It may be an immensely well worn cliche, but one discovers very little about oneself during the good times, it is during the harder times that one discovers one's true make up and metal. This is well worth bearing in mind given the current goings on, or apparent lack of them, at Arsenal Football Club.
One of my key thoughts from last season was that I do not want to see us fail to win games when it is abundantly clear that the players are not giving their all to the cause, this happened far too often last year, it revealed a deeply worrying rot in our squad that has yet to be properly cleared.
Winning is not the be all and end all for me, what I cannot and hope I never will come to accept is players not being fully committed and motivated when playing competitive games for the club. I can accept a lack of ability, I can accept being outplayed, I can even accept errors of judgement, but what I will not accept as a fan is a lack of effort and desire. I want to see eleven fully committed players giving their all every week, I want to see us fight for every single second that the ball is in play and if we are to lose games or drop points, we must never ever lie down.
If they are really Samir Nasri's words in the newspaper today then they really upset and anger me. They are demonstrative of a deluded and arrogant player who seems unable to see just how critical his own failings were in his teams inability to finish off the season with a trophy or two. Nasri's disappearance in the cup final sum up his poor second half of the season, he had the chances to be a hero, instead he choked and was no winner.
Nasri's alleged comments have a lot in common with Denilson's words from a couple of months back, they both clearly want to win things but it is simply not good enough to talk about wanting to win trophies, one has to back this up with consistent performances and the right attitude. Although both players are different in many ways, they share one thing in common, they have had important roles in our lack of success in the last couple of seasons. Both of their sets of deluded comments show a complete lack of insight into their own failings as players, as if they have not had anything at all to do with our recent failure to win trophies.
I do not feel it appropriate to divert my anger towards the club, the majority of our frustration and anger should be angled towards some of our highly paid players who are not fit to wear the Arsenal shirt. Indeed a new particularly unpleasant, greedy and avaricious breed of player has been created by the current footballing environment in which certain clubs are immune to any semblance of financial sustainability. Football is losing its soul and the players are becoming more mercenary and soulless by the year.
13 comments:
Yep. Let's get players than want to LEAD us to victory, not whine they don't have enough support as they fade late in the season.
'Football is losing its soul and the players are becoming more mercenary and soulless by the year'
Very true but therein lies the problem. Wenger didn't grasp that and thought he could build a team from a young age that would bond and remain loyal to Arsenal. It was admirable but naive.
If this slap in the face doesn't wake him up then nothing will.
Great article!!! I couldn't agree more !!! 6 months form out of three years sums Samir up. It's a pity that someone else will benefit from the groundwork we have had to put in to make him a reasonable player !!
Pity the faith shown in him as a pup will not be rewarded !!! A human Being might have signed and extension with the agreement that we would sell him. With the 15.8mil we paid plus his wages we will be lucky to break even !!!! Not a lot of return on all that effort !!! Good luck Samir !!!! I hope you find your dream !!!! Not many leave the Arsenal and go on to better things !!! Enjoy some time on the bench.
Strange I'm starting to see Gallas' point of view !!!
Wenger is to blame for the poor attitude of players such as Denilson & Nasri as his blinkered backing & refusal to criticise those who deserve it, has given rise to a feeling of entitlement along with being unable to see their failings have in anyway contributed to the failure to win silverware.
Kipmonster,and how do you know how much Wenger bash his players??? Can you see behind closed doors? Pls, smart manager will not criticise his players publicly the way you suggest.
I totally agree with your article. I would sell Nasri before I gave him a pay rise considering he didn't show up for half the season. If we pay him what will RVP want who was poised to sign for 90k but is probably thinking that he has been hoodwinked if Nasri gets 110k. RVP did perform over the full season and if anyone deserves a pay rise it's him.
If we look to the players to take responsibility what about the manager? These same players who are not fit to wear the shirt were not cast out by Wenger but chose to leave themselves so is Wenger laying any of the blame at the players door? Clichy possibly cost us 6 points last season and made numerous errors not for the first season but Wenger offers him a new contract? We need better players not sub standard players being offered new improved contracts that's what got us here in the first place.
Not only that but we hear Rosicky is still in Wengers plans. Why? He is another one who is a disgrace to the shirt but was given a new contract on returning from long term injury. I don't remember him contributing much before that either. We should have got him fit and sold him.
The fact that we cannot get rid of the dead wood is Wengers fault for over paying them way above their value so no club will now touch them. They may be great in Wengers mind but they are still average players on big wages to everyone else.
No mention of Diaby who would rather wear a Spurs shirt than play for his own. He's a disgrace seeing as he is one of those who lacks commitment and desire and goes through the motion in most games.
Whilst the players must take the blame for not putting in the effort, the manager must be blamed for assembling such a spineless squad of mercenaries who are interested in nothing but their own ego's and Twitter accounts.
The season starts next month and not only have we failed to get rid of the dross which is Almunia, Bendtner, Eboue, Rosicky, Song, Diaby, Clichy, Arshavin & Squillaci we have also bought no enforcements. For God’s sake, Man U have bought 3, Sunderland 6 players so what’s holding us up? This is scandalous. On top of this our decent players see we are not strenghening and want to move. Who can blame them. Sack Wenger now!
I must confess to enjoying the article immensely. It is most satisfying - even exhilarating - for supporters of other clubs to see Arsenal followers write about their own in such derogatory terms. Wonderful to read! I do not want to pass up this opportunity to thank the article writer for publicly denigrating Arsenal's players. Truly grin-inducing! Terrific stuff! More, please!
agree with your writings, after the stoke game before the ccfinal when we suffered injuries to theo and CESE, expected all others to up their game and fight for every point. sad to say it had more of a defeating effect than was expected. i would show SAMIR the door.
altho i agree with your article, maybe the players know something we dont? Like maybe Arsenal players have found out that because of the stadium dept its OK for us to finish 4th in the League and thats the boards ambitions just to make it into the champions league? And even if we do sell our best players, the players that will come in will only be good enough to bring us between 2nd and 4th?
The longer Wenger let's these things drag on and on the worse it will get. Teams will hold out for top dollar because they know Wenger needs to get it done. There is no alternative. He/the club should pay up and be done with it. Anything less is simply unacceptable.
Am not an arsenal fan, even as I have a soft spot for them among the "top" four, but it's Arsene Wenger who stopped growing with the times when Chelsea changed the rules 7 years ago.
SAF at MU is a stubborn man, but he is flexible and he knows when to change thus the success. Arsene wenger on the other hand is an obstinate, extremely self-obssessed individual with an amazing business acumen. But he is becoming a failure at one of the most successful clubs in England, a shame really.
Im just scared that the longer this trophyless run continues, the hard it is to sign top players. We're probably the 9th best club to play for right now. 4th in england, 2 in spain, 2 in italy. Oh and maybe bayern munich. These are including abilities to compete for championships, wages and prestige.
So in truth we're along the lines of AS Roma and Valencia.
Post a Comment