Would you swap Mourinho for Wenger?

I would, but then I’d swap Wenger for Martin O’Neil. 

It appears that Mourinho has burnt his bridges at Real Madrid. Once you lose the dressing room at a massive club like that, the players can get you ousted within weeks.

Amazingly, Madrid are five points clear of a side widely regarded as one of the best many people have ever seen, and yet the crowd have turned against Mourinho along with some of his players, and the media is talking about the club sacking him when they might just as well be idolising him.

At the big clubs in Spain, no job is ever guaranteed - even if you win La Liga or the Champions League. In contrast, Wenger has managed Arsenal for 16 years, never won the Champions League - and generally has a terrible record in Europe, and endured a torrid seven-year spell without success, which is only getting worse, yet somehow keeps his job.

Mourinho is several levels above Wenger, and they both share a very different sort of destructive ego.

Wenger’s is self-destructive, in an introverted way; he thinks he’s the best when he isn’t and thinks he’s right about everything when he isn’t. His huge ego and the belief that he is infallible and that everything negative that happens on a football pitch is everyone else’s fault and nothing to do with him, was certainly brought about by the acclaim he derived from the incredible success of The Invincibles.

Basically, The Invincibles has distorted and destroyed Wenger as a person and a manager. He bought into the hype about himself hook, line and sinker and now can’t get to grips with the fact that he’s nowhere near as good as he thinks he is, or we thought he was.

In trying to restore his image, Wenger has put himself first and the requirements of the club second and thus Arsenal have spiralled into a rhythmic pattern of failure.

Mourinho is destructive in a more extrovert manner. His ego derives from an incredible and unparalleled appetite to win. When his teams lose big games it’s often because he gets his players so wound up they lose focus on playing football and beat themselves.

Unlike Wenger’s self-destructive ego, which is very real, Mourinho has CREATED a persona using a super-inflated ego as a means to an end.

Mourinho uses the persona he has created to deflect attention away from his players and attract criticism to himself. The bigger and more outrageous his behaviour and the headlines he creates, the greater the desire of his players to play for him and win for him.

The Portugueuse is also an excellent tactician; the gulf between Mourinho and Wenger in tactical terms is as great as the divide between a professional and an amateur.

But of course, with Mourinho’s style of management – albeit somewhat unique, there’s a VERY thin dividing line, and for the first time in his career Mourinho appears to have overstepped it. This was bound to happen.

Having said that, if the ex-Chelsea boss does hang on to his job until the end of the season and wins La Liga, what will he care? He will have won yet another trophy, and his behaviour will have justified everything.

Mourinho’s no fool; he lives on the edge and ruffles feathers, and probably knew that his time in Spain would be short-lived for precisely the reasons I've outlined.

Arsenal would be afraid to employ Mourinho, so I never see it happening, and I believe Wenger would be afraid to work at Real Madrid because he’s a control freak.

Wenger couldn’t handle big players with big egos, or presidents poking their nose into his training ground methods, employing his coaching staff for him and making him attend meetings in which he has to do what they tell him and demand results – that would be a massive culture shock. And, of course, Wenger prefers a dressing room of subservient youngsters who all think he’s god.

When Wenger leaves Arsenal I reckon he’ll go back to France or he’ll just quit altogether, as I don’t see any club on earth offering the outrageous privileges he has enjoyed at Arsenal for so long.

But, yes, however unrealistic, I love the idea of a swap between Mourinho and Wenger. It would be like bursting a cyst; instant relief. But then, at this moment in time, ditching Wenger for anyone vaguely competent would bring a similar sense of liberation.

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Arsenal 1 Manchester Utd 2: Report & Ratings

Following Swansea, Arsenal were taught another footballing lesson in the first half by a far more composed Manchester United side. They should have been two or three up, but despite Nani making a mockery of Djourou down Arsenal’s right, his final ball left his team mates tearing their hair out.

For Arsenal, the effort was there but not the quality. Van Persie hardly had a kick, and Walcott was his usual brainless self – at one point he provided a terrible pass for Oxlade-Chamberlain that went into touch but shamefully tried to deflect his embarrassment by having a pop at the youngster.

