Former Arsenal star Emmanuel Petit admits that the current Arsenal side are on the downward slide, but also thinks that Wenger is the right man to put it right.
While he admires the French manager for trying to inspire confidence in young players, the former gunners midfielder feels Arsenal need to change their current transfer trends and bring in some experienced and world-class players to help with Arsenal’s current mental weaknesses.
Petit said on the prospect of sacking Wenger:
I think that will be probably the biggest mistake at Arsenal.
If Arsene has to leave the club they need to find a big manager to settle down and that would be very difficult for the next manager.
I think Arsene’s still the solution. They need to change a few things in the transfer market, change a few things in their politics to bring a competitive team.
I think it’s mentally that the team is very weak.
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I think Arsene Wenger and Arsenal did build many successes. Arsenal won many trophies.
They had experienced players with big characters and all of a sudden Arsene Wenger decided to change completely the team, decided to put confidence in young players and we have to admire that because I think with the new regulations I think financially Arsenal’s politics in the transfer market have been right so far in terms of not making big speculation on players.
I was a big admirer of Arsenal’s politics for five years. They were probably the best team after Barcelona in terms of football.
But unfortunately for them last season was the final cut, especially the Carling Cup final against Birmingham.
They need more experienced players, more big characters in the team because the quality is there and they need some players to be the mentors in the team.
You would definitely not disagree with Petit’s argument in this case, especially one that has been floating around for a long time. If you were to look at true world-class, Van Persie would be the only one to fit in that category from the Arsenal first-team after the departure of Fabregas and Nasri.
It is definitely important to have world-class players in the team as mentors and morale boosters for the younger players. A prime example of this is Ryo’s recent goal against Bolton. He spoke afterwards of how he watched Thierry Henry and Van Persie in training and how they would cut-in after receiving the ball out wide and curl far-post and surely they would be egging him on in training as well. What do you guys think? Should Arsenal get a few big names in the summer? Feel free to leave a comment below.
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