Wenger And His Arsenal Summer

 

What’s with Arsenal, Birmingham and February. Every time these two meet in this month and there have been disastrous repercussions for the Gunners. Flashback to February 2008, Arsenal are breezing for the title with Hleb, Eduardo and Fabregas in prime form, but destiny had different ideas as Eduardo suffered that horrific ankle injury, the Gunners crumbled as they could not get their act back together after that and eventually finished third. Fast forward to February 2010, Fabregas led Arsenal are in flying form on the back of beating Barcelona at home, a chance to finally end that Oh so long trophy drought with the Carling Cup final at Wembley looming on horizon, But guess who their opponents are?......Birmingham City of course. We all remember what happened after that as calamity struck and they got knocked out from three competitions in the space of 15 days, and were so distraught by it all that they crumbled in the title race without mustering a fight.

Wenger has been nurturing some extremely gifted technical footballers in North London; they play beautiful football and are without the shadow of a doubt the most beautiful team to watch in the entire Europe let alone Britain barring a certain team from Spain that plays in Claret and Blue. Every season we make bold predictions that his boys will come to fore, they will finally mature into men and end their trophy drought, only for them to prove us wrong time and time again. Even this age old adage that he has a very young team at his disposal has started to sound hollow now as the team has started to mature but the win at all costs attitude and desire to fight in adversity expected from these players is just not there sometimes, Arsenal just don’t turn up when faced with a pressure cooker situation.

To top it all they have a captain who openly flirts with his love for Barcelona, Just because he was nurtured through the ranks since the age of 17 and he is a fan’s favorite does not give Cesc Fabregas the divine right to keep flaunting with a move to Catalonia. Time and time again every single season the he openly flirts with a move to Barcelona, to the point that it has now become a huge bore. We see every single FC Barcelona player commenting that Fabregas has Barcelona in his blood and that he deserves his homecoming. But what about repaying the debt he has towards Arsenal who made him into the player he is today. I seriously wonder how players look up to him in the dressing room when they clearly know that he intends to leave at the slightest hint of a satisfactory bid from the Spanish giants.

And to compound Wenger’s woes his French schemer monsieur Samir Nasri wants a pay hike that Wenger does intend to give him. And now the lad is ready to run down his contract with a year left, Wenger needs to decide whether he will offer him the wages he is demanding or sell him. It’s purely a wrangle over wages, exactly the reason why Cashley Cole swapped North for West London. It could be a disastrous scenario which every Gooner dreads even to think about, the sight of both their No. 8 and 4 leaving Emirates for so called greener pastures [Just ask Alexander Hleb].

There are some very tough decisions to make indeed; the transfer policy of the manager has been called into question on why he does not spend big on experienced players who could bring a sense of knowhow and calmness around the dressing room. A leader like Tony Adams or a midfield marauder like Patrick Viera who could tear into a rampaging Roy Keane and look eye to eye with a Gary Neville, someone who would grab this team by the scruff of their necks and win them matches. There is a wealth of talent with so many talented youngsters; all they need is a wise old head.

I still feel this team is just two to three signings short of dominating Europe for years to come, but we say this every year and Wenger does not make the signings we hope he makes. There are rumors of Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill but will either of them end up at the Emirates only time will tell. A good striker who could take away some of the goal scoring burden off Van Persie’s shoulders is badly needed [the lad just can’t last the whole season!!!! If he had done so then he would have won the golden boot quite comfortably]

This trophy drought will come to an end so will Andy Murray win a grand slam but we will have to wait to see who breaks their duck first. This is too good a team not to win a trophy for this long a time. Even the current FC Barcelona side who are winning trophies for fun at the moment went without a single trophy for five years from 1999 to 2004 before finally winning the La Liga title that spelled the dawn of a new era, they have never looked back ever since. The moment of reckoning awaits, how soon will it come? We will find out when the clock ticks September 1 in two and a half months time.