L’Arse De Triomphe? Cesc Fini

Reading fan Phil Scullion with a damning indictment on Arsene Wenger’s management…

————————-

Desperation, panic buys and lost superstars. It was never quite supposed to turn out this way was it?

Three games into the season and Arsenal’s title bid is over. The bookies don’t even think they are likely to finish in the top four.

Rewind back to February and it was all so different. They sat one point short of Manchester United in the league and had an opportunity to end their six year trophy drought in the Carling Cup final against the soon to be relegated Birmingham City.

Could this be the moment that Arsenal’s younglings came good? Was this the chance for the boys to become men and play with the steel that would justify Arsene Wenger’s faith in them? No. They capitulated.

And it was no ordinary capitulation.

The late goal shipped in the Carling Cup final was unlucky, but what followed most certainly was not. Arsenal won just three games of their remaining fourteen matches. One against relegated Blackpool, one versus League One’s Leyton Orient and the last, oddly, versus Manchester United.

It is perhaps that final win that tells us most. With the pressure removed Arsenal’s players shone.

It does not seem too folly to suggest that if Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny (highest scrabble score of all time) hadn’t conspired to hand Obafemi Martins the Carling Cup this might be a substantially different article.

However footballing history is full of ifs. What if Afonso Alves had been the greatest striker of all time? What if Roy Keane had had a bit more love as a child? What if Kieron Dyer’s legs had not been made from twigs?

If all those things had happened who knows where we would be. Perhaps James Beattie would be on Strictly Come Dancing or something. Literally anything could be a reality.

Anyway, back to Arsenal’s summer.

It soon became clear that talisman and least-successful Arsenal captain in memory Cesc Fabregas was to trade abject failure at Arsenal for guaranteed ‘it’s-like-the-Scottish-Premier-League-but-sunny’ style success in La Liga with Barcelona. I want to go home Cesc whined, as Arsene Wenger sat alone at home weeping over photos of happier times. Like that time Cesc was injured for ages and Arsenal didn’t win anything. Happy happy days.

No bother, he’d reinvest the money in shrewd purchases to solve the glaringly obvious and intrinsic problems in the Arsenal team.

Wenger emerged triumphant having confounded critics by lashing £22.5m on an 18-year-old and a bloke from France with stupid hair. Both attacking midfielders, obviously. They also signed Carl Jenkinson, a full back from Charlton, but on current form the less said about him the better.

The club started the season with an uninspiring draw against Newcastle in which silly-French-hair-man was sent off. This was followed by a rather dispiriting home loss to Liverpool, although there was time to sneak past Udinese into the Champions League. Hooray.

Even this Herculean achievement wasn’t enough for Samir Nasri, who decided that although it totally wasn’t about the money, he’d actually quite like to move to Man City on double his wages thank you very much.

Then came a trip to Old Trafford. Shipping eight goals, no matter how many first teamers are out, is inexcusable for a club with the budget of Arsenal. For all the cloth cutting analogies of fans, Arsenal’s eleven that day was still expensively constructed, compared to say, that of West Brom who very nearly snatched a point from United in the season’s opener.

It symbolised the end of an era for Arsenal. In just 90 minutes they were no longer the title hopefuls they had been at the start of every season for ten years. There’d be no gushing articles in praise of Wenger’s starlets. No suggestions that this was their year. No Ian Wright jumping up and down like an utter, utter tool.

Sure, the writing was on the wall already, but this was it. Confirmation in ridiculous score line fashion. Against United. To make matters even worse Samir Nasri sparkled on his debut in the blue half of Manchester, setting up three goals and confirming once and for all that he does not need to wear a stupid snood to play well.

What followed was utterly baffling. Arsene Wenger sensed danger. His faith in his players was gone and he entered the Harry Redknapp school of transfer deadline day dealing.

Striker Park Chu-Young signed for an undisclosed, but reportedly substantial, fee from Monaco after netting 25 goals in 91 appearances.

He was joined by left-back Andre Santos, a replacement for Gael Clichy, who was dazzled by the Manchester City pound signs at the start of the summer.

Per Mertesacker, German centre-half and national team stalwart was snapped up in an £8m deal. I don’t know if an Arsenal fan has told you but he has 76 caps and Germany aren’t rubbish are they hmmm?

Mikel Arteta, Everton’s perennially injured Spaniard who possesses an awful lot of ability but is hilariously nowhere near good enough for the international set-up, joined for ten million quid, sending Arsenal fans into pandemonium.

Add a loan move for Chelsea, Liverpool and Maccabi Haifa reject Yossi Benayoun and it was as if Colonel Gaddafi had been told that actually the Libyans do love him after all.

Now those four players may well be a rip-roaring success. Perhaps Arsenal will sail into fourth spot and there will be street parties.

But therein lies the point. Whilst these signings may make help Arsenal beat the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham and Wigan into fourth spot, they will not help the club compete with United, City or Chelsea.

All of a sudden the game is changed. Arsenal are just one of the pack chasing fourth. Their signings, whilst a step in the right direction for making the top four, are no longer a statement of intent to challenge the best in the country. Whilst in the past they have always operated on somewhat of a shoestring budget, there’s always been a sense they are signing players who will quickly make a splash in the upper echelons of the game. That does not quite apply to the likes of Arteta, Benayoun, or Park Chu Young.

Now Arsenal’s relative demise may well be down to Manchester City’s spending boom. It might be because Liverpool have begun to lavish American gold on the likes of Jordan Henderson. Perhaps it is due to Tottenham’s resurgence.

Or maybe it is because Arsene Wenger, with his over emphasis on youth, has consistently failed to build a balanced and successful team over the last six years. Perhaps he has slowly eroded all his previous hard work to make Arsenal a guaranteed top four club.

It would not seem churlish to suggest that the mutterings from disaffected fans at the Emirates who have only known success may actually, for once, have hit the snail on the head.

The jury, as it has been for the past six seasons, is still out on Arsene Wenger’s approach.

Uefa may have slapped the pressured Frenchman with a touchline ban, but the fans and ultimately those in charge of the club may soon need to hand out a far more terminal punishment.

Follow @PhilScullion