool and Bolton has all but ended our dreams of winning the title, even when mathematically we are not out of the title race yet. Realistically, we have to admit that the title is out of our grasp, until divine intervention plays a part. It is sad to concede that we threw away the title at such an early stage of the season. It goes two ways really. We lost the title and Chelsea won it. Chelsea has done very well under the leadership of manager José Mourinho and with a lot of luck on their side. Even with last season's form, we would still be behind them at this time of the season. We now only have the second place to play for with Manchester United hot on our tracks.

Disappointment has sparked unrest amongst the Arsenal fans but this is the time where we must support the team. I am appalled by the 'fans', who criticized Wenger for our losses and claimed that he has taken us as far as he can. This happens ALL THE TIME when the team is going through a rough patch. I can understand fans who vent their frustrations at the team but claiming that this is as far as Wenger has taken us and Wenger has lost his touch is ridiculous. Fans can be fickle, when we are doing well, they will be singing praises and at the same time, their egos are overfed. When the team performs below par, those fans will start their usual blaming philosophy. Let's look at the moaners.

"Why doesn't Wenger spend and buy established players that will help us retain the title? Doesn't he hint that Arsenal FC has the necessary resources?"

I am actually quite glad that Arsenal are not going to panic buy their way into success, but I hope Wenger does invest some funds in an established goalkeeper and defender. However, it is difficult to attract world class players to Arsenal for the wages that we can offer. We also have difficulty competing with top clubs for transfer fees. Star players will demand higher wages which other richer clubs can offer but not us. Even if we buy other established seniors only for backup, I do not think they would be willing to be on the bench unless they are well paid to do so. Therefore, we would need to invest in youth with huge potential and nurture them to become top players. The club will only buy when it is for the right price and the right players with a good attitude. In addition, it is only assumed that Arsenal has the funds to purchase top players, these are only assumptions, not facts. We do not understand the financial situation of Arsenal FC as we are not their accountants or even their staff.

"Wenger should change his tactics. We had become too one dimensional and teams now know how to crush us by adopting the same strategies Man Utd used on us; getting physical in the midfield and packing it with five midfielders."

The funny thing is that, every team has been doing that to us for the past few seasons in case you never noticed. In the past few seasons, we are creative enough to score goals even when the going gets tough. I have to admit that we are very unlucky with injuries. Wenger has the right combination of players for the tactics we usually use but it's down to the players to implement them. Players who are off-form and short on confidence decreases the effectiveness of the tactic, with injuries to established players not helping us as well. Wenger probably believes in the fluidity and continuity of using the same tactics, when you are fluent with it, you will break apart any opponent even when they know how to counter you. They have the theory but don't have the skills to implement the counter. Wenger probably plans to integrate the youngsters slowly into this tactic but recently he was forced to push them into the scenes because of injuries and poor form of established stars. Arsenal's 'Wengerball' requires match practice and team work to work, that is why Wenger rarely tinkers with the formation or players unless he has to. He has been criticized for not giving chance to the youth before. He stayed loyal to his philosophy and he went unbeaten last season. This season, forced to submit to using youth, he has paid the ultimate price. The new players cannot find the fluidity of passing and off the ball runs that make Arsenal the dangerous team they are and our strength is greatly diminished as opposed to the team of last season. This may not be our season, but since we have nothing to play for now, this might had taken a load off our shoulders and a good time to breed our current crop of talented youngsters.

Our season has been difficult with injuries of important or backbone players in the team. Gilberto's absence, coupled by Sol's injury prone nature in this season has cost us the league. I will not talk about referee decisions as many other teams have these problems as well. On form and fit, we can beat any team in the league but we are having a bad patch and injuries are hitting us hard. We are a team who can't afford a good squad depth. Our greatest enemies are ourselves and injuries. When the first team is not doing well, we do not have the depth to cope with it nor the resources to build it. We cannot really blame Wenger for the club's misfortunes. He has brought the glory days to Arsenal with minimal resources as opposed to the top clubs.

Wenger has lead us to three league titles and 3 FA Cups in the era when Manchester United were supposing dominating the league. He led the team that won the league in 1998 after being 13 points behind. He changed the Arsenal's style of 1-0 football to Wengerball, a style which is attractive to watch. He was the man behind the recovery spectacularly from 02/03 to winning the league unbeaten He masterminded an unbeaten away season followed by a whole unbeaten league season, breaking a record 49 game unbeaten run that was not broken for decades. What other manager could have done this? No other manager but the one and only Arsène Wenger. Wenger has proven those so called 'fans' wrong time and time again, who moan every season when things don't go our way.

Managers make mistakes - but I doubt he will make more than any of us here. We can compare his mistakes to the amount other managers had made, even Ferguson has made horrible mistakes recently and he is still doing a good job for them. Wenger has been in the team for 8 years now - giving up a lot of his time even past the typical working hours, devoting it to managing this club. He is a legend and his commitment and loyalty to the club is even legendary. National teams such as France, big richer clubs such as Real Madrid who can offer triple what we offer him - he rejects them because he is dedicated and he wants to see out his splendid work. We have to show patience because I seriously cannot think of a better person who understands the club's finances, staff and situation better than him, nor can I think of anyone who can bring Arsenal higher up than him. He is a man dedicated to his work and he will make it his ultimate aim to bring Arsenal to be the dominating force in football.

Fans should give their full support for Wenger. Fans like us do not give up our life analyzing football videos. Fans like us do not spend our time interacting with players and the media. Fans like us are not even close to the genius of Arsène. Fans like us would not even be qualified or capable to lead a conference team, much less Arsenal. This is a crucial time for the team. It is not a time for fans to moan and blame. It is a time for fans to give their whole support and cheer the team on to greater things. Come on you Gooners! The team is not the only thing that is underachieving, it's the fans too who fell down. If you can blame the team, you have to blame yourself as well for not giving the team the support they need but moan and criticize. If we want the team to rise to the occasion, we fans need to rise as well whenever our team is down. I would like to thank the fans who continue to give Wenger the utmost respect he deserves. He deserves more than fickle fans who would take a stab at him as soon as things don't go our way. If Wenger behaved like these lot of fans, he would had gone to another club when things are not working out for him a long time ago. Thank god for Wenger's steadfast loyalty, commitment to the club and the amount of work he has done for Arsenal. Have some faith in the man who has brought so much with so little. He is the man I respect the most, the reason for Arsenal's success and glory today.

"Arsène knows" and "Trust Arsène"

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea