Arsenal: A never-ending vicious circle ‏?

By Akbar Ghaffar

“Vicious circle: A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability"

After all the pre-match statements, I sadly have to say that last night’s was another display of what I call "a never-ending vicious circle". I will not talk much about the particulars of the match, because frankly looking at the bigger picture the view is quite different.

A lot of the problems I mention below need to be resolved if Arsenal are to get out of this “vicious circle”

The first problem with Arsenal that Wenger fails to understand is squad depth.

The same squad is utilised for three competitions, playing three matches per week and that, I believe, leaves you with not only player burn out but also injuries. And we have suffered from both.

We have some depth now compared to the past but no where near enough. The squad that is left on the bench is a mixture of talented youngsters and what I would call the injured crew.

But you cannot expect these players to come off the bench and really be competitive enough or have any significant impact.

Look at the subs bench last night: Vela (I mean Vela is a good player but you can’t take out Van Persie and bring on someone who is nowhere near Van Persie's quality or experience), Fabianski, Eboue, Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner and Silvestre.

Manchester United on the other hand regularly have players like Tevez, Scholes and Rooney on the bench.


I really believe that Wenger desperately needs to get a good depth in the squad with players that are not young who can really push the first team squad members.

Adebayor for example won’t give a crap about his position because Bendtner is not good enough (at the moment) to push him for a regular first team place. Similarly, at the back where we are quite vulnerable we have no depth at all.

If Wenger really wants to carry on with his youth project then we need some really really awesome talent to make up for the loss of experience and strength.

Frankly, apart from Fabregas (currently), I do not see the super super talent that he talks about all the time. I mean a player who is a real super talent like Messi, Pato or Ronaldo.

And who do we currently have who was brought in the last few years and really developed into world-class? Senderos? Diaby?

I do understand that the Arsenal players are young but so are Messi and Fabregas who started showing their class early on. The same holds with the case of Henry, Viera and others.

I really believe that the players brought in have to be exceptional otherwise you need to buy established and known talented players because frankly we are going nowhere with this youth policy.

The second issue is about the strictness of player contracts.

Wenger moaned about Hleb leaving (Flamini ran out of contract) but why did you allow him to go Arsene?

Ferguson put his foot down and Ronaldo had to respect his contract.

He is now reaping the benefits to the detriment of Arsenal!

Arsenal will always be in transition if we do not show strictness and ignore the sirens of clubs offering millions for our players.

Are we an academy that develops players and sell them or what?

What if tomorrow we have mega offers for Fabregas, Persie and Walcott? Are we going to sell them and then buy some 17 yr old and then watch this frustrating Arsenal play with kids for another 5 years till they grow up become disillusioned and leave again?

“Vicious circle”: A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability

Another significant issue is not giving contracts to players after 30. Well no one would really like to be at a club where they would be thrown out after that age would they?

We cannot have and enjoy such great legends then. Arsene needs to change this policy because frankly speaking Maldini, Giggs, Scholes, Raul and others are not crap after 30 and these are the players you need for the big games.

So unless we do not have enough desire to go for every competition and win it (I believe Wenger has really lost hunger and just wants the CL) we would not be winning anything ever.

Unless we have super super players who are made to respect their contracts we are always going to be in this "never-ending vicious cycle" where we would barely make it for 4th place in the League and get really frustrated seeing the key players depart.

If these problems are not solved then I'd wait for another 3 years at least and then may be start watching Arsenal again…. if this vicious circle comes to an end by then.

But will it?

“Vicious circle”: A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability