My son Michael gets his Arsenal news when he comes out of the shower at 8.am.
I was sitting in my office with the door open, as always.
“He’s given Eduardo a new contract. Same for Denilson and Bendtner,” I said.
“So we’ve managed to sign players who already play for us? That is ambition !”
This transfer window?
On Tuesday and Wednesday I heard tales of disappointed Gooners, some of whom were shocked and distraught, after Arsenal failed to strengthen their squad on the last day.
Personally, I had forgotten about the window. I’d been so busy it slipped off my radar in the middle of last week. But I still believed that Ivan Gazidis would sign Chamakh for £7 million on the last day.
I really think Arsenal need a striker who can play in a front three. Don’t know if Chamakh can play in a three. If Bendtner could, he would have played there already. If Eduardo could, he’d have played there already. The role doesn’t suit RVP , as I’ve said.
Friends now ask me : What’s wrong with Van Persie?
I don’t know. Is he an insecure individual whose wages doubled to £80,000 a week? Does he think he is worth that? Or is he twice as worried as he was before? Doubling Adebayor’s wages didn’t improve him and it hasn’t improved RVP either.
Fans also ask me : What has happened to the £40 million we got for Toure and Ade?
Here are some guesses.
Vermaleen cost £10m, so it’s really £30 million. A banking covenant insists that Arsenal use 70% of that profit to reinvest in the squad. That is, to buy new players or improve and lengthen the contracts of existing players.
Arithmetic was my worst subject at school but I think 70% of £30m is £21m.
All summer Wenger has handed out improved contracts. The Dutchman was in line and Walcott got in ahead of Robin and nobody asked Theo what he had done to deserve a pay rise.
New deals for Fabianski, Song, Denilson and Bendtner were announced.
And, today, Eduardo, which is good timing by the undisputed maestro of football news management. That will cheer up a guy who has been made a leper for a dive that should have earned him a yellow card, not a penalty. For Uefa to ban Eduardo for two games is ridiculous, so Arsenal will appeal today, I think.
Since Wenger didn’t sign another striker, a two-match ban for Eduardo is much more of an issue than it would have been if he had bought Chamakh. The Moroccan wants to play for Arsenal and Wenger wanted to sign him. I don’t know how good Chamakh would be in the Premier League or how good he would be in a pressing team playing 4-3-3 and still learning how that system works.
Last night, when I read Ian Grant’s intro about Wenger’s priority being new contracts for his existing players, rather than new players, my reaction was : Just what I was thinking !
I also thought : Bingo ! This could be the best example yet of Arsenal being organised in the wrong way.
The great manager is a cautious man, a control-freak who pampers his babies and keeps telling them and us how good they are. His main priority is protecting his babies, maintaining harmony, and having a squad with a strict pecking order, so that every player knows his status and harmony is maximised.
The notion that Arsenal could have a period of turbulence, and come through it a stronger team, has never occurred to Mr Wenger. He is terrified of turbulence. He thinks every bit of turbulence is a plane crash. However, this summer he has done very well to sell his turbulence to Man City for £40m.
His current team has won nothing but he says they’re improving and he keeps saying, “I believe in this team.” He proves that he believes in this team by giving them all new contracts and he’s apparently willing to give Gallas two more years.
The key point is this : at Arsenal it is Wenger alone who decides to spend his budget on either (a) new players or (b) improved contracts for his babies. A good new player will threaten his babies, so he definitely doesn’t want many new players.
Myself, I wonder if RVP has deteriorated because he can’t read Arshavin’s passes or play one-twos with him.
Arshavin is very,very special. He is as gifted as Cantona or Bergkamp, so Arsenal need a manager who will build round the Russian and make him their highest-paid player. Wenger will never do that, so Arshavin will leave next summer. Arshavin is a big star who wants a big contract and he didn’t get it in January, so he will go where he can get a big contract.
Furthermore, I believe that Wenger rewards failure. He thinks that if he pays them more they’ll improve. But his policy makes sense in terms of tax. With 50% UK tax making stars harder to acquire, keeping your existing players happy and loyal is a good idea.
But mainly it’s a control issue. A control-freak wants to micro-manage everything, especially his players and the environment they train and travel in. The costs of Wenger’s pampering are stupendous but not detailed, just buried vaguely under “operating costs” of £35 million.
All except four players (Gallas, Sagna, Arshavin, and Vermaelen) owe their careers to him. He has boasted that Almunia had no CV before he came to Arsenal.
In sum : Wenger now has FIVE great players and four DON’T owe their careers to him.
Thirteen years of developing youth has produced only two players who have delivered long-term: Fabregas and Clichy.
Let’s face it, Denilson and Song will never ask for a transfer. Bendtner apparently turned down Barcelona, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich to stay at Arsenal.
Hand on heart, do you think Bendtner, a useful but one-paced footballer, will ever be good enough to be a striker for Bayern, Barca or Inter?
My brother Neil’s arriving here soon, so I’m gonna tidy up Caroline’s room, where he will be sleeping. I use her room as an editing office, so it has a chapter about a jolly night out with Rod Stewart & the Faces on her chest of drawers, chapters about the Dead and Al Green spread out on the bed, and scattered all over the place, including the floor, are a lot of files, diaries, journals which are full of football scribblings as well as music adventures, concert tickets, cuttings, pages razored out of Rolling Stone, reviews and features written by yours truly for various magazines and newspapers, including Rolling Stone. Music and the music business have changed so much but the Seventies was a golden era when I had fun with many famous musicians. Written in the right way, it should make an entertaining memoir.
Neil is my big brother. He is three years younger than me but he’s my big brother. Does that make sense?