Capitulation at St. James’s Park

You may win with kids, you don't without spirit

by

Once they were warriors

Dennis Bergkamp has said in an interview to FourFourTwo February magazine that what made Arsenal great in his time was the team spirit, the never-say-dead spirit. It is surprising that one of the most skilled strikers of his generation decides to credit spirit and not skill to his team success.

“We were successful because of our English defenders,” said the Dutch forward. “They put the spirit in the team, which the Europeans lacked. They would say ‘Get stuck in!’ and all sorts of other phrases. I loved it, especially: ‘How much do you want it?’ I thought about it. It stuck with me. Do you really want it more than the opponent? How much are you prepared to give? How much time do you want to put in to become better? It’s an English warrior tradition, a moral code. We go out together and we’re going to give 100%”.

Arsene Wenger has decided to give up on that spirit and fill Arsenal squad with French defenders. They might be great players, but they don’t have a hint of that English warrior tradition in them.

Manchester United have that tradition, and it’s there in every player – French or Serbian, Brazilian or Dutch.

Arsenal doesn’t have it. Arsenal has proved in St. James’ Park today that it is not a genuine title contenders. It might be skillful and easy on the eye, but they don’t have what is needed to win a title.

Can you imagine Manchester United losing a 4-0 lead? Can you imagine it happening to Chelsea with John Terry at the back? Can you imagine it happening to any team that has won the title? Arsenal is a French team in the English Premier League. You may win with kids, you don’t without spirit.

WHAT TO DO NOW?

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4 Comments

  1. Ouriel added these pithy words on February 5, 2011 | Permalink

    Adi Meiri:

    Arsenal = Maginot Line

    The parallels are quite humorous.

    1. Our defense is essentially French (Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny) plus Djourou (Swiss), Vermy (Belgian) and Eboue (Cote d’Ivoire, basically French)

    2. We put up this line expecting it to be strong in the face of tough opposition

    3. With Vermaelen (Belgium) down, we have a gaping hole in our defense, which teams are utilizing to exploit us.

    4. They get behind our “Maginot Line” and rip our shit apart.

    Although the order isn’t quite accurate, you could also jest that once France is out of the way, Poland has little hope of survival

    Solution: Get an Englishman in there, they know how to defend!!

  2. JohnDale added these pithy words on February 5, 2011 | Permalink

    Crappy Capitulation.
    To digress a little, i’ve seen videos of Oxlade & Miyaichi but this guy should be at Arsenal this summer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdZsAthYbqM&feature=fvst damn, Hazard is IT.

  3. Vincent added these pithy words on February 5, 2011 | Permalink

    Can you imagine Phill Dowd giving two penalties against MU with a four – zero lead ? No

    Can you imagine Phill Dowd leaving Joey Barton on the field after he makes a such horrible challenge on Rooney like he did on Diaby (or Arshavin, or Sagna)? No

    Fighting spirit never meant playing outside the rules. It means fighting hard, struggle maybe, but with respect and honour.
    So many teams would have been defeated with such a disgrace refeering

    I’m proud of this Arsenal Team, because they fully respect what is called football. A game, not a war without rules, mercy, or morality

  4. Ouriel added these pithy words on February 6, 2011 | Permalink

    Ref was awful. So was Arsenal. You just don’t lose 4 GOALS LEAD

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