Rex - easy, mate, no one's pointing fingers (certainly not me - I said enough times I also would like to see Ramsey play in the middle long term). But at this point ignoring what we have is not serious - whether it lasts a year, 3 years or 3 months, football is played in the present.
And right now Santi is F'ing brilliant (therefore the "hallucination" thing, no other meaning attached).
I don't agree with the assessments generally (he's only been good for 2 or 3 games, and before that he was average, or a bit better; or that all other top teams have better options - some commentators were saying he's the best in the league, why only we find him "an average plus emergency solution"?) - but I don't care too much about it, really.
I agree with Rex there are many ways to play the game, but in that respect I'd ask what is it exactly that makes Santi so good. Tactics says something about it (he's generally got it right), and I was always referring to it simply as "he makes us tick" - yeah, he did take the Art role, but it's not exactly the same. Santi takes the ball deep and solved a very painful spot in our game (which was well exploited by aggressive enough teams - Utd, Chelsea and even some of the lesser teams) by not only keeping possession, but also finding the best path forward, and many times launching a counter. He has a better ability to keep ball than Rambo, he has far better long pass, and his passing range in general is very good. He's also a very quick reader of the game. And that was always the case - I'm not sure how all this was lost on so many posters (who's views I honestly respect) - and he only gets credit now that he's a bit more accomplished defensively (it's no small thing, but it's not like "he's suddenly playing well" - he's just better now).
As for Wenger taking the wrong long term gamble... hmmm. Tough one. Hard to tell, really, as we don't know the outcome of the alternatives. But as Rex reminded us, he has gone with Ramsey initially, only for it to backfire, and my own view is that on the right he could both keep Rambo and get away with some of the stuff he doesn't get right ATM (like we couldn't afford losing possession deep, we needed someone to dictate the game, etc.), and still be there for his running, pressing, fight, etc. And as for Cazorla, moving him deep "coz he's finished as a winger" sounds like an act of desperation - but in fact we ended up with a very good CM and back up AM. Not too shabby, in my book.
