Fix the process!

Ladies and Gentlemen, our season is over; I don’t care if you are optimistic enough to think Norwich can beat Spu*s and we can manage to win against Everton. This is going to be my last article for 2021-22 season and is not a happy one for obvious reasons.

Lets talk about those reasons first, one by one. Let us, for one moment, revisit things and decide what could have been done better.

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‘Project Youth’. We all love seeing a hale-ender break into playing XI, and delivering the brilliance of ESR and Saka. I don’t think anyone complained when we brought 6 young players in 150+ million sterling pounds, and not many of us complained when we lost a game because of Tavares. However, it doesn’t sell well when you sold a hot prospect in Willock who was scoring for fun from midfield. We were (and even now) skint of midfielders but we encashed him to buy a CB. When a 19 year William Saliba was not registered for 6 months and Mustafi /Kolasinac were getting game time, it didn’t sell with some of us. We saw the hottest prospect of Premier League at that time, Guendouzi, ostracized and probably will be sold for peanuts because of an altercation with a rival player. I always thought the managerial position comes with a task of ‘managing’ players but both of them were not managed well.

‘Preference to favourites’. Arteta has his favorites, every manager has. But if it’s Willian doing nothing for 37 matches, stealing game time from a young Martinelli who couldn’t do any worse, then you are doing it wrong. If your top scorer of the season in ESR, who is an outright no. 10 and plays better in the middle is moved to the wings to accommodate a mediocre Odegaard, then you are doing it wrong. If you play a CF in Lacazette who can’t score when a player suiting your very own ‘Project Youth’ is made to sit on bench, you are doing it wrong. When Sambi Lokonga had a good run of games but was instantly replaced by Xhaka when the later attained his fitness, we were not happy.

‘Player management’. Guendouzi was sent on loan for standing up for Leno against a Brighton player. William Saliba didn’t get to play in Europa league against pub teams in group stages. Auba was sold to Barcelona and we were the ones who paid (facepalm). Even William claimed he wasn’t really happy at Arsenal. Eddie got regular 9 minutes before Lacazette injury and scored some goals which Lacazette couldn’t. This puts us in a situation where we want to renew him but he is only under contract for 1 more game. We were depleted in midfield but we loaned Lucas Torreira. We let go of 18m from Wolves for Maitland-Niles only to loan him to Roma later. Not only did we not accept Roma’s offer for a mediocre Xhaka, we extended his contract on a better paygrade. There is a German national Keeper who was winning player of the season for us, but can not replace a Ramsdale who is playing some shit games lately; talk about competition eh?

‘Wrong priorities’. Auba was declining and Laca was never an answer, but we managed to use 50 million for Ben White to fix our defensive structure. We didn’t have much option in midfield and our best player in Partey had been injured most of the time but we spent some more money on a Goal Keeper when Leno wouldn’t have done any worse. Tammy Abraham was eager to stay in London and I’m not sure why we dropped that idea when we can’t score for our life. Buying White was a privilege thing, not a necessity when Saliba, Holding and Chambers could have done equally well. Buying a 23 year Sambi sits okay with us when you don’t consider there was a younger player in Guen starting every match and playing better!

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WALK THE TALK

We have been hearing Mikel Arteta saying from his first day how big a club like Arsenal is. How we deserve to be playing among the Elites in Champions League and winning every trophy there is, to win. However, after two and half a season and spending couple millions, we are going to finish 5th in a season where every other team bar Liverpool and City are crap. We were 4 points above Spu*s with only 3 games in hand and we have managed to let it go. Surprisingly, this is termed as a progress by non other than Arteta himself. This is what he had to say in the latest press conference when asked about it

on whether fifth place would be progress…
It is because we have created expectations that this club deserves and where this club has to be, and in the last two months, we haven’t been able to fulfil those expectations but overall, looking back where we were, you have to be clear as well with what we have to do, but very clear that this is not where we want to be, that we want to be in a completely different position, challenging really for the top teams and that that’s the aim and that this is not going to stop here. That is another step that was very necessary because it wasn’t only about where we are in the league table. We have had much deeper issues at the club than the league table, in my opinion. Now they have been resolved. Now they look very, very strong and that we have the real strong foundations now to build what we want to do.

source:Arsenal.com

Bullshit. It’s fuckall progress. Football is a result oriented game and we have tanked another season under Mikel.

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TRUST THE PROCESS

I don’t trust the process. Fix the process, first.

Wrapping up

With this, I am wrapping up my season. I appreciate you being here and keeping it lively. Apologies for the ads but it covers some of my hosting fees. This is only a start, I strive to make this place better for an Arsenal fan.

Oooh to, oooh to be, oooh to be a Gooner,