Le Professeur: Enough is Enough

By Faraaz Naqvi | 30th July 2009

Le Professeur: Enough is Enough | read this item

Related News

arsene-wenger2 Okay, I have backed Mr. Wenger for years: since he first became the manager for Arsenal, when the Evening Standard greeted him with the headline “Arsene Who?” to when Arsene signed unknown young players like Fabregas, Petit, Toure, and even the last couple years (not giving Pires the two years he wanted, letting go of Henry, and not signing more midfielders when we needed it). But, enough is enough.

We can all agree that Arsene Wenger is a fantastic manager, one of the greatest to ever grace the Arsenal grounds. Not to mention, the Frenchman is one of the greatest managers in Premier League history. He is one of the main reasons that we have seen such fantastic football in the Premiership. When Arsenal won a match, it was won with style and finesse, something that all fans, even the losing opposition, admired. Now though, what has happened?

It seems that Arsene is still living in the past. He seems to think that we can still play that football. The only problem? Arsenal don’t have a solid defence to keep counter attacking. The reason why Arsenal won the double in 1998 was not because of the attacking players brought in.

Yes, they played a big part, but Wenger’s smartest decision was to keep our solid back four: Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, and captain Tony Adams. On top of that, the Gunners had one of the best goalies, David Seaman. These were the players that prevented the ball going in the back of the net while letting Overmars, Vieira, Petit, Parlour, Bergkamp, and Ian Wright play freely, not worrying about the defence.

As always, Wenger decides never to fully replace what we have lost. Wenger’s first folly was not replacing the midfielders we lost. Apparently, we had too many midfielders according to Arsene, so we let Flamini, Diarra, and Gilberto go.

Flamini, who was the perfect mold of fitting Ray Parlour’s shoes, just wanted higher wages to supplement his tireless effort he puts in while on the pitch. Parlour wanted the same, but we decided to just let him go instead. Gilberto was a victim of the two-year contract disease. As he was over 30, he was only allowed to have a one-year contract, but wanted two years, so he left.

So, what has he done to replace these players? Nothing. We are playing Nasri, Rosicky, Arshavin, and Walcott on the wings. The only player who is fitting Gilberto and Flamini’s shoes is young Denilson. He is a good player, but we need experience in this role. Fabregas has been calling for a more defensive partner so he doesn’t need to worry so much about running up and down the pitch. This is what destroyed Arsenal’s season last year: no holding midfielder.

Yet again, the same mistake is about to be made. As of writing, Toure is now a Manchester City player, and Eboue is about to sign for Fiorentina on a five year deal. What is Wenger’s reasoning? “We have too many central defenders.” Please tell me you’re not counting the youth and reserve squads, too. With Toure out of the picture, we have Senderos, Silvestre, Gallas, and Vermaelen.

First of all, Silvestre is not good enough. Senderos now has a bit more experience from his loan, but he’s still largely unproven. Gallas is a different story. Since he was stripped from his captaincy he has been playing better, a bit more humble, and his inflated ego has finally been deflated. As for Vermaelen, like most Arsenal fans, I really have no idea how he is going to play. He does have experience with the UEFA Cup and the Champions League as he was the captain of Ajax, but it’ll take time to settle in to the squad. Where are the other three defenders, Mr. Wenger?

With at least £50 million brought in through transfers, Wenger has enough money to buy two or three quality players: a defensive midfielder, a center back, and a striker. We sold two of our players to Manchester City, who have now become our biggest rival competing for fourth place.

Hopefully Wenger is just saving it for the last minute, or are we going to use more reserve players and use faith to win trophies. Keep in mind, that hasn’t happened for the past four years. Maybe it’s time for Vela to shine, or for Vermaelen to be a carbon copy of Puyol.

Let’s just say that I won’t be chanting “in Arsene we trust” as much as I did last season. This season has to amount to some success.

Is Faraaz right or has he fell off his rocker? Have your say below!

travis says:

August 10, 2009 at 11:47 am

You’ve also forgotten Djourou and Song, who can both play center back. I feel like Djourou is ready to break out, and Song is only getting better. While its obviously not as solid as it should be, finding Fabregas a partner is much more pressing concern than the defense. And who knows, maybe Ramsey will step up, maybe Denilson(got a lot of exp. last season), and maybe Diaby.

Reply to this Comment
Faraaz says:

August 1, 2009 at 6:18 pm

Yes, RIP Sir Bobby Robson

Reply to this Comment
Rachid says:

July 31, 2009 at 7:04 am

I agree completely with everything you’ve said here. I’ve never once believed we’re lacking funds like Wenger would like us to believe. I think there’s many reasons behind him leading us to believe this. I think he’s afraid of the pressure placed on him should he strengthen the squad and fail to deliver anyway.

They claimed we had no money last season, yet we found 15m to buy Arshavin without selling any players. We bought Vermaelen for 10m and bidded close to Melo’s buy out clause of 21m. So if this is the case, where did we get that money from? Why did we have to sell Toure?

Another thing people need to remember is Wenger’s misuse of his players. Rosicky isn’t a natural winger. He came here with the intension of playing alongside Pires but Pires when he came and he was asked to play the left midfield role and he said he would because he’s never been one to say no to his manager’s orders. Nasri was a central midfielder at Marseille and he was also asked to play on the left wing by Wenger last season and in my opinion he didn’t look as effective as he did at Marseille because he was being played in relatively unfamiliar position. My point here is that Even if Wenger signs the proper players, he’d still find a way to muck things up by playing them in incorrect roles and it’s time Wenger’s position as manager of the club be questioned by the board. This is because he sees the club as his little science experiment now.

He even said in the Question and Answer forum a couple months ago that a successful team doesn’t necessarily have to win trophies to be successful but it’s a self sustaining unit that runs on its own profits. What this says to me is that Wenger doesn’t see himself primarily as a football manager but as the person responsible for the financial stability of the club. If this was so, then why did we hire Ivan Gazidis. It just says to me Wenger has lost touch with the fans and has forgotten what matters most to us.

/rant

On another note RIP Sir Bobby Robson.

Reply to this Comment