Timeline is 2011, and monumentally the year marks Arsenal football club’s one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary.Everywhere else it would have been a time to roll out the drums and celebrate,with Arsenal thankfully not an exception. Sorry enough,that’s where the similarities end.In other places also, it would often mark a change in board policy,say setting a target of picking up extra trophies,bolstering the squad,enlarging the stadium and giving the fans a treat, possibly clear discounts on seasonal tickets. Amazingly, Arsenal Football Club have opted for the reverse in the majority of points earlier listed.The board refusing to change a policy that has cost the club six trophy-less years, sales of more than four experienced players plus the loan of a couple of other valuable legs. An increase in the price of seasonal tickets in a season when we should be celebrating.Weakening the squad up to a point where the team loses loses scandalously to one of its biggest rivals by a scoreline last experienced one hundred and fourteen years ago.One would be forced to say “what a way to celebrate our one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of existence.” Rather than change the policy, Wenger insists on doing the same thing he has done in recent years that brought about the decline in the first place.
Needless to say, the last time Arsenal won the premiership was in 2004/2005 season during the era of the 'invincibles' , prosecuting the whole season without losing a game. Do we say that perfection got Wenger obsessed,and then he decided to try out another method,hoping to achieve the same result? It must be pointed out that the same squad that is now famously referred to as the 'invincibles' had in it experienced legs such as Vieira, Henry and Pires,some of whom had won the World cup and the European title as at the time; including some seasoned campaigners like Dennis Bergkamp,David Seaman,Ray Parlour,Kanu Nwankwo,Ashley Cole,Lauren Etameya,who had won a couple of African nations cup trophies and even the olympic football medal,not forgetting Gilberto Silva,who was a part of Brazil’s 2002 world cup winning squad. Clearly, it took such as arsenal of players with that much fire power to achieve such an enviable feat in contemporary English football. The question now remains “how does a coach who achieved so much with such a side,turn around and invariably deny the importance of experience? choosing to pursue an all-out youth policy,which in all fairness has proven futile in the long run?”,only monsieur Wenger can explain.
Whilst one would try not to be too hard on the man,seeing what he has already achieved,and how much he loves the club and wants to do well for it; it is hard not to class him as an extremist after doing the same thing for six years without a positive result and insisting on remaining on the same path. It is painful to mention that since 2005,Wenger has sold an average of two players every season,most times players playing in the same position when one could have stayed as replacement for the other, and at other times without clear replacements.how do you explain the sale of Patrick Vieira and Edu in the same transfer window, or Gilberto Silva and Flamini in the same season? He went on to sell players like Pires,later on Hleb, Lauren,Henry and the likes. Every team relies on a blend of its more experienced minds and a league of youth,so that the culture can be healthily transferred on and the younger players now understand what it means to play for the badge,and to show pure loyalty when you kiss the badge.It may sound like rubbing it in by a sheer comparison with Sir Alex Ferguson,who has chosen to do the latter,but who else do you compare a seasoned coach like Arsene Wenger to? Both coaches exist in a class of their own,having been the only two managers to have handled big clubs for over ten years. It is also necessary to compare as it keeps the fire burning and signifies the willingness to improve.Even as an Arsenal fan,i would admit that Sir Alex has copied Wenger’s style so many times,achieving success in the process.Can the professor just do the same? Afterall life is about learning the lesson and moving on.
Enough said about the negatives.The financial climate has not been the same as in the past, and the harsh reality is that football does not exist on a different planet, so the financial crisis does affect our beautiful game too.One must appreciate that ‘le professour’ is doing a good job in balancing the books,especially considering huge debts other clubs have been incurring combined with having to service the loan repayment of the emirates stadium expenses all at a go.Nevertheless there must be a balance,so that a club with such lasting legacy and a huge supporter base does not begin to toe the path of self-destruction by getting obsessed with a conservative policy of not spending.It has to be realized that winning major trophies even if assisted by spending,improves the popularity of the brand and in turn value of the club,by attracting a higher sales of club merchandise, richer sponsors, more valuable television rights, better sponsorship deals from kit manufactures and sponsorship partners. With a seasoned board, albeit on the decline since the departure of David Dein,one would think that it should not take much to realize all of these points ,as the whole combination is the glaring reality and the obvious truth.It even attracts fans from some places like Asia and America where the fan base is not yet as large as it should be bringing about a temptation to tour such regions in the nearest future.
Even if the board has not shown any positive prospects with their moves in the board room,it appears Arsene Wenger has been forced to get the message by the harsh realities of the day.As earlier said,balance is key and it would be a rare combination of a football mastermind and some shrewd economics. Point of note, Wenger had chased per Mertesacker for four years, as long as i can remember,only picking him up with one year left on his deal albeit at twenty-six years of age,even with the benefit of the player forcing one last promising move to a big club as added advantage.Bringing in an experienced player like Santos,a left-back for the Brazilian national team, Mertesacker himself being the captain of his former club and a seasoned campaigner for the ‘German machine’; Park chu Young,another international and captain of the South Korean national team, experienced premiership executioner by the name Yossi Benayoun,also captain of the Isreali national side and finally Mikel Arteta who has done it all for Everton,a graduate of the famous Barcelona ‘le-mercia’, and one who has played for the Spanish national team at every level except the senior team which is not hard to put down to the boom of stars the current generation in Spain has thrown up. Who says experience does not count? The only question remains, “we all hope it is not a little too late to salvage the season and at least a fourth place finish? It remains to be seen. Another clear concern which must be voiced before bringing this to an end is the training routine Wenger deploys which is more geared towards fitness than it is football specific.May be that would account for the number of injuries the players sustain, and the high number of players out on the doctor’s list simultaneously? If It was an issue of concern with much younger players who should be better at coping with it, as compared to older players that have just been brought in, one can only wait in anxiety.Thankfully enough, Wenger splashed the cash on the last three days of the transfer window,coming up with some shrewd deals and extra cash for the banks as usual.Some would attribute it to the ‘Man-Utd’ loss,but i disagree, feeling that Wenger always had it all planned this way.Only that nature chose to deal him a strong lesson to go with it.
