JJ: We need more Gooners in the Arsenal team (Read these details Wenger!)
The emotional rollercoaster of the last couple of seasons have been almost too much to bear for most Arsenal supporters. Can you still remember the joy of Adebayor’s goal 6 minutes from time against Liverpool in the Champions league 2008 after an outstanding break by Walcott? Can you remember the deep disappointment when Gerrard and Babel scored in the next 6 minutes to dump us out?
That was 2008 but not much has changed. This year in particular our mental strength was atrocious. The games against Newcastle, Liverpool and Spuds (twice) are evidence of our squad’s lack of confidence and/or character (depending on your opinion).
In my opinion next season will define Arsenal for the seasons and years to come. 2011-2012 will be our watershed year. Will we go the way of Leeds (maybe a bit too drastic) or will finally see this “golden” generation of Arsenal players come of age. I will leave that for you to decide but here are some of my ideas to help you make your decision.
Type of players
There are too few Gooners in the current Arsenal squad! Ask yourself, how many players of the current crop are true Arsenal supporters? How many of our key players love this club like me and you? The Invincibles were different! They had real Arsenal lovers in key positions! The team had guys that would feel the pain and heartache like we do when Arsenal lost.
The great Thierry Henry loves Arsenal and even though he left for Barca, he said in a recent interview that Arsenal always has been the only club he would support. Dennis Bergkamp retired from football at Arsenal even though he could have probably played a couple of seasons elsewhere for extra cash but this player decided to honour Arsenal by ending his marvellous career with us. Viera? If you ever had the privilege to see this guy play in an Arsenal shirt then you would know the true meaning of passion and honour! He was a captain of captains! Even though the Invincible era was at the end of his career Ray Parlour should be mentioned here. Romford Pelé played for 12 years in 339 games. Enough said.
Now let us look at current key players. Van Persie is a true Arsenal supporter and I could have easily included him in the list above because he has the type of character that we want from an Arsenal player. The same can be said of Wilshere because he loves this club just like me and you.
How about Fabregas? He is a great player, one of the best playmakers of his generation but unfortunately he is not a Gooner at heart. He cares for this club but he loves Barca and I believe having him as a captain has a negative influence on the club. I wish we could find a solution for this dilemma but unfortunately we are just going to have to accept the fact that he is Catalan and wants to move. Let us just say thank you and good bye, no hard feelings.
Nasri on the other hand have gone from hero to zero! The maestro has disappointed me hugely with his outlet to the media about his contract. That being said we make a profit every year and we are not using it to buy players so at least make sure you pay people so that they would want to stay, but do we want a player to stay who is all about the money? Is 90000 pounds a week not enough to feed a family?
Tactics
I believe this season in particular showed very big problems with the way we play football at certain times. The tactics that were employed in certain areas were very poor. Firstly our wing-play. Players like Sagna, Walcott, Nasri and Arshavin run themselves into the ground (maybe not Arshavin…) trying to put in crosses into the box, but our main striker Robin van Persie is not a prolific scorer with his head in fact he only scored 5.6 % of all his goals last season from his head and bearing the other wings I mentioned height in mind they also does not have an advantage in this department. This compared to Berbatov’s 19% and Bent’s 23%.
An even bigger shock this season was that Bendtner was deployed mostly as a wing! He has no pace at all to beat the wing backs. The only place I could see that we could have used the self-proclaimed best striker in the world is right in front goal where his height might have given us the advantage we lack under normal circumstances.
Secondly, we don’t have a genuine holding midfielder (big surprise hey?). Song is generally employed in this position but this season he seemed to be more attack-minded and ventured forward much more than usual. I am not saying this is a bad thing because he did a great job (Man city and West Ham) but someone needs to fill that role when he goes forward. Too may times you can see him, Cesc and Wilshere all standing on the edge of the area passing the ball between each other. This leaves us exposed at the back leading us to concede too many free kicks, and we all know what happens when we have a freekick against us close to the box.
