Written by Wigan Gooner

I’ll not muck about – it’s Pat Rice.

My reasoning for this statement is as follows, Arsène is facing a summer of upheaval like he has never known at Arsenal. There could be more player movement at Arsenal that I have ever seen in all of my years. Add that to even more expectation, pressure and a new pre-season routine and it is a very different Arsenal for 2011-2012.

The biggest signing was to retain the services of Pat Rice for another year because even if he is known (in some quarters, not my own) as a yes man he has vast experience as No 2 at Arsenal and he has the respect of the squad.

If I can build on that for a second, Arsène is a hands-on coach. He likes to tweak, push and work with his player’s every single day. Every day working to iron out their imperfections on the training pitch and working like that with a squad of 30-odd first-team squad player’s is a massive drain on resource and he would be unable to complete a single training session like that.

Pat Rice and Boro Primorac let him do it because whilst he is working and talking with the player’s they are running the drills and setting up the practice matches. Arsène is their Father, with Pat Rice and Boro Primorac the coaches.

Whilst we can all see the potential improvement a shake-up in the backroom staff might bring, can we afford the upheaval? Haven’t we got enough going on? The settling in period and changes of routine when we are already shaking the Arsenal Castle to the very core foundations? When star players are considering leaving for a few thousand pounds?

He will be buying in fresh players and these players need a steady stable ship to join. Stability aids adaption and London Colney is certainly different to most clubs. Pat Rice is one massive, all-important cog in the Colney machine and without him, I think Arsène would be in more trouble than he’d care to admit.

WG

Here are some facts:

• Arsène Wenger is dithering in the transfer market.
• He is paralysed by indecision because so many top players are threatening to leave.
• Arsenal’s main rivals, by contrast, are acting decisively and boldly.
• Highly rated players will not join Arsenal because we have not won a trophy for six years.
• Arsenal will never spend ‘big’ money on a new signing.

I know that these are facts because I have read them in the newspapers. The Mail, the Express, the Sunday Times and of course the down market tabloids. They have all published variations on all of the above statements.

The journalists responsible are professional reporters. They’ll have done their journalism training at Darlington, Cardiff or Westminster (the most established journo training centres) or at one of the in-house schemes run by some newspaper groups.

They’ll have started out with great dreams and ideals of being a top sports writer. They’ll have worked their way up, for the most part, through local papers and news agencies, covering non-league games on rainy, windswept pitches in front of tiny crowds before moving on to the lower divisions and finally getting their big break in Fleet Street, writing about the EPL.

And now they produce these ‘facts’.

For crying out loud, they should be ashamed of themselves.

If these are facts, they’re the sort that would do Joseph Goebbels proud.

Goebbels, for those who don’t know their World War Two history, was the chief propagandist for the Third Reich. Up until 1939 his main narrative was that Germany’s intentions were entirely peaceful. And we know how that turned out.

That’s what propagandists do. They develop a narrative and stick to it. Every event, every outcome, every statement is re-positioned so that it fits the narrative, even when it patently doesn’t, until the narrative has served its purpose.

Arsenal may not exactly be facing the forces of Nazism, but we are facing a propaganda onslaught orchestrated by Fleet Street and other media outlets like TalkSport.

At the start of last season the embryonic idea took form that Arsenal were headed for continuing failure under Arsene Wenger (not least because he allegedly hates to spend money on quality players). As the season wore on this form solidified and became accepted wisdom.

The fact that Arsenal’s transfer activity was severely curtailed for five years because of the cost of the new stadium (and that the manager miraculously kept us competitive in that time while making a net profit on transfers) was gradually written out of the story.

Instead the ‘facts’ became that Arsene was a skinflint; that he was scared of buying established stars in case he couldn’t control them; that he persisted with bringing through young players not because of financial constraints but because he was ‘obsessed’ with ‘project youth’.

There may even have been grains of truth in some elements of this (certainly Arsene has seemed attracted to the idea of creating a squad of young players who grow up together playing a particular brand of football). But essentially a position that was easily explained by the circumstances (lack of money due to building a new stadium) was reframed as being about something else – namely the supposed character flaws of the manager.

The team’s implosion in last season’s run-in added further fuel to this narrative, which is why we have arrived at the point today where our summer transfer activity has been written off by the press before it has even begun.

Barely a week into the transfer window (and with more than two and a half months still to run), the Fleet Street concensus is that we’ve blown it. They tell us that because we haven’t gone out and hurled 15, 17, 20 million quid at whichever over-rated English player the journalists have decided is this week’s great big hope, we are dead in the water.

Let’s not bother turning up next season because these professional reporters have already decided that we’re heading for mid table.