As during the Old Trafford mauling in August, Wenger persisted with pushing his defence up and having no cover for his full backs, thus leaving acres of space for Utd to spray balls in behind for Nani and Danny Welbeck to wreak havoc.

Predictably, the Gunners conceded after incessant pressure just prior to half time when Giggs marauded down the left and crossed to the far post where Valencia got ahead of the sleepy Vermaelen and headed home.

Djourou had been so bad that Wenger was forced to replace him at half-time with rookie Nico Yennaris.

Arsenal upped their game in the second half and created some semi-chances; a shot from 20 yards from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey put one over the bar after stumbling his way into the box, then Van Persie missed a sitter on his left foot after Chris Smalling inexplicably slipped and Rosicky put the Dutchman in.

Utd created better chances; Nani’s near-post shot was well saved by an alert Szczesny and Mertesacker had to clear off the line when Welbeck beat him to the ball in the box, but his shot was slowed by Szczesny’s touch.

Regardless, Arsenal did well to claw their way back into a match that should have been all over by then when a reverse pass by Oxlade-Chamberlain allowed Van Persie to hit a first-time shot rather fortuitously through the legs of the defender and past Anders Lindegaard.

It looked like the tide might turn, until Wenger made a baffling substitution that was vigorously booed by the Emirates crowd when Oxlade-Chamberlain was replaced by Arshavin. Van Persie openly showed his displeasure at the decision, and it proved to be fatal, as not only would Arsenal not create another chance in the match, but Arshavin’s feeble lack of efficiency in tracking Antonio Valencia allowed the Utd winger to wander into the box and set Welbeck up for the winner.

At the final whistle boos rained down on the beleaguered Wenger; he’d got it all horribly wrong again.

First, the players didn’t come out with any confidence right from the start, which simply makes you wonder if he's capable of inspiring them. Second, why did Arsenal play a high line and leave the full backs unprotected again? Then there was the Oxlade-Chamberlain substitution, which will go down in history as a legendary fuck up.

Post-match, Wenger cited the reason for his substitution of Oxlade-Chamberlain as fatigue, but that flew in the face of reality – and so what if he did have fatigue? A fatigued 18-year-old was a lot better than whatever Walcott was supposed to be doing.

In my opinion, these are lies. I reckon Wenger had decided before the game that he would take The Ox off with 20 minutes to go, so he did so regardless of the effect Chamberlain was having on the match. A stopwatch manager, Wenger regularly displays similar analytical incompetence in his substitutions. 

Man Utd weren’t even that good; their defence looked ropey without Ferdinand and Vidic, Phil Jones was carried off early doors and to say Rooney was below par would be an understatement. With Darren Fletcher injured Man Utd didn’t have a single ball winner in midfield – yet they still won the majority of the tackles and controlled most of the game. It was a chance for Song to shine, but he disappeared.

Again, it was a performance lacking in confidence, tactical nous, and littered with basic defensive errors that come from rank bad coaching.

I’m also rather tired of all these excuses about missing full backs. Vermaelen has played many games as a full back during his career and so has Koscielny, and they’re both far better players than Santos, Gibbs or Jenkinson. Gibbs and Jenkinson would have been taken apart, Santos is an average defender.

Sagna is good – not great. Basically, Arsenal are missing one good defender, the others are just numbers. Injuries are excuses.

Utd had worse injuries, yet Arsenal only managed one clear cut chance, and that was only because Smalling slipped and fell over – so you couldn’t even say that chance was created by Arsenal, it was created by Smalling.

Of course, if you feel that you do have key players missing, you have the option to change the system, but Wenger didn’t. £7m a year and he can’t even tweak a tactical system. Every game we play exactly the same way, regardless of the opposition.

Wenger is to tactics what George Best was to sobriety. 

Any boardroom at any so-called major club in Europe would have Wenger’s P45 in their top draw right now, yet at Arsenal you can bet that’s not happening - and so I fear the supporters are going to have to do Gazidis/Kroenke’s dirty work for them and push for Wenger’s removal.