This brings me to defending from set pieces. We don’t have a defender with that killer instinct. The type of guy that other people try to avoid on and even off the field. A guy who’s ability and character makes him a threat. Add to that the lack of communication between defenders as well as goalie and you can clearly see why we concede sometimes silly goals.
Strikers
Van Persie is my favourite player in the current squad but unfortunately he is injury prone. However his goal scoring during the second half of the season was brilliant. If this guy can play like that for a whole season we will be in with a chance. We need a goal machine who takes every chance he gets and scores 30 goals in a campaign like Henry 03-04: 30 goals, 04-05: 25 goals and 05-06: 27 goals. In my opinion we also need a real poacher a guy that just hangs around the box and does the clean-up job.
Mental strength
If you want to run with the big dogs, you can’t pee like a puppy! In our last 6 games of the season we only scored 5 points! This is something that is embarrassing and humiliating. The only teams to score less points were West Ham, 1 (relegated), Birmingham, 1 (relegated) and Bolton, (which they took from us). This is unacceptable and there is no way of winning the league with figures like that. It has also been following a pattern:
Out of the last 8 games of end of each season this is how many points we scored in comparison in other ‘big’ teams:
If you look at the blue line (Arsenal), you shall see that in each of the last 5 seasons we scored less points that our rivals. This basically means that when push comes to shove we fold! The excuses we will hear will include the fact that our squad is young and that we are building towards a great experienced team. Ok so come let us look at the average age of our squad over the last 5 years:
If you look at the two graphs together you shall see that our most experienced team (2011) scored the least points and that our least experienced team (2009) scored the most points at the end of the season. This is the one side of the argument. Does age then really matter?
If we argue yes, then there are some other problems that we need to consider. Why do we keep selling players who have just reached their peak and replace them with younger players? For example we sell Fabregas (24) and replace him with Hazard age 20… Arsenal should guard against becoming a crèche club! A place where brilliant youngsters come to showcase their skills for other bigger clubs to buy them.
Future of Arsenal
Well only time will tell, but one thing we all agree on is that the Premier League is becoming more and more competitive. Man United will not rest until they can beat Barca (Maybe never) therefore they will invest in the best players to supplement their squad. If we want to believe it or not, money talks and therefore City will become even better next season and will definitely again compete for a champions league spot. Roman’s Chelsea will also be in the top four if he invests more in their ageing squad. Liverpool has decided to go on a spending spree and it seems that next season they will also compete for the top four. Add to that spuds and suddenly you have 6 teams vying for a champions league spot. If we lose our spot it will damage the clubs reputation because wages and trophies aren’t really our biggest selling point for new players.
I read about 10 Arsenal blogs every day since I got internet, way back and last season was the first time I saw fans really turn on Wenger. Yes he always had his critics but this season was different. In my opinion, if we don’t win anything next season it might be his last…
Lastly this article was just to give an overview of last season. It is still up to you guys to debate what will happen to our beloved arsenal in the coming years. Happy commenting!
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brilliant article. thumbs up!
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gazidis has stated (and not much else) that arsenal is about balance. Well for the last 6 seasons the squad and the success of that squad has been completely ignored. Theyve taken thier eye of the ball with contracts, sighnings, titles, and most importantly the fans and how we feel. I dont blame wenger for any of it and trust him if given whats needed to put it rite.
But its about time gazidis and co addressed that balance and start thinking about arsenal as a football club again and not some rich mans social club!
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some valid points raised here.. we are definitely a shadow of what the invincibles were, but by no means is Arsenal FC a slouch team. we had to finance the new stadium, which is why we were not putting up big money for players, but now that the stadium is financed, i expect to see some change for the better.
personally i would like to see us move back to some variation of a 4-4-2, as RVP would get injured less and probably be more productive if we had a workhorse up front with him. fabregas is as good as gone which i think is good news, i love cesc as a player but his heart lies with barca. nasri moves into his place, and our midfield wont suffer that much with wilshere ramsey arshavin song etc. defense is the main problem we look like a under-19 team sometimes its embarassing. note this: arsenal fc will be successful for many years to come.. GO GUNNERS!!
