Arsene's Perspective - Is this the main problem?

[IBK]

Right - this isn't another thread just moaning about AW. But it is an attempt to analyse what is going on at the club these days.

What seems to be riling a lot of people is that our best players want out - but the deadwood is staying. I don't think this is something that we can blame the manager for directly - becuase by all accounts he is willing to offload Bendtner; Diaby; Eboue; Denilson; Almunia; Vela etc. But indirectly it does point to me to a shocking lack of judgment.

I mean all managers get it wrong sometimes - but for a manager who was famed for astute judgment when it comes to players it is surprising to say the least that so many of the 'failed first teamers' at AFC have been rewarded with such big contracts that they now can't be moved without losing money. This suggests a lack of judgment - not just in the light of his players' failure to do the business on the pitch, but in terms of their propensity to get injured, and their lack of winning mentality. I can't think of any other team - even Citeh who seem to collect fairly average players like football cards - who have so many underperformers earning so much (at least relative to the club's resources).

The news today that Diaby is injured again (away from AFC), so we won't be able to offload him and will therefore almost certainly miss out on a decent transfer fee is almost as depressing as the indication that our better players have lost faith. But the worst of it is that overpayment of underperformers has used up valuable resources that could have been used to reward the talent in our team.

Now for me there are 2 credible explanations. The first is that Wenger has 'ruined' his bright prospects. There may be an element of truth to this - because persisting with/rewarding under-performances; playing players out of position; failure to address defending as a team and cultivating complacency are undoubtedly factors.

But for me the more significant explanation is a lack of perspective, and the implications are worrying. We have long since known that AW has complete faith in his methods - which is why he has insisted on not investing more in transfers in his now failed project team - and why he has until now not addressed problems that are apparent to most other experts; pundits and Gooners.

For me, this explains partly the Cesc/Nasri protracted saga's too. I have little doubt that AW believes/believed he could convince both players to stay - just as he seemed to have done with Cesc last year. But players have now seen through this, and do not share his belief - and I wonder if doesn't appreciate this. I wonder also whether the fact that we seem to be missing out on transfer targets is part of the same process - that AW simply doesn't see how he is now percieved by the most ambitious players.

Thoughts?

[Kano]

its an issue with many clubs and many players. wages have escalated everywhere and now clubs that want to offload certain players are hitting a wall because of the wages they are on. see j.cole, bellamy etc

[budesonide]

wenger is a wan*ker -- there, I said it in four words. :

[IBK]

wenger is a wan*ker -- there, I said it four words. :yes:

Not what I was saying, at least. I was asking rather whether we are looking at a case of terminal loss of perspective.

[budesonide]

Not what I was saying, at least. I was asking rather whether we are looking at a case of terminal loss of perspective.

wasn't meant as a paraphrase of your post; merely suggesting what the root cause of our predicament might be, albeit much glibly.

[IBK]

wasn't meant as a paraphrase of your post; merely suggesting what the root cause of our predicament might be, albeit much glibly.

Gotcha

[IBK]

its an issue with many clubs and many players. wages have escalated everywhere and now clubs that want to offload certain players are hitting a wall because of the wages they are on. see j.cole, bellamy etc

True - but there do seem to be a very high number of players at Arsenal who are on very high wages having been rewarded for potential that has simply not been realised. I'd say that this is slightly different from Bellamy or Cole who were both half decent back in the day but have simply (in the case of J Cole at least) gone stale.

And the rush to tie in our underperformers to lucrative contracts contrasts with a serial failure over the past few seasons to tie in our performers. Its frustrating, to be sure.

[Kano]

True - but there do seem to be a very high number of players at Arsenal who are on very high wages having been rewarded for potential that has simply not been realised. I'd say that this is slightly different from Bellamy or Cole who were both half decent back in the day but have simply (in the case of J Cole at least) gone stale.

And the rush to tie in our underperformers to lucrative contracts contrasts with a serial failure over the past few seasons to tie in our performers. Its frustrating, to be sure.

the club wasnt wrong to hand out the contracts as such, as the talent was/is there to fulfill it. however the crucial element missing is the mental strength to go that extra mile, something that i'm sure all within the club would have been achieved. so from their perspective at the time, it made sense to hand the money out.

people flippantly call the squad garbage when obviously they are not, they fell down with an element that the manager wasn't able to stabilize into the team.

[selassie]

the club wasnt wrong to hand out the contracts as such, as the talent was/is there to fulfill it. however the crucial element missing is the mental strength to go that extra mile, something that i'm sure all within the club would have been achieved. so from their perspective at the time, it made sense to hand the money out.

people flippantly call the squad garbage when obviously they are not, they fell down with an element that the manager wasn't able to stabilize into the team.

No it didn't make sense to hand the money out, it's a ludicrous & flawed policy.

We've been handing out contracts to players who have achieved nothing. The whole point of a "reward" is that when a said player reaches a level or starts playing above a level he is expected that's when you hand out the incentives and juicy contracts.

I really don't understand the flawed business model that we operate, we seem happy to take a gamble on paying out for potential but seemingly will not pay the required going rate for quality, I'm talking about wages & transfer fees here.

Arsene has been gambling with the squad for far too long and it's backfiring on him now.

[Joker]

I really don't understand the flawed business model that we operate, we seem happy to take a gamble on paying out for potential but seemingly will not pay the required going rate for quality, I'm talking about wages & transfer fees here.

Yes that is seriously bizarre and extremely damaging IMO. I think it's true that Wenger is so involved in the youth project that I don't think he accepts how poor some of the former youth players like Denilson and Bendtner are. Therefore, given his own personal investment in their development, he sees what he wants to see, i.e. young players who are well on their way to fulfilling their (in Wenger's opinion) outstanding potential. If he could detach himself from the project and look at reality, he'd realise that these players are a lost cause, and rewarding them with long contracts worth so much money is totally unjustified, and does a lot of harm to the club in the long run.