It’s going to be slow, painful and get progressively ugly but might start to take shape over the next eight games, with away trips to a resurgent Bolton and Sunderland, then AC Milan and Liverpool. Home games include Aston Villa in the FA Cup (dare Wenger play a weakened side), Blackburn (fighting for their lives), Tottenham and AC Milan in the return leg of the Champions League.

I’d be surprised if Wenger won more than two of those, and if that’s the case supporters should be frothing at the mouth come mid-March, and with any luck some momentum can be built for his removal. 

Not only would I fully endorse that, I pray for it. Wenger’s arrogance makes me sick and I don’t like him as an individual. I respect what he did when he was successful, and I’m very grateful for it, but I don’t have to like him or respect him as a person, and quite frankly I don’t.

Personally, I hope Arsenal have a nightmare over the next two months and fall to pieces. They probably will anyway, but I actively hope they do. The quicker Wenger is gone the better, dragging this situation on for another 2-3 years will decimate the club, and so the sooner he goes the less damage will be done, and for me, Arsenal always comes first.

We should also focus on the board and the owner and whatever the hell they're supposed to be doing; from where I'm sitting they're looking like the wrong people with the wrong jobs in the wrong sport.

Szczesny 7.0
Performed well.

Djourou 3.0
Skinned by Nani, positional play was farcical.

Mertesacker 6.5
Had a busy night cleaning up after Djourou, and did a good job most of the time, but his lack of pace was in evidence again. I wouldn’t call Mertesacker a dud, but he doesn’t lead and doesn’t inspire; defensively we’re no better or worse without him.

Koscielny 7.5
The best of Arsenal’s defenders; had plenty of heart and has improved this season, but still far from the finished article.

Vermaelen 4.0
Just back from injury, but poor. Fell asleep and allowed Welbeck to get ahead of him to score Utd’s opener, and where was he for the second goal?

Song 4.0
Lazy and unfocused; can’t remember him making a single interception.

Rosicky 7.5
Best game for years. Positive on the ball providing plenty of forward momentum, and good range of accurate passing.

Ramsey 5.0
Constantly bottles-out of situations, whether it’s tackles or taking chances. He doesn’t look like a Premier League player to me, too soft.

Oxlade-Chamberlain 8.0 - STAR MAN
Did more in 70 minutes than Walcott has in 7 months. Creative, and played with flair and intelligence.

Walcott 2.0
He’s a sprinter, not a footballer. Giving him a big new contract would be a complete waste of millions, so Arsenal need to sell.

Van Persie 6.5
Totally anonymous but still managed to grab a goal and miss a sitter.

SUBS

Yennaris 6.0
Did better than Djourou just by standing there.

Arshavin 3.5
Oh dear.

Park 3.0
Never touched the ball.

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What chance does Arsenal have with the likes of Hill-Wood upstairs?

Just thought I’d report on some comments made by Arsenal’s bird-brained Chairman Peter Hill-Wood today.

According to him, not qualifying for the Champions League is no disaster for Arsenal. Hill-Wood is quoted in the Daily Star as saying:

“We are hanging on in there, no more. From a financial point of view, not qualifying for the Champions League is quite a blow. We have been planning for not qualifying every year, so it’s not a disaster, but it would nice if we could.”

“Nice if we could.” NICE IF WE COULD?! What chance have we got with this apathetic waste of space in the boardroom?

Not only are his weak words completely inadequate, but Hill-Wood already seems to have accepted Arsenal's fate by declaring non-qualification “IS quite a blow”, rather than WOULD be a blow SHOULD Arsenal fail to qualify.

Hill-Wood doesn’t seem to understand that non-qualification certainly would be a disaster. For a start, the board and Wenger are forever complaining that Arsenal can’t compete with the clubs around them financially, so assuming that’s no more than a lame excuse how could losing a minimum of £30m in revenue NOT be a disaster? 

If losing £30m in revenue is NOT a disaster, then basically the financial situation is a whole lot better than Wenger is making out.
 