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Our young, still in progress, development, building stage u name it team is better than some of us portray it to be. It might be the age, it might be the fact that we depended to much on Fabregas, but the fact is our biggest problem is in the mind. As seen towards the end of every season our players are exhausted, probably mentally just as much physically. They need confidence, determination, advice, that will bring us results
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First I wanna say, brillant articule.
Secondly, Wengar should be sacked if we dnt get any good trophy next season..
Thirdly, Fabregas and Nasri should leave.. Those guys don’t play with there heart like our great Henry n Viera..
And Lastly, we need an attacking midfielder that knows how to pass the ball, a winger with pass and knows how to shot, a centre defender(Samba),and a top 9 striker(Falcao) that finishes wen he gets a hlaf chance..
I love Arsenal!!!!!!!!!!
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Top notch post – fair play on the research front. Brilliantly put, but there are no real surprises here are there? Surely the board/Wenger (not sure who really has the say) realize this too?
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Some interesting stuff, I agree we lack real gooners but I think the spine of the team is strong now TV is back and WS is looking confident in goal. With Jack and VP the spine shows quality and passion.
Looking at your table, I’m not sure Chelsea got 25 points from their last 8 games in 2009 unless they stole one of our points…
I might get slated for this but I think Bendtner is a useful player and Wenger definitely hasn’t done him any favours playing on the wing. Just shows playing strikers on the wing doesn’t always work. Lets hope it does with Theo when he moves into the centre..
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yeah really great stuff
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wonderful article.i tend to wonder if Arsen Wenger ever read such articles.He is complete letdown to us,Nasri even knows hence threaten him with a move to Old T.
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Great article! Even though I dont agree with most of what you’ve said. Our players dont have heart? You have mentioned Wilshere, I think he is a fantastic player with fantastic attitude BUT I think that many of the other players possess the same drive but are not mentioned in the press (as much) because they are not English.
For example, (you will hate me for this) Clichy, who was actually chasing balls instead of the ball boys to get the game moving when we went behind to Barca.
I think that Cesc is unfairly criticised just because of the transfer rumours. This season, though not his best he played with heart. Who wouldnt want to go to Barca (even Henry left to them!)
Other players with heart are: TV5, Djourou, Walcott, Sagna, Ramsey. See there are plenty!
PS. i THINK that the reasons that anti-Wenger posts are coming now is because fans are impatient and are playing the blame game as Arsene is the easiest to blame.
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Right on the spot – we have to invest and develop true gunners, and get rid of the others
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I agree with this article especially “sell players when they’re on their peak and replaced them with least experienced players”. Hleb’s departure was Wenger’s biggest mistake in my opinion. Hleb, Fabregas, Rosicky, and Flamini had started to “meet each other”, and Wenger messed up with selling Hleb, and then Flamini. And in Flamini’s selling, the strongest rumours at that time was he was sold after arguing Wenger’s tactics. Is arguing a wrong thing to do? No, for most of us. But Wenger had put himself in an “untouchable” position after The Invincibles. So no players can argue with him. He became a “sweet-boy lover” not to mention a dictator, who can’t be doubted. And I found out that this issue is the thing that has been causing the mentality destruction. Those young players believe in Wenger, but they are too afraid to believe in their own instinc. When their instinct tell them to do something which they actually believe that they can do it, “Stop it, Wenger say don’t do that”. This is horrible for young players’ development. They need to express themselves as a young individuals, no matter right or wrong, we can fix it as the development continues. But not to say “No” or “don’t” even before they do something.
GO GUNNERS!!
