Thanks for reading!
So here we go. Firstly let me again state that I am pro-Wenger, I'm one of his biggest fans, yet I am going to be as unbiased and as objective as I can be in this assessment.
Arsenal Wenger's record at Arsenal:
3 Premier League titles
6 FA Cups
5 Community Shields
18 years successfully qualified for Champions League proper.
Bear that record in mind while I break Arsene Wenger down for you.
Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal in 1998, at a time where we were a decent football club, but no where near the level we are at now. He joined us at a time where there was no such thing as individual billionaires or consortiums coming together with billions of pounds to take over a football club and inject multiple hundreds of millions into their coffers and effectively revolutionising their club.
Back then, it was only Arsenal and Manchester United competing for the Premier League title and Wenger, like anyone else in that position would have probably wrongly predicted that the fight for the title was only going to be between Manchester United and Arsenal for the next 10-15 years because none of the other teams looked like they would be even close to offering a sustained threat to the crown at any point in that time period - until the money men showed up.
You see, Arsenal, unlike the more recent winners of the Premier League (Man City & Chelsea) are run on a sound business model, generating income through commercial revenue streams, ticket sales, money from competitions, outgoing transfers etc. and spending a proportion of their total income on wages and incoming transfers.
Manchester City and Chelsea as we all know have had billionaires splash the cash like an excited 18 year old girl given her first credit card by Dad, which obviously makes things harder for clubs like Arsenal trying to do things properly.
Manchester United are the biggest club in England and have been for the entirety of the Premier League era. They're the most valuable club in the world. Their financial clout has been strong for a long time, it never really has been weak. It's a praise to Arsenal and Wenger that we were able to compete with then to begin with, we have never really been able to financially out-muscle United in the transfer market, yet we won The Double twice and another Premier League title directly competing with them, even won it in their back yard, danced all over their turf.. These times, their stadium was more than 75% bigger than ours. Yet it was some of Wenger's shrewdest signings, his astute development of young players, his introducing a completely different lifestyle of footballer to the Arsenal players, turning our players' training facilities from decent to world class and introducing an eye-pleasing, possession-based brand of attacking and counter-attacking football that allowed us to win the honours we did in the late 90's to early 00's and complete a Premier League season unbeaten securing another Premier League crown.
Had there not been a shift in HOW top teams compete for the title, had there not been a massive influx of unearned, 'sugar daddy' money, you can bet your bottom PENNY that there would probably be about 3 more Premier League titles, 4 more FA Cups, and maybe a Champions League title to go with the rest of Arsenal's honours under Wenger, because Chelsea and Manchester City (winners of 6 PL titles since Arsenal last won the league) would STILL be no-bodies.
Roman Abramovich I must say has been tormentor-in-chief of Arsene Wenger's early medium-to-long term plans for Arsenal. He came and saved Chelsea from extinction, literally, they were on the brink of administration at the time. The timing of his arrival could have not been worse for Arsenal and Wenger. Arsenal had already just committed £400m to Emirates Stadium. We were financially weak. Strong enough to still continue being Man Utd's only real competitors for the league like it used to be (which I believe is what Wenger had planned for) but not against billionaire men willing to spend anything it takes to win the League. We just couldn't compete with that, not at that sensitive time anyways.
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea for 140m and begun pumping hundreds of millions into Chelsea. Up to today, Mr Abramovich has spent £2 BILLION on Chelsea transfers and wages. (Chelsea would be SCREWED if he started calling in his debts) Had it not been for the intervention of billionaire money into the Premier League, the likes of Chelsea and Man City probably would not have had a sniff of the league crown at ANY point in the last 12 years.
My point summarised, Arsenal have had to deal with being the only real contender to Manchester United for the title on and off the pitch, to having to compete with another team who all of a sudden, became unbelievably stronger financially (Chelsea) and then yet another team (Man City) with the same financial muscle (who both invested HEAVILY into their playing squads), all while maintaining a competitively minimal financial budget while paying off huge debt in the name of a £400m stadium move, ALL while making sure we stay just about competitive enough.
