Beside all the things going behind the front stage, back there in the boardroom, what Arsenal need is an identity.
Henry saying he might leave, I am only worried because there must be a big problem in the back room. I fear that other would follow …
Back to the front stage, where fans can argue and see.
I heard an Englishman saying ” that Arsenal is missing Adams, Kewon, and these guys. They are not missing Vieira and these guys” , I started arguing, but I stopped after 1 minute !!!
Yes, we are missing the English Gunners in the team. Believe it or not … You are English or not, you have to understand it. Our ability to beat top notch teams is there: Man U twice, Chelsea (tied twice), Liverpool (trashing them 3 times), … But we lose point here and there why?
My theory:
1- Take the the Beast for an example, he was playing hard, but when its a show game (vs. big teams), he knows Spain and others are watching so he plays his butt off. When we play little English teams, he would probably not care cause he can leave sometime. His name is not in the history.
2- FA Cup, Jose M. said: I am not English, but the English care too much about it, this is Why FA cup is very important. For the past 10 years Arsenal was great in the FA Cup (when we had the Englishmen like Adams and Kewon), for them this cup is the cup of life. Its tradition … they want it. Tired legs vs. Blackburn is not an excuse to lose 1-0 in the 89′ minute for someone really value it.
3- Arsenal did well in the CL last year, because we had the skilled players to do it, the players that appreciate this is as a CUP of Life.
Playing every week and maintaining a winning streak, requires more than depth in the squad, quality and skills, it requires desire to leave history, it requires a desire to win a game even if you have a broken leg.
The mistakes that Arsenal do comes from relatively careless attitude. Or I could call it LACK of bursting desire to win it for yourself and the history.
I don’t point here at the likes of Henry who has been for 8 years, I point at the players that come in and leave the next year or 2. The Beast, Reyes, Cygan, …
I know that we can find talented cheaper players than English players for an example Bent or Curtis Davis, but we need to have and try to keep or get them. Ashely Cole, we lost him. Arsenal should have paid him more, baby sat him and gave him more responsibility. Pennant, Arsenal should have helped him more and kept him in the Club. Even the whinny Bentley.
I think Chelsea made Lampard and J Cole the players they are. Look, Man U still playes Scholles and Brown even I can find 40 players that can fill their boots.
I hate it when other fans say to me: you Arsenal fans keep talking about the 03/04 season, wake up guys we are in 2007, and the season is over.
The way its going now, I cant see Arsenal even finishing 3rd …. Make the players happy, strengthen the squad and find us some IDENTITY.
Gunners for Life
7 Responses to “What we need in Arsenal is an identity!”
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July 11th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Pennant, Bentley? We should have kept them?
Well, I’m sure Wenger wanted to keep DB, but he was too impatient and wanted to leave. What do you expect, Wenger to sit Pires, Freddie, Reyes on the bench just to keep him happy? No way. As for Pennant, I think there are many players with his characteristics and we can find one without problem, even in England. And Cashley is one little prick who interests only the green color and I don’t want him here. Players like him are ruining the game the game.
Todays players from England are trouble for the clubs, they are or drunk or suspects for rape or they are involved in some fight. All that is bad for both the image of the club and the spirit in the dressing room.
Even if we need more English players, we don’t need to buy them, we have some good Englishmen in the Reserves such as Lansbury, Murphy, Hoyte Jr., Rodgers… All we need to do is to be patient with them and hopefully they will break in the first team. There is one Englishman I want to see in the Red and White though, Micah Richards. He would be great.
And the players don’t need to be from England to show some competitive spirit. Reyes, unlike you, I think gave his best whenever he played, Ljungberg is another example, he is from Sweden, but he will do anything to win a game.
I’m happy with squad we have, we just need to be more patient, like Wenger and I believe the results will come.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Identities take time to develop. This is a young team that needs to develop and it will. But a true dentity (meaning one that is deeper than an appearance) isn’t like an expensive tailored suit… you can’t just buy one and be done with it. It takes a lot of time.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
My two cents. I think team chemistry is the key. Look at Adams and the defenders, the Vieira midfield, Henry and Bergkamp, etc. We lack that chemistry right now. Frankly, it only existed in spurts under Henry’s captaincy. (Strangely enough, I think it existed in the makeshift defense of two seasons ago.)
Identity, however, doesn’t necessarily equate to success. Blackburn are known as thugs, for example.
Also, (granted, this was a minor point) but I don’t think there are ten toes, let alone 40 players, that could fill Scholes shoes. He was the keystone to their success last season. Maybe he wouldn’t have thrived in another setting, but, again, this goes back to chemistry. He was the right player in the right position for the right team.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Honestly, I don’t think Arsenal lost to Blackburn on the 89th minute in the FA Cup had anything to do with lack of identity, or the players didn’t want it as much as the English players.