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i dont blame wenger but there are problems at this club, both on and off the pitch. The best solution is for everybody to galvanise! If the fans, the board, and especially the players all got 100% behind our gaffer i trust him completely to turn it around.
How can we expect wenger to succeed when hes being pulled in a hundred different directions by everybody associated with the club us included ?
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Great thought provoking article. I reckon this season Arsenal will defintely bring home at least two trophies because for the first time he seems adament in signing expireienced players which is something we’ve lacked.
One thing that excites me is that he’s also going for natural born wingers in Gerviniho, Downing, Willian & Hazard(possibly). This would be great news if these players come as finally we will have skilled dribblers to punish LB & RB.
The talk of signing Samba really excites me as he’s a beast and we need that in our defence.
If key signings are made then next year I strongly believe we’ll get the quad next season.
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I heard a great news about cesc …
He said he’s happy @ arsenal n the rumors r not true..
I hope you guys can drop sigh now…:))
If he stay @ arsenal, then i’ll sure that nasri will also stay..
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Dont blame Fäbregas. He is a true lover of Arsenal. He has been here for 8 long years but he got just 1 fa cup. During this period his former team snap up more than 15 trophies. Yet he decided to stay here. That is true love and gratitude towards Arsenal and Arsenè. I always believe in cesc. He will bring us a major trophy next year sure.. He is one of the gr8 midfielders that Arsenal had ever produced. A true gentleman..Not a nasri type greedy..
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well done article,hmmm a lot of research nd preparation has gone into dis nice.i specially liked d last 8 games analysis….:).u r spot on abt d striker ting,we need some1 like henry.his stats speak for themselves:Henry was the Premier League’s top scorer in 2001/02, 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06, voted the PFA Players’ Player of the Year twice, and the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year three times. He was named in the Team of the Year on six occasions(from the official epl website)…………
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For big rersults, we need big changes… Many new players, big amount of money…
And I want english players to that english club which is like a french club…..
I still think we need to change our formation, it’ s very offensive… classic 4-4-2… three lines of players and Van Persie behind a scorer who can score many goals with his head, like Drogba, Falcao, Lukaku…. Also, bring Vieira, not to play many games but to be our physical leader… Song is too offensive, like JJ says…. maybe Parker is what we need… Wide, we need, from one side a good dribbler, not very short, and from the other, a classic central midfielder who’ s a special passer…
Arsene, if you ‘re watching this website, I have to suggest you players….. Not to buy them all…
Goalkeepers: there’ s only one > Stekelenburg for only 10m
Defenders (centre halves): Samba, Cahill, Sakho, Dann, R Johnson
Midfielders: for the centre > Vieira, Parker, Cattermole, Hamsik
for the wide (good dribblers): Honda, Gervinho, Willian
strikers (scoring with head): Falcao, Cavani, Drogba
backup strikers: Gervinho, Bent, Djibril Cisse, Barrios, Papiss Cisse, Moussa Saw, Odemwingie
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Brilliant Article,one of the bests Ђåvε̲̣ read in about a week.Good job!@topgunner, I like the inclusion Ў☺ΰ made on clichy but I totally disagree for Djourou,I mean Ў☺ΰ could see Tнαt against Bolton,inspite of this thumbs up.
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what does everybody else think about djemba ba or victor obinia ? niether would cost allot and i was very impressed by both last season particualy ba !
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FLASH NEWS:some reports suggest barca r ponderin wether 2 sell DAVID VILLA and make funds available for fab transfer.a site even reports he may b a makeweight 4 fabregas deal.now dats sometin we all wont complain of.dont forget dat villa has mentioned ‘he wud hav liked joinin arsenal as it suits his style of play ‘…….;)
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Nice job! This is what I’ve been saying, we need Gunners to be Gooners!
For the graph, for 2009, it shows Chelsea as getting 25 points in 8 games. That’s one more point than possible.
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Short memory on Viera, every season he wanted to leave.
