Gooners' Views: In Coversation With Alden Sing, Joe Guarr, and Maire Ofeire

Gooners' Views is the Arsenal Community's own version of a "Roundtable," which has been a popular innovation in Bleacher Report.

Gooners' Views brings Arsenal fans together to discuss and dissect various issues—and boy, do we have some issues these days!

I caught up with valuable Arsenal contributors Alden Sing, Joe Guarr, and Co-Community leader, Maire Ofeire, to ask them what they had thought about certain issues surrounding the club off late.

1. What according to you is the definition of a "crisis?" Are we in one?

Alden: After beating Manchester United, nobody would ever label a club in "crisis". But in Arsenal's context, crisis is a word that has been bundled around fans ever since their defeat against Fulham earlier this season.

After losing to the likes of Fulham, Stoke, Hull, and most recently Aston Villa, Arsenal is indeed in some sort of a crisis. Beating Man Utd certainly helped lift the gloom around the Emirates but every football fan worth their salt will tell you that if you want to win the title, a team can't lose more than six games.Arsenal has lost four.

Based on their current level of consistency, it will not be surprising that Arsenal go on and lose two matches and more.

Joe: Arsenal is not in a crisis, far from it. They've slipped up against the newly promoted Hull and Stoke sides, as have quite a few other clubs this season. They've also lost to a very talented Aston Villa squad. While Arsenal didn't play well in any of those three games, that hardly constitutes a crisis.

It's very unrealistic to expect a club to play perfect football in every match of a 38 game domestic season, plus Europe and domestic cups. Arsenal still has a legitimate change at winning the league; they're only in fourth place and have a better goal difference than Villa.

A crisis would be starting the season like Tottenham had. If Arsenal had played that poorly for that long, their title hopes, and maybe their European hopes, would be sunk. A crisis would be a team in a financial tailspin struggling to avoid going into administration. A crisis would be having a squad filled with players not capable of stringing together 7-10 straight victories. This is a slow start, nothing more.

Maire: If you look up any dictionary, it will tell you that a crisis is an unstable situation of extreme difficulty or danger. This is a definition used to describe Leeds United in 2003-04 and it was warranted. The club were unable to pay back huge loans they had taken out to buy and pay players, had to sell their best players, managers were falling out with chairmen, fans were protesting and in the end the club got relegated.

Looking back it seems that one year Leeds United were playing a Champions League semifinal and the next they were stuck in League One (Not the correct time line but that is as it seems). Now that is a "crisis".

Arsenal aren't in a crisis in any means of the word. Maybe some of the fans are but that is of their own making. Yes we have lost four games to teams we should be beating—Fulham, Hull, Stoke, and Aston Villa—but we are still in fourth and while Villa are considered to be playing quite well, Arsenal are considered to be well below par, that says it all really. I don't see any huge pressure being placed on us for fourth place.

So we are fourth in the League, virtually assured of our place in the last 16 of the Champions League and still have the Carling Cup and FA Cup to play for, if this is a "crisis" there are many other clubs out there that would love to be in it!

2. What do you make of those who call for Arsene Wenger to leave/to be sacked?

Alden: I find it absolutely ridiculous that fans are actually calling for Wenger's head. He is a good manager. Arsenal fans must remember that it is this obscure Frenchman from a faraway Japanese league that has come and transformed Arsenal into a powerhouse.

People are often quick to forget success and remember only the failures. With that been said though, I do know that history counts for nothing if the current side is performing below par.

I am still confident that Wenger knows what he is doing. It has been bold of him to focus on youth. But the four defeats this season will tell him what he lacks in this current Arsenal side. Wenger has received enough criticism. And the last thing he needs is to hear the fans that he has spoilt, turn on him and call for his head.

Joe: There's no doubt in my mind that they're overreacting. Wenger has had to deal with injuries, departures, and tight purse strings due to the new stadium. A lesser manager would be producing lesser results. Wenger has proven himself more than capable during his time at Arsenal.

