I Can't Believe He's Returned…
Back from the grave with more strong opinions comes Autoglass…
Teflon Wenger
If you know me at all, you know that I f**king hate Arsenal. So, yes, any time I discuss the Gunners, please do take it with a grain of salt. However, as you’ve no doubt noticed, Unprofessional Foul is as much an Arsenal site as anything. We spend a fair amount discussing them in our email conversations (We also discuss many of you, our dear readers. No, it’s not pretty.).
After Arsenal’s recent loss in Porto, many Gunners discussed – again – the state of their club. Again, the question of who is to blame came up. As before, supporters seem to be blaming the players, or the refs, or injuries, or the alignment of the planets. The person they do not hold accountable is the manager, Arsene Wenger.
I find this to be remarkable.
“I blame the players!” Didn’t Arsene sign and select them?
“We’ve had horrible injuries!” Doesn’t the manager have to anticipate these?
“Our squad is too thin!” Who built the squad and hasn’t added to it?
“We only have one healthy striker. One! Yet we have two crappy goalkeepers!” Who’s responsible for adding depth?
So, I ask. Exactly what would have to happen for Gunners to hold Arsene to account?
Crashing out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 in the return leg vs Porto? You have to think that Arsenal should be better crashing out at this point. Certainly, they have greater resources and should have greater talent than Porto. Also, I’ve heard that they are managed by a certified footballing genius. I, frankly, expect Arsenal to turn it around at the Emirates and go through. If not, is Wenger accountable?
Finishing fifth or worse in the Premier League? Very unlikely as long as they are being chased so tepidly by Spurs and City. However, would missing out on the Champions League be enough for Arsenal supporters to turn on Arsene?
Failing to win a Trophy for six years? Eight years? Arsenal have not won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup, and are unlikely to win one this year. This would extend their drought to five full years. How many years will Gunners tolerate an utter absence of honors while celebrating Arsenal’s beautiful style of play? After how many years of no trophies do they turn on Wenger? I’d like a number please.
Cesc Fabregas leaving the club this summer? I personally think that this would be a direct indictment of Wenger’s plan. Fabregas is an incandescent talent. He personifies Arsene Wenger’s philosophy, not only in his style of play but also in personifying Arsenal’s trust in youth to come good. He’s also Captain. Were Fabregas to leave, I would think that the Wenger Experiment would have to be questioned. Building through youth requires the best of that youth to stay, no? Otherwise, aren’t you a selling club, developing talent for others?
Look, I am a Chelsea supporter. Of course it’s easy for me to criticize. And, yes, I do take pleasure in it. But I have Liverpool supporter friends as well. Most have realized that Rafa Benitez is not the manager to take them to further glory. For them, it might have been losing Xabi Alonso. Yet Arsene Wenger seems to be beyond questioning. All I ask of Arsenal supporters is, what would it take for you to lose faith in your manager?
The Damned United
In marked contrast to Arsenal, Manchester United continue to win big matches with a thin squad. They, too, have been beset by injuries. They failed to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably their best player last year, yet in his tactics, Sir Alex Ferguson is again proving to be perhaps the best manager in the world. In contrast to other clubs, you rarely see a United player give less than total effort in a match. Players are plugged into unfamiliar positions in big matches and they come up huge. Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, both limited players in their advancing age, somehow manage to come through at critical times – like aging fighters with one good fight left in them. And, of course, Wayne Rooney has been immense. I love the way he plays and I love the way he leads.
United stand between my club and the EPL and Champions League this year and while they’ve certainly tripped up at times, you have to be impressed with what you’re seeing from United this season, don’t you? Tuesday’s Champions League match was a classic example. Played off the pitch in the first half, they dug down and took a 3-1 lead IN MILAN before conceding a late consolation goal. That takes heart, endless effort, and courage. I take my hat off to them. As a sports fan, you want your club to have worthy adversaries – to beat the best if they win things. Manchester United have been giants this year.
Now, I hope that I have cursed them with this praise. May they go on a horrid run that knocks them out of both competitions and proves me to be an idiot for having praised them.
Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?!!
A proposal was floated this week to hold a playoff for the fourth spot that the Premier League currently has in the Champions League. Similar to the Promotion Playoffs that the lower leagues have for their last promotion spot, the idea is that the teams finishing 4th through 7th in the EPL would have a playoff for the last spot in the Champions League the following year.
