Time On Our Hands

No this isn't a review of the highly entertaining and amusing Only Fools and Horses episode, it is an article about how Arsenal, despite their troubles and inadequacies at the moment, have time on their sides.

Yes Arsenal are 7 points off the top four and lie in 6th place, dangerously hovering above Liverpool and West Brom on goal difference but we do have a game in hand on our rivals and 4 months left of the season to put things right and finish in the Champions League places. What's more is that we've also got the FA Cup to win. So whilst the club is under- achieving, showing signs of decline and on poor form, there is still hope of a reasonably successful season if they buck up.

We have three home games now against West Ham, Liverpool and Stoke. All games we should be winning and if we get 9 points out of 9 there then we're back on track, in the league at least, and ready to go on and really challenge convincingly for 4th place. I think Chelsea are now unfortunately realistically out of reach for us. 11 points for an inconsistent team is a bit too much of an ask.

What we also have going for us is that we have an easier run in of fixtures to our rivals. We've got Man City and Chelsea completely out of the way with now and we've also already been to Man Utd, Everton, Liverpool and Stoke so the only really tough games we have now are Man Utd at home, Tottenham away and Everton at home.

Whereas Tottenham and Everton have got harder fixtures. Tottenham still have to go to Liverpool and Stoke and play Man City at home as well as go to Chelsea and play us and Everton at home. Everton still have most of the top teams away from home; Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool as well as Man City at home. Liverpool have to go to Man City and Arsenal and play Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton at home.

So overall, out of the teams chasing 4th spot, we have the easiest fixtures, but we do have a points deficit. We need to take advantage of those better fixtures and, for the first time this season, be consistent and collect the number of points we should and truly give 100% to win the FA Cup to end our barren run of not winning trophies to instill more belief, confidence, optimism and joy around the club, as well as making us a more attractive team to other players. Not to mention taking the pressure off as well.

We still have around 4 months to put things right and are still in with a chance of a trophy. We're still in the Champions League and should try to do as best as we can in that, see if we can at least get to the Quarter finals and that would help our confidence and momentum in the league. Imagine what knocking Bayern Munich out of the Champions League would do for the team's confidence and belief.

We still have time, and we must use it.

(Image source: http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2013/0106/soc_g_podolski_310x175.jpg)

More proof of Wenger's ineptness

Today Arsenal were woeful for 45 minutes against Chelsea. You can't afford to be like that against the top teams. We were decent, but no better than decent in the second half and yet again against Chelsea we were not tactically perepared, organised or determined enough.

Last year we won 5-3 at Chelsea, but apart from that every year we go to Chelsea we get outsmarted and Chelsea take advanatge of our embarassing naivety and lack of tactics and usually go 2-0 up early on and protect the lead. We're just way to easy to play against for the top teams. The players were generally poor and I'll get to them soon but the main person who needs to take the blame in Arsene Wenger.

I've said it so many times over the last 18 months that I'm getting sick of saying it, but he is tactically inept and doesn't prepare for a lot of games anywhere near well enough. Today it looked like we'd just turned up and not prepared at all for this game, no tactics, no sense of importance on the game, we played the first half like it was a nothing game when in actual fact it was a massive game.

It was a huge game where we had to be determined, cautious, tactically astute and aggressive. Yet we were timid, tactically non- existent, clumsy, dozy and naive. It was so easy for Chelsea to get at us and play against us in the first half it was embarassing. We were pushing both full back forward at the same time away from home at 0-0 and 1-0 down against Chelsea early on and pushing way too many players forward overall. We were also not protecting the back four well enough and our wingers weren't tracking back enough. It's frankly schoolboy stuff and Wenger and the players should know better and this shouldn't be happening at all, it's actually awful, especially by the manager.

It was a game where we needed at least a point and you wouldn't be able to tell that looking at the players, many of whom played with such little desire and commitment. The lack of care from the players, the naive and lack of tactics and preparation from the manager just make me so angry about Arsenal.

