Cesc Fabregas spoke after the victory at Pride Park on Monday of Arsenal’s season,
We can see the games against Birmingham City at home [1-1], Birmingham away [2-2] and Aston Villa at home [1-1] where we can regret that we didn’t get more points. If we could have had these points that normally if you want to win the title you have to get, then we would be at the top
Add to this Wigan, Middlesbrough [home and away], Newcastle and a record of six points out of eighteen against the other teams in the top four and you can take your pick as to what matches caused the title to be cast aside when a good position to seal it was in hand. The pain that this has caused still rumbles on with fingers being pointed around at various players in such a scattergun approach it is little surprise that there appears to be any number of victims to this pointless witch-hunt.
Fabregas is not blind to the strengths and the weaknesses of the squad,
I don’t think that we can allow teams to score these kinds of goals when we are having the ball 90 per cent of the game. We know that we can score when we push forward, but we still need to improve defensively…If we had defended well as a team, they would not have scored any…We can learn from it. Definitely. Because we are young, because we want to play, because we are hungry for titles. We will improve for next season. In fact, I would say that it has already started for us. In our last two games we know that we have started a new season. For us, it is now
Aside from the obvious of winning titles, there is not much more Arsenal’s own Bruce Forsyth can say. He has been pivotal to the team’s improvement this season and will no doubt be as important next year. Concerns about what would happen if he were to be injured or unavailable for long periods miss one crucial point. Fabregas is the sort of player that you cannot directly replace, the dynamic of the team has to change in his absence, the style becomes different because no two players have the same vision and that is one of Arsene’s biggest challenges, preparing for injury meltdown – not just to the Spaniard - again.
Much has been lost in recent seasons through a lack of depth in certain positions – look at the scoring charts last time around and this to see what happens when a forward line gets decimated – and that needs to be rectified but the squad has sufficient quality that once a replacement for Flamini is found, adding to the numbers can take place.
On that subject, Gael Clichy has added fuel to the fire by suggesting that Flamini is expected to leave and that Lassana Diarra was too eager to jump ship,
From my point of view it’s always good to have a little bit of patience. I have been second choice left back behind Ashley Cole and I knew it was difficult for me to play if he was there. You have to believe in your own qualities and wait for your time. If Mathieu wants to leave it’s up to him and we wish him good luck if we win. But we hope he will stay
The clubs wage structure is under severe pressure when players are targeted to become ‘high earners’ in foreign fields. In every walk of life, there are higher earners for the same job. Should the club look to change their internal finances is a tough choice. They are financially sound without needing a backer to fund ordinary activities but it does put them at a disadvantage in a minority of cases.
The question that knee-jerk reactors need to ask themselves is whether or not they want the club to be beholden to one man with a risk of meltdown in the future when the backers money runs out or whether immediate glory is all and to hell with the consequences? Personally I will take the former and if that means that serious title challenges have to put up with cyclical rebuilding, then so be it.
Given that Arsene’s rebuilding of this squad should end in the summer, have the past three seasons been so bad? Disappointing in that there is no silverware, yes because we all want Arsenal to win the title but to counter that, the club are in a better long term position than they were three years ago and one might hasten to add, than their rivals who have to buy each summer to maintain their position rather than organic growth.
The spending is now going to be more sharply in focus with the top two in the Champions League final and yes, it is an envious position. It does not take rocket science to work out that the coming months are going to be more intense in terms of ‘Fantasy Football’ signings to keep up with the Joneses. The reality is that if Arsene gets the signings right this summer, there is no reason why the squad cannot match their peers in every department.
The Boardroom is expected to take on a different dynamic with Keith Edelman reportedly jumping ship in a move that will give the media their chance to enhance their club in crisis – all the players want to leave now it’s the board’ type stuff. Edelman has done well in a difficult period of the clubs history with the rebuilding on and off the pitch.
Emmanuel Adebayor is the latest player to be linked with a move to Italy after media outlets reported that his agent had met with representatives of AC Milan’s board. No doubt the comment that he will be sitting down with Arsenal to discuss the future in the summer will be seized upon by Adebayor’s detractors as a sign of him getting too big for his boots, conveniently forgetting the fact that they – if employed – probably sit down and have an annual appraisal with their bosses, looking to get due reward for their own efforts in the past twelve months, wanting to know what plans are, etc. Oh, and as usual, the Mr20%’s talk out of their Arsenal’s.
‘til Tomorrow.
Posted in Arsenal