Rafa Benitez and others have ridiculed the idea. They argue that Playoffs are a gimmick and that clubs should earn promotion spots (which is really what the Champions League positions are, aren’t they?) on the basis of season-long performance. What would happen if a Fulham or a Birmingham were to freakishly go through to Europe and proceed to get stomped (Remember Blackburn’s Champion’s League adventure a few years back? Bottom of a mediocre group.) Would it cost England that fourth spot?
All good points. But I love playoffs. Three huge matches at Wembley. Drama. And a fighting shot for a club, and that club’s supporters, at some glory. Further, I think that anything that shakes up the Big Four’s security in the Premiership is good for the League. Want to go through on season-long performance? Earn one of the top three spots outright. Let a few more clubs fight it out for the last. Imagine the end of season fight for 7th place! At the margin, it won’t hurt the integrity of the season or the spots themselves any more than Playoffs have hurt the Championship or the lower Leagues. Come on, people. Let’s have some fun with it!
This will all come to nothing. The Big Four – including my Chelsea – will snuff it out. But I say that’s a shame.
<—————- most ridiculed regular commenter
(We also discuss many of you, our dear readers. No, it’s not pretty.).
Makes me feel a BIT uneasy.
ESPN’s wonderful Castrol rankings have a poll up asking whether Arsenal need a new manager, defender, or goalkeeper. Not sure why they left out “a healthy striker,” aside from the fact that it’s ESPN and thus retarded on soccer.
I agree with the Playoffs for the Champions League spot. As earlier reported on this fine blog site, Scotland has just lost one of their two Champions League spots because of how poorly they’ve played in recent years. If the Fulhams, Bongos, and hell even the Stokes earn “promotion” to the Champions League via the playoffs, England will eventually lose that fourth spot therefore rendering the playoffs pointless.
UF most certainly is not an Arsenal site. But there would be more Chelsea if old auto wrote more often!
Actually the UF balance breaks down like this..
4 Gooners, 2 Pool, 1 Exeter, 1 Norwich, 1 Spurs and 1 Chelsea.
Georger, you will be honored to know that I was thinking about you when I wrote that aside. Mission accomplished!
re: Arsene –
I wouldn’t qualify the question in terms of “losing trust.” It’s more a question of funds and expenditures and making the right purchases; building Emirates turned Arsenal into a club unable to match the spending of Citeh, Chelsea, United, and a host of foreign clubs. We aren’t able to match the salaries being offered to the players, nor the transfer fees. In this era of spending and profligacy, Arsene has navigated a path of austerity and smart financial management, while maintaining a club competitive on both the domestic and continental levels. This is not a simple thing to do. If anything, my faith in Wenger has been strengthened over the past five seasons.
Do I have qualms with his transfer positions? Absolutely. The biggest mistake Wenger made, I believe, was selling Flamini and Gilberto Silva, and not bringing in adequate replacements. Being a perceived top four club while having a keeper like Alumnia is sinful. Not having a good back-up is even worse. Not having a strong long striker to back-up RvP – when RvP has known injury problems – is poor man management. There are a host of other issues I have, but I’ve gone on too long already.
Here’s my point: even with his faults and mistakes, I’m glad we’ve had Wenger these past difficult seasons. I’m unsure another manager would have done more.
Arsenal in Autoglass posts:
Auto 1 – a mention
Auto 2 – all about
Auto 3 – not at all
Auto 4 – not at all
Auto 5 – all about
+ rivalry series
Is that catering to the UF audience or is auto a closet Gunner?
Like Georger, I’m uneasy with the idea of UF internally discussing and ridiculing my ideas. I go to my father for that.
Ebulliantfatalist – I believe Flamini left on a free after we wouldn’t renegotiate his contract when he wanted to. He went on to have a fantastic year, earning him the right to sit on Milan’s bench for the next five.
Otherwise I agree wholeheartedly with your first paragraph. To be a profitable club challenging for the league in this day and age is remarkable. Now unclench your cheeks and just go buy a decent keeper, striker and center back. Please.