Here’s just one small example of the reporting. I don’t mean to single out Rob Draper from the Mail, but it happens to be the most recent one I’ve read:

“Equally, should Fabregas eventually move, Wenger’s tactics in the transfer market will again come under the microscope. While Manchester United and Liverpool were swiftly into their squad-strengthening stride and Chelsea are poised to pick up the pace, Wenger risks being left standing in the stalls again as the big names head elsewhere.”

The bit that makes me laugh the most is “…and Chelsea are poised to pick up the pace…”

This illustrates exactly the issue of fitting the facts to suit your preconceived narrative. Despite Chelsea winning nothing and despite their manager having been sacked and despite them spending 50 million pounds in January on a striker who can’t score and despite the fact that they have done less than us in the market so far this summer, there is no suggestion that they risk “being left standing in the stalls again.” Oh no. They are “poised to pick up the pace.”

Make the facts fit the narrative. There is no anti-Chelsea narrative at the moment so their transfer inactivity can be overlooked.

Frankly it’s just lazy. As was all the triumphalism over Man Utd beating us to Phil Jones’s signature and supposedly proving that promising young players would rather go to Old Trafford than the Emirates… oh, wait a minute… that deal is not even done. Top quality reporting there, lads.

Unlike many Gooners, I don’t believe that most of the sports hacks have an agenda against Arsenal (although some surely have). It’s just that the media move like a school of anchovies. When they change direction they do so as one and it happens in an instant. Pack mentality, if you like (apologies for the mixed metaphor).

But the result is the same: we, the supporters, are being misled by what these journalists write.

So what conclusions can we draw? Well, for me it’s a simple one: let’s not swallow this slapdash, thoughtless reporting and regurgitate it in our own forums. Even when it’s incorrect it can still cause damage and there is a real danger of the narrative becoming real if it’s hammered home hard enough and if enough people fall for it. That is the aim of propaganda.

And finally, I would ask those reporters who find themselves in the privileged position of being able to write about our national sport for a living to remember the ideals with which they entered their profession.

Don’t give in to the laziness; don’t just follow the pack.

Stand up and say: “I am not an anchovy.”

RockyLives

Written by Harry

In the midst of one of the biggest summers that I can remember since 97, many questions need answering, Where did it all go wrong? Whose fault is it? Is Wenger the right Man for the job? Which players actually play for the shirt? What are our weaknesses, the list is endless……..

Endless reviews of the seasons have highlighted the moments that the season went wrong. All along and also seasons gone past, there have been moments where our inner belief has floundered, this season for me it eroded alarmingly at St James Park, after which the team then seemed to always believe they had a mistake in them and this hampered them continually………

Rather than drag out the pain that still manifests within all of us gooners and do a full review of the actual games, as we all know that we surely threw away a very easy title win.

There is no arrogance in that statement, its clear to all that we did, but fair play to old red face, Shrek and his team mates, they managed to play with a steel and belief that we clearly lack, they played as if they knew they never get caught albeit with huge portions of luck thrown in, shame for Giggsy he didn’t have the same luck in his private life in not getting caught……

Anyway according to the hordes of mass press ranks, we will be fighting mid table mediocrity and be lucky to stay out of the relegation zone, mighty Arsenal are in crisis, players are leaving in their droves…….

So lets look at all the players who have played for us this season and whether they should stay as a Gooner or whether they should be a Goner………….

Keepers:

Sczcesny: A legend in the making, got his chance due to Fabianski’s injuries and Almunia’s propensity for clangers. A youngster with supreme confidence, should be a firm fixture in the squad for years to come, he will have competition for the No1 spot. Needs to sort out his distribution which is a major weakness. GOONER

Fabianski: Old flappy was just starting to win the crowd over when he had a setback with his shoulder and he was out for the season. A very capable keeper, great shot stopper and will push Chez all the way, rated by the their mutual polish coach as the better keeper.  GOONER

Almunia: Horrendous season, needs to leave for himself and Arsenal, he is a good keeper who has lost his way, he couldn’t make the step up and needs to rediscover himself at a lower level. GONER

Mannone: On loan at Hull and injured, has potential. GOONER

Lehmann: Came in, in an emergency situation. Proved he can play at this level and seems tempted to come out of retirement permanently. Has a winning mentality and his experience would be invaluable for the young poles, although would be surprised if he stays. GONER

Defenders:

Sagna:  Solid player who had a good season overall, played with niggling injuries, a Trojan without doubt. Needs to improve his crossing. GOONER

Clichy: Athletic and devastating at full flight on the attack, poor crossing lets him down. But his defending is naïve at best, positionally inept and has a fragility about his confidence, can panic at the slightest sign of pressure. Wenger has tried, but maybe it is time to let him go. Won’t sign contract, am I bothered? Not really, sell. GONER

Vermaelen: The biggest miss this season by a country mile, scores goals, defends like a warrior and has steel about him. GOONER

NB: TV6 highlights the need to improve our medical facilities and personnel.

