Wenger apparently said this in an interview with Arsenal Player: "I still think that when we have everybody available we are a strong force in this league." I think most of us would agree that a fully fit first 11 would be more than capable of being a strong force and would finish in the top four. However, and many of us gooners are starting to sound like broken records here, the bench simply is not strong enough!! After a few injuries have scratched at the surface, we look pretty lacklustre and depressingly devoid of game-changing talent. Does Wenger believe that sooner or later we will have a magical season when everyone is fit for the whole duration? We used to keep good players happy on the bench, Edu, Wiltord etc. Why can't we do the same now and rotate? The right mixture of precocious young talent and experienced, established talent has been the formula needed to win the league in recent years, especially at Man Utd. We have been woefully short of the latter for some time now, how much longer will it go on?
I think Mr Wenger has amnesia....... He seems to have forgotten the days when you looked at the bench and you knew there was a couple of players who come in and turn 1 point into 3points, or even hold on to wins.... Kanu, Edu, Wiltord etc etc..... These days we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! Just wondered why all of a sudden we have nothing after the starting 11..... The goalkeeping situation is a joke, Scnezzy has no competion, Alumnia/Flaps will only come in if he broke a leg! You look at Manure, Berbatov could not even the starting 11 in most games...... Our starting 11 pretty much picks itself, no matter how dire they were in the previous game(s)!
The reason for that is we keep selling our best players to make money.(and relying on youth to replace them) We could easily still have Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Toure, Flamini, Diarra and Adebayor in our squad.
Stop and ask yourself why did we sell them? For the money? Was it that simple? Diarra - Wenger couldn't persuade him he would get enough first-team play. Adebayor - Wenger allowed him to go on extended walkabout - didn't drop him. Toure - had foolishly aligned himself to the above lazy bastard. Flamini - I suspect got tired of the battle for recognition - so asked for more money..... Clichy - Wenger wouldn't/ couldn't pay him enough. Fabregas / Nasri - got tired of no investment - no success - little money. Even Wenger couldn't stop that. so - who is next?
The problem is: 1) Our team is always riddled with injuries 2) Even when fit we are only capable of "top four". Thats not good enough, they should be able to win the bloody thing not just get top four, who are we now, Spurs ?? Wenger needs to re-align himself with the fans because he is preaching mediocrity as being acceptable.
There are problems in just about every part of our club so unless this is addressed nothing will change. I really think the only way for change is a change of both personnel and approach. With the same crew and way of doing things we have been sliding downhill. If these two factors do not change, how will we bring a change to our fortunes? But who will foster this change? We have a board that won't, a manager who won't or can't and without changes to them, the team won't change either. We're just going round in circles and each circle we make digs a deeper hole.
Look you can make an argument for the reason ANY player leaves a club. The board are more content to run the club like this because they know we have a good scouting/youth set up and that should they sell someone they're will be good young players fighting to replace them. Like Ajax and Porto we are operating as a 'selling club'. Wenger seems happy with this and so does the board, personally I think it's incredibly infuriating.
@Thebear, where is this quality replacement....... I don't agree they sell in the knowledge that they have adequate quality to replace.
TheBear - but the point is we did NOT set out to sell them and make money - we wanted them all to stay and PLAY.
Bergkamp - spot on. We bought these players with the intention of building a young strong, technically superior team, not to have them leave after 2 or 3 years. Hell, we lost Merida on a free !!! We need to be very careful that we don't turn into Ajax, they were able to sell their top players because they had suitable replacements coming through - but once they eroded the quality in the team sufficiently the replacements could not do the job and they turned into a club that "used to be" good, they are poor now.
I would say its more like Diarra - Wasnt prepared to earn his chance. Adebayor - Arrogant and disrupted the dressing room. Toure - had foolishly aligned himself to the above lazy bastard- ok agree with that Flamini -Greedy ****. Spent a lot of time on the bench after going but got morte money Clichy - Was first choice but wanted more money. Fabregas / Nasri - brought up in Barcelona so can understand him wanting to play for them / greedy littler sh*t