If I recall it right, Brad Fredal played like Peter Schmiechel in the original game, and we missed so many great chances. I just had that feeling it’s not gonna be our cup this year. Sometimes when u watched football a long time, u start to become a bit superstituos, particular after missing so many good chances, u noe it’s gonna come back and haunt u.
Anyway, remember this is a young Arsenal side, those young players are HUNGARY for trophies, probably even more than the veterans.
I think the heart of ur post is about DESIRE, how much a player want to win. This I believe it lies inside an individual player, those who are hungary to win, it doesn’t matter what country they are from.
In terms of IDENTITY, I think we have a far better IDENTITY than other clubs. First, those players who are in Arsenal team know WHAT KIND OF FOOTBALL they are expected to play.
And when other neutrals think about Arsenal, they immediately relate it to PASSING, ATTACKING, ATTRACTIVE football.
We got an UNIQUE IDENTITY.
We shall not mix up IDENTITY with NATIONALITY. And let’s face it, the way things going Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool aren’t going to have many English players left neither in the near future.
Liverpool and Man U used to produce some English talents from their youth rank, but basically they got none in recent years.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I know what you are getting at, but I really disagree that it is an english vs. foreign issue. If you mean traditional stereotypical english style players, more physical and high tempo, as opposed to the comparatively tactical, creative, finessed style of europeans and south americans, I agree with your main point. But from the examples you give, it sounds much more like a nationality issue.
I think the compromise that has been made is that Arsene has tried to build a team that can win the Champions league, at the cost of one optimized for the Premier league. As has been pointed out, this season we beat the football-playing part of the table, but not the more traditionally English teams. The invincibles were generally a disappointment in europe, capable of great moments but somehow too naive tactically or mentally, and English opposition didn’t prepare them for the CL. On the whole, we are now better able to handle the european problem but have more trouble with the English/English-style teams; in no small part due to the personnel changes that have been made, changes with the intention of addressing the weaknesses in europe: Add e.g. Hleb, Cesc, Reyes, Baptista. In fact, Wenger realized he over-did it, and that’s why he got Ade and Diaby, big and energetic, but also fast enough to play football. The challenge, it seems, is to have a robust, gritty, consistent enough team to win the Premier league (which requires maximum points from the English-style teams), but a technical and saavy enough team to win in Europe. ManU and Chelsea have the robustness and consistency, Liverpool have the saavy, in an Italian, very-difficult-to-beat sort of way. (Why it is that Chelsea beats Liverpool in the Premier league but gets beaten by them in the CL, *with the same players*, escapes me.)
Bently and Pennant had the talent to play at Arsenal, but not the character. The missing character is exactly the part you associated with the english - the resolve, the chasing lost causes, the belief they can get a goal after 89 unsuccessful minutes. Since leaving, they have been perhaps better than average Premier league players, but not more than that; it’s not clear they are better now than they were at Arsenal, despite years more experience. As for Lampard and Joe Cole, they were talented when they were at West Ham, but Ranieri and Mourinho and all the foreigners there made them the consistent performers they are now, not the english at Chelsea. Despite the rantings of the English press core and Alan Pardew, Chelsea was the first to play a non-english starting 11, and that is the group Lampard joined.
As for theory point 2, the most famous and painful goal Arsenal have ever given up was the one where Giggs dribbled through all the tired-legged English Arsenal defense and midfield at the end of the FA Cup final. (Sorry to bring it up, but its a perfect illustration of my point.) If the experienced english Arsenal can lose in the last minutes of the FA Cup final, why can’t the inexperienced foreign Arsenal lose late in an early round replay?
So, I believe that we need to balance the team by adding some players that have a high work rate, drive, consistency, and “mental strength”, in the words of Wenger, but maybe just sufficient technical skills. I don’t think those players have to be english.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
If you want to see more english players who are Arsenal material, send them to Ajax, PSV or Barca’s youth academies. The number of truly world class players GB produces these days is appalling.
Every other big footballing nation is developing great players. I challenge you to name 3 who have come through in the past five years who would compete with the best from spain portugal brazil or argentina.
If you want players from England in the arsenal squad find someone who can train them and keep them focused. Or maybe send them abroad for development or finishing. When they come back they will be cheaper to buy!
July 12th, 2007 at 10:13 am
With Sagna now on board, Arsenal’s identity is definitely taking more shape… and that shape is looking like a fleur de lis.
With Clichy, Gallas and Sagna on the defense, and since Eboue and Toure, through their grandparents, would be considered French citizens (and anywaysm French remains the official language of post-colonial Cote d’Ivoire), I’d say Arsenal’s rear guard may as well be called the French Foreign Legion.
Hey, I’m almost evenly distributed between my French and English heritage, so I haven’t a problem with that… all I ask for is that players show a bit of loyalty. But that rarely ever happens these days — even when they are under contract.