The transfer business is as always a big factor in Wenger's lack of ability to manage Arsenal and that was evident today. It's the 20th January and we STILL haven't signed anyone with the vast amount of money we apparently have. We've had two massive games against top sides in that period, all the more reason to get business done early. Our bench today was woeful, as soon as we've got 3 or 4 players out, our bench looks very poor.

Mannone, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Santos, Ramsey, Arshavin and Frimpong. That was our bench today. That's not good enough. We've bought extremely poorly over recent seasons and it was evident today. So little amount of quality players who can make a difference. And to think we could have had the likes of Gary Cahill, Ba, Huntelaar, Van Der Vaart and De Jong if we'd have had any high ambitions in recent seasons. (As well as keeping the likes of Van Persie.)

The fact is that any other top club would have got rid of Wenger by now and at Arsenal he's not even under pressure. It'd ridiculous, it appears he can get away with anything- lack of success, lack of ambitious signings, selling our best players to rivals, not solving the persitent injury problems at the club, being tactically inept. It's time for him to go and it's time for Arsenal to start showing some ambition and desire to be at the top again.

It's got the point now where we're competing with Tottenham and Everton with the likes of West Brom and Swansea not too far behind. That's terrible. We should be up there contending with the top 3 now with our current resources.

What we have got going for us is that we haven't got many big fixtures left now and that our fourth place competing rivals have got tougher fixtures overall left to play. The next 3 games, which are all at home, are massive, we need 9 points out of 9 there. Even if we pull it off and finish 4th it still won't be good enough for this club and change will still be needed big time.

(Image source: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65398000/jpg/_65398404_chelsea_arsenal_pa.jpg)

Public shower etiquette

OK, last night I played my weekly game of 5 a- side football in Halifax. This week however, we were relocated from The Shay to Northbridge Leisure Centre due to pitch resurfacing. This meant we had to get changed and washed in much busier changing rooms. When we play down the Shay it's just a few of us in the showers afterwards, but at the leisure centre there's loads of strangers there as well and it's just wall to wall unwanted nakedness.

I find the experience of being naked in front of other blokes horrible. I'm not ashamed of my body in any way, but I just don't want strange blokes looking at my privates. And you can see some do! Why? I don't want to look at yours, why do you want to look at mine?

And they just wander around the changing rooms with their dong out, so care free, flaunting it around. As soon as I'm out of the shower I'm getting into my boxers as soon as is humanly possible. Yet a lot of other blokes are determined to do the opposite. I don't know how many readers have seen Michael McIntyre's 'Hello Wembley' tour DVD where he does a skit about this very thing, but I agree with everything he says about it. Some blokes will just keep their willies out for as long as possible, they're not afraid to come up and talk to you with it out, they'll happily face you in the showers and wash it.

It's awkward, unpleasant to look at and very discomforting. As soon as I'm naked I get my towel wrapped around me straight away. No messing, even if it's the wrong towel and I've accidentally grabbed someone else's! Yet others just leave their towel out of the way and strut around with it all hanging out.

Last night I wrapped my towel around my waist as I approached the showers and noticed there weren't hooks to hang them on like there are at the Shay changing rooms so had to walk back to my changing space and put my towel down and walk completely naked to the showers, a 10 feet walk away that felt like a 100 feet. It actually felt like walking the plank. I felt like there were 15 sets of eyes staring at me as I awkwardly meandered towards the showers.

I then showered and halfway through my wash some old bloke came and started using the shower opposite me, which was about 1 yard away from me. So there I was minding my own business washing myself and then turned around to see a saggy old bare arse. Not what I wanted to see.

Oh, it's disgusting. I am not a fan of men's changing rooms etiquette at all! What do you think? Are you an advocate of showing your privates off in the changing rooms, because I'm not.

