Arsenal: Let the regressors regress somewhere else

Arsenal is a team built on faith and prolonging careers. But maybe that is the big flaw. Let those on the decline decline somewhere else or we suffer.

Part of what has made Arsenal (and Arsene Wenger) special is this value they place in faith and trust. I do a lot of griping about how there is no loyalty in modern sports anymore, but the team has to be loyal to the players in order to facilitate that, and that certainly isn’t always the case.

Arsenal facilitate that trust and loyalty. But there is a such thing as too much loyalty, and when you see the flaws hitting the Gunners over the past decade, you see exactly what the problem therein can be.

For instance, the rotational squad that we have, or at least the veterans and experience players that we deploy in it, consists of guys who have not lived up to expectations and continue not to live up to expectations.

Guys like Danny Welbeck. Theo Walcott. Alex Iwobi. These are guys that on just about any other top six team would have been dropped or sold or, in Iwobi’s case, loaned out. Clearly it isn’t working in the first team yet they continue to get their chances.

The problem now is that the same problem is hitting the first team. Laurent Koscielny is a fantastic defender, but he is playing in pain and has been massively ineffective this year. Yet because of his past, he is given the reigns to the future.

There is so much heart and family in this club, but a corresponding lack of ruthlessness.

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Nothing highlights this more than Wenger’s intent on hanging onto Walcott.

Why? What is Walcott bringing that a new youthful player rising into his prime couldn’t? Absolutely nothing. Less than nothing. Wengers likes the familiar. He likes to believe that chemistry is the only thing that matters.

Of course it’s important, but you can’t build a team on friendship alone.

All of these players that are regressing need to do their regressing somewhere else, because we are doing them no favors letting them beat their heads against the wall with the first team. And that somewhere else doesn’t have to be another club. We don’t have to sell everyone that has a bad game.

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But that somewhere else can be the bench. The reserves team. On loan. Somewhere else so that new, rising players – players going in the right direction – can be given a chance to fix this proud club.