Wenger again......

With all the turmoil once again surrounding Arsene Wenger at the Arsenal ...I decided to re-run a blog I did from Sept 2011 on the troubles there...15 months on RVP and Song gone....not a lot has changed from my viewpoint.

 

Monday, 26 September 2011

Arsenal: When the succession plan starts to unravel.

I'll start immediately by saying that I see Arsene Wenger as one of the top three coaches in the world, currently working. Apart from SAF he'd probably be my number 2 .....ahead of the special one. Why then does it appear that Arsenal seem to have lost that aura of brilliance they had for so long? The obvious answer would be to point to the recent departure of Cesc and Nasri. Losing two world class players would tax even the best. Yes, but no, this is only part of the story.
We all know that Arsenal have walked a financial tightrope since building and moving to the Emirates, from Highbury. A new stadium which cost £390 million, plus the cost of associated infrastructure...... £470 million all up. They played their first competitive Emirates game on 19 August 2006 but in truth had been seriously budgeting for several years before then. Arsenal were fortunate to have Wenger who had world class contacts particularly in Europe. Since 1996 he had continually blended his established stars with an assembly line of low cost young French players. True, he had inherited a bed rock team including Adams; Bould; Winterburn; Bergkamp; Dixon and Keown but quickly brought in Petite, Vierra and a young Anelka. The glory of the unbeaten season 2003-4 saw Arsenal at it's peak.....Henry, Pires, Ljungberg and Campbell made up a great side. Since then things have been tougher for Wenger. No trophies since the FA Cup win in 2005 has put pressure on everyone connected with the Emirates not least the supporters. The frugal transfer market strategy of the club has been widely applauded and criticised......depending upon who you are. Wenger must be almost unique among coaches and managers in his disciplined approach to transfers. Here is a man with a deep insight into the tightrope the club has walked for nearly 10 years. It is hard to imagine (bar SAF) a coach who would not have demanded cash to buy success. For Wenger the line of succession has generally come from the steady flow of youngsters gradually graded into the first team squad.
What has happened to alter this putting him under such pressure? Firstly, Cesc was always going to go.....Arsene was buying time right to the end. No, the real shock came when upstarts Manchester City managed to prise an 'in contract' Nasri away from them. In July, Wenger had insisted that he would not have to sell either Nasri or Fabregas Wenger said: "Samir's situation is clear for me. He stays. We are in a [financial] position where we can say 'No', and we will … Imagine the worst situation, that we lose Fábregas and Nasri; you cannot convince people that you are ambitious after that."
The 22m that Arsenal received for Nasri is more than the 15.8m they originally paid for him but this transfer is a signal about much more than money. Arsene Wenger has now said that he doesn’t want another replay of the Nasri saga and intends to try and tie Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen and Theo Walcott down to new contracts this season, as they will all have just 12 months remaining next summer. It looks like the horse has bolted .....even Arsenal will now struggle to rid themselves of the 'selling club tag'. This at a time when rivals Tottenham held out to keep Luka Modric from the clutches of Chelsea in spite 40m of oil money.....a line in the sand indeed. Perhaps worse of all for the club, the new generation have not yet stepped up as they did in the past decade. This is the point, they not only failed to hold Nasri but the new crop are struggling, prompting 'transfer window' last minute buys, Gervinho; Mertesacker; Arteta and Benayoun, reasonable at 28m but still leaving some doubt on the quality of the squad to compete......especially with long term absentee Wilshire. The massive reverse up at Old Trafford is an overt sign of the problems Wenger faces to be competitive on a comparative shoestring. On a deeper level the question is now being posed on how far have Arsenal declined....is it terminal? An early test comes on Sunday against Spurs who for the first time in a generation may be ready to slip past the gunners.....surely not the succession plan Arsene Wenger had in mind!