{"id":11431,"date":"2018-03-08T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T03:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=11431"},"modified":"2018-03-08T17:39:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T08:39:22","slug":"special-comment-j-league-striker-jay-bothroyd-arsenals-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2018\/03\/08\/special-comment-j-league-striker-jay-bothroyd-arsenals-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Comment: J.League striker Jay Bothroyd on Arsenal’s Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this special column, Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo striker and former Premier League player Jay Bothroyd pens his thoughts on the state of Arsenal and embattled manager Arsene Wenger.<\/em><\/p>\n

I come from a family of Arsenal supporters and joined their academy when I was 11 years old. My mum\u2019s house is a 10-15 minute walk away from the stadium, and as you can imagine we\u2019re a bit upset about the way the club is at the moment. As a footballer it\u2019s sad from a neutral point of view that Arsenal aren\u2019t competitive anymore, and it hurts even more as a fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

While on the Under-18 side I regularly trained with the first team, and after I left Arsenal I received a call from Arsene Wenger himself. He hasn\u2019t changed since Day 1. He\u2019s quiet, pleasant, soft-spoken, and doesn\u2019t lose his temper. Nobody I\u2019ve known since my time there, has heard him lose his temper, save for a 6-1 loss at Old Trafford.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever been under as much pressure as now, because this is it for him. To be quite honest, it\u2019s sad because from a personal point of view he was the main person who made me into the player I am today: a big guy with technical ability who can dribble and shoot. I\u2019m not a typical post player like most players of my stature, and I owe that to him, so I\u2019m sad to see him in this situation.But every story has an ending, and I think this is it for Wenger because the fans have had enough of him and I don\u2019t see how he can recover.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes things get repetitive. Everyone respects Arsene Wenger at the club, but as I\u2019ve said for several years there are too many players who are in a comfort zone. They keep getting new contracts without earning them. Arsenal selling their best players to rival teams doesn\u2019t help, but at the end of the day Arsenal and Arsene Wenger haven\u2019t evolved with time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchester City, United, Chelsea, and Tottenham have all gone past Arsenal. How many Arsenal players would get into a Top 4 club right now? Only Aubameyang, who could get into Chelsea because he\u2019s better than Morata. But I wouldn\u2019t put Ozil ahead of Erikson, or Mkhitaryan ahead of Dele Alli, Sanchez, Pogba, Martial, De Bruyne\u2026 it\u2019s embarrassing how far Arsenal have fallen behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Premier League you have to be prepared to spend money. Everton are outspending Arsenal; last summer they spent \u00a3130 million on players. Arsenal bought Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan and still haven\u2019t outspent Everton. That shows you where the league is going.<\/span><\/p>\n

I got hammered on Twitter for saying at the beginning of the season that Arsenal would finish in seventh, and now it\u2019s more possible than them finishing fifth. Fourth place sounds very good now, but it\u2019s not happening. Burnley are five points behind Arsenal and they have momentum at the moment. Arsenal don\u2019t, especially away from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Losing two matches to City is one thing. There\u2019s a way to lose games, by giving your all and getting outplayed. Fair enough, the better team won. But I knew they\u2019d lose against Brighton, because Arsenal have no characters or leaders in the dressing room. No one is there who demands a certain determination from the rest of the players.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was there you had Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Patrick Vieira, Henry, Dennis Bergkamp. They demanded brilliance from each other every day. If you took your foot off the pedal they\u2019d shout and scream at you. It\u2019s not just the manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people tell me Ozil\u2019s world class, but he\u2019s not. World class players can change the game and make something happen when the team is doing poorly. Ozil is a passenger; he doesn\u2019t play well unless Arsenal play well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also find the whole back line disappointing. As for Petr Cech\u2026 Don\u2019t get me wrong, he had an amazing career. He\u2019s been a very good goalkeeper, but at the moment he\u2019s making serious mistakes and they\u2019re costing him. He\u2019s never been great with his feet, but I don\u2019t blame him so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blame goes to the back line, who are meant to protect the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper is the last line of the defense but the defenders have to do more. There\u2019s no communication; they\u2019re not in a line, not moving together. It doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s up front; if you’re going to concede nine goals in a week, what can you do as a team going forward?<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to Wenger, I believe he should have left after the FA Cup final win and gone out on a high note. Now things are so bad that everyone will forget about the good things he did.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s potentially ruined his legacy, because nobody will think about the Invincibles and how he changed the club completely, the diet of the players, the total football style. He changed English football. Everyone wanted to play like Arsenal!<\/span><\/p>\n

Now people will only remember the bad years: finishing outside the top four, losing 12 league games, fewest ever points in the last six years. It\u2019s a shame because he\u2019s done so much for Arsenal and the English game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone will offer Wenger a job in the future, but if I were him I wouldn\u2019t take a club job and join a national team. It would be great if he could work in Japan!<\/span><\/p>\n

As for his successor, I\u2019d pick Diego Simeone because I think he can bring what they need. Arsenal need a kick up the ass and they need to know that someone\u2019s coming in to liven the team up. You can\u2019t take the piss, you\u2019ve got to earn your contract. You can\u2019t be going through the motions in training, getting new deals despite being injured for four years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mkhitaryan and Ozil might be considered luxury players, but Simeone has players at Atletico Madrid who are prepared to do the hard work. Someone like him would be perfect for Arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this special column, Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo striker and former Premier League player Jay Bothroyd pens his thoughts on the state of Arsenal and embattled manager Arsene Wenger. I come from a family of Arsenal supporters and joined their academy when I was 11 years old. My mum\u2019s house is a 10-15 minute walk away from the stadium, and as you can imagine we\u2019re a bit upset about the way the club is at the moment. As a footballer it\u2019s sad from a neutral point of view that Arsenal aren\u2019t competitive anymore, and it hurts even more as a fan. While on the Under-18 side I regularly trained with the … Continue reading “Special Comment: J.League striker Jay Bothroyd on Arsenal’s Crisis”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":11432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[558,960,783,95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}