So yesterday night we got our champions league finalists; Real Madrid and Juventus.
I was really happy that Juve won as i didn’t want the possibility of Madrid having it back to back, that would have been annoying. If Arsenal can’t do it then no one should. Which was why it was pretty galling when those blue idiots did it in 2011 (Tch!), but back to yesterday’s game. In the aftermath of what was a truly enjoyable game some things came to light.
First was Gareth Bale. Now i don’t like monkey boy for any reason, he’s an ex Spud player so i retain a certain level of animosity towards him. But i felt it was rather unfair the way he was being bashed all over social media. It doesn’t help that he is the most expensive signing in like ever and he has to play beside an egomaniac like Ronaldo. Poor kid is out of his depth as he’s being picked clean by the media.
Last season he won them the Copa del Rey and to some extent the Champions League and now he is being maligned. Thinking of this led me to think about our own team and the way we supporters oscillate when it comes to our own players. Last Season Ramsey was seen as the Welsh Jesus, a “World Class” player and the awesomest thing since Agbalumo (cherries), but then before the 10 game run that just ended, he was suddenly horrible, terrible and should leave.
Same thing with Mesut Ozil. Some had gone as far as calling him a flop, that he should be sold and that we didn’t need him anymore. Same with Wilshere, Giroud, Monreal and Walcott. All deemed to be bad. Fans have really short memories it seems and i think it is unfair when we’re so impatient with players. No player is going to be in form forever, they all go through low periods. Even the best players in the world have them.
On the Walcott issue, Arsene spoke last week about how he doesn’t want to miss his golden age as a striker. He says he works with him on the wing and up front and interestingly in the last two games Theo has come on to play centrally. Very few are convinced he can do the job and bar that one game against Tottenham in the FA cup last season where he eventually came off injured, i’m hard pressed to find another good performance from him (Oh, maybe that Reading game a couple of seasons ago). He doesn’t seem to have the stones for it and after the loss to Swansea, he’s not exactly making himself undroppable.
But then again we come back to perceptions, we need to put this in context. Here’s a player who is badly in need of minutes and confidence as both are low right now, so it’s only natural that’ll he’d be a little rusty. Some will say that at this level, things are a little ruthless and the luxury of waiting for a player to find form just isn’t there and they’d be correct. But we also have to temper that with the fact that when on form said player is a real asset. There’s also Arsene’s track record of turning wingers into strikers. Worked with Henry and that guy who left.
He found success with both and they became world class, sometimes we need to have a little faith in the manager that he actually knows what he’s doing. Who knows Theo could become a pretty good center forward, on the other hand Arsene might just be being sly and Theo will be off in the summer. It’s also entirely possible that the Manager could go for a wide man in the summer and move Theo up front to challenge Olivier and Danny, that could potentially be fun. He did say he wanted someone with an extra 10-15 goals in him, now that’s open to interpretation; the solution could be internal or external, that remains to be seen.
All in all, what we do know for sure is that we know nothing. We’re all Jon Snows when it comes to Arsene’s plans, but i sure as hell would love to see it.
Till later.
