What is ambition?

Aspiration, intention, goal, aim, objective, purpose, intent, plan, scheme, mission, calling, vocation, desire, target, end dream, or hope?

No matter where I look I cannot find a definition that claims its spending money, or more to the point, spending someone else’s money.

Arsenal have been the most ambitious club in the modern game. When they were enjoying unprecedented success at Highbury, they planned and executed the most ambitious move in football history. The club sacrificed years of possible short term success for a future as much bigger and more competitive club.

The fact that circumstances changed does not detract from the ambition shown. The arrival of multi-billionaires that were going to fund their toys to the extent never even dreamt of previously in English football and TV money reducing the advantage Arsenal had expected from the improved gate receipts does not mean that the ambition shown by the club was  not staggering. That FFP failed and the authorities were unable to resist the influx of cash to the game was not the fault of Arsenal and again, takes nothing away from the bravery and ambition the club showed.

The team, under Arsene Wenger always shows ambition. Even when forced to buy those the critics claim are 3rd rate players and journeymen, they had the ambition to play an open and expansive entertaining brand of football. If anything Arsene is guilty of being overambitious. I feel he asks players to play in a way that only the very best players can consistently achieve. Lack of ambition would be 5 at the back , 2 defensive midfielders and hoping that a player will do something special to score . Of course every defeat brings out the experts with their “painting by numbers” ideas on tactics and formations. But is that AMBITION? Is it bollocks.

So if people think we could have spent more, bought ‘better’, more expensive players,  played the game in a different way, and/or changed managers half a dozen times like “ambitious”clubs do, fine. Think what you like. But don’t be calling it ambition. I’m not having that. It is bullshit.

Before I go into my thinking let me make state my opinions:

1. Arsene Wenger is the club’s greatest ever manager
2. Arsene Wenger remains one of the world’s best managers
3. Arsene Wenger can achieve as much success as any possible replacement
4. Arsene Wenger should leave at the end of this season

So how can I say 4 after the previous 3?  Let me try to explain.

Arsenal are not a poor club; compared to the vast majority of clubs we are rich. However, compared to 3 other English clubs we are very much the poor relation. The problem is a huge swathe of our fan-base flatly refuse to accept this reality.  So let’s look at the reasons why so many think we should be able to compete with these clubs and why their thinking is wrong.

We are the 5th most valuable football club in the world and worth more than City and Chelsea.

Yes we are, but you can’t spend your share value.  An owner could of course borrow against it and fund the club that way, as Manchester United basically do, but our owner chooses not to. So just like the value of your house does not mean you can buy a new Ferrari, the value of the club does not buy players.

We have the largest cash reserves in football.

Yes, we do, but all of our cash reserves are shown in our accounts.  City and Chelsea’s cash reserves are in the bank accounts of their owners and don’t show in their accounts. And importantly, their owners are prepared and willing to spend their own money to subsidise the clubs. Ours has no such willingness. It  doesn’t matter how rich your Dad is, if he won’t fund your lifestyle, you are on your own. The fact that Stan is fabulously wealthy does not help a jot if he insists on the club paying its own way.  And he does.

There is a proven 85% correlation across all leagues of money spent (on fees and wages) to success.

Did LCFC club outspend the rest?

No they didn’t. They were a once in a lifetime exception, and people should understand that for every 5000 to 1 winner, there are 5000+ losers. Using this freak result as an argument against years of proven data takes an incredible amount of stupidity, but that doesn’t seem to put people off.

Until fans accept that there are 3 teams much more likely to win the league at the start of every season there will always be rebellion. I don’t care who the manager is, each and every year there are 3 teams that will have vastly more expensive squads and who will most likely have out-spent us on transfers in the previous window.  Some fans will ignore the financial gulf and demand we “compete” with the super spending clubs. But why?

Well, Arsene Wenger for a start.  His massive early success set the bar, and the change that has happened in the game since is ignored. We want doubles and unbeaten seasons, no sausages for us, oh no-sir. We deserve better.  We have tasted it, many are fans because of it and we demand it again.  And again.

But we just want to compete I hear you say?

But that is bollocks, because if we did compete, the same fans would be accusing the team, manager and club of “bottling” it if we didn’t go on to win.

The connection between the fan-base and the team is broken.  A huge portion of fans blame Arsene.  If he achieves the finish we should be achieving – 4th- this will be hailed a failure.

But here is the thing. Any future manager getting 4th or better will have succeeded.  Only Arsene can both achieve and fail at the same time.  He needs to massively over-achieve for it to be seen as acceptable.  If we finish outside the top 4 this year, it will be his first failure in real terms. But it is accepted thinking that he has failed for 13 years.  And this thinking will remain as long as he is manager.

He has to leave before fans will see and accept that he is not the problem, and never has been.

The players appear to back him almost to a man. But until he leaves they will hide behind him and he will let them. He will take the flak for the players and the board until he leaves.  I doubt a new manager will be as selfless.

Also the players could be carrying his burden onto the field.  The pressure applied by fans and the media will not be released while Arsene is in the driving seat.  They are sure he is the problem and will not consider an alternative view.

All this does not justify our current form which, by the way, is unprecedented in 21 years, but it might go some way to explaining it if people would be prepared to be a little open- minded.  The problem is they are not. They are convinced.  And only Arsene leaving will satisfy their lust for blood.

Arsene simply cannot win. He should leave, even if the club will actually be worse for it.

That said, if he stays, he will get my 100% support.

Because, well you know?

He’s Arsene Wenger.

Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,

Another savage setback in Sandwell yesterday. 2017 has turned into a bit of a monster hasn’t it ? In 29^th January, having seen our second string thrash Saints in the Cup and with a safe three points against Watford scheduled, before our trip to take on Chelsea the season’s future looked rather different. Only seven weeks ago ….? Just 11 games – Seems a bloody age !

Of yesterday’s lunchtime match until James McLean crunched into Alexis’ ankle we were comfortably in the game. We were not fluent going forward but doing enough to score again and, in due course, probably could/would/should have collected the points. The Chilean had looked sparky, had scored and was leading the Baggies a merry dance. With our balloon popped, or apparently Sanchez’s ankle ligaments crocked to be more accurate, we seemed to retreat into a protective ball, a little shocked, a little hurt.

And after that we lost the game. West Brom are not a bad side, a team built by Pulis in his functional “no-nonsense” image. Like Watford, like Everton, however they are a team of footballers who individually do not have the quality of our players, do not have the wide experience of domestic club, European and international football, do not have the technique in passing and control, are in most cases slower. These are the artisans of the football world. But yet again they put together what talent and energy they had and earned their points. They defended with grim determination and their concentration did not waver. When three chances to score came their way they took them. Two well taken corners, BANG BANG. One scruffy half shank of a scramble on the penalty spot from Robson-Kanu.

For our side we have a hell of a lot of passes and 77% possession. Once we had slipped behind to the second goal we really did not look like we were likely to recover. The eyes glazed, the shoulders slumped. What was slightly disappointing is no one kicked McLean (or stamp on his head as is the current fashion) after what was a vicious tackle on Sanchez. Why are we soooooo “nice” ? We have very good players. And those same players until the end of January had it in them, and managed week after week, to win games in the final few minutes, and to take back the initiative in contests. For the past seven weeks that talent has deserted them.

On the one side we have WBA whose output, whose product, is greater than one could expect if one piled up the components. On the other is us, whose output is falling well below that which the constituent parts ‘should’ yield.

Right that is the hair-shirt bit done.

We thankfully have the international break during which, I hope, the manager and the players can come together and identify what technical failings we have, defensively and offensively, and address them. We still have at least 12 games to go this season.

Despite the hysteria following yesterday’s defeat there remains an FA Cup to play for and crucial games against Citeh X2m, ManYoo and Spuds to be fiercely contested. And we have good player who can and will contest them as is their very lives depended on it. The points in the PL games can still provide a top four or top three finish, and that is still worth having despite what the ingrates will tell you. The results of those forthcoming games will be even more important than the previous 11 games since January. It is time for everyone in the club and who supports arsenal to put their shoulder to the wheel. In eight weeks time the season may look very different.

And I know no-one on here is foolish enough to take me at my word of a person’s life depending on the result of a football match allow me to share a family anniversary with you. 100 years today the 23 year old Lance Corporal John Nicol 9^th battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders was killed at Arras.

I am off to breakfast. Enjoy your Sunday.

Good morning Positives,

An FA 6th round tie was always, and probably will always, be a special fixture. Yesterday gave us a ‘classic’ Cup football confrontation, the mighty Arsenal, though slightly bruised after recent events, against the resolute, full-of-heart underdog of an opponent.

I was pleased to see Arsene set out a strong starting line up and bench. I say that not because I doubt that Rob Holding, Ospina or AMN would have failed achieve the same or perhaps even a better final result against Lincoln. It was a tie we were always expected to win, and would have done so whoever played after all. No, it was good to see that for once all our big guns had an opportunity to play together for 90 minutes in a game that allowed them to enjoy their football, to pass, dribble, shoot and use their craft. Above all, for the first time this year, we scored goals together. It was five, we know that it could have been ten or more as the game lapsed into attack v defence after half time.

