Arsenal Club Focus – The dawn of a new era?
The announcement that Robin Van Persie had been given the captain’s arm-band for the new season was not a surprise announcement, but a welcome one. Van Persie has matured as a man over the last few years and only a horrendous injury record has stopped him from becoming one of Arsenal’s truly great players. His appointment signals a new beginning but also the end of an era.
The era of Arsene Wenger’s young team built around the likes of Fabregas, Nasri, Song etc is now surely over. Wenger has to admit his grand scheme has not worked and now it is time to move on. It has been a truly disappointing time to be an Arsenal fan, filled with so much hope but then punctuated with such bitter disappointment, however the wonderful thing about era’s coming to an end is that it signals the beginning of a new one.
Van Persie has the ability and now the experience to lead the Gunners into the new season and onto the success that the fans so desperately crave, it will not be easy and as this writer alluded to in the last club focus, Arsenal are not in a position where they can just expect things to get better. Wenger needs to re-energise his team with one or two clever signings and a few of the current squad need to rediscover their best form. A combination of these and a few good results will dispel all the worries currently being harboured in North London, however every Arsenal fan will know that this squad still has many of the faces that have played central parts in the recent collapses.
When you think of who has played the biggest role in these end-of-season collapses, surely nobody can take more blame than Arsene Wenger himself? So in keeping with the spirit of looking forward to new era, is it time for the man they once referred to as “The Professor” to find himself a nice chair up in the Director’s box and handed the reigns over to a younger and perhaps hungrier manager?
Its clear Arsene Wenger is under more pressure than ever before, the pitchforks and torches may have been stored for another night after Arsenal’s win over Udinese, but while the club continues to operate it what seems like reverse, they will always be close at hand.
One would never condone knee-jerk sackings, the likes of which Sam Allardyce received at Blackburn last year, after six years without a trophy and with the best players leaving the club, one can’t help picture a sinking ship and so the question of Wenger’s future needs to be asked.
You cannot doubt his talents and it is not beyond him to steer Arsenal through this worrying period and out the other side to further glories, but if things don’t improve then Arsenal won’t be able to embrace the future until they move on from their past.
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