Crisis Club

It took great courage to summon the mental strength to haul my laptop up and actually get something written. The facts are in front of us, the arguments on both sides heard. Hell, we even saw a little preview of what the season is going to be like. This was an anomaly, you say? Well maybe, but a defeat is a defeat. It might be that we will never be humiliated in that way for a long, long time, but it will definitely surprise me if we got any points at all against the big boys. The one positive is in retrospect. Fans were screaming at the end of last season when things had not quite gone our way – we thought we couldn’t possibly be feeling any worse. Well, that position seems almost enviable now, since at least we had the summer to look forward to. Now we stand on the brink of a disastrous season. No, it does not look pretty.

Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal. Sunday, the 28th of August, ranks in my memory as the worst day in the Wenger era. And as to Manchester United’s performance, it wasn’t even a “gr-eight” one. They had two amazing finishes from Ashley Young, two great free kicks, a penalty, and some stereotypical Arsenal defending to help them achieve that. Arsenal on the other hand, played it safe – they did not want to attack, defend or link up play at all! Aaron Ramsay’s poor form in midfield continued as he was a mere passenger and rarely made a useful pass. Walcott and Arshavin, were, as in previous games, extremely ineffective. Andrei even got himself a yellow in the first half for good measure, and so had to be extremely cautious while tracking back for the rest of the match. Jenkinson at the back looked completely lost and allowed Young to get the better of him quite a few times. Koscielny wasn’t completely fit, and it showed. Djourou looked a shadow of what he was last season. Traore’s positional sense was as sharp as Clichy’s. Robin van Persie was out of it too, coming up with the most terrible penalty I have seen him take to date. That was probably the turning point of the entire match – we just said, “to hell with it” after that miss, and what followed was painfully unbelievable. All through, I kept hoping that I would get up from this nightmare only to see the match hadn’t quite begun yet.

Jenkinson, not surprisingly, ended up being yellow carded twice, and was sent off in the second half. Theo Walcott, that accomplished defender, finally played right back, a role he has been crying out for since he joined us. The younger version of Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played in front of him on the right wing, and as I had mentioned in my preview, did get to make his debut.

What is stupefying about this match was that despite conceding the number of goals we did, Szczesny actually didn’t have a bad game (De Gea, on the other hand, did. That first goal had a charming Almunia air about it), and neither did Coquelin, the young defensive midfielder who, with this debut, was eased into life in the Premier League. Five of those eight goals came after Coquelin was subbed for Lansbury (another League debutant), and even before that, we were just too open. As Zonal Marking (amazing website that offer tactical analysis of selected matches) reports, our back four were pressing extremely high up the pitch trying to play the opposition offside, but that is not a good idea when you’re playing with no pressure on the ball. Even then, we did not press as a unit, and as mentioned earlier, Traore’s positional sense was amazing, and Jenkinson just did not know what to do with Young. So, he took the easy option and let him score. The first goal too showed how shockingly pathetic our defending was, with no one even looking at Welbeck when the return ball came in until it was too late.

The Young and Hazardous

Arsenal FC needs some football players. That much is un-debatable. It is also un-debatable that they need players in every position bar between the sticks, which is just plain weird because until last season, all we wanted was a keeper (well, and a defender)! It is fitting, then, that this post begins with a little ode to the amazing Wojciech Szczesny. I spelt that without looking it up, by the way. Yes, that’s how much I love the guy!

The famous anecdote while he was with the youth team sums his attitude perfectly. As the referee was inspecting the net in his goal, Chezza turned to him and said he shouldn’t bother because the ball wasn’t going to hit it anyway! It didn’t.
The guy has been a revelation since starting for the first team last season after an injury to Fabianski. And there has been no looking back. His run is even more amazing when you consider the fact that he broke both his arms while training in the gym a few years back. That is what you call a comeback. Never short of confidence, with a little bit (well, quite a bit) of arrogance about him, he is the keeper we had all been crying out for.

The defense looks assured with him between the post, something that wasn’t quite happening with Almunia and Fabianski. His performances this season too have been spotless for the most part. The penalty save against Udinese, which, surprisingly, seems so long ago now, was immense – both in terms of quality and what it means for our season in general. It was undoubtedly the turning point of that 25 million pounds tie. He had riled up Di Natale before the kick was taken, and Di Natale put in some serious venom behind the shot. Chezza took a few steps forward and pushed it over the crossbar. Ten minutes later, we had scored and were ahead.

Anyway, with that game done and dusted and the big pay day assured, the focus immediately turns to transfers. Contrary to my expectations, winning the game did not see a trillion credible rumors surface. My hopes of us signing Kaka, Sneijder and Benzema were dashed. At any rate, it did break out today that we had almost completed the signing of Park Chu Young. Erm, who?

