Saturday 17 September 2011

Champions League? We Wanna Worry About The Championship!

In my whole entire stinking existence I have never seen Arsenal involved in a relegation scrap.

There is always a first for everything I suppose!

People say Arsenal will find it tough to get into the top four this season.

Well, at the moment, I'd be happy if we finish outside of the bottom four!

In all seriousness I am becoming a little worried. And I don't like that because I've always been a glass half-full kind of fella.

Of course I don't believe we will be sucked into a relegation battle.

I'm still very confident of a top four finish too.

What I am worried about is the fact that we no longer seem to be able to compete with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea.

That hurts me bad. Real bad. In fact I'd rather suffer a year in a room with no doors and Harry Redknapp as my only companion than feel this pain.

I think its time I admit it to myself.

Arsenal are no longer title contenders but are the best of the rest after the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.

My ambitions for my beloved club have been lowered lower than Wee Man from Jackass doing the Limbo.

For the moment our 'title' is fourth place.

Any less and this season will be a spectacular flop. Floppier than a floppy disk with impotence.

One piece of silverware, and I mean ANY silverware, a place in the Champions League qualifiers for 2012 will be a fantastic season for me now.

From there we can build, again, and next season actually challenge for the Premiership title.

Keep It Goonerish........

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Piers Morgan:

The blind deluded non-critical devotion to Wenger by so many #Arsenal fans is one reason we're in this mess. Heads up, ostriches.


I think he is talking about you Wrighty.

BnT.

Wrighty7 said...

Yes and the millions and millions and millions of £'s spent by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea is a reason too.

I know Wenger has his faults. Many in fact, but you cannot deny that it is hard to compete with clubs who splash the cash like those clubs.

Anonymous said...

"Arsenal are no longer title contenders but are the best of the rest after the Manchester clubs and Chelsea."

--> Are you insane? Liverpool, Tottenham and probably even teams like Stoke and Villa could easily finish about us this year.

I cannot describe in a couple of sentences what a complete mess we are in.

http://www.gingers4limpar.com/2011/09/arsenals-relegation-league-form-post-carling-cup-final-part-iii/

Anonymous said...

Best of the rest? How can you possibly believe that? Have you watched Liverpool or Newcastle or Stoke (yes Stoke)this year. Have you seen the way they defend? What are you seeing from Wenger's calamitous team that I am not? I'm genuinely interested. At best with this team playing with confidence 7th. At worst with this team remaining a collection motivated players without talent, talented players without motivation and kids we will be in a relegation scrap. We're not good at scrapping. We are far far far far far too good to go down but they always are aren't they.

Anonymous said...

Wrighty,

Couple of problems with that argument mate:

1. United are not a "doped" team, when the float on the Singapore exchange they will be even stronger to the tune of 30-40m a season.

2. We dont play Citeh and Chelsea every week our current form of 16 points in 16 games include loads of teams that have wage bills a third of ours.

3. We dont, and havent for the last 3 years, spend all available resources at out disposal. We also spend a hell of a lot of money on squad dross as clearly shown by B52 and Denilson.

Blaming cash for finishing 4th is one thing, blaming cash when you ship 4 goals against the utter shit that is Blackburn is the kind of lame bullshit excuse I would only expect from someone who was living in a parrelel univers, an AKB universe.

BnT

Wrighty7 said...

I believe that because we wasn't far off the best teams last season.

We have had a lot of upheaval in the last few weeks.

Give it time to gel for crying out loud!

Every year I hear that AFC will not qualify for Champs League.

We've had a shit start but there is a long way to go.

Anonymous said...

"I believe that because we wasn't far off the best teams last season"

You may or may not have noticed whilst you were busy talking up the impact that OxCube and Jenkinson were going to have and how clever Arsene is for getting in these "gems" that we let Cesc (he'll never get off the bench) Fabregas go for £35m. Cesc the man who made the team tick and who is top 5 midfielders in the world.

Another thing that happened this summer, probably while you were busy admiring Arsene for his knowledge of the Costa Rican 4th division, is that Samir (he's only leaving for the money) Nasri also walked out the door.

Bit like having a Ferrari one week and then having a Fiat Punto the next mate.

BnT

Anonymous said...

Sorry Wrighty your living in dreamland.

Why do you keep going on about last season, it was a horror show. Look at our form at the back-end of last season -

http://www.gingers4limpar.com/2011/09/arsenals-relegation-league-form-post-carling-cup-final-part-iii/

The quicker people understand that we've been total rubbish for half a season the better. Take Nasri's good form and Fabregas (both world class) out of last year's team (remember the CC final?) and it was mid-table.

We all know we went in to this summer with massive holes to plug in the squad. The manager did NOTHING until the last day of the window. It's just a comedy. Anyone else in any other job would have been sacked years ago.

Why did he not buy Cahill for 18m in June? When Clichy was going out the door why not buy Baines for 15m? If we had acted quickly by buying quality we may not have lost Nasri.

I am sorry but the club is a total disaster at the moment. We're going down like the Titanic. Yes we'll win some games but forget about your 4th place and CL football.

Wrighty7 said...

