Arsene's Arselings
You've heard of the Busby Babes and Fergie's Fledglings, well meet 'Arsene's Arselings', a team that for the first time in Arsene Wenger's reign at Arsenal Football Club threaten to not finish in the top four of the Premier League and thus fail to deliver Champions League football since the Frenchman became the manager.
True, there are many games to go and Arsenal could still finish in the top four, but with the way things are going and the way the team plays these days, don't count on it. Recent results (defeats to Watford, Everton, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, and West Brom yesterday, added to the humiliating defeats to Bayern Munich) suggest that on this form Arsenal will struggle to even make the Europa League, as Mourinho's Manchester United and Ronald Koeman's Everton pile the pressure on the Gunners.
In truth, Arsenal's demise has been in the wings and waiting to happen for a long time now so it should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Looking back at their results this season (an opening defeat to Liverpool, and draws with Middlesbrough and Bournemouth to name but a few to add to the previous list of defeats) then this is truly a poor season for Arsenal, to whom it seems that the board sit around counting their money whilst their house is burning.
With civil war being threatened within the club, it is time that both the 'silent board' and the team itself took some stick instead of just Wenger himself. Particularly the team. The team has not only let themselves and their manager down, but above all the fans who pay the most expensive tickets to watch what at best can be describe as yawning mediocrity. Perhaps football itself is dying a slow death, or is dead with all the money that is invested in it these days, as players swim in their riches.
Wenger made a comment saying that he doesn't know what success is these days, well the answer is simple. Success is what the fans want and the majority by far want to see silverware, and by silverware we mean the Premier League (last won 2004) and the Champions League (never won). By this standard, Wenger has not been successful and this is why many of the fans are in uproar and want him to go. The rest of the fans who want Wenger to stay are with the board who count success financially (or believe that since Wenger's first 10 years were successful he has earned the right to decide for himself when to call it a day).
Surely, if Wenger, even if he somehow manages to win the FA Cup, finishes outside the top four (what he himself has called the absolute minimum of acceptance and expectation) must call it a day at the end of the season, and hand over his 'Arselings' to a fresh man in charge to sort out.