Djourou: Mixed bag this season, always liked and rated him, he is solid and dependable player perhaps who has been hampered by injuries, but he does also have a fragility and a tendency to make mistakes under pressure. Next season is massive for him anymore errors of note and he will struggle to make it at Arsenal. GOONER

Squillaci: I believe at times unfairly blamed, but he didn’t inspire confidence when at the heart of our defence and with belief been key, perhaps he isn’t a risk worth continuing with. GONER

Koscienly: For me, forget the CC mistake, he had a great season and has shown immense promise, he had a messi pocket when Barca came to town. Brilliant man marker and reads the game well, pushes on and supports attacks well. A great back up DM as well. GOONER

Eboue: I have put him as a defender (arsenal.com have him as a midfielder), although he covers  midfield as well. Has a tendency to play the fool once too often, but he is versatile and is a good cover for Sagna. I would keep him: GOONER

Miquel: Only played a couple of times, shown great promise. GOONER

Gibbs: Massively hampered by injuries, Great hope for him and we all hope he will make the step up and claim the left back slot, is he ready for the level of consistency needed? Not sure about that, but he is a great back up and cup player for me, its up to him now. GOONER

Traore: Been away at Juve on loan, if clichy goes, perhaps he could fight with Gibbs for a spot? I would keep if no one else came in, such as Baines….GOONER (Maybe out on loan)

Midfield:

Song: Overall he has come along way since his dark days at Fulham, and he has become a rock.  But if we are all honest he had an inconsistent season. Seemed to drop his head when things went wrong. GOONER.

Wilshere: Stunning season from the little maestro, Young Player of the season, has bite and determination to go with his talent. Stood toe to toe with Xavi and didn’t look out of place. Wenger was right to disagree with his U21 involvement this summer. The big question now is will he maintain his levels, up his levels further and handle the expectations that go with it? GOONER

Ramsey: Only played at the back end of the season due to the horrific injury sustained at the UFC in Stoke. Has shown already in a handful of matches he looks like he will return and fulfil his promise, unlike sadly Eduardo who didn’t. GOONER

Diaby: Enigmatic player who divides the faithful more so than most. On his day he can destroy and dominate opponents, but powerful displays are as common as powderpuff ones, where he has a tendency to throw away possession. We cannot make wholesale changes in one go, for me has one season left to prove himself worthwhile. GOONER.

Denilson: What can I say? Has a over sized opinion of himself, had so much promise and might still make a name for himself, just not at ours, won’t be missed bye bye. GONER

Frimpong: Injured at the start of last season and missed the campaign, will compete with Song, has immense potentialm, should play a lot of cup matches. GOONER.

Eastmond: Doesn’t and has never impressed me one bit, weak at best. Go on loan, toughen up or move on preferably. GONER

Lansbury: Had an impressive loan stay at Norwich, but strangely had to come off the bench a lot. Had started the season with us and scored at the spuds in the CC. Much expected, behind the curve due to long term injury in previous seasons. Big season, should be in the squad. GOONER

JET: Too versatile for his own good, has a suspect attitude, but has an abundance of talent. Should stay at ours and play in the Cup matches and have his attitude curbed by Wenger. GOONER

Arshavin: So disappointing, has the talent to destroy defences. Yes he has more assists than others and does score the odd goal, but he is playing at 70%, more to give (proven in 2^nd half against United). Would prefer a more central role. Worth keeping, just if he truly wants to prove himself the great player he can be, if Nasri and Fab do leave, he can play the central creative role. GOONER.

Rosicky: Finally has overcome his long term absence to play a fair number of games, expectations are high and failed to really grasp his chance. A favourite of mine, squad player now, would keep around for experience or allow to leave if he wants: GOONER

Nasri: A dazzling first half of the season curtailed by injury, came back but couldn’t see us over the line. Wants more money and is flirting with United via Evra. It is imperative we keep him, this reminds me of the Flamini / Diarra situation where we lost both. Pay him the 110k if necessary. Must stay at all costs. GOONER

Fabregas: Thanks for the memories, never reached his top level this season, maybe in 2 or 3 games at best. His heart is somewhere else and to be honest I understand, just disappointed that he wasn’t true to himself on the pitch this season. If he did stay I would be only happy, but only if he truly wants to stay, which he clearly doesn’t. GONER

Attackers:

Van Persie: Without doubt our most prized possession, more influential than Fabregas, fights and gives his all for his team. Outstanding scoring run at the end of the season, only down side is the injury prone situation. For me is absolutely world class. GOONER

Bendtner: The self proclaimed Danish Pele, has talent but seems to over complicate situations for me, has been played out of position which doesn’t help, works harder than credited for, but waste easy chances at times. If he does move on I see him been a success, so should we persevere? Either he goes or Chamakh? Had too many chances for me. GONER

