They say only a fool does the same thing over and over again in exactly the same way but expects different results. For eight years now, Arsene Wenger has been selling off the club’s best players and promising the earth, the moon and the stars but not delivering anything. It doesn’t take a genius to tell what the effect of selling players like Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Alexander Song and Gael Clichy would have on any club, unless they were replaced with equally talented footballers. This silliness didn’t start yesterday. By the time Arsenal were letting a young Ashley Cole go and replacing him with an ageing William Gallas and then got rid of the invincibles one by one without bringing in avid cover, the club was bound to sink. Sink it has. What is most frustrating is that season after season Arsene Wenger did exactly the same thing but still expected the club to do well. I never thought it could get worse than Fabregas leaving until RVP was sold to the club’s biggest rivals. You would think Wenger would learn from the fact that Arsenal never quite recovered from Fabregas’ exit but then RVP was allowed to leave too. Today I am a sick and tired Gunner. The loss to Aston Villa last Saturday was the biggest wakeup call ever but it seems only the fans woke up while the manager and the board continue to slumber. The fans are angry. The Arsenal Supporters Trust is breathing fire while the Black Scarf Movement has written a strongly worded letter to Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis demanding that they stop focusing only on profits and begin to build a strong team worthy of their support. The movement goes on to complain about the management is not living up to promises made at the start of the transfer window. That is what every Arsenal fan has been waiting to hear and yet once again the season started with no real sign that the club would spend. Yes there was the Luis Suarez chase but I don’t think Suarez was worth more than £40 million. We got so tired of hearing the Gonzalo Higuain story as it set new records on how long a medical should take, only to find out that he never quite got that far. So far just one free transfer has joined the club. Everything else has just shown that Wenger has “mad skillz” when it comes to identifying great talent but is bogus at actually making a signing. A lot of “dead wood” left the club during the summer break but now Arsenal is left without even a convincing starting XI. Along with injuries to the likes of Tomas Vermaelen and Kieren Gibbs, not to mention Lauren Koscielny’s red card, the Gunners barely have a back line. On Saturday Wenger was forced to sub the injured Gibb’s with a right back. How desperate can things get? Santi Cazorla had barely gotten off a long-haul flight but had to be brought on as a sub in the hope that he could turn things around. The team is looking very frustrated and I have a feeling that, if Suarez was still likely to leave, I don’t think he would be in such a hurry to join Arsenal after last weekend’s fiasco. Wenger apologised for the joke of a game but how many times has he apologised over the last nine years? I’m sick of hearing his apologies. Given the squad he had before the weekend, did he honestly think that Arsenal stood a chance against Aston Villa? Does he now think the Gunners will sail past Fenerbahce in the Champions league qualifier this week. That would be a miracle. It just irks me when Wenger does the same thing over and over again but expects miracles. The Gunners barely finished fourth last season and that should have been a wake- up call to the Arsenal manager and the board. So it is frustrating to find the club exactly where it was this time last year and actually in a worse situation. This time last year at least Lucas Podolski and Olivier Giroud had been purchased but, lo and behold, the worst was yet to come, the departure of RVP. Is it that the fans are seeing things that the club itself can’t? Are we the fans being too demanding without being reasonable? As the Black Scarf Movement puts it, fans have been charged the highest tickets prices in the league since moving to Emirates and they withstood that sacrifice believing that things would get better and eventually the board would spend the high profits that they have been making since moving to the stadium. But alas! I could go on and on about this but I’m sure my doctor would recommend a break from all this complaining. Right now I am one really tired and fed-up Gooner! If you’re a Gunner, feel free to add your own frustrations here. If you aren’t, then it isn’t fair to beat a man or woman, when they’re down, unless you really can’t resist it.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 13:36:10 +0000
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