APOCALYPSE NOW

"We finally really did it. You maniacs, you blew it all up..."

Naturally big clubs have blips and small clubs conjure up giant killing acts. This was neither. It didn't feel like a freak result and to be fair Bradford didn't have to work hard to secure a victory that no right minded Arsenal supporter could begrudge them. Giant killing ? No. How could it be when our club is no longer a giant on the pitch.

Last night was the moment that we notched the 29th competition we have failed to win since our last trophy. Lets get it right, a pretty much full team lost to a team who, in old money, are in division 4.

I don't believe that we are going to win the Premier league. I don't believe we are going to win the Champions League so that leaves the FA cup. On last nights showing and on current form it looks unlikely that we can win any competition.

You reap what you sew when you sell your better players and replace them with inferior product and we have a squad that is awash with unsellable dross which results in players being played out of position to address the shortfall.

I never single out individuals but last night there were players hopelessly ineffective in their roles, players who were guilty of persistently giving up possession, players repeatedly reducing any kind of momentum and an inability to effect any meaningful tactical response.

The Arsenal currently is a club with a squad that is simply not good enough for the standards to which we aspire and a culture of mediocrity. We are a club whose owners have continuously condoned failure on the basis that we generate revenue via Champions League qualifications and based on previous achievements.

Every player that left us knew where the club was headed as does Theo Walcott it seems, a player who has trod water for six years on the wing. We have also seen many a good player decline; is it that Arsene Wenger no longer nurtures talent but stunts growth?

When Wenger joined the Arsenal he swiftly ejected the dead wood of Helder, Linighan, McGoldrick, Morrow, Hartson and Dickov but he had Seaman, Adams, Bould, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Platt, Parlour, Wright & Bergkamp his eventual replacement will have nowhere near that starting point.

The climax of the Planet of the Apes uses the Statue of Liberty as a metaphor for how the human race threw it all away. A statue of Denilson (who to me symbolises the problem with our strategy of the last half decade) half buried in the sand, could well be our manager’s epitaph should we continue down our current path. That would be heart breaking.