English Premier League, General Football
- May 15, 2009
No Risk No Reward? As a Fan, will you Accept a Man Utd Win this Saturday to Convince Wenger to Splash the Cash?
I really hope Arsene Wenger doesn’t read this, cause once he reads it the main point behind the article is gone.
I always like to sum up my article in my title; just by reading the title you should know what I’m going to write about and hopefully this helps.
“No Risk No Reward? As a Fan, will you Accept a Man Utd Win this Saturday to Convince Wenger to Splash the Cash?”
That is the topic I’m going to talk about today and some of you passionate Gooners should be wondering, “WTF!? Who the hell would want Arsenal to lose to one of their biggest, if not THE biggest, rival?”
Well I’m not going to spoil the whole article by telling you my stand. I’ll let you read the significance behind this Saturday’s match between Man Utd and Arsenal first.
The Hype
They hype behind this match is rather huge for Man Utd fans. Why? Because it’s a match against Arsenal of course! And all they need is 1 point to seal the EPL title. What better way to win the title then beating your fiercest rival to it? It’s somehow equilavent to killing 2 birds with 1 stone: beat yor rivals and win the title. But then if you miss no birds get killed so Man Utd would try hard to prevent that.
The Battlefield
The Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford (Trust me, it hurts for me to write that :P) will be the battleground for this confrontation and again this adds up to the anticipation to the match. It would be a great moment if you could hold the trophy up high so all your fans can see what the team has fought hard to achieve. So excuse me for my previous statement, but I believe it’s now equivalent to killing 3 birds with 1 stone. And by the way up till now I still don’t quite know which is better: Winning the title at your rival’s ground or in front of your own fans at home. So those of you who have thoughts on this, do tell me.
Also, this kinda reminds me of the 2003/04 season, when we won the title at White Hart Lane. Ahhh the memories… I miss the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira and co. Just when the hell are we ever going to hold up the title again!? I really hope Wenger understands our situation.
A More Arsenal-Related View
After writing so much, I’ve yet to touch on my main point for today. As a fan, do you pray and hope that Man Utd win this Saturday so that it will convince Arsene Wenger that this current Arsenal squad isn’t good enough and if something isn’t done, we’ll continuously get thrashed by our rivals? Less than 2 weeks ago, we got beaten 3-1 by Man Utd, and just last Sunday we again suffered defeat at the hands of Chelsea, losing 4-1. 2 rival thrashing in less than 2 weeks. It’s really difficult for any fan to watch the match against United and Chelsea over again, and this Saturday’s match could just be the icing on the cake, the finishing, killer touch. This Saturday could just be the end to our misery. Yes, I’m not messing up my English here. This Saturday could really be a blessing in disguise as losing to Man Utd might finally convince Arsene Wenger to splash the cash on necessary players, rather than go for average signings like Silvestre and Bischoff. Hence, that’s why I said this Saturday could actually put all these atrocities to an end.
Arsene Wenger, the Man Behind Everything
We all know how thrifty Arsene Wenger is when it comes to the transfer market. Admit it, Arsene Wenger is one stubborn arse. 2 seasons ago, many Arsenal fans believe Arsene Wenger shouldn’t sell club legend Thierry Henry. BUT he did not listen and he sold him. That, however, has yield positive results (to some extent). Last season we showed that even without Henry, we can still achieve as a team, but ironically, this season we’re in need of a new striker (I’ll touch on that some other time). The best evidence so far was last season. Almost every Arsenal fans told Arsene Wenger “Sign a defensive midfielder, FFS!” but he followed to his beliefs and gave the first-team spot to Denilson. The result? We’re being outmuscled by other teams and we’re losing on the “physical” side of football, which has cost us dearly on some occasions. Don’t get me wrong, Denilson isn’t such a bad player some of you imagine him to be. It’s just that he’s not a holding midfielder and that has had implications on the way Fabregas is playing this season.
However, sometimes spending the money does work. Andrei Arshavin is the best example. He cost Arsenal an estimated 16 million euros but he has been really impressive so far; scoring 4 goals against Liverpool and winning the “EPL Player of the Month” for April. This shows that, money can bring you far if spent correctly.
For those who aren't convinced...
Sadly, I have to say, Arsene Wenger will not change his transfer policy no matter what. Maybe a Man Utd win would change it temporarily, forcing him to sign more players during the summer. But over the long run you’ll still realise those expensive signings only come here and there and that youngsters and cheap signings are still his priority. It’s his character, it’s his personality and his way of life, so I doubt anything can change that as he’s had this policy since his early Monaco days.
