Written by Aaron Seale Monday, 04 July 2011 20:51

GunnerTalk Blog

By Aaron Seale

Currently we are graced with the return of our boys back onto the training field and a rather special pre-season - more abroad than what we are used to. Next season and beyond look to potentially hold a truly unusual evolution for Arsenal football club, but possibly for the worst.

Like most Gooners, I’d rather forget last season ever happened. In all honesty we should have won not only the Carling Cup but the Premiership too. Both Man United and Chelsea were not at their best. We did experience some real highlights such as beating Barcelona so emphatically in the first leg encounter as well as the fantastic defensive tactical game against Chelsea at home. Unfortunately these were ruined by the rest of it  however rather than go into all that again and start to think about self harm, or even harming others, I will move on to the main thrust of my article.

The beginning of this season worries me and I have never felt this uneasy before. Why you may ask? Well over the last couple of weeks we have had lots of interesting information regarding Arsenal, not much of it good news.  The doom and gloom has not just been about the players and whom is going to leave but probably more importantly, about the state of our club as a whole. Fans are dividing into more and more factions as each story filters through Goonerdom and that Arsenal passion seems to be thinning.

Now this isn't meant as a doomsday article more of a wake up call, firstly to our fans, but more importantly the prawn eating, seat warmers upstairs - though I doubt they will ever listen.

What worries me the most is the perception that everyone wants to jump ship at Arsenal. The players that were supposed to be spending their careers at Arsenal as ‘Project Youth’ starts to fulfil its purpose are all wanting to leave for bigger and supposedly better things elsewhere.  Add to the fact that this ‘elsewhere’ is not actually elsewhere enough and that the ship they want to jump to sails from either Manchester port in our very own Prem and its telling with regards to our status to say the least. What agitates me further, is though our fans are not worried about the evident sale of Gael Clichy or will never regard a player as bigger than the club, we have to remember history. Although a player may not be bigger than the club, they sure can affect it. Dating back to 2004, 05 and 06, Wenger made the mistake of letting some of our most experienced and quality players all leave within a very short space of time (Martin Keown, Ray Parlour, Edu, Patrick Veira, Ashely Cole, Robert Pires, Sol Cambell etc) It had a drastic effect on our team and its experience and still has. 

Most of our team have been playing together for a good number of years (approximately 6) and now want to leave us all at once. With our most experienced being at the age of 25 they have hardly reached their peak! My  fear is this could be a spiralling circle which comes to bite us in the arsenal, unless drastically addressed. Unlike our enemies up North, who have applied the right amount of experience and youth allowing them to keep competitive year after year, we do not seem to learn from our mistakes.

As much as Le Prof might love Science and Psychological testing, one thing he has forgotten is passion for the club. If he is not careful he might make some pretty awful mistakes even with regards to his very own pet project.  Some of our very talented young players want some first team action. The likes of Kyle Bartley, Henri Lansbury are crying out for a piece and have reiterated that they might go elsewhere if this is not fulfilled. As much as I like the foreign touch, the English spark have seen in Wilshere, melted with the international flavour he’s experienced from within our ranks makes him one of the most exciting and hottest English prospects we have seen in a long while. We need more of these boys in our first team, not just for tactical/numerical purposes but for the foundations of our club. We need players that care and want to stay with us for a long while, especially for the next generation of Arsenal players.

Moving on to our club's businessmen and, at once upon a time, women. They seem to have forgotten what the main point of a football club is, its engine. Not only are they fighting about handbags and scarfs they are forgetting the people who really matter, THE FANS.

At the end of last season the BSM held a very fair protest about the treatment of our fans and the boards reluctance to listen to us. What worries me is that reports from the cats upstairs about projects to develop more houses /extract more profit from the Highbury area, the possible takeover of the club and Mr Magoo's (Peter Hillwood) hit back at Lady Bracewell-Smith Twitter rant, with such quotes as "She put something like £100million in her pocket and didn't earn a penny of it.” "She should keep herself quiet and not complain" seem to illustrate that the fans valiant efforts has fallen on deaf ears.

Reading things such as these make me want to pull my hair out. I don't care about the profit margins or who gets away with what. I want glory and silverware. All of this will bring in the sorts of numbers they seem to rub all over their fat cat belly’s. The advertising, the merchandise, the sponsorship, the players will all flock to us like flies round shit once the silverware is back.

With a few extra million here and there we could have had the likes of Drogba and C. Ronaldo at the club. If we don't concede to the fact the rules have changed we will always be behind. We are a club that is supposed to be setting the standard, but right now we are digging our heels and playing 20th century football rules when everyone else is in the 21st. It has to change.

If things do not go well I feel this will be the last season under Le Prof. I think a massive change for Arsenal is afoot, but maybe not for the better. The problem is the board will still be there but possibly without one of the best managers in the world. Not only has AW worked miracles with what he has been given, but can you think of any other manager that can entice quality players to Arsenal with minimal wages compared to that of cash rich other clubs?

Anyway with all this possible doomsday talk, let’s get to the conclusion of my blog.

What I am asking for is a very important and possibly history changing thing for Arsenal Football Club. I ask for the fans to unite. Those that right now who seem to be divided, with the manager, players and club. I call on you this season, to get behind the team. I don't think the board will do anything about it, but we have numbers which might just change the mindset of our players. I call on every Arsenal fan out there to get behind our boys because it might just be the only thing we have left to stop a number of more years of gloom. Maybe longer than the 6 we have already experienced. We have lost faith in our club and players, with the abuse on Twitter and at games, we need to recapture that passion and wanting to succeed with Arsenal.

I hate the fact that the Emirates is cauldron of silence and our away fans are the only real voice. We need to distil some belief and fight into our team. We have quality, we have seen this, we all know this. I think we can agree that only a few signings are required to make things work, but with a large number of our players possibly leaving, we could be in real trouble.

Also if the board or any of their internet monkeys read any of this, I ask for you to concentrate on a couple of trophies. Right now I think any will do right now. I would happily take a cup only for the development of our players mindsets. Let's not compete for everything this year, lets choose a couple and really go for it, like we did with the Carling Cup. Arsen talks about over playing our players, well Sir you need act upon what you say. It is important for Arsenal Football Club and more importantly its fans. With constant headlines of your departure in recent years, all you have reiterated is that it is important for you to hand over this club in the best possible shape it can be in. Well Le Prof - do it, as I don't think you will be here for much longer.

Our new motto is Forward – please god that’s where we end up going.

A pessimistic but troubled fan...

Aaron Seale

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