'Misfiring Gunners failed to learn'

Lessons not heeded ... Adam Peacock compares the fortunes of Arsenal and Bradford City. Source: Glyn Kirk / AFP

?It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.?

So said Bill Gates, probably after he made $573 trillion from being a nerd.

Also probably had nothing to do with football, but still, the quote resonates this week.

FIFA seems to have learned from mistakes. So goal-line technology it is for the 2014 World Cup. Hip, hip hooray. Now about Qat ... nevermind.

Wigan travel to Reading this weekend in the first of the real late-season relegation six-pointers. There’s time to learn from any failure, but not much time to do anything about it.

Manchester United look to extend their lead at the top of the Barclays Premier League at Queens Park Rangers, on track to let everyone know they’ve learnt from last seasons’ late capitulation. But the words of dollar Bill are best summed up by using the example of two clubs who ironically live by the same financial philosophy but are in contrasting physiological states.

Arsenal

Fifth in the league and humbled out of one possible trophy and probably out of improbable glory in another. Blackburn and Bayern Munich – an unlikely one-two punch - but enough to make Arsene Wenger feel like he’s stumbling around in a post-KO haze. A feeling bottled in 2006, and now on tap.

The lessons of failure have not been heeded – do you get better by selling your ambitious best? No.

Is it believable the talk of 70 million pounds will be handed to Wenger in the summer to buy the solution/s? No.

Are Arsenal fans happy about it? Hell no, mainly because there seems no end to the current policy.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	26	21	2	3	31	65
2	Man City	26	15	8	3	24	53
3	Chelsea	26	14	7	5	27	49
4	Tottenham	26	14	6	6	14	48
5	Arsenal	26	12	8	6	21	44
6	Everton	26	10	12	4	8	42
7	Liverpool	27	10	9	8	15	39
8	Swansea	27	9	10	8	4	37
9	West Brom	26	11	4	11	1	37
10	Stoke	26	7	12	7	-5	33
11	West Ham	26	8	6	12	-9	30
12	Fulham	26	7	8	11	-6	29
13	Sunderland	26	7	8	11	-6	29
14	Norwich	26	6	11	9	-15	29
15	Southampton	26	6	9	11	-9	27
16	Newcastle	26	7	6	13	-12	27
17	Aston Villa	26	5	9	12	-25	24
18	Reading	26	5	8	13	-15	23
19	Wigan	26	5	6	15	-21	21
20	QPR	26	2	11	13	-22	17

Many have grown sick and tired of that same old thing. So Wenger, who frayed at the edges before the Bayern game with the media, is more a target than he’s ever been. Tactically, some believe, the Frenchman is losing it.

However, for those who have bought in to the “Wenger Out” mentality, a thought: would his replacement ride into town with the ability to set his own agenda and transfer budget? Or will he accept the job offered by the Arsenal board, who won’t be changing the profit-making philosophy for anyone.

The latter, so how much does it matter who is in charge? Arsenal are fighting with one hand behind their back, and that hand happens to be holding a volume of resplendent annual reports. Arsenal’s next crop of brilliant will walk away if it keeps happening.

Losing to Blackburn in an FA Cup. Humbled by Bayern Munich (no disgrace) at home (OK, a little embarrassing) in the UEFA Champions League. Battling to stay in touch with the top four. And three months ago, beaten by Bradford City in the Capital One Cup.

Yes, Bradford.

The other club. A club which failed to the point of becoming extinct. Lessons learnt, they’ll play to win their first trophy in 102 years against Swansea in the final of the Capital One Cup.

Swansea are hot favourites because they play nice stuff and are eighth in the Premier League. Bradford are 11th in League two, or presently ranked 79th in English professional football.

Sure they’d rather be higher, but they are comfortable with the situation because... they are still a club.
That seemed unlikely numerous times in the past decade – recovering from outlandish spending to keep them in the Premier League at the turn of the millennium.

They didn’t, and in the years since plummeted down the divisions while dodging winding up orders like a politician dodges tricky questions.  Nowadays, Bradford don’t live beyond their means. The club makes a tiny profit and live close the edge of dropping out of the professional leagues without getting too close.

They heeded the perils of trying to be big-time without a budget. As can happen to any side, anywhere in Cup competitions – they got hot (and lucky) on the right night, against the right opponent – Wigan, Villa and yep … Arsenal.

Sure, Swansea might pump them 5-0. Bradford might win on penalties with Aussie Curtis Good scoring the winner. Who knows, and in the grand scheme of things, who cares?

It’s a fairytale trip to Wembley.

Arsenal? When they learn their lessons from the past eight seasons, perhaps they’ll be back there too.

---

Watch Arsene Wenger's men try to bounce back against lowly Aston Villa at 1.53am (EDT) on Sunday February 24, via Viewers Choice on Fox Sports 1HD.

View the original article here