da spicy bet： I take my hat off to Arsene Wenger; despite constant criticism from the British media, the Frenchman has come out fighting, and now with the finish line in sight, Arsenal look set to pip local rivals Tottenham to the post and maintain their Champions League status come the end of the season, especially if you are a firm believer that history has a tendency to repeat itself.
da realbet： The Gunners’ campaign has looked as good as over several times this year – after the second North London Derby, upon their elimination in the FA Cup to Blackburn, and following a rather humbling home defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League – but their recent form, picking up 13 points from the last six games in the Premier League, has got Arsenal’s season back on track, which will now be looked back upon as a one of the club’s typical ‘slow start, strong finish’ seasons, rather than 12 months of complete disaster as many assumed while they were wallowing outside of the top four.
I too, will no doubt be eating my words by the end of May. This season, I’ve branded the Arsenal boss a socialist dictator, an outdated fool whose era has come to an end, a stubborn philosopher who fails to understand the modern practices of transfer market, and a coach incapable of organising a back four. I now firmly believe, that the backlash from the second leg of the Champions League’s round of 16, a night in Munich which nearly resulted in a surprise come-back, has motivated and inspired the players at the Emirates enough to lead to them qualifying yet again for Europe’s most prestigious cup competition.
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But my praise comes with a word of warning. The situation is all too familiar; Arsenal starting the season poorly, questions asked of Wenger – his authoritarian approach to the training ground, the club’s twisted transfer policy, a wage structure that is not cost-effective – only for the Gunners to dig themselves out of a hole and to finish their campaign brightly, quashing the protestors and silencing the critics, leading to the acceptance of the French coach’s mandate to rule as he sees fit, without ever having any serious discussion about where the club is actually going.
It seems the Gunners’ regular late flurry leads to a sense of euphoria at the Emirates; leaving it until the last day of the season to qualify for the Champions League, whilst everyone has betted against you and criticised you all year, must feel in itself like lifting a league title. But to look at the accomplishment from a more balanced and less influenced perspective, it is not even a comparable achievement to being crowned domestic champions, especially when you consider the finance, resources and reputation available at Wenger’s disposal.
For a club of Arsenal’s stature, Arsene Wenger’s self-appointed minimum requirement of maintaining their place in the Champions League in my opinion is not good enough, especially considering they have failed to make it past the round of 16 for three years consecutively. It has still been eight years since the Gunners have lifted any silverware, and in that time period, the quality of the first team has consistently declined, whilst former stars either shafted by Wenger or who charged out of the Emirates exit door of their own accord, have a collective total of over 60 trophies between them.
A major contributing factor has to be Arsenal’s lack of progress in the transfer market. While Chelsea and Manchester City have rose in stature due to the unprecedented finance available to both clubs, the Gunners have failed to compete with them, seemingly due to debt payments for the new stadium, but also no doubt a result of Wenger’s theoretical and philosophical perspective of how a football club should be run, and the North Londoners’ inability to continually improve and progress, which has become a must in the Premier League to maintain a similar level of performance from one season to the next, has resulted in them slipping down the league table, and constantly caught in periods of transition with little end in sight.
Chelsea’s record transfer fee currently stands at the £50million they paid for Fernando Torres, Manchester City’s is the £38million that brought in Sergio Aguero, and Manchester United’s is £31million for Dimitar Berbatov, while Arsenal’s is just £16million, for Santi Cazorla. Silvain Wiltord’s £13million fee paid in 2000 is still up there amongst the club’s biggest expenditures, despite it being 13 years since the French winger moved from Bordeaux. The difference is enormous.
Regarding departures, in the last eight years the Gunners have sold Ashley Cole for £5million, Thierry Henry for £16million, Alexander Hleb for £13million, Emmanuel Adebayor for £25million, Patrick Viera for £14million, Kolo Toure for £16million, Gael Clichy for £7million, Samir Nasri for £25million, Cesc Fabregas for £30million and Robin Van Persie for £20million.
It is fair enough to accuse former players in some cases of showing a lack of loyalty, but at the same time, it is clear that the general feeling from a player perspective is that Arsenal, due to their limited success on the pitch, has become a selling club. It’s a cycle which has become self-perpetuating, and isn’t been helped by Wenger’s stubborn mentality towards the modern practices of the transfer market.
The Arsenal gaffer has announced, or at least subtly implied without admitting any particular error, that he will change his ways in the summer. There’s been constant talk about a £70million transfer kitty for new recruits, while final payments on the Emirates stadium have allowed for the club to take more financial risks, and the fans will be expecting Wenger to finally bring in some marquee signings to considerably raise the quality of the Arsenal first team.
My only fear is that yet again, amid the joy of trumping their local rivals to fourth place in the Premier League, Wenger will decide that he is happy with the status quo, and stick to his guns by keeping a tight hold of the purse strings while the fans are still to busy exerting their bragging rights in North London. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be the first time the Arsenal boss has sold a white lie to supporters in a bid to keep them happy and quash any alarm.
In my opinion, the transfer market is the only exit route to get the club out of the malaise it currently finds itself in. Wenger’s recent signings of Lucas Podoski, Olivier Giroud and Nacho Monreal are all astute, if rather unceremonious, pieces of business, but looking at the Arsenal roster, barring Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla, there is a lack of real match-winners or players you’d describe as amongst the world’s best.
The Gunners gaffer must spend big and bold in the summer, and bring in at least two players of real quality, or else Arsenal will continue to drift away from the title race, and limit their ambitions strictly to Champions League qualification. Wenger has vowed to not let that happen, I just hope the club’s bright finish to the campaign doesn’t convince the Frenchman to go back on his word.
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