I'm surprised that a few bad results are all it's taken to get people calling for Wenger's head.

I think if we can be patient as this current batch of youngsters develops, we'll be reaping huge rewards a couple seasons down the road. That will change if Wenger is pushed out though.

Maire: We have gone through all this before but I will say it again. Yes, Wenger has made some mistakes and he is open to criticism, as they say the buck stops with him. But I think the buck could go that bit further up the line to the board. I feel they are hiding behind our manager and are not being honest with Arsenal fans. Wenger is after all their employee so they can make him take most of the flack.

Of course Arsenal fans are going to be angry and a lot of that will be aimed at the manager. However, I think some of these fans are either glory hunters, just like to complain or are really so gullible that they think we have millions upon millions to spend but Wenger won't because of some insane philosophy.

The Wenger I have witnessed as Arsenal manager for the last 12 years was always willing to spend the money on a player if he felt he has was worth it and he didn't always have to be an 18-year-old either.

I think the fans are paying too much attention to this creation of the media that Wenger wants to prove something by winning with kids and will not change from that because he is so stubborn. Think about it—why would he risk undoing all the good he has done for the sake of something so insane, putting his reputation at risk? Doing that is the mark of a selfish man, which I think Wenger is not.

If I felt he was wrong I would say it. Nobody is bigger than Arsenal FC, the Thierry Henry transfer proved that. In this case I think Wenger is being wronged by the board and some of his own "fans".

I would say to the "Wenger Out" brigade, think back over the successful years with Wenger at the helm and you will see that this lack of spending and relying on youth doesn't fit and then think when it all changed—once we moved to the Emirates.

Sacking Wenger just may turn an inconsistent club into a club in crisis.

3. What changes to the squad do you envisage come January?

Alden: I will like to go with the majority of the fans' opinion on this one and say that Arsenal will go on and sign a worldclass holding midfielder and centre back this coming January. But I know things will not be that simple.

Wenger's philosophy has been to nurture a group of talented youngsters and transform them into world beaters. And it is hard to see Wenger making a radical shift away from that. I believe Wenger would rather his youngsters take the hard knocks and use the remainder of this season as a lesson for the harsh realities of the English Premier League.

Wenger knows his current crop of players are capable of anything on their day and I think he will go on and keep faith in that. So I don't foresee any major changes to Arsenal this coming January. In fact, I will stick my neck out and say that Wenger may not even bother to spend a single cent again.

Joe: Hopefully we can bring in somebody to help shore up the defense, and the midfield. The youngsters are talented but inexperienced. A strong veteran presence somewhere in the lineup would be great.

Last season, Gilberto provided a lot of stability with his leadership. I think his departure has hurt more than Flamini and Hleb combined. It's difficult to win anything substantial if nobody in the squad has experienced it before.

Maire: Hopefully by January Eduardo and Rosicky should be back to full training and if they can play to their capabilities it'll be like two new signings. In my opinion they are two of our best players and it is a killer that they are currently on the sidelines so they will be very much welcomed back.

If money is made available to Wenger, he NEEDS to buy a central defender who is not afraid to get stuck in and boot the ball into Row Z if needed. Someone along the lines of Richard Dunne. We also need a defensive central midfielder, a younger version of Gattuso would be perfect in my opinion. Someone who will run for the fully 90 minutes whose main objective is to get the ball and find the nearest player. These two players would improve the squad greatly.

If I were being greedy and Santa Claus was being extra nice I would like to see Shay Given sign. He is a very reliable goalkeeper and shouldn't be this expensive at this stage of his career.

This is what needs to be done but whether it will or not remains to be seen.

I'd like to thank Alden, Joe and Maire for taking their time out and giving their detailed opinions about Arsenal and the "situation" that the club is facing today. I can only hope that next time, we'll be talking about a string of wins and how great each and every player is!

Do you want to be a part of Gooners' Views next time? If so, leave me or Maire a note on our bulletin boards.