By Myles Palmer
I love May because it tidies up the season.
Cups are handed out, league tables finalised.
And in June, after due deliberation, definitive judgements can be made about 2000/2001.
Second in the Premiership? Second in the FA Cup? Champions League -lost to Valencia in the quarter-final.On away goals.
Is that a good season or a bad season?
Is losing 2-1 to Liverpool in Cardiff BETTER than losing on penalties to Galatasaray in Copenhagen?
I don’t think so. Arsenal played badly in Copenhagen and lost. And they played well in Cardiff and lost.
For me, that makes Cardiff more disappointing.
So Arsene Wenger needs a good summer.
He has not had a good summer since 1997, when he signed Petit and Overmars, who contributed hugely to the Double.
In summer of 1998 he sold Ian Wright to West Ham for £750,000, and David Platt retired. He only signed Nelson Vivas for £1.6 million, and young left back David Grondin for £500,000
In the summer of 1999 he had the Anelka transfer saga.
Wenger came into the press conference after the Charity Shield game and said Anelka had been sold to Real Madrid. He signed Suker the following day and Henry a day or two later.
In the summer of 2000 he signed Lauren on May 30, and Pires on July 3, two excellent players. He signed Stepanovs too late for Champions League (he wasn’t ready anyway) and Wiltord in August, when he was unfit, having had no pre-season with Bordeaux.
So Wenger’s four summers have been : very good in 1997,
inconsequential in 1998,nightmarish in 1999 and OK in 2000.
We know it is very, very hard to sign world class players because their wages are huge and many clubs want them.And, to be fair, he did not need big names in the summer of 1998.
In summer 2000 it was fine to unload Petit and Overmars for £28 million, but July-August was marred by uncertainty over Edu’s arrival.
Then he paid £13 million for Wiltord, a flaky character who has considerable footballing talents, but who did not fit in and could not play with Henry.
Wenger was in a position to find about about Wiltord’s character.And he was in a position to know exactly what style of player he was buying.
Wiltord scored 15 goals but he was, as we can all see now, a huge mistake.The biggest mistake Wenger has made in the transfer market, by far.
That is why he had a disappointing summer last year and that is why he needs a good summer now.
Soon, when I get time, I will try to define what a good summer would be for Arsene Wenger.
Until then I will only say this : Anybody who really believes that Bergkamp, Henry, Kanu and Wiltord are all world class strikers is living in cloud cuckooland.
29th May 2001.