Chamakh: Great start to the season, had confidence dented by RVP return, never challenged him by making most of chances when he came on, seemed scared to shoot at times. Worth hanging onto just, 2^nd season improvement beckons……. GOONER

Walcott: A better season than many would give him credit for, injuries again have hampered him, but when he plays he can be devastating if played to his strengths. Would prefer a more central role. No longer a kid or just potential, needs to dominate games. GOONER

Vela: The Mexican wonder boy has faltered and taken a step back when he should be dazzling us with his undoubted skills. Went on loan to WBA and they played him from the bench, although he scored a couple. Bring back and give one more chance. GOONER

There are many other youth players I could have added to the list, but I have used the squad list on Arsenal.com. Some long term contracts have been signed by Afobe, Aneke, Henderson amongst others…………..

So moving on, in my humble opinion, should be Almunia, Clichy, Squillaci, Denilson, Bendtner, Eastmond and sadly Fabregas, which should suit their desires as most of them have actually stated that they want to move on. So that’s 7 minimum out of the doors……..

In Wenger, we must continue to hold faith and back him to make the necessary changes and manage this situation with the player’s unrest; in already we have Jenkinson and some more Barca products, is that sensible?

In my next waffle I will analyse what we need and what there is available out there…..?

Harry KB……

Everybody understands and wants to see competition for places.

Two world class players for every position should surely be the pursuit of every top club.

This is hardly a revelation, there is nothing new about wanting two world class players for every position but just like ideal communism it is a good idea in theory the problem being it simply does not work in practice.

Many clubs have tried to achieve this utopian dream including Chelsea in their free spending hay day. I remember Mourinho saying in a televised interview how important it was for him to achieve this goal for the club – that’s to say two world class players for every position not ideal communism. Lol.

Mourinho failed just like every other manager who has since been and gone at Chelsea. The reason being, of course, is that good players are not prepared to sit on the bench watching their short career evaporate in front of their eyes.

Players want to play.

The idea that the two world class players for every position hasn’t crossed Wenger’s mind is daft to put it mildly, it obviously has and I am sure he is well aware that it doesn’t work: evidence confirms that if you stifle the progress of a talented player he will want to leave.

As romantic as having healthy competition is to us the fans the reality is that it is a very delicate balancing act. One wrong move and you have a disgruntled dressing room at best and anarchy at worst.

When a manager is considering buying a player for a particular position he must consider the effect it will have on the incumbent of that position. If the new comer is better, then the incumbent will naturally fear for his place.

If Arsenal bought Shay Given, for example, who has at least eight good years left in him, do you think that Szczesny would just quietly move to the bench and wait for his turn? You might say he should stay and fight for his place but this is school playground football politics. Szczesny would quickly realise that in order to improve he needs to be playing first team football in a top class league – in short; he would leave at the first opportunity.

If you don’t rate Given, think Petr Cezch or any other experienced keeper who at the moment would be regarded as an automatic first team goalkeeper, the point remains the same – there are consequences to signing new players that must be considered.

The very same situation applies to Djourou, if he is relegated to forth choice he will want to leave and this is the reason I go on and on about the consequences of signing new players.

Someone is bound to say: why should we worry about the incumbent if the incoming player is better and will therefore improve the squad? Any improvement to the squad will be heartily welcomed by me but if the debate is to transcend the school playground wish list then the issue of the incumbent must be understood and discussed.

Many people have expressed a desire to see a new winger; if this hypothetical player were to be better than Walcott then it is reasonable to assume that he would become a fans favourite and in turn Theo would almost certainly spend more and more time on the bench the result being that before long he would want to leave.

Theo should fight for his place — well it doesn’t work like that just look at Bendtner if you want evidence. Of course, I cannot be certain that Nikki wants to leave but is there anyone out there who believes he doesn’t due to the lack of first team opportunities?

There was an interesting little game being played on here a couple of days ago in which people were asked to put forward the two top players on their wish list who they would like to see arrive. One of the names that came up was Chiellini, I asked: do you think Song would be sold if he were to arrive? Some said no which baffled me as the idea that Song would accept playing second fiddle DM in the same way as Eboue plays second fiddle to Sagna seemed unrealistic. In this scenario Song would play equally as few games as Eboue which is not something I would envisage Song accepting and as a consequence there is no doubt in my mind that he would leave.

Herb answered my question as to the consequences to Song, after the hypothetical arrival of Chiellini, in this way.

“As for Song, I’ve never been a fan. I’d love to see Arsenal go back to 4-4-2, it is a more direct and attacking philosophy. It would render Song redundant (unless he was used as a CB), but I don’t rate him good enough to be here anyway, so I wouldn’t mind him being sold.”

Now that is what I call an honest answer, what do you think?

Written by London