Arsenal: In defence of Arsene

Just two weeks into the new season and the knives are already out for beleaguered Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. The weakening of an already small squad after Barcelona’s successful completion of the Cesc Fabregas saga and a fourth raid from the Premier League’s nouveau riche Manchester City  (who have splashed out yet another 25 million on Samir Nasri), coupled with a shaky start to the league season, had led pundits to declare yet another ‘make or break’ season for Arsenal. Yesterday’s capitulation at the hands of Manchester United will inevitably lead to the knee-jerk reaction that the season is already over.

Media analysis of Arsenal’s plight often leads to the rather depressing conclusion that in order to compete for the top honours Wenger must abandon his supposedly antiquated ideals of running a club as a business, and simply join the lunatic arms race with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City, who have each spent in excess of half a billion in recent years, with nothing like that figure recouped in sales.

No less than ex-Gunners boss George Graham has thrown his weight behind this school of thinking this week, as the Gunners midfield, in particular, looks particularly threadbare after recent departures, and central defence has been a problem area for some time.

Is this a valid conclusion though? Is it realistic to expect Wenger or indeed Arsenal’s owners to put together a squad match the quality of Manchester City or Chelsea’s  by spending way beyond the club´s income? Are Arsenal’s budget and resources being used badly at the moment? It could be argued both ethically, and practically (given Leeds United´s ill-fated attempt to keep up with the Jones, for example) that Wenger is doing the best by his side. Arguably given the club´s net spend over the Premier League era compared to their London rivals , one could make a case for a 4^th place finish actually representing a solid performance or even a team kicking above its financial weight, rather than the disaster scenario presented to us by a number of unrealistic Arsenal followers and a blood-thirsty, cynical media.

The Gunners have been an ever-present in the Champions League since its inception in its current form and throughout Wenger’s reign, and have even reached the latter stages on a number of occasions, even reaching a final with Barcelona. The Frenchman’s record hardly needs defending. Were it not for an unprecedented flow of incoming money from outside of the game Wenger would surely have added at least a couple more trophies to add to his three Premier League titles and four FA Cups. Indeed until the appearance of Roman Abramovich triggered Chelsea´s overnight ascent to footballing superpower almost every season Wenger´s side at least finished runners-ups.

However, Wenger and his ‘old-fashioned’ ideals look increasingly out of place in a league where a new Russian Oligarch and an Arab oil Sheikh are now threatening to take the role of main players from the Cristiano Ronaldos and the Thierry Henrys. All the evidence suggests that Wenger´s time is probably up and that he will struggle to take Arsenal any further. The only thing Wenger has on his side is the backing of a patient and intelligent Chairman in David Dein (take note Mike Ashley).

If, as seems quite likely, Arsenal’s latest make-or-break season ends in another series of glorious failures around March or April, and Wenger decides or is forced to vacate the Arsenal hot-seat, people would do well to remember how many fantastic players Wenger has brought into the English game, how he created probably the most exciting Arsenal sides in the club’s history, and how some of the most fluid football anywhere on the planet was played under his stewardship. The job will surely be a poisoned chalice for any successor, as people slowly begin to realise that they had never had it so good as they did under Arsene.