Losing Walcott would be a disaster

In my opinion, it is clear that Arsenal letting Theo Walcott go would be disastrous for the club. He's one our best players at the moment and is clearly improving, he's still young and you may say 'well if we give him more money then loads of other players will want more money' but it wouldn't be as simple as that.

For one, most Arsenal players are on big wages and, supposedly, Podolski is on £100,000 a week so why isn't that a problem already if what you suggest is true about giving Walcott an improved contract causing problems in the squad with other players?

Plus, I don't think Walcott is seeking a massive contract, he claims it's not about money. I expect it is to some extent, but I think it's a case of giving him an extra £10,000 or £20,000 a week, so it's hardly a massive increase that's hardly going to cause uproar.

If we offer Walcott a new deal worth £100,000 a week or something, then a few players might feel deserving of a new deal but I don't see that as being a big problem. It must surely be a problem already when you think about what players like Djourou, Chamakh, Arshavin and co. are on already. A bigger problem would be losing another one of our best players.

The priority must be to keep your best players. Otherwise what's the point? We're not going to move forward if we don't move with the times and keep our best players by offering them bigger wages than we might have done 10 or 15 years ago. If we don't keep our best players then we're just going to keep moving backwards like we are at the moment.

It sends out the wrong message to our other players- if we sell Walcott, do you think the likes of Cazorla, Szczesny, Vermaelen, Wilshere and Sagna are going to be happy and want to stay? They're going to be disillusioned, they're going to think 'oh no, another one of our best players leaving again, maybe I should join a club that has genuine ambitions to win things and doesn't sell it's best players'. It sends out the wrong message to us fans, it would only increase the feeling of doom and gloom around the club, it sends out the wrong message to players from other clubs, we'll be a lot less attractive if we keep selling our top players, even players like Raheem Sterling probably wouldn't want to join us. Who wants to join a club that sells it's best players season in, season out and doesn't win anything?

Not only that, losing Walcott would deplete our chances of finishing in the top four this season and can you really expect Arsenal to challenge for the major trophies over the next few years as we keep selling our best players? The more it happens, the harder it is to stop it from continuing. It started with Nasri, Fabregas and Clichy and it's progressed to Van Persie, Song and possibly now Walcott. Who next? Cazorla? Vermaelen? Sagna?

So to sum up, selling Walcott would decrease our chances of finishing in the top four, progressing in the Champions League this season, challenging for trophies in the near future at least and would put in jeopardy our chances of attracting good players to the club and keeping our other better players. We don't want to be a selling club, we want to be a club that keeps it's best players and challenges for trophies, not bragging about a healthy bank balance as we drift further and further away from success and trophies.

How anyone can suggest Arsenal letting Walcott go is not a big deal is beyond me. It would be catastrophic. It's also even more evidence of poor management by Wenger and the board as we have let another player get down to the last year of his contract. Do you ever wonder why Arsenal do this and the likes of Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton never do?

Giving Walcott a little extra cash is a small price to pay for stopping this team declining even more and giving us at least a decent chance of making the top four this season. I'd rather lose a bit more money on contracts to our best players than losing a lot more money on not qualifying for the Champions League, and Theo Walcott could have a big say in that.

If Walcott goes:

• We lose another one of our best players
• It will probably cause discontent in the squad- players unhappy at another top player leaving the club
• We'll become a less attractive team for others players to join
• We'll have slimmer chances of finishing in the top four (this season and/ or next)
• It spreads more gloom around the club and the fans
• It increases the chances of our other better players leaving us in the near future

That is why it would be a disaster and why Arsenal cann't even contemplate losing him. They have no excuse this time.


(Image source: http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01445/TheoWalcott_1445236a.jpg Accessed 16th December 2012)

Bradford was the nail in the coffin

It seems more and more people are believing that Arsene Wenger's time has run out. And I agree. He's run his course, he has been taking the club backwards now for a few years and the club has the same problems as well as other problems that are multiplying fast. The players may change but it's still the same problems and faults and I put that down to bad management.