@BnT

I haven't blamed cash for conceding 4 goals against B'Burn.

That defeat today was a mixture of bad luck (2 OG's and offside goal) and bad defending.

Listen, I know for a fact that AW has made bad decision over the past few years.

But what I do know is that he made Arsenal's transition from Highbury to the Grove feasible.

AW sacrificed his short-term success for Arsenal's long-term future.

Not many managers would do that would they?

The problem is he seems to ne set in these ways now and needs to realise that to compete you need to spend a few quid.

Anonymous said...

Yeah right.

Listen, can you hear it? Its the worlds smallest violin playing a tune for altruistic Wenger the man who sacrificed everything for the club he loves, except of course that pay packet which makes him the best paid manager in the league.

The ego that would have seen us go into the first part of this season without Areteta, Mertesaker etc etc had it not been for a spanking at OT. The ego that had Almunia in goal for YEARS. The ego that thinks "no one can teach me about football". The ego is the thing that has stopped us improving.

Sacrifice would have been taking a pay cut in line with performance.

Pride comes before the fall and trust me Issac Newton sat underneath the tree couldnt make this apple any more ripe.

BnT

Anonymous said...

Shit start? You are joking. We have been shit for the last 18 league games.

Even you Wrighty have to wake up at some point. We can't keep finding excuses

Anonymous said...

Call me deluded but I still believe we can finish in the Top 4. I like to think of it like we are having our usual season (from the last 5 years)... in reverse! Instead of playing shit in the end we are now doing it at the start. Hopefully we will finish the season strongly ;)

nikkogunners said...

It Time Wenger changed things. First Djourou CANNOT be a RIGHT BACK. He is too slow and gets exposed. That aside. i suggest Wenger adopts a radical restructure of the team.

Here is what i would consider in practice:

————–Snezzy
Sagna/Jerkinson, Matsecker, Santos
————Song – Fringpong
Arshavin/Chamberlain, Arteta, Gervinho
—————-RVP———-
———-Park/Chamakh/Walcott

It is my humble opinion that we can experiment a 5 man defensive unit with 3 guys at the back and 2 defensive Midfielders.The two will aid in transition to attack. When Vermaleen returns he will take one of DM roles. They will fill the spaces between the 3 back liners and and the holes in the midfield between the three Midfielders.

Winning a game requires an attacking side. Wenger’s gamble with removing Song for Chamakh almost paid off. It was good to get RVP-Chamakh link up to get the goal. We were really dangerous through the last 1/8 of the match.

It is time Wenger gave RVP much needed assistance in a 2 man frontal challenge. Van Persie playing behind strikers as a free role is a hot attacker with lesser risks of injury and can build Arsenal striking prowess substantively. We must start to get to score goals with a more regular frequency. The system is 3.2.3.2.

I suspect we will turn the season once the team settles in.

Pritpal said...

the team is actually very good compared to what people think it's just wenger's tactics i feel. he needs to stop playing the high line and start playing to people like mertesackers strengths. there is a reason united and chelsea have the best defences and thats because they defend properly as a unit and not just try to play a horrible offside line game in game out. sort out the defence and we will be back to challenging. get in keown and adams to sort this defence out, otherwise signing mertesacker was completely useless!!!

reece said...

wasn't hard to splash the cash this year, we made a 20mil profit on transfers + 35 at least from the budget you have over 35 mil and he gets benayoun on loan....

Anonymous said...

There is a defense void in,structure,concept or proper coaching for years which Wenger refuses to acknowledge. A few halfhearted signings will never bail him out. It is high time to adapt proper defensive coaching or the repercussion will decimate confidence and morale to the bitter end. His vision could still flourish,but act fast he must.

Anonymous said...

I have been, until recently, a big Wenger supporter but not quite an AKB. Up until January this year I didn't agree with the Wenger out brigade as I thought that with much of the debt repaid, our turnover and the combined wealth of Usmanov and Kroenke that AW would get and use all available finances to lead us again to the promised land and cement his standing as our greatest ever manager.

The fans were sold the Ashburton Grove project on the basis that it would allow us to compete at the top level financially. It is not that we can't compete now, more that we are choosing not to. I also wonder now whether the image of Arsenal and Wenger is damaged beyond repair. I feel that AW and the club have constantly sent out messages that we accept second best and can't hope to compete with the other top clubs. This is suicidal and I think even if we have the money now the top players will not consider us an option.

AW used to be a manager top players would want to sign up for. My gut feeling is that behind the scenes both him and our illustrious club have been turned down by 2-3 top targets this summer as the current image is of a sinking ship and a previously flawless manager on the slippery slope. It would have been unheard of for some of these players to have turned us down before. The media plays their negative part of course but they are only seizing on the messages the club are giving out so in reality it is a P.R cock up of the highest order by the club.

I even wonder now if players like Van-Persie see a different manager to the imperial master schemer of years before. It could be the same as watching a dearly loved one go off the rails desperately hoping they can turn themselves around but in reality knowing it has already gone too far, and that you will have to step back and make sure you are not dragged under too. I can't see RVP signing again now. I think he has thrown out the veiled warnings on a few occasions now, asking for top signings to be brought in, and I bet his mind is already made up.

