Hello Sport Central UK readers! For those who don't know me, my name's Nathan and I'm doing a nice little guest entry here on Scott's sports blog, and given my opinionated nature this could well be the first of many.
Today I've got a few bits and pieces to say about Arsenal. Anybody who knows me even the slightest will know that I'm quite a big Arsenal fan (and according to Scott "so biased that I could be Arsene Wenger's love child"). However, in this article it shouldn't really affect my opinions because I know for a fact that Arsenal fans are quite divided on this issue, so hopefully my affiliation with Arsenal will simply bring more knowledge to this discussion.
This whole thing is based firstly on Arsenal's appauling run of form and transfer shenanigans (or lack thereof) as well as something I heard Adrian Durham say on Talksport. Firstly I should point out that I am massively paraphrasing him here and do not claim that wat he is saying is necessarily right or wrong; just that it makes for a good thing to discuss. Durham's words were off the back of Arsenal's mad rush to sign new players on the last 2 days of the transfer window following their humiliating 8-2 defeat to Manchester United. Essentially his argument boiled down to the fact that for the last 2-3 years, Arsene Wenger has said that there's money at the club to spend but then hasn't spent it. Durham's view is that this decision not to spend money has come from Arsenal's board, and not from Arsene Wenger. He even went on to say that Wenger deliberately fielded a weakened side against Manchester United at Old Trafford the other week so that Arsenal would lose badly and that he would therefore be able to pursuade the board to give him money for transfers.
OK, so this is quite an extreme view to take and the truth is much more likely (as with most things) to be somewhere in the middle; however it is certainly true that there were some players (Vermaelen and Sagna being the most notable) who were borderline fit to play who Wenger didn't risk. Under normal circumstances this would be sensible, but Man United is one of the biggest games of the season not to be taking risks for. As with transfers, Wenger has built up a reputation of not spending any money. However, think back 7 or 8 years ago. Did he have that reputation then? The answer is no. He did not.
Looking back at Wenger's long career at Arsenal, the first transfer window open to him he splashed the cash on Marc Overmas and Emmanuel Petit, both of whom inspired the double-winning season of 97-98. The next two seasons he bought 13 players, many of very high quality; such as Nwankwo Kanu, Davor Suker (who was unsuccessful at the club but was signed off the back of a Golden Boot winning World Cup), Fredrik Ljungberg, Lauren and (of course) Thierry Henry. The season after that Wenger spent a grand total of £35 million; not a lot in todays market, but this was a time when Chelsea were poor and Man City in the 1st Division. In this same year that Marc Overmars was sold to Barcelona for a record-breaking £25 million, which somewhat dispels this idea of Wenger always refusing to make good use of the cash gained from the sale of big players. In fact before Arsenal moved to the Emirates Stadium, Arsene Wenger spent less than he gained in transfers in a season only once. This was in the 99-00 season when Anelka was sold to Real Madrid for £23 million, and the same year that Henry, Suker and Lauren came to the club.
So, why has this changed after the move to the Emirates? Going back to Durham's argument, it's essentially because the board has less money they want to give to Wenger as they want to pay off the massive debt they incurred in the construction of the stadium as quickly as possible; which you can't really blame them for doing (especially as Wenger's the one who'll be taking the criticism for this). Whether he deliberately sent his players out to lose to United or not is more contentious. However, I do think that Wenger has come under some very unfair criticism in recent years for pursuing a transfer policy which is in fact, not his. People have forgotten, not just the fact that Arsenal does not have the money of the Manchester clubs, Chelsea, or even Liverpool; but also the huge number of famous players around who Wenger signed for Arsenal. There are obvious examples such as Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor; but also some less obvious ones such as David Bentley, Matthew Upson, Slyvinho, Eduardo, Sebastian Larsson and Giovanni Van Bronkhorst.
The big question now is, where does this leave our opinion of Arsene Wenger? Personally I think much of the criticism of him has been quite harsh. In the past when I have said this, people have responded by saying that it's just because I'm an Arsenal fan. Maybe that's so, maybe it isn't; but this year with so many lifelong Arsenal fans screaming for a new manager, I think my defence of Wenger comes from taking a good long hard look at his situation. To be fair, he has made some pretty big mistakes in recent times. The two big ones for me are firstly the lack of honesty at the club. Arsenal have pretty much only just accepted that they can't be challenging for the league this season. This should have been said two years ago to stop the media and fans' hype and disappointment when we don't win anything. We're not the only team in the league not to have won anything for a while, so let's lower our expectations a bit. Also, if you don't have the money to rectify the situation over a season's worth of big transfers, then say so. Secondly, whilst I can potentially see why the signing of new players was left so late if the board were reluctant to spend; I really cannot see why the sales of Fabregas and Nasri had to wait so long when they were clearly on the cards. I don't just mean that these sales were inevitable because the media said so (I mean Fabregas was "definately going to Barcelona" every season since 2005); what I mean is that from inside the club Wenger must know who's most likely going that summer and who isn't. Why then did he not sell them quickly and use the time to pursuade the board to let him spend the money they made on those players, rather than wait until there was very little time left?
On the whole however, I don't see how the board would be able to justify sacking Arsene Wenger (especially seeing as his lack of success in recent years in partly down to them). Trophiless for 6 seasons we may be, but he is the most successful manager the club has ever had. With 3 Premiership titles and 4 FA Cups he is more successful even than the legednary Herbert Chapman. Also, a bigger question in my eyes, is who is going to replace him? Can anyone honestly think of another manager who is better than Wenger who will want to come and manage Arsenal on a long term basis? The only reasonable thing I've heard is that Guardiola apparently would like to manage Arsenal for want of a fresh challenge; although I must say I find it very difficult to believe that he would take the job when not faced with a hypothetical situation.
So, that's where I stand on the whole 'Arsenal and Arsene Wenger' situation going into Saturdays game against Swansea. I must say, transfer deadline sagas aside I'm very excited to see what our new signings are like - particularly Per Mertesacker who I think was a brilliant buy considering that he's 71 caps and 1 trophy better off than Gary Cahill, at £7 million less. Arteta will be another interesting one too. Obviously he's been very good for Everton, but I will reserve judgement until I see what he can do for us. I can't help but thinking though he should have left Everton 3 years ago so he could play at a higher level when he was a bit younger. If anyone has any comments or counter-arguments or anything that they wish to post below then I'd be happy to read and reply to them. Thanks very much to Scott for allowing me to write this little something for the blog (and for reading it through given that he already knows my arguments on this). Thanks for reading!
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