The expression hasn't change, and neither will his transfers.
Finally, My Stand on the Discussion
If you’ve read my article carefully, you’ll realise most of my points Arsene-negative (or, Arsenegative lol), and that I’m most towards the hope of a Man Utd win. Well I won’t take sides, I’m just going to tell you these few lines:
As a Gooner, I hope Arsenal would win Man Utd. In fact I will never want Arsenal to lose any matches.
BUT, deep in my heart, I really think that Man Utd should win this, which will hopefully convince Arsene Wenger to accept the fact that signing average players will never win us trophies. We’ve waited for 4 long years and most of us are sick of waiting.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if Arsenal beat our fierce rival, Man Utd. But I hope Arsene Wenger understands that even if we were to thrash Man Utd 4-0, our current bunch of players are not good enough for silverware and we need better players. Splash the cash if necessary, but also remember to spend wisely. Spend smart.
Phew. Perhaps my longest post yet. Tell me whether you will hope for a Man Utd win this Saturday so Arsene Wenger will finally change a little of his policy, or you really believe he will never change and that it’s sinful for any Gooner to hope for a rival win. Remember, everybody has his or her own opinions so don’t flame each other please. Tell me by adding your thoughts in the comment box.
One last thing, I’m still collecting comments to send to Arsenal.com with the aim of encouraging Kieran Gibbs to continue working hard after his mistake in the CL Semi-final. So far we’ve only gotten 19 comments, and I believe the number of comments alone might upset Gibbs. But I’ll definitely state that we’re a small site so of course we won’t be getting thousands of kind words. However I’m sure we can do better, do for those who haven’t done it, do send your regards to Gibbs and hopefully motivate him to work harder than before and become a youngster for the future. The thread can be found here.
If you like my articles, don’t forget to bookmark and subscribe to our site. And if you want more of such discussions, join our forums (just click on the banner below). We assure you will have a great time there. Thanks for reading :)
Dariano
5 Responses to “No Risk No Reward? As a Fan, will you Accept a Man Utd Win this Saturday to Convince Wenger to Splash the Cash?”
I hope you are as generous as this when your wife goes to the supermarket and I expect you buy your kids clothes far too big for them so they grow really fast and have no concept of development. Be patient, it’s so boring to watch money buy success. The constitution of the premiership stinks! Arsene is a genius.
By Widdas on May 15, 2009
Ya i do agree that arsenal sometimes do really need a thrashing to wake them up. After getting thrashed by Man utd and Chelsea over the past 2 weeks, has arsenal finally woken up? I do not know. Maybe tomorrow we will know.
I believe that arsene really need to spent some serious cash this summer be it we beat utd or utd beats us tomorrow. It does not really matter. The fact is that we have been losing to both the big guns like man utd and chelsea as well as the average teams like man utd, fulham and even hull city and stoke city. This is totally absurb. Losing to the big guns is devastating, but acceptable. However losing to teams which we are supposed to beat comfortably is terrible. Imagine losing to Hull city 2-1 and Man city 3-0. Furthermore, we drew games which we should have won, for example the 4-4 with spurs and 2-2 with Villa.
This season we might have been champions league semi finalist and FA cup semi finalist. But lets not kid ourselves. Who were our opponents. In the FA cup, we were always drawn against smaller teams and championship teams like cardiff and burnley. Furthermore we had the comfort of being the home team. It was only in the Semi final then did we drew a good team, and we lost it. In the champions league, who were our opponents? We nicked in past Roma only in a penalty shoot out, and we were lucky because baptista did not convert the open goal. Against Villareal we did win, but Villareal to me is just an average team like Aston Villa and Spurs. Against Man utd over the 2 legs, arsenal totally disappeared. Man utd won convincingly.
Last season we were great because we had flamini, a player with energy to go from box to box. He complimented cesc well. He did not mind getting the tackles in and doing all the dirty work for the team. His concentration and reading as well as positioning was superb. Every fan loves flamini. But the club was slow to realise his worth and let his contract ran out. Flamini did a kiss-my-ass and flew off to milan. In Hleb, we have another player that was able to control the pass of the game. He was also able to pick out the runs of players with his incisive passing. Hleb formed a formidable partnership with sagna on the right. His loss to arsenal was devastating, however when barcelona came calling, how many can resist – not even thierry henry. But Hleb is sure having a hell of a time at Barcelona warming the bench. Nice one dude!! In gilberto, we lost someone whom was not only our invisible wall. He was a leader as well. I think it kind of affected his confidence when arsene named gallas as captain instead of him. That blow might have been too hard for him to take and thus he chose to end his relationship with arsenal. Arsene made a BIG mistake in not naming Gilberto as our captain. If he did, we might have already won the EPL title last season.