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very balanced article
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Brilliant! Absolutely spot on! Wilshere and RVP are the most loyal. I loved the commitment of Henry, Vieira, Overmars, Bergkamp, Wiltord, Kanu, Ljungberg, Tony Adams, Seaman, Pires, Parlour etc. Only the 2 in the current squad can match them. Fab is good but let him go where his heart is. Wenger has to win this time or else it’ll become even harder to even challenge for top 4. Why do i share everything you’ve said? Absolutely spot on! Brilliant!
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Thumbs up JJ!! This is the best article i’ve read this season. Well done! I hope Wenger and Gazidi takes time to read such articles.
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Great post, well written. If Fabregas wants to go, he should go and Wenger should understand. I think if any player wants to leave, they should, but if money is the only reason that’s for the board to deal with.
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Great article. True Gooners are Wilshere, Van Persie, Vermaelen and that Jenkinson fella we just signed, or whatever his name is. We have Ashley Young’s brother coming through the ranks, he’s a Gooner for the future. Ashley Young is a Gooner too so that could have been an interesting signing.
To get it in perspective and to keep it real, I have to remind you that Ashley Cole was a lifelong Arsenal Supporter.
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This article was truly brilliant and tackled the real issues of the club. Plus i agree that wenger really needs to start listening to the people that really love the team. in no way am i trying to argue that wenger doesnt love Arsenal, but lately he has most definitely got his priorities wrong.
i am a big fan of the way the club is run and believe we can set an example to the rest of football (even on a global scale) but wenger needs to wise up, and splash the cash. if not, i really fear for the arsenal we love so much!
COME ON THE GOONERS!
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This is a good article with a wonderful statistics, but i beg to disagree where u said dat if this season goes without a trophy Wenger will leave that is not true. Who will sack him? You? If the directors wanted to sack him it would have been two seasons or most obviously this summer with the terrible result we witnessed last season.
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Of all the positions that just dont appear to be on Wengers agenda DM (and GK) has to be it. I just dont recall any inkling so far that this is a position that concerns him. For me that can mean one of 2 things, a change in formation (442) or he plans using some of his existing staff in that role. ok we have Song and Diaby, but both like to get forward and Wenger has stated he is looking for defensive solidity. There is Frimpong and Coquelin, but both are untried Wenger has said he is looking to add experience to the team. Finally, he has said he is looking to add height to the team. Could this mean that he is looking to relocate some of his 6 existing centre halves to other positions so that he can add height in CH, RB, LB and DM? i mean a back 4 of Djourou, Samba, Cahill, Vermaelen with Bartley in the DM role, is considerably taller than Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy and Song in the DM role
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Agree with everything in the tactics. Song is a good tackler and dribbler but lacked at finisher and pace, yet he ventured forward too many times while lost in tracking back. The threats by our fullbacks were marginally wasteful with most of them ended with high crosses, got the clearances and utilized as counter-attacking steps by the opponents.
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90,000 is a lot for guys like us, for a top player with opportunities among the top 10 clubs in the world, it is just a below-average salary.
It is 2011, we need to raise our sallies to our competition level, and to this date. we would not sign many big players for 80,000 a week or 90,000. Phil jones, 19, probably 4th or 5th in the pecking order sign for 90,000 a week, so you expect nasri to do the same and you even get mad with the guy. cammon!!!
120,000 is simply reasonable for him and for our club. Time to compete financially as well. Anyhow we have the money so i would prefer to see in Nasri pockets than in the board’s pockets.
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well said….arsenal \m/ !!!!
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I have sent an article here as well recently and i hope it gets published, not to dwell upon it but the fact is this article has more or less the same essence as mine. Arsenal need players who are proud to play for us, than have players who think of it as a job for which they get paid for. I dont care who we buy or who we sell for me i dont need players who dont want to play for us. Barca is the best team in the world, it maybe a fact but you dont say that if you are an Arsenal captain cesc, you will say we beat the best team in the world so it makes us better right, it maybe tongue in cheek but it shows the attitude. Arsenal needs attitude, a spine and then success will follow,mere talent wont win it
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This is prolly d best post I have ever read on this site.. So brilliantly constructed.. Thumbs up jj.. Ų d man.
