Wenger:"It was a mistake on my part"

One of the things I really love about football is trying to seam together the things that happen behind the scenes by sheer force of conjecture of course.

One of the things that has been troubling me this season has been man management. Specifically, I posted on Goonerboy my concern vis a vis how much playing time Cesc has put in. I even cited recalling Fergie (the Purple-faced one) deliberately limiting Ronaldo's playing time when Ronaldo was 19 citing his age and development.(Oh, look at Ronaldo now).

It just kinda bothered me that that discussion didn't seem to feature in Wenger's planning and actions. Now, according to this BBC article, "Fabregas, 19, has played 45 games this campaign - more than any other Arsenal player - and claims he is close to burn-out."

He said: "I am looking forward to the summer - I am counting the days. I need one summer to rest."

He is CLOSE to burn out! Well we expect he will be burnt out by the end of the season. To me that certainly has been a mistake on Wenger's part: goose, gander, good. Kolo Toure though not @ young, developmental phase has also played way too many games. He must have been at least PARTLY relieved to get a three match ban.

So this mea culpa from Wenger is interesting.

Wenger claims he should not have tried to win every competition.

"Once we knew we were in the final of the Carling Cup we should have sacrificed the FA Cup because in the end it caught up with us," he said.

"It was a mistake on my part. In future our priority should be to qualify from the Champions League group - and then take it from there."

Well, all those replays were predictably bad for us. But unless we sort out the shooting, teh replays will continue.