Posted by SmartArse
Transfer deadline day came and went and Mark Schwarzer is still at Fulham. Brownie points to them for resisting both player power and the urges of a bigger club, something Arsenal fans should appreciate for obvious reasons.
So now much of Planet Arsenal is convinced we can’t possibly win the league. Good.
Really, just think for a second about the disparity between the rise in expectation levels and the amount the team would have actually improved had Schwarzer arrived. Pre-season the consensus appeared to be no new goalkeeper, fourth at best; new goalkeeper, massive title contenders.
In fact an awful lot of people wouldn’t have just considered winning the league possible, they would have expected it. A healthy state of affairs if you are quite clearly the best. The arrival of Mark Schwarzer would only have made us marginally better than we are already.
Expectation would have been raised to unnecessarily unhealthy levels; just look at Sp*rs fans booing their side after losing to Wigan on Saturday – entry into Europe and suddenly winning is considered a divine right. Much the same was true of Villa fans last season. Pressure and ill feeling is unnecessarily conferred onto the playing squad. Pathetic, fickle support from both sets of fans.
Now none of this is to say that I think we can’t win the league. I actually think we can, I just consider it an optimistic possibility rather than than the inevitable. And under such circumstances it’s actually beneficial to be the underdog, to have that sense of unity being universally written off brings about.
This of course is all relevant to the potential arrival of Mark Schwarzer. His arrival would have been an improvement, but not one to suddenly make our generally excellent squad title favourites. The right atmosphere and some luck which has deserted us in recent seasons and we might just do it anyway.
Schwarzer was a short term, moderate improvement. Of course had we secured a world class, long term solution I’d have probably joined the inevitable rabid hordes in rampant expectation.
But to have expected that this summer seems to miss the point of Arsene’s apparent intentions. It certainly seems reasonable to suggest that our pursuit of Schwarzer was because he’s a short term solution. Le Boss clearly feels that one of our incumbents, probably Wojciech ‘Chesney’ Scezney, is the future number one. Signing a world class keeper in his peak would stifle his development, hardly Wenger’s style.
Arsene wants to build from within, an immensely admirable aim. Not everyone’s favoured method, but then I don’t tend to listen to people who castigate a City or Chelsea for buying success while demanding instant results at their own clubs.
Time to be realistic Arsenal fans. Without a new goalkeeper we had a decent chance of winning the title. With Mark Schwarzer we had a very slightly more decent chance of winning it. So we are, to my mind, still well in with a shout.
No new keeper, no false dawn, but not remotely a disaster. We’ve had an almost fantastic transfer window. Two new defenders and a new striker addressed important concerns. That, the rise of youngsters like Gibbs and Wilshere and the revitalisation of under-performers like Rosicky and Theo means that we have what I see to be a stronger squad than last year.
Bicker if you like, but I’m backing the Gunners.
Come on the Arsenal!
I agree SmartArse, although there are some other points to consider. 1) Whilst Schwarzer might be marginally better than Almunia 2) Almunia is miles better than Fabianski. In other words, if our number one keeper gets injured we screwed. Having Schwarzer would have meant having two decent keepers (although neither world class IMHO) for the position.
Another point, slightly tangential, is why the f@ck did Wenger seemingly refuse to look beyong Schwarzer? I take your point about Szczesny, who looks good, but surely he’s eons from the first team at 19 or 20 or whatever he is? Plus with two keepers between him and the role.
Overall I’m not going to cry about losing out on Schwarzer. Let’s get behind Almunia, instead of bitching every time he makes very forgiveable errors. When we lost points last season it was because we were playing like a bunch of amateurs, lacking in either passion or discipline (which was quite rare, but often enough to cost us the league!), and our ability to defend as a team should be under much more scrutiny than Almunia’s goalkeeping.
Two seasons ago Almunia was close to being our best player.
Sonuvagun
But Sonuvagun, you forget the fact that had we signed Shwartzer, Almunia was first out of the door. So we’d be in much the same position we are now. I severely doubt that signing him would had a material affect on our actual odds of winning the league.