The man has taken the decisions to constantly sell our best players every season now for a few years. If you list the players that have gone compared to the ones that have come in, it's no wonder we're declining. Fabregas, Flamini, Song, Cole, Nasri, Hleb, Van Persie, Gallas and Clichy out. Arteta, Gervinho, Chamakh, Santos, Ramsey, Squillaci, Silvestre and Park in. OK, we've made some good signings as well: Cazorla, Koscileny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen and Chamberlain being most of them but it's not enough. You can't sell your best players and expect to move forward. Plus, we're often selling them to divisional rivals like Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea, thus improving our rivals while depleting ourselves.

It's bad management. I understand how big and influential player power is nowadays but why are those players wanting to leave in the first place? Lack of ambition, lack of proper, established quality signings and proper drive for trophies and success. Van Persie left because of lack of ambition from the club, Nasri left because he felt he was more likely to win trophies elsewhere, Gallas left for money, Hleb left for trophies, Flamini did.

It just shows that we have spent our money poorly. The club may bang on about limited resources and not having as much money as Chelsea and Man City etc, but if that's the case, why are we wasting a big slice of our money paying big wages to the likes of Diaby, Chamakh, Bendtner, Djourou and co.? Instead of paying poor players like that 60k a week, we should have been prioritising spending that money on our best players' wages and on new signings that are seriously going to help our trophy push.

For years we were two signings away from being genuine title contenders and we always refused to go that extra yard and sign proper, established players for the present but instead we spent the whole summer persuading the likes of Ramsey and Chamakh to come to us and buying for the future- youngsters that we could develop so that they can go on to sign for clubs with genuine trophy winning aspirations. The club have always said we've had money to spend and they pay ridiculous wages to squad players (who have clearly not been good enough for some time) so we have had the money.

In the summer of 2009, we sold Kolo Toure and Emmannuel Adebayor for £40 million. Where did that money go? Did it go towards signing top quality players and showing the kind of ambition we should and need to be doing to challenge for trophies? We spent £10 million on Thomas Vermaelen, which was a great signing, but we didn't sign anybody else, we still stayed in the same position of being 2 or 3 players away from being able to win the league. We didn't replace Adebayor and lacked fire power the following season. When Van Persie got injured, we were stuffed. We had to play Arshavin or Bendtner up front. I still believe that if Van Persie had stayed fit or if Adebayor had been properly replaced and we'd signed a centre half, we'd have won the league in the 09/10 season. But no, we stayed being 2 players away.

Also, one of Wenger's strengths was always his judgement of player quality, I used to trust his signings even when I'd never heard of them. But now we can see that he's lost that to a large extent. He's persisted in the likes of Djourou, an injury- prone Diaby, Chamakh, Squillaci, Chamakh and Almunia and rewarded them for their mid- table level ability with bumper contracts worth 50, 60, 70k a week. It's laughable. Why wasn't that money spent on making sure our better players stayed and on buying new players that had quality and showed our ambition for titles? There have been tonnes of players that we could have got (or at least gone for) over the last few years that we haven't- Mata, Parker, Huntelaar, David Villa possibly even (when he was at Valencia), Gary Cahill, Llorente, Jose Enrique, Berbatov, Van Der Vaart, Schwarzer, the list goes on and on.

But no, we've gone for poor players like Ramsey, Gervinho and even players that are decent but not really good enough, like Arteta. Arteta's been decent for us but is that enough? We shouldn't have been buying him on deadline day in a panic after an 8-2 embarassment at Man Utd, we should have been getting a better quality player earlier in the summer, or better yet, replacing Patrick Vieira properly with a strong, defensive midfielder years ago. We still lack that. We briefly had it in Flamini in my opinion, but let him slip through our fingers when he was looking top class.