It is not even just about the lack of spending. Other questions are raised such as do we actually even practice the art of defending or employ a top defensive coach, and what is the infatuation with buying technical attacking midfielders over bringing in a pure goal-scorer in the Owen or shearer mould. We seem to be constantly unbalanced and always seem to be missing 2-3 certain types of players to give us a more rounded strenght in the team.

This current situation may now be irretrievable for our manager and the only answer in that situation is to start afresh so that the top players start to look at us as a big club with ambition again. The only thing that currently holds me back from complete loss of faith in Wenger is a nagging feeling that he now actually wanted to change the financial goal-posts in terms of both transfer fees and wages to top players, and that in fact the board did not back him. They would then have essentially have hung Wenger out to dry and he is probably the only manager who is too principalled to let this be known in public. Could this be the case? If it is then this board have a serious amount of explaining to do.

Fully said...

so when the short term sacrifice turns out to be a 10th, or worst finish, and RVP walks away, will wenger be praised?? Any other club on this sort of run would see the manager sacked. Clearly this man has lost it. he WAS great, he is now a laughing stock and if you can't see it you should walk away to.

Doublegooner said...

Wrighty:

Forget the millions the Manchester teams, the chavs have spent. We had money & have wasted it, not just this season.

Whose fault the players arent behind the manager ?

Whose fault is it we have substandard players - all signed at 10.30pm on 31/8 ?

Whose fault is it we defend like a schoolboy side ?

Get real & stop defending our conman trousering £7m a year.

I've supported this club for over 40 years & his legacy is damaged beyond repair.

Wenger should do the honourable thing & Resign Immediately.

Jotweet101 said...

In one of Clichys interviews he said Arsenal have no defensive training. It certainly shows!

Defensively we have no idea. I saw no natural leaders on that park, against a team that until Arsenal showed up were favourites for the drop. Not a lot in the locker room either.

Would Fergie keep Playing some of the buffoons AW does?

Time to move AW upstairs before Arsenal start the 2012/2011 season in the championship.

Tai Obasi, Lagos said...

I support this Great Club from faraway Nigeria, my country. Even from about 3000 km away, I notice the calculated attempt by the British Press, FA, Referees and even UEFA to drown Arsene and Arsenal.

Hardly does Arsenal complete a 90-minute game without at least one atrocious call against the team. Today, my country man, Yakubu scored an off-side goal!

The team that lined out against Blackburn today can equally line out in a Champions League final and win it with luck too. We're turning a corner and patience is the watchword.

We must learn to stick behind our manger and team to successfully navigate these troubled times. If we call ourselves true Gunners, we should be talking about the offside goal and not berating Wenger for woeful defending. I guess he taught them how to concede own goals too!

Arteta, Martesacker, Santos - all look good. Arteta may not be Fabregas but he possesses more steeel than his departed countryman. Be patient guys! It's just five matches gone!

Anonymous said...

The other teams have too much money excuse is not valid on a day we gave up four goals to a shit club like Blackburn. Also Koscielny and Song can only have so much bad luck before they're deemed insufficient. Ready made excuses for Mr. Senile have all been heard before. Time for change.

Andy said...

Face facts, we had 16 shots on target they had 5 and we lost 4-3, that tells me not only can' t we defend but our attack is shit, if we finish top 10 it will be a miracle and we shouldn't just sack Wenger but also PHW who makes Prince Philip look sensible, I can honestly say that after 36 years of supporting MY Arsenal I just can't take anymore.

Anonymous said...

Word is RVP will not be renewing and Jacks injury is worse than they are letting on. Could be worse I suppose......NOT

visionary said...

wenger ball 4 here we come

Anonymous said...

Almunia is in his 8th season as an Arsenal player.
We are currently paying Denilson handsomely to stay in another country.
Despite your predictions we have won nothing for 6 seasons.
There is absolutely no sign that Wenger has any notion of defending.
The supporters have been lied to by Wenger and the Board since 2006.
Wenger and his repugnent supporter Hill-Wood constantly insult the supporters who are the only people to actually put money into the club.
The above list could go on for pages but, well, you get the picture! What is the tipping point for you Wrighty? What has to happen before you abandon the Hitler bunker and notice the Russians are already in the next street? If you are, like me, a life-long Arsenal supporter how come you don't seem to give a damn about Arsenal but only about a failing Employee? Wenger gets more money than Alex Ferguson. The old board and Hill-Wood have all cashed in. How can you not see that Wenger is the problem rather than part of the solution?
I am perplexed that some of our supporters are still on their knees to Wenger when he clearly couldn't give a toss about them and has bluntly stated that they are not Arsenal supporters if they disagree with him?
You seem like a decent enough bloke Wrighty, but why do you worship our incompetent, arrogant, deluded, egotistical failure of a manager when our club is so clearly falling apart? - Ramgun

telly said...

Theo Walcott anyone? A signing for the future a few years ago , why the hell is he still playin at arsenal, only thing he's got is pace. technically shit , shooting shit , crossing shit ?

Anonymous said...

David Moyes will fix everything.

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