He is the captain of the South Korean national team and plays for Monaco in France. He is 6 feet, 26, and we have apparently agreed a fee of €3 million, rising to €5 million with add-ons. He is thought of extremely highly in South Korea, and according to my Youtube scouting, seems to be technically very sound, and loves to take players on. Also, he looks to make passes all the time, and links the play up well. All the ingredients to be an Arsene special!

So with him supposedly at the Colney for a medical (reported by the excellent Young Guns Blog), we have a whopping £87 million in our kitty with Wenger wanting to buy at least two more players. He confirmed that Nicklas Bendtner would also be sold, which would add about £10 million to that figure. Now we’re getting to dizzying heights, as we would have £97 million to spend on TWO players. That’s some serious quality. We could actually bid for Christiano Ronaldo.

Joel Campbell, that Costa Rican sensation who was just waiting to light the Premier League on fire, has reportedly been denied a work permit. What a pity. Wenger had admitted, though, that he was taking “a little gamble” when signing him, and well, he seems to have lost that particular battle. We will miss the 50-odd goals he was surely going to score for us.

Speaking about banging the goals in, Young’s scoring record is not great, but that just might be due to poor service. Also, the last two signings from Monaco have worked for us, and none of us came with a good record. The latter of those two was Adebayor. The other was someone called Thierry Henry. Ring any bells?

Money, Money, Money

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world.

How fitting this song is to both this week, and the transfer season in general for Arsenal FC. These seven days, touted (quite rightly) as being the most important in recent history for the club, are governed by one thing and one thing only - money. We fans, and the club too, have learnt a valuable lesson - the world and its people, especially those who play football, answer only to money. Most do anyway. Samir Nasri (or Cashri, whichever way you have it) moved away for that very reason. The facade of being disrespected by fans and wanting to win trophies is a poor, poor justification. This from a player who in effect had dismissed City's millions only last year.

I am not here to say that Nasri is a cr*p player who should have been sold ASAP. Those are different (*looks sideways at Almunia*). Nasri has been great for the club. But only at times, it must be said. Out of the 3 years (27 playing months) he was here, he performed exceptionally for only four months. That's about 12.5% of his time at the Emirates. It must also be added that when push came to shove last season and Arsenal needed a hero, he all but disappeared. His individual brilliance will be missed (that Porto goal was something else), but it isn't something that cannot be replaced. We have Gervinho, Chamberlain and Miyaichi to do just that. While going, he used the fans, insulting them for "disrespecting" him and then not even mentioning them when they cheered him on against Liverpool. Showed his class there, didn't he? And also, 25 million is a great price for a player with just one year on his contract and four good months. Of course, when you're being offered around 200k a week, the decision to leave becomes very easy. The chapter called Samir Nasri, then, is officially closed.

The fact that worries me right now is our pay structure. What star player is going to join the club when he knows he will never get over a 100k unless he is absolutely legendary? On the other hand, we have players like Bendtner on 52k, Diaby on 60k and Almunia on 50k! The club says that this averages out the wages, and prevents jealousy! What? Give me a break. Jealousy can be good. If you're a guy earning 10k a week, and you see a van Persie or a Wilshere earning much much more, you want to get there yourself, and work harder for it. THAT encourages competition and also attracts star players to the club. It is unbelievable that the club does not see the simple logic behind wage structures at other clubs.

An article came out on Sunday saying that Wenger was apparently at loggerheads with the board, and he himself wanted to break the wage structure to buy star players, but the board wouldn't let him. All they wanted were some average signings to pacify the fans. Out of nowhere, Arsenal found the time and necessity to send an email to the journalist saying that nothing of the sort had happened and to contact the club for confirmation before posting information such as this. That just sounds bizarre. Everyday, thousands of news stories break out, most of which are made up. Why then did the club take such pains to clarify this story? Conspiracy theories beckon, but I will resist.

Acceptance

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

These are the five stages of death. Regardless of ywhat religion, race or country you are from, these are generally the stages one goes through when faced with death. Surprisingly enough, these very stages have typified the mood among Arsenal fans throughout summer.

We approach now what is perhaps the most defining week in the Wenger era. We find ourselves faced with so many questions - questions that must be answered after the 0-2 loss against Liverpool. Before I get into the game, I have a confession to make = I could not watch the game, although I did catch the MOTD highlights. The rest of my knowledge is a result of compulsively checking for Twitter updates every 10 seconds.

The big, big news before the match was that Samir Nasri was going to start. There was just one change to my line-up, which had been predicted before team news, and that makes me proud!

