Former Arsenal captain and defender Tony Adams has come out and questioned the belief among the Arsenal squad. Does he have a point and what does he mean?
Tony Adams is an Arsenal legend because he led the club in brilliant fashion to the first examples of silverware under Arsene Wenger back in the 1997/1998 and 2001/2002 seasons. He has suggested that Arsenal will struggle to make the top four by the end of the season due to the lack of belief around the current squad.
One of the main reasons for this is Arsenal’s failure to beat, what they will consider, title rivals over the last two to three seasons. Manchester United were by no means at their best over the weekend but they did enough to comfortably win the match although the 2-1 score suggests it was closer. What this tells the squad is that they are considerably behind where they need and want to be.
Another reason for the lack of belief is the fact that key players keep leaving. It was Robin Van Persie over the summer and it is expected to be winger Theo Walcott this January. If Walcott moves to Liverpool, as reports suggest, then it will be a massive kick in the teeth for Arsenal and their fans as the North London side will consider themselves a stronger outfit than the Anfield club.
“If Wenger gets them into the top four he’s done brilliantly. You need to keep your best players and in recent years we’ve let them go a bit easy. I never got anywhere near the last year of my contract. You don’t let them go into their last year and run their contract down,” Adams told BBC Sport.
Adams also suggests that the whole affair surrounding Walcott’s future at the club could have a knock on effect to the rest of the club. The longer the club leaves it before giving the front man what he wants, the more control Walcott will have in negotiations and Arsenal will be forced to move him on to get some compensation for him if he decides he doesn’t want to commit himself to football in North London.
This will then tell the other Arsenal plays who may be starting to lose their faith in the club that they can effective bully their ways to a better contract or they can also move on and go and do good things for other clubs. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal need to keep that winning and positive mentality in place which once saw an Arsenal side under Wenger go for a whole season without losing a game.
“It’s about winning, and how do you win? You have the best players, and if you keep selling your best players you’re not going to win. If you sell your best players you’re not going to challenge for titles. There’s been so many players who have moved on and are doing great jobs for other teams, the list is endless,” Adams added.
This brings us to the point that Arsenal have a lot of quality and experienced players who can stop heads from dropping and it’s up to them to ensure that Arsenal hit that top four by the end of the year. Mikel Arteta, Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker are all big figures at the club and they all need to help maintain that winning belief.
image: © Matt and Kim Rudge
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
