Wow, just wow....(Sticking to your guns part 2)
We are on a streak, a losing one... So I have a streak of my own going... I get two in a row published on Football365. What a year and a half it has been! Never imagined that things could go so badly after the high on which we ended last season. What preceded the Cup win was not great, and in hindsight, the win papered over the cracks. Performances had been declining overall, but we were competitive, rode our luck and produced some great results.
But it's all catching up with us now. The most common fallacy in how we look at things is recency bias. However, many organisational issues have long histories and deep-rooted causes that we ignore at our peril if we are to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
And some problems just take time to sort out, play out, burn out, whatever... The short-term issue in such times (and exacerbated in our current social media climate) is fighting the urge for short-term fixes, figuring out whether to stick with your guy, to stick to your guns. Problem is, even if you stick to your guns, instead of a 44 Magnum, you might be holding a peashooter. Do you feel lucky? Well do I? Less and less so.
I was willing to cut Arteta some slack but he has not been brave enough I think, and that attitude has translated across to the team. We lack courage in the way we play, in how we go into challenges (I am looking at you Auba), in committing to making runs, and when someone does, in committing to making the riskier pass.
But maybe that verse in Ecclesiastes 9:11 might bail him out. "I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."
Luck is what he needs. If last night was the rock bottom, then he is due some luck. Auba finally scored, though it was an own goal (heh), Xhaka got sent off (straight red which means 3 games out), Bellerin got his 5th yellow card which also means a suspension, and so Arteta can't pick the same team anymore. When he did for the game against Burnley, most fans could not believe it (that's the lack of cajones that Deeney talked about).
This is a slow motion car crash, train wreck that you can't really take your eyes off. Maybe I tempted fate when I talked about watching old Match of the Day games from the 70s when we also flirted with relegation. And it might take just that to clean out the rot. They will still be my team.
========================================================
Spurs of course aren’t Molde but I wouldn’t back this Arsenal Premier League line up against an amateur team of octogenarians. After a full Sunday brunch. And until he figures out what is wrong, or waits for the solution to kick in, i.e. let the contracts of Auba, Laca, Xhaka, Luiz, Willian lapse or show them the door, he should stop talking to the press because he does spout the most absolute nonsense that even prime Wenger would cringe at.
This has been years in the making if anyone cares to look at the details. Wenger, bless him, pulled off a minor miracle every season but it was always going to catch up with him. The owners and the board were happy to indulge him even when things started going south. Depending on dodgy pasta, squeaking in to Europe on the last day of the season, losing the last excuse available (that we could not compete for financial reasons) when Leicester won the title, were the small signs that all was not well. We let Wenger continue to take the heat (and to be fair he brought some of it on himself) and it is still going on today.
And it’s not just the managers. We give out huge contracts, sign big-name players (because we are ahem, a big club) to appease fans who scream for such signings without establishing what the plans for the future are. Why? Because fans will naturally focus all their outrage and anger at the manager and the players because these are the only visible parts of the club. This is not to exonerate Arteta and the likes of Xhaka (he has to go surely), Lacazette, Willian, Luiz and Aubameyang. Arteta placed his faith in these senior players, as a rookie manager is always likely to do, and they have let him down, and he, in continuing to pick them, has let the fans down.
I am afraid it will take far more misery for the impact to finally hit home where it hurts and for the realisation that a complete overhaul is needed. The fall in revenue is one step in that direction. Relegation might be another.
Tired (we are not too big to go down) Gooner, London
Comments
Post a Comment