OPEN LETTER TO WENGER + MATCH PREVIEW

Dear Arsene,

I’m your big fan here in Nigeria, albeit to the dismay of most of my friends. They are all tired of you. Some of them wish death upon you. Your reputation is at an all-time low. You really are not getting any love here, which is very surprising.

I keep wondering why they feel that way. Why they think you are hell-bent on destroying a club that attained its status as one of the best in the world, thanks to your magic. 

Firstly, the way they keep clamoring for new signings, like spoilt kids. Spoilt kids that would rather have a new toy bought for them than change the dead batteries in their toy. In occassions when United, even Barcelona have had positional crisis, like we’re having with our Full Backs, did they sign new players to fill the positions during the crisis? No they didn’t. They made use of other players in  the squad. Barca played Busquets and Mascherano as centre backs. United played Carrick and Fletcher as centre backs. I wonder how they expect you to make Full back signings when you have 4 injured full backs. What happens to the signings when the injured players return.

They expect you to sign Hazard and Goetze. Unrealistic and confused bunch of fans I think they are. They want experience in the squad, a squad that has Wilshere, Ramsey, Coquelin, Frimpong, yet they want you to complement these young barely experienced players with young, barely experienced, albeit highly rated players.

They complain about Chamakh, understandably so, but players go through bad patches, and the onus lies on the manager to help them recover from such patches by bedding such players into games, trying to build the players confidence. We all saw Chamakh when he was our only striker. No one thought he was a bad signing then. Torres is going through a similar patch in Chelsea. Have they also suggested to Chelsea to offload him to the first bidder?

They want Diaby sold. The same way they wanted Van Persie sold. The same way Barca fans would have wanted Iniesta sold when he was always getting injured. Sabali

In the case of Park. What they don’t realize is that they do not see what you see in training. They speak as if you would purposely keep benching a goal scoring machine. I am convinced that if Park were to be as good as you thought he was when you hijacked his move to Lille, he’d be starting our games and sharing the goal scoring responsibilities with Van Persie. But he’s either a very lazy player, or you have other plans for him, in the latter stages of the season perhaps.

They also complain about your refusal to rest Aaron Ramsey. I understand you however. Ramsey just got back fully into the game, after his horrific injury and he needs to build his stamina. They seem to forget that Frank Lampard played 164 consecutive games for Chelsea. Is Lampard not human? Is Ramsey complaining? There are many players in the game that play week in, week out. Why do they single out Ramsey as the player that desperately needs rest? He is still a young player, and whatever his body is trained to do now is what the body will get used to. I see Ramsey becoming an important Arsenal player. Lampard-like. Play all 38 games kinda player. 

They complain about your tactics. I feel this is very insulting. You are one of the best managers in the world, some random unknown Football Manager player thinks he should explain tactics to you. I’m too angry to dwell on this particular point.

Other issues like Chamberlain’s substitution against United would come up. But i think you have handled that one expertly in your post match press conference.

This letter is just to let you know that there are some of us football fans that still maintain our sanity. We understand that football teams go through phases. All great teams have gone through similar phases where no matter what the manager does, no matter who he signs things just don’t seem to be getting better. But I am certain that under your watch, we would get back to winning ways and start lifting trophies again.

Keep doing your good work Prof. Some of us still appreciate you. And we know all the whiny fans would keep shut soon. All the best against  Blackburn tomorrow.

Yours

Debo

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ARSENAL versus BLACKBURN

This would be short.

We need to start our season afresh for the umpteenth this season. Crazy games coming up after this game. Martin O’Neil’s Sunderland, AC Milan, Sp*rs, Liverpool, Newcastle… all coming up. Just like we built momentum after the 8-2 game. Lets do this again.

I suspect some players would be rested. I hope the lads that come in put in a performance that’ll stake a claim for a more important role for them in this second part of our season.

We didn’t sign any  new players. We have to make do with who we have. These players need to repay the manager’s confidence in them, and cut the poor old man some slack.

Come On You Gooners!!!!!