Losing 3 players of great importance and not replacing them, is only something arsene wenger would do. He did buy nasri, but nasri was still young and one cannot expect him to replace Hleb immediately. Though Nasri did play well during the first half of the season, he seems to be underperforming during this second half of the season. Furthermore, i do not understand what is the problem with Wenger trying to convert Nasri into a defensive holding midfielder. He is trying to convert Nasri into someone like Andrea Pirlo. This is not going to work. During the Anelka’s goal against arsenal last week, Nasri did not pick up his run. Anelka did not even had much pressure on him before making that shot. Nasri should just concentrate on making the left flank his very own, now that rosicky is coming back to give him some competition. Do not forget abour traore and arshavin, both players that can play in that position too.
Signing players like Bischoff and Silvestre were bad business too. Did we see bischoff play much and the answer is no. Silvestre is over his prime days. His presence in the team caused our defence to be very shaky. His 22 starts coupled with 34 goals scored against us, tell us much about his defensive capabilities. I rather wenger kept senderos last season and not buy silvestre. Silvestre is injury prone and lousy. Whereas senderos did for once help us kept a record number of clean sheets in the Champions league campaign, which we went to the finals. Senderos would have been a great defender if he stayed at arsenal this season. But nope he chose to go to milan and spoke words that he should not have spoken. Arsene seems willing to sell him this season.
Playing Song, Denilson and Diaby as a defensive midfielder and also as a partner for cesc is not going to work. They do not compliment cesc that well as flamini does. Yes, denilson can be a good player, but only against smaller teams. His inconsistency in his game cost him dearly too. He can be accused of ball watching too much, and also sometimes his passes are terrible. Furthermore, denilson is too small in size. I would not take him to win battles against mikel, essien, lampard and gerrard. Song only came alive during the last 10 games of the season. But can he repeat the same performance next season? This I would not know. Is he a proven defensive midfielder? I would not say yes. He did play against chelsea and man utd, and we lost them too. So I reckon that though Song might be our best answer to being a defensive midfielder, he is simply just not good enough at the moment. Remember when flamini was his age, Flamini did not get much games too. Flamini watched from players like vieira and gilberto to learn. Hopefully Wenger would buy a world class defensive midfielder (probably around the age of 26-27) to compliment cesc. Denilson and Song could then take their time to learn from the player and take over in the future as our anchor man in the middle of the park. We terribly need to have a defensive midfielder now.
As for diaby being a defensive midfielder, the answer is a straight NO! He may be dubbed as the next vieira, but in my opinion, it is an insult to the legend Vieira. Diaby is no way near Vieira. Diaby, loses his concentration way too easily. He is another one that has a poor attitude towards to the game (apart from Adebayor). Diaby, always underhits or overhits his passes. Futhermore he fails to spot the runs of his team mates and tends to dribble with the ball way too much. Arsenal is a passing team. unless you have the speed of Walcott or the skills of nasri and arshavin, you do not dribble. Diaby has neither and he dribbles a tag too much for my liking. Even when he is surrounded, instead of passing the pass to safety, he tries to dribble his way out of it, and more often than not, he fails in doing so. To me Diaby is a total failure and should be sold of the season. Wenger has kept faith in him for so long, and gave him more chances than any one else. It is time Wenger realises that diaby would never fulfil the huge potential that everyone that thought he possesses. Time to let him go.
In attack, we have more attackers that any other teams. But is our attacker the best in the league? In eduardo, we have a very good striker but this season, he did not have any impact and is often injured. Hopefully he had a good rest over the summer and kick start our next season. I believe with a fully fit eduardo, we would definitely have a very good striker at our disposal. In Rvp, we have another striker that is good. Whenever our midfield is playing well, RvP plays well. RvP needs support and thus he is not suitable for the lone striker position. RvP to me is more of a link up player, and is more accustomed to playing behind a striker in the second striker position (something arshavin does too). Therefore my strikeforce for the next season would definitely be Eduardo-RvP or Eduardo-Arshavin or maybe even RvP-Arshavin.
Vela is still young and time is on his side. I reckon that Wenger would give him another season to just sit on the bench and watch. However next season, Vela would definitely have more games than this season.
Bendtner on the other hand, though he cant shoots, but he did score some vital goals. His ball control has improved greatly and his passes are more accurate with the ideal weight and time (as compared to his previous season). Bendtner is good in the air and can deal with the tougher defenders like terry, ferdinand and vidic. Furthermore, Bendtner likes to play in his team mates and can create goals as well. Given also his confidence level, I believe this kid would improve greatly the next season. He owe the fans something and would like to show the fans what a player he can be. And this kid is only 21-22 years old. Give him a couple more years and he would be a world beater and definitely better than adebayor. If wenger chooses to play in a 4-5-1 formation, Bendtner can come in and be the main striker.
Adebayor on the other hand, after a season of great performance and great increase in his wages, dropped his standard so much that he becomes just an ordinary striker. He is simply disgusting. I wonder why wenger defends him so much. He is simply not good enough. If anyone watched the Man utd match (Champions league), they would definitely spot the poor commitment adebayor had in the games. Further more his comments about his love for money would definitely infuriate some fans of the game. He is a pussy and he is gone for good. I believe he is currently eyeing for a move to milan and chelsea so that he can earn more money. Please wenger, take the money and sell him as soon as possible.
Therefore, when it comes to the stiker department, it is fine with me if wenger chooses not to buy anyone else. But he must stop defending adebayor and let him leaves for his ego is bigger than anything else in the world. We have players like RvP, Eduardo, Arshavin, Bendtner, Walcott, Vela and Simpsons that can play as striker next season. However, if wenger wants a striker, he might as well sign Pogrebnyak from Zenit whom is free. This guy plays like rooney, full of energy and is a pal of arshavin. Giving arshavin a pal, would definitely make him feel more a home and thus stops him from having thoughts about leaving.
Our defence is doing good. But I believe Gallas and Toure should both stay behind. We missed gallas dearly. Toure and Gallas partnership can still work. However, i believe we still need to get rid of silvestre and senderos and get 1-2 more experience players that are tall and strong. These incoming players should be able to deal with aerial balls as well as the speed and physical threats posses by torres and drogba. This is very important is defining our next season. Wenger has already mentioned that it is our defensive side that needs much work and I really do hope he buys some experience defenders. Djourou can thus learn more from these old heads. So do Gavin hoyte, and Havard Nordveit. Gibbs and Traore can be the deputy for clichy. I reckon that Traore would be given a season to prove himself at arsenal (be it LB or LM in the carling cup), whereas Gibbs’ future is safe at arsenal. Eboue, can be a backup for Sagna and also to Walcott. In my opinion, Sagna played too many games for arsenal this season. With Eboue helping him, that would be great.
Therefore, Arsene Wenger should just sell away, Silvestre, Senderos, Adebayor and Diaby. Also prevent the exit of other players like Cesc, RvP and Arshavin, Bendtner, Vela. Get 1-2 defenders and 1-2 Defensive midfielder. Strikers, if possible get Pogrebnyak. We really need THESE players now.
However, we must also remember that arsenal do have some talented youngsters that are coming through and if we fail to hold onto them, it is our loss. These players are Simpsons, Wilshere, Merida, Lansbury, Pedro Botelho, Havard Nordveit and Gavin Hoyte. I believe these players would be our carling cup kids next season, together with some better players from the reserves and under 18s. Only in the 10/11 season, then can we see some of them pushed on to join the first team training and take part in some EPL matches.
Furthermore, we must also remember that though there is a need to buy new players, Rosicky and Eduardo are coming back, and these 2 players would be an asset to us in terms of experience. However they are more attack minded and thus would not help much in defensive duties. Nevertheless, with Rosicky and Eduardo back in the frame, its just like having 2 new players that just joined us. Especially with Rosicky, as i missed him. He can simply play in any attacking roles across the midfield.