I do not know about you, and the kind of jobs you do and the challenges you overcome to earn a daily crust, but occasionally I really enjoy dealing with a project that is straightforward, predictable, easy. The simplicity reminds me of what is important in what I do, and reminds me what is just pointless  background noise. It helps me re-set the compass. And so I felt it was for our players yesterday, who from where I was standing at least seemed to “ENJOY” the game. That most fans stayed on after the game to clap our own and the Lincoln players I’d say that it was a good evening. A football match as entertainment – who would have thought it ?

I make no pretence of having seen enough of the game to pick a man of the match. I must however give a more general tip my hat to Shkodran Mustafi who over recent games, particularly when he has found himself fighting a lone centre back battle, has performed valiantly.

If any reader thinks in emphasising our superiority I am being harsh or dismissive of our East of England opponents, I am not. Every man of them played to the very limit of his ability and energy. At 3-0, 4-0 they dashed about the pitch to try and press us with a ferocity that Her Klopp would have been proud off, their pink clad keeper flung out his limbs in all directions as he faced the gallery of red and white marksmen queuing to take their turn. In the first half their tenacity and organisation served them well, and for all the sneering “but they are non-League” commentary from the punditistas Lincoln held us at arm’s length better and held out for a damn sight longer than Bayern Munich had managed on Tuesday. A word of praise for their winger Nathan Arnold. Not often you see Kosc left on his arse and Arnold’s finish required the very best from Cech to deny the visitors. Their fans went home delighted, a day they will never forget.

So I think a satisfactory afternoon, enjoyable for Arsenal players, the manager and Arsenal fans (well the sane ones anyway). Clearly there are no great tactical or strategic lessons to be learned in one off Cup games. I hope however that it reminds the players why they do the job, that in a game mired in money, in the media blizzard, in the machinations of agents and boardrooms that they can still revel in their skills, their fitness and movement. Taste that Cup glory, just for the evening.

Two more 6^th round ties to go and I am sure you will be with me in wishing the Lions all the best for their game at the Lane.

Enjoy Sunday.

Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,

Let me get the grudging congratulations out of the way first to our opponents last night. Over two legs we encountered a team of the highest quality. If it was destined to be our largest ever defeat in the Champions League and at the Emirates we were ruthlessly despatched by a team likely to feature in the final of the competition, at least.

Of the game ? We were very good for 54 minutes. Not ‘good’ in a clinging-on, denying Bayern by the skin of our teeth kind of way but playing fast, creative football. Our first half performance was not down to one or two exceptional performances by Arsenal players, but a genuine team effort, front to back. A special word of praise however for young Hector. Not quite been in top form for a few weeks but best player on the pitch in the opening 45. We opened up the Germans on four occasions. Manuel Neuer, fine keeper that he is, seems oddly accident prone at the Emirates. Had more then one of those chances been put away then “what if …. ?”. Against a team of Bayern’s quality to fail to convert half chances into goals is surely the path to defeat. And so it proved.

Now we reach the 54^th minute, and a gentleman who the mainstream media tell me goes by the name of Charalambos Kalogeropoulos. The official burst into the footballing limelight in a most unexpected fashion.  Now I do not know about you but the goal line assistant, an invention of Sepp Blatter in his relentless battle against technology, has not much featured in my football watching. I do not understand what they do, or are supposed to do, and because we see and hear so very little of them I suspect they are a vague about it themselves. See no evil, speak no evil et cetera.

Nevertheless the man insisted that the referee convert a yellow card, to a red card. And if I live to be a very old person I will not understand why. Ruined the contest, sank any conceivable chance of recovery on our part, and caused me to drink far more red wine than I would normally do on a Tuesday night. At least my wounds are self inflicted.

At 1-1 in truth I’d say the game was just about done, and would have been done, even with 11v11. A man advantage and our balloon punctured the final 35 minutes saw our lads dismembered in a professional, relentless fashion.

Could we have put ten men behind the ball and battled for a more respectable 2-1, 3-1 or 4-1 ? Would my work this morning have been easier had the defeat been of smaller proportion ? I dunno. And to be honest I don’t care. We play as we play.

Right then, enough of this wallowing in self pity. I spy a FA Cup quarter final on Saturday against Lincoln, who I can never recall seeing before in the flesh. I shall be there, making a noise, enjoying the game. And then there is the little matter of 12 Premier League games, amongst which are some tasty contests.

It is not all bad – enjoy your Wednesdays.