£400m is a LOT of money. Had we made the decision to stay at Highbury and invested even just half of that money into the playing squad, again, we would definitely have won more honours. He could have just done that and taken all the glory for it, but we don't just have a football manager Arsenal fans. Arsene Wenger is a visionary. We don't just have a man in a job. This man LOVES Arsenal, more than most fans to be quite frank. No one lives, breathes and bleeds Arsenal like Wenger. He vision was to take Arsenal to another level, a new level which he has now done and was willing to go through the blood, sweat and tears he would shed to take us to that new level of football club. Just look at the club now. Look at the way be play football, look at London Colney now, LOOK at Emirates Stadium. Tottenham Hotspur (what do we think of them?) were ACTUALLY comparable to Arsenal in terms of club stature back when Wenger joined, now they simply are not. Tottenham are now YEARS behind us and will continue to play catch up to The Gunners for at LEAST the next 20 years in my opinion. Catch my drift?
Now don't get me wrong, I am FULLY aware of the fact that during this time period (9 seasons, 2005-2014) we won NO trophies. That's absolutely appalling, however lets think about this.
Wenger did what was necessary during this time period which allowed us to eventually end that horrendous trophy drought (even amid all the billionaire money in the league) and ensure the massive stadium debt was paid as QUICKLY as possible. There were two things Wenger did to ensure that this was all completed within his OWN tenure at the club.
1. Step backwards in the transfer market.
Arsenal had to make a cutting sacrifice and step backwards in the transfer market at a time where Chelsea and even Man Utd were spending very large amounts (never mind Man City later on). We couldn't replace the top players we lost with other top level players, the money was just not there, just this multi million pound ball of debt swallowing up transfer funds. Again I know funds at that level these days are managed in ways that do allow for some movement, which is why were able to purchase some players during that period, but debt is debt, in the football world it must be paid. We had to show prudency if we were going to balance the books asap. Job very well done in my opinion, we've more or less finished that now. We're cash rich, sound business model still in tact, with a team that's been improving and winning trophies since our recession/transition was over.
Yes a lot of Arsenal fans do tend to forget that we went through both a recession and a transition during this period. Most of the Invincibles were gone within 2-3 years of that undefeated season. Lots of top clubs have found a transition hard to manage by itself, let alone a recession running alongside it.
2. Ensure that every season we finish and qualify for the Champions League proper.
Now make no mistake Arsenal fans, during that time period, Liverpool or Tottenham should really have taken advantage of everything and leave us finishing 5th or 6th, even if for only one season. That, realistically should have happened because they were GENUINE threats at the time and it came ever so close to happening on a couple of occasions... but it didn't.
Somehow Wenger and his team would ALWAYS find something, even when the odds were against us. I cannot BEGIN to even stress to you how important it was for us to qualify for the Champions League EVERY season during that time period. Had we failed, for even only one season, we may have NEVER recovered to get to the level we are at now. One season not qualifying for the CL would have had DISASTROUS consequences for Arsenal. I don't even want or have to go into what might have happened had we failed even once on our quest for C.L footy every season. It was absolutely imperative we succeeded on that quest every year.
Tottenham and Liverpool were hell-bent on taking advantage of our weakened situation, but were not able. We got lucky one season, but you need luck in football. We never failed. For this you have to praise the manager, most of the players who played through that are gone. Wenger is still here, he's been the constant. He's the only one who's been at Arsenal since we last won the league. Lots of Arsenal fans and football fans up and down the country have laughed hard at Wenger for calling 4th place a trophy, but you ask ANY football director, owner, stakeholder, anyone who would have a financial interest in the club what would you prefer, Champions League qualification or the FA Cup/League Cup? At a time where money is ruling? At a club where money IS actually an object? Any of these types of people who'd say the Cups would be bare-faced lying to you.
Credit to Wenger for steering the Arsenal ship away from dangerous waters at a critical time.
Back then, it was only Arsenal and Manchester United competing for the Premier League title and Wenger, like anyone else in that position would have probably wrongly predicted that the fight for the title was only going to be between Manchester United and Arsenal for the next 10-15 years because none of the other teams looked like they would be even close to offering a sustained threat to the crown at any point in that time period - until the money men showed up.
You see, Arsenal, unlike the more recent winners of the Premier League (Man City & Chelsea) are run on a sound business model, generating income through commercial revenue streams, ticket sales, money from competitions, outgoing transfers etc. and spending a proportion of their total income on wages and incoming transfers.
