By now Arsenal should really have been in the prestigious list of clubs to have won the champions league and should be among the contenders every year and not perennial pretenders. After our 2003/2004 unbeaten season and run, Ronaldo De Lima was among the many players who wanted to play for the Gunners. Professor Wenger had the chance of pairing Ronaldo and Henry, and launching the most fearsome and deadly attack in football history, but he didn’t.
In the past, so we hear, he has missed the opportunity of bringing in many WORLD-CLASS-PLAYERS to boost his team. He missed out on a certain Ronaldinho, Huntelaar, Raul Gonzalez, Kaka, Sniedjer, Gareth Barry, Benzema, Ribery, etc. Wenger had the chance to get these players but didn’t take it, he preferred youth development when other teams fortified theirs by spending on big names.
The 2004/2005 season saw the entry of the special one Mourinho. Both Wenger and Ferguson neglected the Chelsea threat and we all know what happened subsequently. Now you see that SAF quickly adjusted his team to wrestle the premiership back from Chelsea’s grip after 2 successive wins, as he had always done in his days with Wenger.
Meanwhile Wenger was busy selling his best players and focusing more on youth development instead of buying established players, particularly matured ones. Over the past 8 years, money wasn’t the reason why we failed to win trophies neither was it our move to the Emirates. Let us stop giving those excuses, because it was:
1. wenger’s inability to hold on to his key players every season apart from this year. Recall, RvP, Fabregas, Hleb, Nasri, Clichy, Cole, Henry, Pires, Reyes, Vieira, etc. And that is why we struggled for 4th position every year.
2. neglect of English players who are strong, not injury prone and are used to the pace and rigour of the premier league.
3. Wenger is very indecisive in the transfer market and often leads to wrong purchases, like Gervinho.
4. Wenger’s preference for buying teenagers and trying to prove a point that he can win with them. Recall the Carling cup final between Arsenal and Mourinho’s Chelsea. He chose to field a youth team when it was obvious it was our only chance of winning a trophy that season.
5. Over reliance on French imports who find it difficult to adapt and adjust to the premier league at the expense of English players.
6. Wenger’s tactical approach and decision making in important games have cost us trophies and there is no sign that he has got it right. Recall pulling off Fabregas in the final against Barcelona.
7. He doesn’t bring out the best in some of his players and fails to utilize the players he has effectively. recall Andre Arshavin.
8. Wenger is not a ruthless coach that can end the resistance put up by his competitors, like Mourinho, SAF, Pep G, etc. He is too soft and this has greatly rubbed off on his team. It is always easy to have the feeling that Arsenal will disappoint you and crack when it matters most and this has been the story of Arsenal all these years. For instance we may knock out Bayern Munich in the next round, only to get to the final and lose to a Galatasaray. Quite appalling.
Let me not continue, but we have a great chance this season to do a treble. Wenger should not waste further time to acquire either Lewandowski, Martinez or Costa and pair either of them with Podolski /Walcott in a 4-4-2 formation. Remember Henry/Bergkamp. Our midfield should comprise of Rosicky, Ozil/Cazorla, Ramsey and Arteta/Flamini. Our defense is good this season and can go all the way. With this surely, we will win the premiership this season. 4-3-3 slows our attack down a lot and we score only a few goals per match. We are also too predictable with it.
Some seasons back we lost the premiership because of wenger’s reluctance to buy an additional striker to help Adebayor after we lost Eduardo to injury and Robin van Persie was also unavailable. That season Man United had a strike force of Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, very similar to what Man City have now. We lost because we could not score goals and win matches comfortably. WE DREW MATCHES WE COULD HAVE WON AND IT COST US THE TITLE. Please let it not happen this time again Wenger.
We need a trophy and not just to be playing eye catching football. Once we win one, it attracts more. Recall the way Chelsea started. Man city took a cue from them. Let Wenger and Arsenal stop playing second fiddle in England and Europe. Arsenal is a big club with history and should not be used as a youth development centre and feeder team for other clubs as the case in the past.
