After missing out on Luis Gustavo for sure, and with news that
Arteta could be out for up to six weeks, I felt the need to continue by rant
against Wenger and the Arsenal board. The real question of the past few years
is who is to blame for all the failures and losses in the transfer window. And
it is hard not to include Wenger as a key player in the problems that see the
Gunners in real trouble on the eve of a new season. Here are potential
suggestions on why we are having such a hard time keeping players and signing
our top targets:
1. Many
people argue that the board is completely to blame here and Wenger is merely
following their lead. But one finds that hard to believe in total. Sure the
move to the Emirates has limited our budget for several years, and probably
thus cost us silverware, but is it really the board who are covertly limiting
his spending? This summer Gadzis claimed that Arsenal has a 70 million pound
kitty to spend and in the two previous windows, we were told the Gunners had
money to spend, though they passed without the signing we needed. Let’s just
focus on the past three years to simplify things. We were in for one of the
best attacking playmakers in the league, Juan Mata, and appeared to be on the
verge of signing him as an apt replacement for the departing Fabergas until
Wenger haggled over a few million pounds and allowed Chelsea to swoop in. Then
we appeared to be in advanced talks to sign Hazard, before stealing Park (who
never plays) and pissing them off, thus scuppering that deal and allowing
Chelsea to again swoop. We can also add a number of other players to that list,
including potentially Goetze before he was on the Bayern radar. The loss of
David Dein has certainly hurt Wenger, but he just seems to lose out on too many
players over cost. This summer, of course, we failed to secure Higuian when he
was on the edge of signing, as we shifted to the more expensive, and unlikely
signing of Suarez. It might still happen, but if it doesn’t, we have waited too
long and missed out on both the Argentine goal machine and Jovetic (with Wenger
again balking at the price, before he later moved to Man City). Tottenham have
also picked up a quality striker in the interim and a few other top names might
have been available, but they all appear gone now.
2. Wenger
believes that he can win with his youth first policy and wants to prove the
world wrong. We have been close to some trophies following this approach, and
were even leading the league at the turn of the year a few years back, but it
is clear that seasoned professionals must surround youth if you are to win (a
strategy Man United has employed for several years). Wenger is clearly
stubborn, not wanting to pay “over valued” transfers, but the reality of the
market is the reality of the market. Saying you won’t pay as much as someone
else just because you think prices are inflated, is like being a stock broker
who fails to buy anything because he thinks the market is overvalued (even as
his friends roll in cash). The squad is as threadbare as I’ve ever seen it and
it is unclear who we can even get in the holding midfield role we now clearly
need, with Arteta out. I think the board might finally turn on Wenger this year
if he fails to make the necessary, quality additions he promised in the next
couple of weeks.
3. Wenger and
the board never intended to spend the money; they just wanted to appease
growing fan ire. The board has been taking profits out of the team for several
years now, and cashed in in a big way a few years back, without major
reinvestment in the squad. So you levy high bids for players fans want knowing
full well they won’t be accepted and then say, “see, we tried.” We could have
just paid the additional 10 million and had Higuain (I know that’s a lot), but
now might be all but out of options. It is certainly plausible that this is the
case – but can they really keep generating revenue as they become the also-ran
yesterday-girls of the old top four?
4. Players
just don’t want to play for Wenger anymore and he thus has a hard time
convincing them to come. Many targets have snubbed the Gunners in recent years,
including Hazard, Goetze and a few others. The latest, Gustavo, actually went
to Wolfsberg rather than joining a Champions League team in the England where
he could have played major minutes. Why? Well, why did Fabergas leave his
“second dad” to spend decent spells on the bench? Why did Nasri push through a
move after he called Wenger his greatest mentor? Why did Robin Van Persie turn
on the team that kept faith through years of injury to join our most bitter
rival (at least in the past)? The answer to all of these questions has to be
Wenger. Players may like him, respect him and learn from him as they grow, but
they move elsewhere to win silverware. And just because we didn’t lose anyone
this summer – with Cazorla arguably one of the few other top teams would want –
doesn’t mean it was a success. In fact, it’s sad that many people see things
this way. The reality is Le Professeur has lost most of his cache in world
football and just doesn’t seem to attract the level of talent he used to. One
hopes Suarez can be swayed, but the players read the same news that the rest of
us do and can’t help but wonder if the pundits are right. Who wants to play for
a has been with little chance of winning trophies?
5. One last
thought relates back to the first comment – namely that our scouts are simply
not doing their job. Wenger got used to taking diamonds in the rough and
turning them into stars. But this has not been the case to the same degree
recently. One can certainly see the improvement in Walcott’s game and recent return
to form of Ramsey, but look at all the wasted transfer activity we are now
clearing off the books. Again, we clearly miss David Dein, but Wenger appears
to have too much faith in a strategy that no longer works – as most big teams
in Europe now have vast scouting networks, eliminating our old comparative
advantage.
In any case, the injury woes at
Arsenal could see us get off to a slow start yet again. And if we do, who can
we blame but Wenger, who has had all summer to make key signings – particularly
a centre back, a defensive mid and a striker. The absence of the first two of
those three might just cost us three points tomorrow.
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