DEAR MISTER WENGER! STOP HUMILIATING US.

Jimmy Adtani
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

SINCERELY, EVERY ARSENAL FAN.

I am one of the many Arsenal fans who walked into the office on Monday with my head hanging low in shame and disappointment. The worst part is, my American born, Italian colleague is a Liverpool fan and sits right next to me.

Just like every weekend, I woke up with the optimism that every Arsenal fan wakes up with, hoping that Wenger would have learned from his mistakes from last year, and will arrive at Anfield with a plan to stop Klopp’s fast paced, pressing football. After two defeats in the home and away games against Liverpool last season, you expect a man of his experience to learn and come up with a plan.

I have been following football (Yes America, don’t call it football when you hold the ball in your hands and run for 13 seconds before the ref calls it to a halt. You actually need to kick it) for a little over 5 years and haven’t studied tactics too well. Hence, I can’t provide you tactical details on how to stop a team like Liverpool who have more pace than your Center Backs. But I would rather have my defenders sit back and instruct my midfielders to do man-to-man marking, to stop them from scoring. That’s called respecting the strengths of your enemy and there is no shame in that. Acknowledging their strengths can also be looked upon as understanding your weaknesses and only then you can improve. If you can’t match their pace, energy, and talent, then have a plan to neutralize them. If you can’t outrun your enemy, then make them dance to the sound of your music. I am sad to say that the manager whom I hate (current Man U boss) would have done this.

Mr. Wenger, you have been an Arsenal manager for over two decades and it’s been thirteen years since we won the title. I understand that one should never give up until the final whistle, but defeat at Anfield sounded like the final whistle for the 2017–18 season. And your ego coupled with your rigid philosophies will never let you bounce back and get to the winning ways. The commentators during the match said it right. “One team looked like they were well coached, and the other was underprepared for the match.”

Mr. Wenger, you have been an Arsenal manager for the longest time. But have you ever been an Arsenal fan? Have you ever felt what we feel like? After an 80-hour work week, living away from my wife in order to make a living and still not being able to meet ends, all a fan wants to do is enjoy 90 minutes of Arsenal playing the best football. Winning or losing doesn’t matters at times, but getting humiliated 4–0 to Liverpool, 10–2 against Bayern or never being able to win big matches anymore, really screws your weekend. And the following week which isn’t even here yet. The gooners really love football understand that losing once or twice is understandable. But losing to the same teams over and over and over again is simply unacceptable.

We don’t want to know about your personal or clubs’ financial goals are, but we pay premium for the TV channel and wake up at 4, 5, 6 or 7am (depending on which part of the world we live in) to watch the matches, buy season tickets, jerseys, scarfs, socks, t-shirts, etc and it’s our money and emotion too. And your stubbornness to change or your ego to walk away, knowing that you are past your prime can be valued much lower than what millions of fans around the world feel after every defeat.

We are marching backwards. Twenty years of your legacy will disappear in one season. And you are stubborn as fuck to see that. In fact, I can see in the near future that you and Mr. Kroenke come up with a “MAKE ARSENAL GREAT AGAIN” campaign in an effort to motivate the fans and stay in charge. Yes, I hate you to an extent that I compared you with Trump, who easily is one of the top two most hated politicians around the world. Or maybe number one. Walkaway.

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Jimmy Adtani

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Writer | Gamer | Thinker | Pop Culture Engineer | Unpredictable | Human

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