There’s nothing big happening at Arsenal at the moment.
But the fans speculate and create wish-lists of players who might be signed.
And, increasingly, wish-lists of players they want to be sold.
One of today’s headlines is : Chelsea’s next coach Carlo Ancelotti wants Ribery, Villa and Adebayor. Yeah, right. Can you see Ade being signed by them for £25 million?
As always, Gooners ask each other : How much does Wenger really have to spend? Can he turn it round? On the evidence of what we’ve seen in the last two years, can he turn it round? How can our club go forward?
The four owners of Arsenal are all very rich but some do not communicate with the others. Billionaire Usmanov lives in Moscow and is not on the board, billionaire Stan Kroenke is based in St Louis although many people think he lives in Denver, Danny Fiszman is in tax exile near Geneva in Switzerland, and Lady Nina, who was kicked off the board, was last heard of in India.
Hill-Wood and Wenger apparently reckon it’s OK to finish fourth and make a profit every year.
CEO Ivan Gazidis says fourth isn’t good enough.
In the summer of 2008, fans who had never questioned Wenger before started to voice serious doubts. Those doubts turned to boos during the season. Eboue was slaughtered by a section of the crowd, and Adebayor became more unpopular than Eboue.
A Q&A with some hostile shareholders shocked Wenger. Their anger shook him up. Legitimate points were made but the manager didn’t get it. He didn’t understand the criticism.
People now say : It’s a big summer for Wenger.
Others say : It’s the first summer for Gazidis and huge for him as well.
There is a lot of talk, much debate, many issues being explored and argued and blogged.
For me, the fundamental issue is this : What is Arsenal for?
Is Arsenal there to play nice football in four competitions?
Or is Arsenal there to win trophies?
Each year, Arsenal enter four competitions. There were four trophies to be won in 2006 and 2007 and 2008 and 2009.
Their last FA Cup victory was in 2005 and they were outplayed by Manchester United but they got lucky. Jens Lehmann kept a clean sheet and it went to a penalty shoot-out and Patrick Vieira scored the winning penalty. Sometimes the best team doesn’t win.
Since 2005, Arsenal have competed for 16 trophies and won none.The club is in decline and the team is going backwards.
In football each club has its status, its heritage, and a potential based on its fan base and resources. A club with a good chairman and a good manager can punch above its weight for a season or two, but clubs tend to find their natural level.
For instance, Wigan is a showcase club where new foreigners like Palacios and Valencia can make a name and earn a big contract elsewhere. Steve Bruce said he was disappointed when his team got to 41 points and eased off. The players thought : We’ve done it, we’ve survived, we’ve stayed up.
At the Emirates, the fans want Arsenal to be a big European club.
But for the last four years Arsenal have been also-rans, a second-tier club where the chairman is delighted to be the best of the rest.
In 2009, AFC finished well below the Big Three. Liverpool improved to finish only four points behind Manchester United. But Arsenal stagnated and finished 11 points behind Chelsea.
The good news for the Arsenal board is that the majority of fans are very loyal. Many complain, some despair, but most still support their team because fans at every club prefer to hope, to live on dreams. They are blind to the reality. The diehard Gooners say : Look what Wenger’s done for this club, how can you criticise the guy?
That’s why there will not be a landslide of Arsenal fans who give up their season tickets. Although thousands of people will continue to rent them out to friends, staying away till they can see a team they believe in. Over time there is an erosion of support, a loss of faith, and that erosion increases every year the team fails to win a trophy.
Wenger has lately talked about Manchester City’s owners investing heavily and improving their team, and the possibility that Portsmouth might get new owners who do the same, so he is looking below him. He’s looking down, not up. He seems to see a future of competing for fourth spot.
Always remember this : he has made a huge emotional investment in this group of players. The idea of building a team this way is an idea that only he would pursue. He is the only manager in the world who has that much power and that much job security.
He’s also made a huge financial investment in them.
He played Diaby in the semi-final against Chelsea and dropped his best player, Arshavin, which amazed the media and disgusted supporters. In three seasons he had not won 12 trophies and now he was 90 minutes away from the FA Cup Final and he dropped his best player.
When asked about this it at the Q&A, Wenger said he did it because he wanted his young team to know they could win big games. They can’t. He knows that now.
You may have read the transcript of that Q& A in The News of the World.
It was NOT a transcript of the whole meeting but it covered the key points.
SHAREHOLDER: What was the logic in not picking Arshavin for the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea when he wasn’t eligible for the Champions League semi-final?
WENGER: To give the team confidence to beat Chelsea and bring Arshavin on if needed, and the team would know it could win big games, but it didn’t work.
This season was Wenger’s worst Arsenal season by far. And, I regret to say, it was my least enjoyable season as well. I wrote the season off on October 29, after a 4-4 draw at home to Spurs made it clear that this team could not win anything. To realise that in October made the next six months look like a chore, a slog, a journey into darkness. For a few weeks I actually wondered whether Wenger might kill my love of football. I’ve loved football since I was 15 years old and I wondered whether he would kill my love of the game.
Thankfully, he hasn’t. I came through that crisis. I still love football and always will.