Arsène does his press conference today and lord knows what questions he’ll be asked, but we can be assured that he will give a response that includes the phrase ‘we have to fight’ or a variation of that. The very fact that in our last two games the fight has clearly not been there in the team will not have been lost on the manager, but regardless of whether he thinks this team is up for the fight or not, he has to put on a brave front to the media.
I get that. Heck, I’d probably do the same if I was the man at the helm of what appears to be a sinking ship, but I hope that behind closed doors he’s asking some of those players to have a look at themselves. There has quite simply been no belief at times in these players and their own abilities, typified by a frank admission from Alexis, saying that the players have a lack of self belief at the moment. From the outside Alexis’ all-action style would lead you to question how he could ever have any self-doubt, but we need to remember that all of these players are human. They will all have moments of introspection and if what they see doesn’t make them puff out their chest and believe, it’s a slippery slope, a ‘negative spiral’ indeed.
So at times like this, at times when you appear to be on your knees, you sometimes need somebody to be able to pick you up. Think Cech with Koscielny after the Chelski game at home (I think it was that game?). He knew that there were more battles to come. He knew that you need to be able to compartmentalise disappointments like that game and he knew that he had a colleague who needed an arm round them. He showed leadership in one small gesture. But where is that elsewhere? I’m not sure.
This idea of motivation is an interesting one, because sometimes with Arsène Wenger I can never work out if he’s good at it or not, although usually I assume that he must be because it’s hardly like Arsenal have ever gone on a disasterous run like Chelski have earlier in the season. Things have been bad at times under his tenure, but it’s never been that bad. Yet. So that suggests to me that he must be able to pick players up at times.
And yet I still have this feeling that he’s not really a fantastic motivator. Over the years, we’ve always tended to have these types of patches of bad form and we never seem to be able to as easily shake it off. It always seems to happen each season. When we are playing poorly, it doesn’t seem easy for us to quickly shake it off.
To me, Arsène seems to be the sort of person who is the only guy in the world you’d want to manage a team with confidence. When Arsenal have confidence there’s good football, swagger, quick passing, incisive play, goals, etc. He can make good teams look great when they’re on a streak. But when they’re on a poor run of form, it never feels to me like he’s the best person to drag us out of it.
That’s where we’re at right now. The manager has admitted the team is low on confidence. He’s admitted that they need to go ‘back to basics’, whatever that means, and he’s said that he doesn’t even want to think about the title. That sums up just how bad it’s got. So usually when it’s this bad, you end up getting a game like Villa at home to restore some belief. Mind you, Swansea at home was the next best thing, so maybe what seems like an unlikely game to get any points from might actually be better. Somehow I doubt it, but the hope still remains, and will forever do so as long as I breathe life as an Arsenal fan. Who knows? We’ve been abject against two poor teams in the last two games, so maybe the best team in the league right now – yep, I’m talking about the Spuds and it almost breaks me to write it, but I think it’s true – is a different way of salvaging something from the season.
I doubt it though.
Let’s see what Arsène has to say. Catch you tomorrow for a pre-match terrorthon of a blog as I try to find ways in which flew might be able to pick something up against that horrible lot from round the corner.
Whenever someone refers to the manager as “Arsene”, that tells me they still have an affection for him. How can you possibly have, given the division he has caused at our club, not just this season, but during the previous twelve ? Wenger and his deluded A.K.B. cult followers, are the reason our club is stuck in the same malaise now that it has been for a decade. They are why we are not progressing, not fulfilling our potential as the great club we OUGHT to be. I won’t say the great club we ARE, because that’s patently untrue, given our history over that time.
It may sound harsh, but Wenger and the weak, profit driven board that keep backing him no matter what, are a cancer that is draining us of hope for the future. The worst part is that this stalemate situation we’re in shows no sign of ending. The weak self interested board won’t sack him, because he keeps the money rolling in from the Champion’s League for them, and who couldn’t care less about the aspirations of the supporters, and Wenger for allowing himself to tolerate this situation and meekly complying with it – with the incentive of 8.5 million a year for doing the bare minimum.
If it takes Spurs to either beat us this Saturday, or for them to win the league regardless, then this might be the necessary shock treatment to motivate the fans to revolt big time, and force the issue. We’ve suffered long enough.
” In Arsene we rust.”
Firstly – how can you make an assumption on what I think of the manager based on the fact I call him in the blog ‘Arsène’? If you’ve read my blogs over the last few days, you’ll see that I am very much questioning his ability to continue to be the manager.
But I will always have an affection for what he has achieved – you can’t delete and ignore the history he has made at the club. That doesn’t change. But he has changed and I’m no longer convinced he can do it for us.
I’m a bit disappointed that you say it is the Wenger fans who are the reason for the clubs current state. I agree Arsène is culpable, but how do the pro Wenger fans influence what happens on the pitch or through social media? It’s hard to argue with some of your other points though. Thanks for the comment.
“….but how do the pro Wenger fans influence what happens on the pitch….”
Simple. Their continued fanatical support of him despite all his gross negligence and incompetence, means the board don’t have any real pressure on them to sack him. Thus he stays, and the team – HIS TEAM – keeps playing the same way on the pitch. This has been the pattern for the last twelve years ! Wenger has built many teams over that time period, yet still nothing changes.
” In Arsene we rust.”
So you think that a selection of fans online and their support is what keeps him in a job? Bizarre comment. The board don’t sack him for other reasons than that – like how he keeps cash in the bank, they don’t have any ideas on who to replace him, etc. It’s nothing to do with a faction of loyal Arsenal fans.
Yes of course it’s more than just the fans. The board are also culpable for allowing this disgraceful situation to continue.I acknowledged this. Note I said in my earlier post that ; (quote ) “….The weak self interested board won’t sack him, because he keeps the money rolling in from the Champion’s League for them, and who couldn’t care less about the aspirations of the supporters, and Wenger for allowing himself to tolerate this situation and meekly complying with it…”.
It’s not just the online fans. It’s a sizeable number of the overall fanbase – the A.K.B.’s ( A.rsene K.nows B.est ) deluded supporters that have an almost unnatural sentimental obsession for him for what he did TWELVE WHOLE YEARS AGO. They have built up a cult like aura around him. It’s a bizarre situation that is a unique phenomenon peculiar to our club.
We were all Wenger fans once, including me. We all admire and respect him for the earlier league titles he gave us, including of course the fantastic unbeaten 49 game unbeaten run of the “Invincibles”. But that was a very long time ago. We can’t let him live off his past glories forever and allow him a job for life, which is virtually what the A.K.B.’s are content with. Some of us have since seen the necessity to move on. The A.K.B.’s won’t. It’s their rigid, misguided loyalty to a manager who has clearly lost what he once had, that is in LARGE PART, keeping him in his job – to the detriment of the club’s progress.
The club is more important than the manager. ANY manager, is it not ? Do you think we should keep giving him unlimited credit on his account when he’s already in overdraft mode ? Hasn’t he had more time to get it right than any other manager at any other major club would have been granted ?
Ivan Gazidis, our C.E.O. was asked during an earlier crisis whether the board would ever sack him. His reply was that Wenger would leave ONLY IF THE FANS WANTED IT. The fact that he’s still here proves what I’ve been saying – that not enough DO want it ( yet ). Herein lies the problem.
” In Arsene we rust.”