Then you have the fact that non-qualification would certainly be the final nail in the coffin for the hopes of Van Persie signing a new contract. Arsenal would lose the only world class player it has left, a player that I would remind you we’re hopelessly reliant on. Meanwhile, the few other players Arsenal have that are any good (Sagna, Wilshere, Vermaelen) might well start getting restless, too.

Attracting top class players when you’re not in the Champions League is that bit more difficult. In fact, one of the very benefits of being in the Champions League is that the cash and prestige allows you to continue the cycle of qualification. Fall out of the top four and you can easily get stuck in a rut and fall behind.

Arsenal would be replaced by Spurs. I’d call that a disaster.

These comments from Hill-Wood should not be thought of as trivial - even if only for the fact that he doesn't think when he speaks it's unforgiveable. He's supposed to be the Chairman, he's supposed to send out a message. The Chairman should be coming out and saying that non-qualification IS a disaster, and that Arsenal is a big club with big ambitions. What sort of lackadaisical message does it send out to the players and the manager when even the Chairman says CL qualification would be “nice, but not a disaster”?

I’m afraid, it’s just more evidence that this club is being run by thoughtless, ambitionless buffoons from top to bottom.

You have a Chairman with a couldn’t-give-a-stuff attitude, an American owner that’s never there and never says anything, a manager that can’t motivate, can’t coach defence, can’t foster a winning mentality amongst his squad and refuses to spend money even when its blatantly obvious it’s crucial that he does and has failed for years because he didn't, and a bewildered CEO sitting in the middle of it all who says the manager has a job for life no matter how much his performance stinks.

I can’t believe the malaise that exists at every level of the club, from top to bottom.

If Arsenal do not make top four, make no mistake this club is in deep trouble. Apart from the above-mentioned pitfalls, people are not going to pay extortionate ticket prices any longer to watch a team playing in the UEFA Cup or farting around in mid-table. Revenue will fall through the floor. Arsenal stand to lose a hell of a lot more than £30m in Champions League cash. 

Arsenal need to act NOW. The board should be spelling it out to Wenger that his performance is not good enough and quality players need to be bought to try to secure CL qualification at the very least.

Scraping fourth would be completely unsatisfactory as it is, Arsenal should be competing for the title every season, and if they can’t then at the very least showing the ambition to do that. As supporters, we should not DEMAND trophies, but we should DEMAND competitiveness. Once that goes, you become a dinosaur and Arsenal is never that, even if those that work for the club seem so laissez-faire about walking this perilous line of underachievment. 

Meanwhile, Hill-Wood HAS to go. You get the impression that just because the doddering buffoon is part of the furniture the likes of Gazidis are afraid to upset the apple cart and ditch him. Again, scared of making big decisions, scared of being ambitious.

Perhaps they should be getting a little help from the supporters who should seriously start to think about petitioning for Hill-Wood’s removal.

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Nutty professor treads on another turd

And so it goes on… month after month, year after year.

I listened to the first half of Arsenal vs Swansea on the radio; then watched the second half live as I wanted to see if Henry would come on and produce some more nostalgia. Of course, it was too much to ask.

Swansea were very good, and best of all the manner in which they played pass-and-move football – beating Wenger at his own game – comprehensively highlighted why Arsene Wenger should be sacked.

The media acts as if Wenger has the monopoly on pass-and-move, but as Brendan Rodgers’ Swansea side showed, not only is that not true, but Rodgers made Wenger look an amateur at his own game because not only does he get Swansea to play pass-and-move football better than Arsenal - with a team that costs a tiny fraction of the price – but he also pays attention to the fine details in a way that Wenger doesn’t.

Rodgers’ side plays pass-and-move but with the work rate and organisation to match. Wenger’s side plays one-dimensional pass-and-move, while his players stand off, tackle like girls and are completely disorganised.

It’s because Wenger doesn’t bother paying attention to the fine detail that Arsenal consistently drop points. Wenger doesn’t care enough to do his job properly because he isn’t accountable for anything. His American employers are too clueless to understand where he’s going wrong, so they continue to pay him £7m a year to coach like an amateur.

