Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
Again, I urge people to look at last season and what a shit state the club was in. There was literally NO HOPE on any front. Everything was as shit as shit could be.
And then this season.
It's not a successful season in terms of trophies or prospective trophies. Let's face it, qualifying for the CL is meaningless in terms of anything other than cash and greedy badge kissing player retention. Which counts, in cynical terms. But not compared to City. We have literally zero chance of competing in the CL at any embarrassing level. Because we're nowhere near that yet.
However. We can kick a ball now. Make a pass. Play the ball upfield. Take a throw. Take a corner. And, most importantly, defend. The basics. All the things we'd forgotten. Now in place.
Next season is about building on that by addressing the elephant that has always been in the room since Wenger got intense heat and deviancy for Fabregas. And the whole cavalcade of bullshit that comes from being Barcelona with a Leicester City spending mentality. That insanity wrecked the core of the club and send us down a two decades spiral. It bred the PL out of the club and instilled a weakness that hasn't been addressed to this day. Cowardice in the face of the fight. The very opposite of Wenger's previous great love, Vieira. Paddy was SO, SO important to the club, it can't even be estimated. He was a weapon Wenger could simply deploy and so much took care of itself thereafter.
Never replaced. Instead, intense fragility in the middle. Artistic, for sure. But weak when the fight became close quarters. Flat track bullies who got raped when their fire was met with fire.
Now we have the dancing and prancing Odegard, who has all the qualities of Cesc, but even less in the bollocks department. And our new Denilson, Partey, minus the skill. Only Xhaka possessed an ounce of what's needed in the agricultural PL. And he's gone I hear. Oh dear, oh fuck. What's that all about? Makes not one ounce of sense unless a significant signing is on the horizon.
But the pansies remaining have at least learned the basics. So the real question is, can Arteta now install the fire? Don't know. He's never done it before but he deserves the chance, considering he's done what late-era Wenger and the other bloke never managed. Build a team that can compete to at least a competent degree in the PL.
Not sure how Arteta can be criticised from taking the impossible and moving it halfway to the improbable. But that's what he's done. He deserves at least one more season to see if he can do the second half of the job. I don't envy him.
