Thursday, December 6th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

Arsenal’s doom and gloom, manufactured and spread by the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal, with their allies in the press, has gone further up the scale this week.

Sagna has apparently been offered only a one-year extension to his current contract, which takes him up to the age of 32.  He’s clearly a great player, and it would be a shame to see him go, but we’ve been down this road before.  If he goes at the end of his contract, everyone screams that another player is on the way out.  If he stays, but his ability declines because of his age, everyone screams that his salary is a waste of money, and points out how big our salary bill is.

The AAA will then recite the litany of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gaël Clichy, Robert Van Persie and Alex Song.

More concerning is the lack of news on Walcott, who has rejected a five-year deal worth £75,000 a week.    One argument that seems to have fallen away is that “if we give in to this deal, everyone will want the same”.  Everyone wants more and more, despite FFP and the 25 rule and the possible Premier League Financial rules that have been proposed.

If Theo really wants to play centre forward, guaranteed, does he really think that other clubs would go for that?  If they do then the manager’s position becomes pointless since the players committee can actually pick their own team.

Being away yesterday I have not heard if Tomas Rosicky came off on Tuesday as a precaution, easing him back from a long injury, or if there was something wrong with him.  I guess we will see on Saturday.

So doom and gloom at around 8/10  (with 10 being the max) at Arsenal among those who like to look for negatives.

What about Chelsea then.   New unwanted manager, big score last night, uninspiring league games, out of the Champions League and a lot of talk about the spine of their team not being right.  First Champions League Champions to go out in the group stages.

Or come to that Man City – finishing bottom of their group and not even making it into the Europa League.  Doom and gloom there?

The problem for Man City is that the country that owns the club have expectations that are primarily insane (given that to some degree football is a game of chance and luck as well as skill).  Retain the Premier League and do well in the Champions League.

So those who own recognise a 50% failure rate already.  It is the championship or every chance that the manager will go.  And the manager kept on buying through the summer to strengthen the squad.   At least Arsenal fans can believe that if only we had bought more we would be higher up the league (as well as in being where Man City are not – in the last 16).

There is also the fact that it is widely thought that van Persie, Martínez, Hazzard and de Rossi, were going to Man City, but they went elsewhere.  Even the billions can’t buy everything.

There is also the point that while Arsenal has never won the Champions League we have been to the final, but Man City’s manager has never got past the quarter finals.

And while Arsenal focus on the players who have left our club, let us not forget that they lost de Jong.  OK, just one player, but an important player in my personal view.

As for Chelsea they have the Europa League to play in but I don’t sense harmony in the camp despite Torres scoring a couple.

Benítez is not everyone’s cup of tea – largely because he seems to have no humility, no sense of humour, nothing that makes him likeable.  He has said that Lampard and Cole will be out soon – which isn’t really the motivation one normally gives players.

The problem is that the crowd don’t much like him, he wasn’t the owner’s first choice, he’s a stop-gap, and I wonder if the players actually like him much.   He maybe can persuade the players to play a bit differently, but that’s about it, which is not much for a top manager.

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He looks like the wrong manager at the wrong club to me.  Of course I am an Arsenal fan, so my judgement of Chelsea is always biased, but the manager’s position at Chelsea looks to me the biggest problem of all.

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Of course Arsenal have problems; I know I was there last saturday and stayed to the very end.  But somehow, perhaps because of belief, or passion, or love for the club or plain daftness, I still think over the next ten years, our problems are nothing to those of Man City and Chelsea.  Man City’s time will pass once the country that owns them has done its world cup thing.  Chelsea will finally run out of managers to buy and sack.

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Just a thought.

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