Ų really hit d nail on the head. That said there’s nothing much 2 add to d article. I jst hope, wish, n pray that AW gets it right this time out ( with d right players) who need nt necessarily be expensive but quality players. And definitely get rid of the dead wood in the squad with no sentiments involved.
I really hope he does.., cos like ų rightly said if he dsnt get it right this time, he wud def have 2 leave. I pray it doesn’t get to that stage cos I like him as a mgr.., even though he has his faults (which r freaking annoying smtimes! ) I would love him 2 reap the fruits of his labour.
Love Arsenal 4 lyfe!!
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I suggest Arsenal to buy the following players for them to be winning trophies:
Goalkeepers:Mark Schwarzer,Scott Carson,Shay Given,Paul Robinson, Stekelenberg e.t.c.
Defenders,midfielders and strikers like:Luke Young,Richard Dunne, Scott Parker,Stephen Ireland,Stephen Warnock,Scott Dunn,Chris Samba, Jason Roberts,Ricardo Fuller,Gareth Barry,Titus Bramble,Jonathan Walters,Gary Cahill,Leighton Baines,Brede Hangeland,Rodamel Falcao, Alex Chamberlain,Sergio Aguero,Ricardo Alvares,Emmanuel Riviere,Dede Ayew,Stephane Sessegnon,Andy Johnson,Hugo Rodallega,Eljero Elia,Jose Enrique,Kevin Doyle,Carlton Cole,Bobby Zamora,Andy Johnson,Nilmer,Wayne Routeledge,Alex Witsel,Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, e.t.c and sell people like Sagna,Clichy,Eboue,Almunia,Fabianski,Frimpong, Denilson,Diaby,Rosicky,e.t.c.
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Great article, written like a true red and white man. boy did you know i nearly had a heart attack during the carling cup final,my blood was pounding and i was slipping slowly. We need to change and really inject real gunners into the team, scoring a goal and kissing the badge is not enough to make you a gunner.Take a look see at the Liverpool captain,now that is a real Liverpudian, his heart mind body and soul is fixed on his home town club, we need players that wants to play for you and me,not players that want to play a season,make a name and start giving us headache over money,manc is there for such ventures. Once again great article from a true red and white man
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brilliant article,
Secondly, Wengar should be sacked,not after next season but before d start of d season,before he do more damage..
Thirdly, Fabregas should leave,he doesn’t play with his heart like our great Henry n Viera and even like Wilshere,
who will sone be great because he loves this club.
lastly,For big rersults, we need big changes,new players,big amount of money..,thank God 4 d new on Gervinho,if is true.
GUNNER’S 4 LIFE
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Interesting article. Agree with some of the other comments; Wenger needs to go NOW! He’s been a genius for many years, but the last 3 have been embarrassing for him and the team.
He seems to be a prisoner of his own mantra of “youth above all” – this team will never grow up and suddenly be better! It is simply not possible for these player to become that much better.
The only team in recent memory that brought through young talent in one go and won something – ManUre – did it THAT season. Why? Because it was Beckham, Scholes, Giggs et al that came through and they were all good enough to play prem league football. Our youngsters are not as proved over the last 5 years.
What do we need now? Great players with the right attitude who can contribute this season. Who is the player who could have made us competitive? Scott Parker, I mean look at his performances (nearly won the PFA Players) in a poor, relagation bound team. And who’re going to get him? Bloody Tottenham. Ridiculous. Instead we will get another young French or African “next big thing” who will come in and disappear when the going gets tough. Again.
Wenger needs to recognise that. Or he needs to go. Now.
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best article ever!Thumbs up.
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