Obstinate Arsenal cooking their own recipe for disaster
The ramifications of a familiar festive-period implosion have forever been painful for the Arsenal faithful over the last few years, so to once again see them collapse in the title race and in Europe this time of the year is not surprising at all. It’s boring, it’s irritable, it’s soporific.
While Antonio Conte is basking in the joy of a title hunt that is entering it’s final and inevitable glory, Arsene Wenger is fighting off the critics who this time, might just get their wish and see him depart the club. It’s more than a painful decennium since Wenger last lifted a Premier League trophy, and the eyes that earlier used to have some sanguinity are but the residence of worry.
Year after year after year, Arsenal show fewer signs of growth on the footballing front and ominous suggestions of falling further behind in the race for major titles. It’s almost as if a step forward has to be followed by a couple step backwards, so to say that it’s a norm at the club won’t be wrong at all. What’s worse, is that you don’t know as to who and how do you put the blame on? Arsene Wenger’s stubbornness that his ways still work is part of the problem, but to say that he is the problem is impetuous, it’s a flawed opinion.
Wenger would never-ever want to leave Arsenal because of his love for the club, so it’s down to the board to tell him that his time is up, however, stubborn as he is with his principles and beliefs, he is the perfect fit for the gluttonous owners. They are well aware of the fact that they have a modern-day Johan Cruyff at their disposal who prefers “building” to “buying” a team, which ensures financial growth (not necessarily footballing growth) and that’s all that matters to those concerned.
Putting financial matters on top of your priority list isn’t wrong, even Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United or other top European clubs, may it be Real Madrid or PSG concentrate on profits, but that goes hand in hand with success on the field in their case. With Arsenal, none of the owners care about the on-field matters, because if they did, Wenger would have left at least a couple of years ago. He is past it and everyone knows it.
At a club wherein obstinacy runs in the blood, there can only be a disaster in the making. The players don’t push themselves enough and repeat the same mistake; the manager has persevered through the tough times and is determined to do well, but he’s beyond his heyday and fails to realise it; the management is happy with the things as they are, making it clear that for them, a change is still only a wish that the fans wants fulfilled, not a need, or rather, a want. What awaits could either be the stuff of legend or a forgettable footballing folklore. Arsenal’s choice.
