Arsene Wenger: the most negligent manager in the history of football.

We called
him astute for signing Squillaci, we called him negligent for signing
Koscielny. Then we called him negligent for playing Squillaci AND for playing
Koscielny, and also decided to call him negligent for signing Squillaci. Now
we’d call him negligent for not playing Koscielny.

We called
him negligent for not signing Mertesacker, then we called him negligent for
signing Mertesacker. We then called him negligent for playing Mertesacker,
before calling him negligent again, for not playing Mertesacker. Now
Mertesacker plays, for how long I’m not really sure. Depends on who comes in.
What I’m sure of is that whether we do or don’t play Mertesacker, it will be
due to negligence on Arsene Wenger’s part.

We called
him negligent for persisting with Walcott. We called him negligent for selling
van persie. The following season, 4 of our current front line including 3 we
brought in, managed double figures in both goals and assists and Walcott was
the top performing English forward in the game. As a team, we scored more
goals. This preseason has seen Giroud equal Dennis Bergkamp’s record of 8
goals. Now we call him negligent for thinking we can start the season with them
if we have to.

We called
him negligent for not signing M’villa. We called him negligent for selling Song
and not buying Diame. We screamed “negligence!!”
at his perseverance with Ramsey. If you haven’t already, you just wait till
you see Ramsey. He is an absolute animal, and already better than both the
players Arsene was negligent in not purchasing.

We called
him negligent for selling our elite players that wanted to leave for huge
profits and developing the ones that remained. We called him negligent for
letting oil money take our players and ‘our’ silverware. We called him
negligent for presiding over two of the worst starts in our history after
summers of extreme loss, then we called him negligent for ‘only’ qualifying for
the champions league 16 years in a row.

That
regular qualification has grown Arsenal to one of the biggest brands in world
football. We have 3 of the top 10 shirt sellers in the premier league. That,
along with our other commercial deals of the back of our pedigree, means we
have more cash than the rest of the pl combined.

Now we
celebrate being rich, and call him negligent for not having spent all the money
he was negligent in saving, because the shops had been open a while. In the
meantime we also found the time to call him negligent for not breaking our
transfer record, then called him negligent for bidding 2 1/2 times our transfer
record. The shops are still open, by the way.

We called
him negligent for having too many sub standard players, in one summer he
cleared out 25 of those footballers from the club and kept 18 players of real
quality, many of whom he was negligent in buying. Now we call him negligent for
having too few players, because he hasn’t bought anyone of note before deadline
day.

I have no
idea why this man even likes us.

There is
only one thing that will prove Arsene Wenger’s negligence in 2013/2014, and
that is the lack of a strong challenge for silverware. That’s what he owes us,
nothing more nothing less. The transfer deadlines, the pedigree of players
in…all should be judged on that, and that alone. Based on the resources at his
disposal he has no excuse for not giving us a challenge at the end, no matter
how he plays this window.

In the
meantime, our players need our support. They’ve worked tirelessly and
relentlessly to keep the Arsenal flag flying at the top of the game. They’ve
lost their leaders, twice, and found a way between them to drag us back up into
elite football, as if it was where they deserved to be. Prior to when they
proved they were a CL team, it wasn’t: Cazorla aside, when they arrived none
were really equipped to do so. Wenger drew it out of each and every player, and
the ones that didn’t make it have left. What we have now is streamlined
quality, Arsenal bred and fully integrated. They’re ready for this challenge.
As fans we have a job to support them, regardless of what you think about the
summer, the manager or the board. The players don’t deserve this negativity,
not before we’ve seen what they can do.

The manager
has said the squad is thin. The club have said virtually nothing about
transfers: all the hysteria has been around speculation from external sources,
but we’ve seen evidence that the club has been active in trying to bring
players in. Within all this negative speculation and shrieks of
“negligence!!!” Here’s some positive and not-unrealistic speculation
with regard to our current position:

We are up
against 2 clubs that have the ability to undermine any business we do, if we
give them enough time to do so. They fear Wenger and Arsenal. They always have.
They have bid over us for our targets for a number of years, and artificially
hiked player prices up to the realms of the ridiculous.

What if we
want our rivals to see the rest of our hand as late as possible? Nobody knows
how strong we are right now and that suits us down to the ground. When
Abramovic arrived at Chelsea, they needed 24 internationals to mount any sort
of challenge to us and man utd. We just spanked city, who have spent even more.
We have a finite amount of money, they don’t. If we buy big and bold they can
bolster further and in different ways. They can force the prices up by bidding
for our targets as they have in the past and won. If they get our target they
can force us into accepting a lesser player, possibly even from their own camp.
At worst they’ll have emptied our coffers, and our stability after the next
couple of seasons becomes vulnerable.

The
investment the oilys have made in their squads is not insignificant, and to see
returns they absolutely need success. We are a massive obstacle to that success
if they sit back and watch us strengthen with Arsene Wenger at the helm. They
don’t want that at all, and I dare say there’s enough money involved to warrant
action on their part if they see that happening.

Why do u
think they poached our players for so long? To weaken us by pulling away. It
didn’t work. We’re still here, and our squad nucleus is as strong as I remember
it to be since the invincibles.

That’s not
to say that it’s the main reason, but I can’t see a club like Arsenal not
having considered this when conducting their transfer business, especially when
you look at our transfer history. An 8m bid for Shaun Wright-Phillips from
Arsenal became a 22.5m signing for Chelsea, who already had wingers coming out
of their ears. City have bought 4 Arsenal first teamers in the past few years.
Chelsea have Mata and Hazard on their books, both targets that Wenger was
priced out of by artificial inflation, to which Chelsea is a direct
contributor. Even a bid 5-10m above
an offer for a player, especially after fee negotiations, could drastically
change the complexion of a deal. There are a lot of clubs worldwide that can
still do that to us.

But the
club and the squad as it stands, numbers aside, has never been in better shape.
All we need is the right players to
add the depth for a 4-trophy season, and we’re set. In the meantime, trust the
boys that already represent you to get you through the first couple of steps,
and trust the manager to mount a serious challenge. It’s now his only remit, as
Gazidis was at pains to point out before all the summer hysteria began.

He owes us
a challenge. That’s it. He’s earned that from us. We’ve earned that from our
belief (ha) in him. the players owe us their maximum. They know that. They’ll
deliver that, I’m sure of it. And we owe the players our support. By working as
hard as they have to be the best they can, they’ve earned that from us. The
ones that couldn’t make it are no more, the ones that remain will fight for all
of our lives this season.

Let’s get
behind them.

Thanks for reading.

Amartey Amar

Accra based. Big picture, always. New writer as of June 2013. Always tries to understand why Arsenal makes the unique decisions that we do. Haven’t really watched the trophy clock, prefer to sit back and watch the alchemist at work…It’s more fun that way.

Views are my own.

Real visionaries are rarely appreciated during their time… Arsenal has one right now. I’m just glad to have noticed early.