My team for the next season: (4-4-2)
Almunia
Sagna CB CB Clichy (CB: depending on who arsene wenger buys and who we already have)
Walcott Cesc DM Nasri
Arshavin Eduardo
My team for the next season: (4-5-1)
Almunia
Sagna CB CB Clichy (CB: depending on who arsene wenger buys and who we already have)
Cesc DM
Walcott Arshavin Rosicky
Bendtner
Arsenal have a strong team. It is now up to wenger to make it even stronger and thus allows us to fight it out with Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool. These 3 teams are pulling further away from us as each season goes buy. The players that they buy are massive and it is now up to arsenal and wenger to buy players that are massive too and thus capable to challenge on all fronts.
We have been stagnant for the past few seasons. Aston villa, everton and spurs are catching up. We cannot afford to be caught up by them if we still wants to be play in the champions league. Few seasons ago, we overtook spurs as the fourth team in the EPL only on the last day. This season we are lucky because Villa could have been 8 points infront of us, but somehow they dipped in form and now is 10 points behind us. We have been really lucky.
So it is now time, for arsenal football club to stand up and be counted. This summer is unlike any other summer. This summer is the time where arsenal would have a makeover and get players that are truly needed. All arsenal fans would be eagerly anticipating the arrival of new players. In arsene wenger we do trust, but we just hope that the club and wenger would not disappoint the fans anymore, for we have all been disappointed far more than enough.
Cheers!!
By Damn_Gallas on May 15, 2009
Arsene is a genious my ass! Dariano, i abide your points men, and good article. But one thing i will like to say is that, Weneger is Wenger, to me it doesn’t seems matter to him if we win or loose the match tomorrow, even if we loose to Man U by 10 nothing, our manager will still say they are good, i meant arsenal team.
When you look at our team selections, my man, i fill like killing some one, compare to man u team. He would be fielded sluggard players like Diaby, Bendtner, Denilson day in day out, and still yet, he kept saying they are good enough to competewith club like chelsea and others. Man U are in debits as well, but they are investing, buying and still buying. So winning or loosing means nothing to him, what he will do is what is going to do, I just fill ashame of him.
Now he has admitted that Man U are good , who made they to be good , their manager of course Sir Alex. So, if you want to talk about this man, you will have alot to say even for one month. The best thing let cross our fingers and wait for the transfer window to open, u people will see what we are talking about. He is a very sturbborn man, and doesn’t like anyone to challenge his decision. This is a club where millions of people in love with wordwild, for one single headed man to be playing over each and every one emotions, he is a useless entity.
Is till don’t believe we can win anything with him again, unless he changed. So, i will be happy if we beat man u tomorrow, just for the sake it.
By Solaben on May 15, 2009
Damn_Gallas, bravo. I hope Wenge read this. Good talk man. We hope and we are waiting for their ass. Both the manager and the managements. We don’t have to respect them anymore, because they’ve caused alot of damage to all arsenal fans emotionally. They should go to hell.
By Solaben on May 15, 2009
Excellent points by Damn_Gallas and Solaben… Thanks for the positive comments :)
Firstly, I’d like to say, Arsene Wenger IS a genius. Please don’t get my article wrong. I still think Arsene Wenger is 1 of the best managers in the world. But everyone has its flaws. The fact that we haven’t won silverware in 4 years shows that his policy needs some tweaking. And geniuses fix the illness with the right medicine.
Flamini certainly left a big hole in the squad and yes, Denilson is too small for a defensive midfielder. I’m not too concerned about Hleb’s departure though; Arshavin took his place well.
1 point that i really, really will agree with you is that I don’t get why the hell Arsene Wenger is playing Nasri so deep… At the wings he was so good because he had 1 trait Fabregas didn’t have – and that is he can dribble well. So if you take creativity + dribbling, that will give you the perfect midfield playmaker. Arshavin is an excellent example, even though he plays as a support striker. I however, thinks he’s great on the wing (just like Walcott) so don’t touch his position. By deploying Nasri in a Xavi type of role, it’s not making him more versatile or anything, it’s simply a waste of time for a 21 year-old. Nasri is in his developmental stages of his career and how he plays now will affect the type of footballer he becomes in the future. 1 thing’s for sure, Zidane certainly didn’t play as a defensive midfielder.
I actually thought Traore should leave cause there’s no “space” for him in the squad… I prefer Gibbs over him.
And sacking Wenger isn’t the solution. I know this will sound weird, but I believe Arsenal IS Arsene Wenger and that I’m very afraid for the manager who takes over him, because Arsene Wenger is synonymous to Arsenal football club, everything from the way they play and the atmosphere. Arsenal will certainly be different without Wenger.
Again, thanks for reading :)
By dariano on May 15, 2009