NO WARRIORS NO LEADERS NO BACKBONE
Former Arsenal star Niall Quinn fears the reign of Arsene Wenger will peter out in mediocrity if they don’t sign a fighter like Mats Hummels
NIALL QUINN runs through the lineage of demanding Arsenal players who dragged their team-mates kicking and screaming to league championships — Frank McLintock, Peter Storey, David O’Leary, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell.
The list runs out in 2004, the last time Arsenal won the Premier League, and Quinn is left to muse sombrely about Arsene Wenger’s current centre-backs Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker.
‘Lovely players but I don’t see them driving their mates on like Vincent Kompany or Pablo Zabaleta do at Manchester City,’ he says ahead of today’s battle between two of his former clubs at the Etihad. ‘The best teams are ashamed to lose a runner or concede a header at a free-kick, but how many times do you see Arsenal let in a cheap goal and just walk out looking at the ground?
‘When I was there, Tony Adams would have players against the wall by the scruff of the neck if they didn’t track back.
‘I don’t see that conviction to root out your team-mate. I call it backbone.’
Quinn naturally has a great deal of affection for Arsenal, having crossed the Irish Sea to North London as a 17-year-old.
He admires the current manager Arsene Wenger for overseeing some of the most dazzling football seen in the Premier League era.
Yet the natives are restless and Quinn can understand why.
‘Arsenal can’t win titles when they fall short against their main rivals,’ he
says, aware that Wenger has won only one of his last eight league games against City and was beaten heavily on the road last season at Liverpool (5-1), Chelsea (6-0), City (6-3) and Everton (3-0).
‘Fans are crying out for some steel. I am Arsene’s biggest fan and I would hate to see him fizzle away, scraping into the Champions League for another year or two but losing all the big games that matter.’
While Arsenal will kick off this afternoon outside the top four, City — where Quinn spent six years between 1990 and 1996 — are on a 14-game unbeaten run. But, for all the obvious brilliance of Sergio Aguero and David Silva, Quinn sees the make-up in the City dressingroom as the major reason they have been champions in two of the last three seasons.
‘Zabaleta is the best Premier League right-back ever. He’s eternally focused, strong, professional and understands the privilege of playing where he is.’
The contrast with Arsenal’s lack of leadership is obvious. The solution, Quinn believes, has to be recruitment to complement the outstanding talent in the squad.
‘I look at Nemanja Matic at Chelsea and think, “Wow, he’d have been great in this Arsenal team”.
‘Mats Hummels looks that kind of character who could come in and make a difference. He wouldn’t look at his feet if something went wrong.’