We defended brilliantly and played our hearts out, that much is clear and undebatable. The atmosphere in the stadium, amid the intense showers, was something else, I'm told. Then the inevitable happened. We lost Koscielny to back spasms. That makes it three out of three games we have had to make a forced substitution. Our confidence took a hit, and Liverpool started dominating possession. We did not give up. Miquel was assured, Frimpong and Vermalean immense. Theo and Arshavin were having an off day. Now considering the fact that we have 10 players playing on the wings at any given time, losing our two real ones to an “off day” dented our already dismal creativity.

It must be said that Nasri played his part in the chances we DID manage to create, a mazy run the pick of the lot. We found out what we were letting go off. Still, he is no Fabregas. The fans played their part too, and he was largely cheered on. Not sure I would have been able to do the same though! Ramsey, Nasri’s creative partner in central midfielder, was having a poor game himself, and did little to help Samir out.

For me, the turning points, not in the match, but in my thinking, were the 8th minute Frimpong yellow, and the Koscielny injury (Squillaci’s absence on the bench was very telling too). Those, to me, exemplify the problem at Arsenal. We have a brilliant player in Frimpong, but one who is obviously inexperienced. He was making his League debut against a team like Liverpool! And of course, our players are falling to injuries like toothpicks. Surely there is something wrong with the way we train? We have world class facilities, and the satellite tracking system introduced this season in training was supposed to help prevent injuries – whatever happened to that!

Looking at our line-up, who really gave us a chance? Yes, Frimpong was lion hearted in his efforts, and Miquel played the best he could, but the attack was nothing short of toothless, and there can be no excuses there.

In The Dumps

It is safe to say that Arsenal FC is in a state of some turmoil – not just within, but also outside, with the fans divided into distinct groups. If some fans aren’t yet in a state of panic, they are constantly at odds with others who are. The state of the club, the role of the manager, of the board, of the players themselves, is being questioned. No one truly knows what is going on, and there is confusion all around. The media is blamed for being against the club; the media is blamed for being biased towards the club. We have all possible permutations and combinations about our future being argued for or against.

Nothing escapes the vast reaches of the Internet. Hundreds of thousands of fans indulge in a discussion of one kind or another every day, be it through Facebook, or Twitter, or other great blogs. Needless to say, these discussions often get heated up, as fans of opposing views collide and each gets his support going. It’s straight up war out there!

These fans, it seems, are divided into a few sects. There is one that thinks the club must be defended at all costs, and this means the manager, the board and the players. There is one asking for the removal of the manager, one for the removal of the board. One is begging players like Nasri to stay at the club, another doesn’t want to see him put on the famous red and white again. Opinions on Cesc Fabregas are divided as well: some feel he should never have been sold, others that the timing of the sale wasn’t right, and some just worry that the money will never be reinvested. (Strangely, everyone seems to agree Denilson, Squillaci and Almunia are crap. Hmmmmm.).

Such a divided fan base cannot be a good thing for the club. It proves, as people have noticed, that the club’s PR base is very poor – there is no clear communication with the fans. The club has been accused of lying to the supporters and hiding facts.
Fans, in that situation, are bound to be confused, especially with the influx of information through the Internet. So the question for the exasperated fan is how he deals with this information (or misinformation) from and about the club. What constitutes a “real” fan?

This is a question that keeps popping up everywhere. It has been used as an argument in countless debates – a “real fan” would never say this, or oppose that. So how is one supposed to react when one hears, say, a rumor linking the club to a star player like Karim Benzema, or an unknown one like Joel Campbell (now a player at the club)? The trouble is two fold – one, there is often little truth these days to transfer rumors, or at least the extent to which they are hyped. Two, there is no “correct” way to react. The club’s need on the pitch, one must agree, must be left to the manager and board to analyze – they are infinitely more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the game and the transfer market. All we can argue about is whether they are actually making an effort to improve the squad on the pitch. It is hard to believe that someone as shrewd as Wenger does not know that our defense needs strengthening, and that Cesc and Nasri have to be replaced soon.

In that situation, it is indeed testing for the fans when all summer, the only real activity has been the addition of three kids and a speedy winger, while the club’s most influential, gifted player has left along with a few others, and another few are on their way out. The “We have got no players left, We have got no players left” chant is gaining a creepy, realistic aura.

According to Le Grove, an excellent blog about everything Arsenal, we have been outspent by every club in the Premier League since the league’s inception. The likes of Hull City and QPR have spent more (net) than we have. Looking at it neutrally, this brings our success in the Wenger era into startling perspective. It is nothing short of a miracle to continuously finish in the top four of the most competitive football league in the world with that kind of spending (or non-spending).