A perfect example was highlighted by ex-Arsenal full-back Lee Dixon on MOTD last night when he pointed out how Arsenal conceded the third goal straight from the kick-off.

Four of Arsenal’s players were standing willy nilly around the centre circle, evidently unfocused and in no strict formation. Ignasi Miquel then ran unnecessarily out of position to close a ball down with no call from Koscielny. Mertesacker – supposed captain of Germany yet now picking up more bad habits than shit attracts flies – did not organise and had needlessly pushed up.

When the defence was split apart, Miquel was out of position, Koscielny paused mystifyingly allowing Danny Graham to steal a march on him and Szczesny had run too far out of goal practically inviting a shot which hit the back of the net.

It was a litany of errors worthy of a pub team, and all down to rank bad management and coaching.

As the excuses keep tumbling out of Wenger’s mouth, it's obvious that it really doesn’t matter which full back is playing or not, one badly-drilled knucklehead is simply replaced with another, while the midfield is a laughable wash of technique-based show-offs with no real pride, no bollocks, and no positional sense.

None of them will ever learn, because they’re NOT COACHED PROPERLY. And for as long as that continues, Arsenal will fail. And as we know, that will be for as long as Arsene Wenger remains at the helm.

You can read as many excuse-making Arsenal bloggers as you like - they couldn't analyse their way out of a paper bag!, but the fact is Arsene Wenger is inept. He is an inept coach paid £7m a year by an inept board that couldn’t spot an inept manager if he lost 8-2 at Old Trafford.

The only joy from watching yesterday’s game was in how Swansea played and studying Thierry Henry. I equate the Henry pantomime – for that is what it is - to watching Terminator 4 when they brought Arnold Schwarzenegger back to life through the art of CGI!

It looks good, but it’s not the old Arnie, and you wish it was the old Arnie; not just because you want to watch the old Arnie again, but because the surrounding cast is fucking awful.

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Leeds upset?/Kalou to Arsenal

Tonight Arsenal play Leeds in the FA Cup third round. I’m still undecided as to whether to watch it.

What time is Eastenders on?

Wenger is taking a big risk by dropping Van Persie and not even putting him on the bench, because statistics show that without Van Persie Arsenal hardly ever beat anyone.

Van Persie has failed to score in 14 of the games he has played this season, and Arsenal have only won 2 of those games.

That’s why Arsenal have been labelled – by some - as a one-man team. Without Van Persie, Arsenal would be worse than mid-table fodder, they'd be in perpetual crisis and Wenger's job would surely be on the line. 

Tonight, Arsenal can at least call on 34-year-old Thierry Henry to come off the bench, and perhaps that’s a good enough reason to watch the game – out of curiosity. We might need him as well.

I don’t have a problem with Henry rejoining Arsenal, and I also reckon that he will quickly become more than a sub and Wenger will become reliant on him. 34 is not THAT old for a player of his technique and intelligence, and Henry can doubtless do a better job than Walcott, Gervinho or any of the other mugs Wenger calls attacking midfielders these days.

At the end of the day, however, Henry is just another sticking plaster solution like Lehmann and Campbell before him, so you have to ask why Wenger is always putting Arsenal in that position.

Could Leeds beat Arsenal and cause an upset? It’s feasible. They almost did last season when Fabregas had to save Arsenal with a late penalty. Arsenal have degraded more since then.

Meanwhile, there are rumours afoot that Wenger will bring another striker in this month, Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou. His contract expires in the summer so Arsenal might only have to pay £3m. Wenger has long-admired the player, which is why I give the story credence.

Kalou is a typical Wenger signing. Dirt cheap, quick, technical, but an average finisher with 36 goals in five years for Chelsea – about the same as Bendtner.

Kalou would be just more of the same; he couldn’t play up front to replace Van Persie and Wenger has his pecking order, so Kalou would just suck another £60k off the wage bill while rotating with Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, etc. He’d also be off to the ACN with Ivory Coast every other year.

The only way the move is logical is if Arshavin is also dumped this month.

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