I like Olivier Giroud as a player, he's quite good, but he's not good enough to replace Van Persie and fill the centre forward void all on his own. We need a quality striker like Llorente or Huntelaar to replace him and I believe we've had opportunities to do that, not just after Van Persie left, but while he was still here, why weren't we buying this calibre of centre forward then? We shouldn't be in a position where we're worrying about replacing Van Persie, we should have added to him while he was here. Someone like Huntelaar with Van Persie would have made us such a force a couple of years ago, even more so if we'd have been able to get the likes of Van Der Vaart and a better centre half as well.

Even now, Theo Walcott looks like he's going to add to our woes and leave us, probably for a Premier League rival, and why? Because we won't play him at centre forward and because we won't give him the wages he wants. Again, instead of spending 50k a week on Djourou, why don't we spend an extra 10k or so a week on Walcott so we avoid losing another one of our best players? And Wenger has given Gervinho, a winger who can't finish or play up front well to save his life, loads of chances up front this season, and given Walcott next to no chances there. He actually played up front against Tottenham for 5 minutes a few weeks ago, and scored. Why hasn't he given those chances up front to Walcott instead, a centre forward who has a good finish on him and is more natural to that position? Also baring in mind that his staying at Arsenal is largely dependant on getting chances to play up front as well. It's just pathetic, clueless management.

It's just so evident that Wenger needs to go. We need a forward thinking manager who has a strong desire for trophies and winning, who also has the ability to judge what's makes a good player at the top levels and one that doesn't spend ridiculous wages on poor squad players. And above all, one with true ambition so we won't always be short year after year and lose our best players every season. This rapid and embarassing decline has to stop. Enough is enough.

(Image source: http://5.soccer-reviews.com/wp-content/uploads/post/wenger-is-it-time-to-go/arsene-wenger.png 12 December 2012)

Everton v Tottenham Preview

I'm looking forward to this one. Firstly, it's usually a very good game and one of the best we see at Goodison every season. Secondly, it's a massive game really; two teams challenging for the top four, two attacking teams that have genuine chances of finishing in the top four and whoever the winner is here will be above the loser come Sunday evening and have an advantage and extra bit of momentum for the next lap of the race for fourth.

Everton could win, Tottenham could win, it could be a draw. I know that's stating the obvious but it's one of those games you can genuinely see going either way quite easily. Nobody would be shocked if either team won and it's a very enticing, exciting looking game.

There's a lot of attacking talent on either side; Fellaini, Pienaar, Jelavic, Baines and Osman vs Defoe, Adebayor, Lennon, Dempsey and Dembele. Not bad.

I think Everton will sneak it personally. I think they're more solid defensively and with the home advantage there as well, I think that'll be enough to see them record a 3-2 victory. Both teams are about equal in terms of threat going forward, but Everton are just that bit better at the back in my opinion. Tottenham have won 3 on the trot, but before that had lost 3 on the trot as well, Everton have only won 1 in 9 but hardly ever lose and are due a win I think.

Also, they like these big games more than most and are better at them than most other teams. They're often dangerous going forward but very tight and compact at the back when playing the other top sides. This year they've beaten Man City and Man Utd both 1-0, they've beaten Chelsea 2-0 and Tottenham 1-0. So I think Everton are the favourites and Tottenham are in for a slightly rougher ride than Everton are.

Everton will know this is a big game and that they have to be careful in defence against Tottenham's attacking weapons and that usually means they grab a win. So I'm going for Everton to grab a 3-2 win. 1-1 at half- time, Baines with the winner from the penalty spot.

(Image source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4ybT1W813AbLq4KixOQ4qdfhfiUZ7u1A3LqhG_9BF50VgEMQ8V3ENCp2vHx6H3c_wfaJJbQNIj8T-ji3DnfowaGBCpvWLl1CEkVO0EqwETXhiF1Duwr8XNzlw3_yW4Y0ZZgIbi3eNqI2/s400/everton-vs-tottenham.png)

More evidence change is needed

Arsenal are a laughing stock at the moment. It may sound simplified, but Arsene Wenger doesn't know what he's doing. His team selections and substitutions are baffling, his lack of tactics and game plans are laughable, his transfer business continues to be disastrous and his stubborn behaviour is like a child not getting their own way.

