Something’s wrong!

This is going to be a very frustrating post. But a very happy new year to you and your family before I begin my rant!

We were calling for Arsene Wenger’s head for long. Emery came and though things looked better initially, it wasn’t. The management decided it’s time to switch to a new brand of football with new people and a complete new organisational set up and appointed a man who was learning from ‘the’ best – Mikel Arteta.

Mikel instilled the much needed discipline around the club. He replaced players that were not good enough and got some of the best in the markets. During all of these, KSE took over the club 100% and decided to loosen the fat pockets. Mikel thought the keepers at disposal are not good enough for the modern day football so we got Ramsdale. Soon enough, Ramsdale was thought of enough to qualify for Champions League and he needed competition in the GK department so we have David Raya too now.

We paid well for Ben White from Brighton, Saliba’s initial feud with Arteta somehow went away because he couldn’t sidelined him, Gabriel was a good improvement, Tierney played like he was playing for his boyhood club. Mikel realised we needed back ups, good solid back ups, so we got a very versatile player in Tomiyasu who can play at RB, CB, LB. We got Kiwior, who can do the same. Mikel again thought to bring the winning mentality in the team, so we raided Man City for Jesus and Zinchenko. At some point, he decided Zinchenko is too error prone and we need an upgrade so we have Timber in our colours now.

In the midfield, Torreira + Guendouzi was not enough – we could see that. So he upgraded Torreira with Partey but in that whole process, managed to bring down Torreira’s market price. Guendouzi under Emery was the next big thing, and there were talks of building a team around him but his hot attitude against Brighton cost him too much and cost the Arsenal too. He went and brought a like for like in Lokonga who has failed. Xhaka was re-instated in that role along side Partey which kind of worked in last season.

Ozil was his favorite. Everyone and their mum wanted him out long before Mikel took over. He decided to start things from scratch, gave him chances and realised he needs his own creator. So we went again in the market and got Martin Odegaard from Madrid. Saka is, well, Saka and no one can touch him because he keeps his head down and does what he asked for, and does that very well. Martinelli was ignored initially for Willian, so does ESR when a bad patch of runs mixed with lots of injuries forced Mikel to start both of them and things changed. Martinelli, since then, have managed to keep his place because he is a generational talent – the next Ronaldo to me if given the liberty and freedom he deserves. Mikel tried to back up that position Trossard which felt one of the good decisions of his career.

Up top, Auba was winning Golden boots scoring 20+ goals a season. Under Mikel, he won us a FA cup, got a contract renewal and things went very bad. We could have sold him at 50m easily but a season later he was let go, probably paid off. I remember Ian Wright interviewed Auba and told him how can be the next legend here, having his own statue outside Emirates alongside Henry. At that time, we all saw his output has gone and we blamed his fat new contract. Now, we understand it’s the system because none of the City title winning player or Eddie Nketiah are able to do anything like he did under a poor Emery reign.

Right, the current scenario is – Mikel has everything he wanted. Versatile players at the back, who can play at LB, RB, CB. Improvement to the LB position. Improvement in the midfield – 105 million pounds on Rice, 65 million pounds for Havertz. 2 world class GK who can walk in any team except may be City and Liverpool.

Mikel, for his Arsenal career, have demanded a lot of things, some of which turned out to be brilliant (Gabriel, White, Partey), and some of them were awful (reinstating Xhaka, playing Mustafi and sending Saliba on loan, ESR treatment, Willian over Martinelli etc). We, fans, had complained for some of them but mostly agreed with what he wanted. Even for the ones we didn’t want, we eventually accepted it.

Now I am not saying club should be run by the funs. That’s even worse. But after 4 years and 600m+ of pounds spend and another 300m of value destroyed (Auba, ESR, Guen, Torreira, Tierney, Lokonga etc), where we are at?

We are in the title race but deep down we know it would be either Liverpool or Man City. We are in the Champions League and I have my hope there but we have played some very bad football in initial games. We are playing like Sideways FC under Mikel with infinite passing among ourselves, from the RB to CB to DM to CAM to RB. We are not scoring enough from open play, opposition has to just man mark Saka and that’s a win for them these days. We have destroyed the talent in Martinelli because apparently him sticking to the line and trying to beat the 3 players on his own is what is demanded from him every week. Same for Saka. The CF is playing in defense these days, Martin Odegaard runs like a headless chicken but never winning a ball since I was born. Thomas Partey, who never got injured at Atletico, is constantly injured these days. Ben White, a fine fit individual looks knackered. Ramsdale is not happy because he has been replaced with someone who is not any better than him.

Comes April, Mikel will complete 4.5 years at Arsenal. That’s enough to deliver. If you still believe he needs positional improvements and changes to the team to deliver big, you are wrong. He has his toys, enough time to make the players understand his game and it’s high time now, we the fans, demand an improvement to the MANAGERIAL position. Other things looks just fine.

I am not even going in to the mishandling of academy products and the infamous Leno/Martinez debate. I am not even going into the selling of wrong CF in Balogun.

Right, time to move on to something better at Arsenal Football Club. From last 10 years, things are happening to us what would have happened to Spurs in 1960s. Lets not be another top 6 team with average managers and players. Things are not working out, shove up the ‘generational’ word up your arse and move on.

Feel free to correct me! I am open to your thoughts.