“Like Georger, I’m uneasy with the idea of UF internally discussing and ridiculing my ideas. I go to my father for that.” Yes but unlike me, ninety percent of what you say isn’t hate filled or absurd. Only eighty-five, eighty-seven, tops.
@Bergs: You’re right. Flams left on a free, but Silva didn’t. He was 32 that Summer of 2008, but as DM didn’t need to be that mobile, and would have been a wonderful tutor for Denilson or Song.
@Georger: It’s mostly absurd. I, for one, would like to see some of these internal comments. I need a good cry.
To be accurate, the breakdown of UF internal emails is about as follows:
50% Sending links to stories worth covering
10% Noting that links have already been sent by someone else
10% Asking who is going to cover which stories
15% Heated discussions that go nowhere
10% Non-footy discussions, such as when me and Ned are going to see a movie this weekend
4.9% Personal insults, usually involving wives, mothers and/or the French
.1% Offhand comments about you our readers
In other words, you really ain’t missing much.
.001 percent: Bigus asking someone to ask me for my Brazzers password.
@Georger. I believe that was The Fans Attic. I don’t cover bongo stories, that’s his specialty.
Nope. Bigus used me as an intermediary to request the password.
@ebullientfatalist: The whole Emirates thing is rather ironic. Initially, it was claimed that Highbury’s limited seating capacity prevented Arsenal from generating more money to compete with Man U, etc., so a larger stadium was needed. Now that Arsenal has the larger stadium, the high construction cost is being cited as a reason for Arsenal’s inability to compete. I’m sure the Emirates stadium will eventually pay for itself over an over.
I am an Arsenal fan and I admit to being often frustrated with Wenger. His ‘I didn’t see it’ to not doing anything to solve the lack-of-a-goal-scorer issue we currently have. While he’s a brilliant tactician, but I don’t think his farts are symphonic. He didn’t replace the midfield after they split and he didn’t replace Ade***or. The injury issue is unlucky, however RVP is injury-prone and the idea of him playing an entire season is ridiculous.
The goalkeeper issue is one that he’s not going to back down on so let’s sit back and enjoy our currently laughable keepers
Wenger’s resolute stubbornness against all evidence to the contrary is frustrating to the Gooners and haters alike.
He never sees us foul, or get an unfair call to our advantage, or get out-coached or outplayed… does that sound about right Autoglass?
For me, he inherited some incredible defensive talent that he’s never bothered to replace, and in some years we’ve over-achieved despite this. His reluctance to replace Seaman with a mentally stable world-class keeper (an oxymoron?) cost us a European title. And his insistent belief in his ability to find talented youth meant that we’ve never filled the boots of Patrick, Dennis, Pires, and as illustrated this season, Thierry. And over the summer, you might have to add Fabs to this list.
But who and where would we be _without_ the Professor? It’s true that building Emirates has strained the budget probably more than they would admit, and the debt costs meant that he didn’t spend when we needed a keeper and a def mid… and now it is apparent that we need that and some decent backs and a striker or three. But other than the monopoly money worlds of Chelski and al-Citeh, I think the other financial shoe is going to drop very soon on the Glazers and Hicks/Gillette ilk and at least Arsenal are positioned as healthy as one can be in such difficult times.
Professional sports appeared to be recession proof last year, but it looks like owners in the NFL, NBA and likely European football are going to have to take drastic steps to combat debt problems that they only delayed not dodged. Arsene warned about this 18 months ago, but habits all around never changed. I guess his hedging on the disaster probably cost us in the short run but may ultimately save the club in the long term.
Wenger is the most successful manager we’ve ever had, and there are at least 17 other EPL teams who would take him from us in a heartbeat. I hope he is our gaffer until he dies/retires. It’s frustrating in the low times, but the highs he has brought to this club have been some of the most excellent football times I have ever seen. So will I ever hold him “accountable”? Nope. We’ve seen what a North London team with no stability or leadership looks like and we’ve celebrated St. Totteringham’s Day for 14 years thanks to it.
well said, hockalees!
I did it! I cursed United!
I have long suspected smoke-and-a-pancake jokes at my dutch expense…
on the topic of playoffs, for the love of god, dont. we had it in holland for a few years and it was a disaster. there was no fan interest, season ticket holders had to pay to get in. horrible.