He needs to go. If he was at any other club except perhaps Everton he'd at least be under serious pressure at the moment, but I bet he isn't because we've got a board and a chief executive that don't seem to give a flying rat's arse how the team gets on on the pitch, as long as they're making plenty of bunse off the pitch.

It's disrespectful to fans, especially fans that pay to go and watch Arsenal. The club charge ridiculous prices because they know Arsenal will pack the ground and away allocations. Arsenal fans travel in their droves everywhere and the club are taking advantage of that by charging ridiculous amounts of money for it and not showing any serious determination to improve things on the pitch, and instead are just constantly rambling on about their healthy financial position. Well screw great finances, I want my team to win and give me a happy Saturday evening. Isn't that what's important in football?

I'm not saying spend loads of money we don't have, but we do have a fair bit and the club aren't spending it like any ambitious club would. I'm fed up of this same rubbish every week. We've won 1 in 6 and I'm sick of our rubbish form this season. Last season and in other previous seasons we've had bad patches but at least we've still had good patches and played good football. But we're not even doing that anymore. Today it sounds like we were passed off the pitch by a mid table team on our own patch and beaten 2-0. We created few chances, as has been the case often this season and it's not bloody good enough. It's ridiculous, Arsenal have always had 'beautiful football' despite lack of trophies, but we don't even have that anymore, we don't even play nice passing football anymore. What the fuck do we do then?

What is Arsene Wenger doing that means he's immune from pressure? What is he actually doing? What is he actually improving? We're STILL not title contenders, we're still not winning trophies, we're still losing our best players and looking like losing more in the near future, we're 10th in the league at the start of December and we don't even play good, attacking football any more. We look average most of the time and it's frankly ridiculous.

Any ambitious club would be looking to sort this out quickly. Wenger is having a nightmare and doesn't deserve to be this club's manager at the moment because he's simply not doing his job to the required standard nor delivering positive results. In any other job that means you either lose it or are under serious pressure of losing it unless you turn things around quickly. But no, we'll just count our pennies and brag about stable finances while us fans take all the gloating and piss taking from other fans about winning fuck all and eclining like a sinking ship, as well as taking all the pain and not being able to do anything about it.

I mean for goodness sake, today he put our best striker on the bench for God knows what reason and put a below par winger who doesn't appear to know how to play football at times up front. It's ridiculous. He just hasn't got a clue, his heads gone. Play Giroud and if you're not going to play him, play Walcott there, or even Podolski. Why didn't Walcott play there when he's been banging in goals lately and his staying at Arsenal is largely dependant on being given opportunities up front. It's laughable, stubborn and thick from our sadly declining manager. He also continues to often play Aaron bleeding Ramsey on the wing. I was at Everton v Arsenal on Wednesday and he was by far the worst player on the pitch, constantly giving the ball away (including in the build up to their goal) and looking off the pace. He isn't good enough for Arsenal in his preferred position, let alone on the wing. He ain't a winger at all, and he's not Andres Iniesta, (who can play there despite being a centre midfielder) but Wenger seems to think he IS Arsenal's Iniesta.

Everton are better than us. Tottenham are better than us. But that's only because of our tactically inept, past it manager and ambitiousless board. I think we've got a better squad than Everton and Tottenham and if we had a better manager we'd be above them in the league table and would finish above them this season.

It's not too late to sort it out and change things, we're only 5 points off Tottenham and Chelsea, 3 points off Everton. We can turn things around, but we're just going to continue to decline under this clueless, sadly fading manager who's past his time.

Image source: http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Arsene-Wenger.jpg