TBH I have mixed feelings about Alexis. Our best player by far, and the only one who shows any fight, passion or initiative. But my sympathy for his thwarted ambition only goes so far. Understanding why he clearly wants to leave is not the same as admiring his attitude. I am not blaming him for being the same as many of the top players these days who wants to look after his own interests, and he is of course entitled to run his career in the way he wants to. But as we saw with Fabregas; Nasri; RVP et al, his attitude of 'things aren't going my way so I want out' is part of the malaise at our club, and part of our decline. Fight is not only game to game - it is longer term. Too many of our players don't have the long term fight or commitment that we desperately need to turn our current situation around. Is it the manager's fault. Hell yes. But there is also such a thing as player accountability and while Alexis is undoubtedly the best of a bad lot at Arsenal, ultimately he wants out rather than staying to fight. That I find difficult to admire.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
How do you fight it? You can see he’s being vocal and trying to rally the troops but there is only so much you can do as one player. I remember the Liverpool CL game where Theo set up Ade with that amazing goal but we conceded within seconds of scoring and went out of the competition. The coaching staff won’t correct the mistakes, the manager has no problem with the lax attitude when it comes to defending and won’t buy the right personnel to help solve the issues.
Add to the fact that our top players must sacrifice top wages to be at a club like Arsenal even though they’re wanted by bigger clubs. It’s too much to ask a player to sacrifice that much for club and coach that won’t sacrifice their own earnings and wages for the good of the team. Players have that ambition to win everything shouldn’t be held back by this club. I can understand why players like Cesc, RVP, Henry and Sanchez went looking for the exit. It’s not as if Cesc, RVP and Henry weren’t at this club for years either. We as fans have spotted the flaws and pattern after witnessing the same cycle for over a decade, but can you imagine the players seeing it week in week out? A humiliating defeat one week and you arrive for training on Monday and it’s as if nothing has happened. Same routine, same drills, same philosophy with the manager making excuses about the loss and blaming the ref or pitch for our recent loss. It has to drive them mental.
I don’t admire them wanting to leave, but can only relate to the frustration. Up close and personal, I can’t imagine what it’s like trying to keep your cool in that sort of environment. Certain players, I wouldn’t want them to retire with regrets when they’re talented. It’s a short career and loyalty works both ways.
Too right, Per could barely look ahead at the camera, he knew!
I also found it quite amusing that Wenger jumped in and answered Per's question for him regarding what the players thought of him and his leadership! Doesn't Wenger trust Per to answer the question? Or does Wenger want complete over that too?
They don't half ask some dum questions, they asked Mertesacker if all the players are behind him, what is he suppose to say.....no there's a few who aren't, he's got the manager next to him and is in front of TV cameras.
I can't stand these interviews, they never ask the right questions people want to know about, for example why do you persist with the same methods despite not really having any success in the last 10 years, why do you in every transfer fail to identify and sign targets early, why is your defence still as poor as it was last season and the season before than and before that.....there's so much to ask!
He answers about our failure every season and says we always do well from March to May, but they should pick him up and say well yes but that usually coincides with the periord when you're out of all the top competitions realistically, as for his comment about playing Barca and Munich...a) we played so weaker sides and still lost and b) other sides have managed to upset the odds and beat them, it's just us that doesn't seem to be able to compete, his responses are laighable but he never gets picked up on them which is annoying.
Notice he says it's easier for Munich than it is for us because they are financially dominant, thing is it doesn't explain why they do so well in Europe, always lame excucses from him.
Apparently it's important we're always successful according to Wenger, so what's happened in the last 10+ years then?
His interviews really never address the important points, he skirts around the issues with excuses that don't even make sense and always seems to be making claims that are just snippets of the actual situation, his comment about the 2 weeks don't decide anything in another interview is proof of that!
As for Mertesacker, we've heard this nonsense every season, we're ready to prove how good we are basically but now we're ready to prove otherwise, cheap words never backed up by performances sadly, you'd be a fool to buy into it now.
Last edited by Özim; 07-03-2017 at 02:42 PM.
It's a bit of circus. Merts laughed at the question. I don't know how they expect him to answer that sort of question right in front of Wenger. Same goes for the question about his relationship with Sanchez and the rest of the players. It should be obvious to the reporters that they're not going to get the 'dirt' they're looking for from a press conference so just ask sensible questions. To me it looked like Merts was embarrassed to be sat there. I can kinda of understand Wenger's flippant response when I see stuff like this.
It seems to me that Alexis has done everything he's physically capable of doing to win for this club. I find it incredible that Wenger hasn't been able to harness that effort, absolutely incredible. Wenger's job was to take Ozil and Alexis and use them as the centrepiece of a squad capable of challenging for the title. He's failed to do this and everyone has seen him fail. What must really stick is that Wenger won't accept it. Even worse, he plans on pumping out the same old shit in the hope doing it wrong a thousand times will suddenly become successful. What must it be like for the players to watch that? We know what it's like as fans, but to actually be involved on the ground and realise that nothing is ever going to change and that you have a career on the line, why should players accept that? It doesn't matter if Alexis stays and fights. It won't make any difference while Wenger is still in control. Alexis chose to come here. The question is why? To see out his career in a constantly failing team? I doubt it. More likely himself and players like Ozil were handed a string of promises, much like the fans have been. And none of those promises are materialising. Not because we've been unlucky, but because the guy in charge can't deliver. This is the period where our stadium move was supposed to deliver a world class team on to the pitch. Well that hasn't happened either. Outside Arsenal the world of football rolls on, titles are being won, champions are being made, Alexis and Ozil are looking at that knowing they can't be part of it in a club managed by Wenger. If we're determined to keep Wenger here (and it sounds like we are) then what we are doing is asking the likes of Alexis to sacrifice the remainder of his career. It's an unreasonable demand. I don't blame him one bit for wanting to be out of this shit show and back into the mainstream of football. Why shouldn't he be? He has the talent and the ambition to succeed at the top. Hell, I'm not sure even I want to be involved with Arsenal any more and all I do is watch on TV. It would be madness for Alexis to stay here if Wenger remains at the helm.
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