OneBardGooner wrote:I was once told that 'Blame' served no purpose, other than being a means by which to focus a collectives anger in one direction, allowing all other guilty parties to escape said judgement and anger.
Well, I think/hope that yesterday can serve as a watershed day in Arsenal's recent history, with RVP announcing he no longer wanted to be at Arsenal, but also saying 'why?', and saying what so many Gooners have been thinking and feeling for quite some time, that the club are not moving in the right direction, which is another way of saying the club's being mis-managed and the level of investment in players is wholly inadequate.
So is it just me or do all these need to shoulder their portion of responsibility and accept the part they have played in a farce that has seen The Arsenal become a pale shadow of its former self.
RVP - joined in 2004 and until last season (where he proved he is a World Class striker) he had - through injury - played an average of 20 games per season - unacceptable by anyone's standards. Now he is off because the club won't invest serious money in other World Class players.
Arsene Wenger - Initially brought great success to the club, but has been ineffective in winning trophies these past 7 seasons, it is well known that not only does he 'manage and coach' the first team squad, but since the departure of David Dein, he (and Deins replacement Gazidis) also manage all the contract and transfer deals. He is given free reign by the board to does all this, why? well he doesn't 'rock the boat' and season on season he ensures they turn a very healthy profit, no trophies, but the finances look very healthy, all smiles with regards the so called self-sustaining financial project.
Ivan Gazidis - Took up the post of Chief Executive on 1st January 2009, again it was Arsene Wenger who had the final say on his appointment, taking over from an ousted David Dein, many see his arrival as the beginning of the end of Arsenal's more successful years, he is regarded by many Arsenal fans as the face of the board, a politician in the private sector. It is strongly rumoured that a number of possible decent signings failed to materialise allegedly due to his incompetence.
David Dein - Like him or not, when he was on the board the buying and selling of players was very successful, he was ousted from his position at Arsenal, for daring to propose investment from outside - something that eventually happened in the form of Kroenke - of whom Peter Hill-Wood (The Chairman) once inferred that his sort was not welcome at Arsenal FC. Dein regardless of his flaws wore his Arsenal Cannon on his sleeve, taking a genuine interest in new/young players and all things at every level of the club, which is why he and Wenger got on so well both as colleagues and friends. Some would argue that since Dein's departure the club has gone backwards.
Kroenke (aka: Silent Stan) - Owner of a number of sports franchises in the USofA, he didn't buy the majority of shares in Arsenal out of the goodness of his heart and to invest money, but for one reason and one reason only to make a profit, nothing wrong with making profit, but again I don't think it is any coincidence that since his arrival, Arsene Wenger's position as manager has become even more secure, even though the club has nothing to show in terms of trophies, only 'Profit'
Arsenal Fans - We now pay the highest prices in the Prem for tickets, whilst having to endure sub-standard players being brought in (Squillaci,Fabianski, Almunia, Vela, Santos et al) AND then endure further insult when the likes of Denilson, Djourou, Diaby, Bendtner, Eboue etc are offered long term deals on very high wages, we then cannot move them on, because no one else will match the lavel of money they are being paid at Arsenal, all while our best players are being sold Fabregas, Nasri and now RVP (sold because they want out!) due to incompetent management (any player worth their salt should never be allowed to have a contract that dwindles to one year) , minimal investment in players of quality (the only exception being Arshavin - who arrived in a blaze of publicity and glory, only to prove a bad buy, some believing his poor form and (subsequent) lack of interest due to continually being played out of position.
The line between board and manager seems to have become so blurred, it is hard to tell exactly what Wenger's real position is, he spends days mulling over the finer details of transfer and loan deals even on reserve squad players, when surely he should be 'managing the team', focusing on what happens on the pitch, and let someone else sort through all the business aspects relating to players.
Then there is the continual poor level of recovery of players from injury, how often has it been announced that a player will be unavailable for between 4 and 8 weeks, then 6 months later the problem is still unresolved, the prime example being Jack Wilshere, a young player of huge potential who has already missed a whole season due to an injury we were told would only keep him out of action for 2 - 3 months, and this seems to be the norm, many suggesting the medical team at Arsenal - regardless of the state of the art facilities - are not up to scratch.
Wenger, the Board, Gazidis and Kreonke must shoulder the responsibility for what has now become an Embarrassment. Due to gross incompetence our club, "The Arsenal" has become a laughing stock, thanks to mis-management at all levels.
Any respect and affection that Arsene Wenger once had is gone, gradually eroded by his continual failures as a manager, he often speaks about 'honouring' his contract, being a man of his word, well if he is a man of honour and has any respect for Arsenal and the fans - he should walk, Gazidis should be sacked, bring David Dein back to oversee transfer and contracts, Peter Hill-Wood should retire, Kroenke needs to get off his derriere and invest in world class players and Usmanov should be given a place on the board and the opportunity to invest in players.
Apologies for the length of this, but I have had enough.
Great post OBG, a great read, I would add about Wenger, how much he's changed in the last 4 seasons, his bitter post match interviews, his tirades on the touchline, I wonder why he agreed to sign his last contract so quickly? I do believe he's compliant in the way the club is run now, he's got previous of trying exactly this and got shown the door very quickly.
When he goes and I hope it's very, very soon, the whole structure of club needs to be overhauled from top to bottom and this is going to be a very hard task indeed.
the lot of em.