Manchester City and Chelsea as we all know have had billionaires splash the cash like an excited 18 year old girl given her first credit card by Dad, which obviously makes things harder for clubs like Arsenal trying to do things properly.
Manchester United are the biggest club in England and have been for the entirety of the Premier League era. They're the most valuable club in the world. Their financial clout has been strong for a long time, it never really has been weak. It's a praise to Arsenal and Wenger that we were able to compete with then to begin with, we have never really been able to financially out-muscle United in the transfer market, yet we won The Double twice and another Premier League title directly competing with them, even won it in their back yard, danced all over their turf.. These times, their stadium was more than 75% bigger than ours. Yet it was some of Wenger's shrewdest signings, his astute development of young players, his introducing a completely different lifestyle of footballer to the Arsenal players, turning our players' training facilities from decent to world class and introducing an eye-pleasing, possession-based brand of attacking and counter-attacking football that allowed us to win the honours we did in the late 90's to early 00's and complete a Premier League season unbeaten securing another Premier League crown.
Had there not been a shift in HOW top teams compete for the title, had there not been a massive influx of unearned, 'sugar daddy' money, you can bet your bottom PENNY that there would probably be about 3 more Premier League titles, 4 more FA Cups, and maybe a Champions League title to go with the rest of Arsenal's honours under Wenger, because Chelsea and Manchester City (winners of 6 PL titles since Arsenal last won the league) would STILL be no-bodies.
Roman Abramovich I must say has been tormentor-in-chief of Arsene Wenger's early medium-to-long term plans for Arsenal. He came and saved Chelsea from extinction, literally, they were on the brink of administration at the time. The timing of his arrival could have not been worse for Arsenal and Wenger. Arsenal had already just committed £400m to Emirates Stadium. We were financially weak. Strong enough to still continue being Man Utd's only real competitors for the league like it used to be (which I believe is what Wenger had planned for) but not against billionaire men willing to spend anything it takes to win the League. We just couldn't compete with that, not at that sensitive time anyways.
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea for 140m and begun pumping hundreds of millions into Chelsea. Up to today, Mr Abramovich has spent £2 BILLION on Chelsea transfers and wages. (Chelsea would be SCREWED if he started calling in his debts) Had it not been for the intervention of billionaire money into the Premier League, the likes of Chelsea and Man City probably would not have had a sniff of the league crown at ANY point in the last 12 years.
My point summarised, Arsenal have had to deal with being the only real contender to Manchester United for the title on and off the pitch, to having to compete with another team who all of a sudden, became unbelievably stronger financially (Chelsea) and then yet another team (Man City) with the same financial muscle (who both invested HEAVILY into their playing squads), all while maintaining a competitively minimal financial budget while paying off huge debt in the name of a £400m stadium move, ALL while making sure we stay just about competitive enough.
£400m is a LOT of money. Had we made the decision to stay at Highbury and invested even just half of that money into the playing squad, again, we would definitely have won more honours. He could have just done that and taken all the glory for it, but we don't just have a football manager Arsenal fans. Arsene Wenger is a visionary. We don't just have a man in a job. This man LOVES Arsenal, more than most fans to be quite frank. No one lives, breathes and bleeds Arsenal like Wenger. He vision was to take Arsenal to another level, a new level which he has now done and was willing to go through the blood, sweat and tears he would shed to take us to that new level of football club. Just look at the club now. Look at the way be play football, look at London Colney now, LOOK at Emirates Stadium. Tottenham Hotspur (what do we think of them?) were ACTUALLY comparable to Arsenal in terms of club stature back when Wenger joined, now they simply are not. Tottenham are now YEARS behind us and will continue to play catch up to The Gunners for at LEAST the next 20 years in my opinion. Catch my drift?
Now don't get me wrong, I am FULLY aware of the fact that during this time period (9 seasons, 2005-2014) we won NO trophies. That's absolutely appalling, however lets think about this.
Wenger did what was necessary during this time period which allowed us to eventually end that horrendous trophy drought (even amid all the billionaire money in the league) and ensure the massive stadium debt was paid as QUICKLY as possible. There were two things Wenger did to ensure that this was all completed within his OWN tenure at the club.
1. Step backwards in the transfer market.
Arsenal had to make a cutting sacrifice and step backwards in the transfer market at a time where Chelsea and even Man Utd were spending very large amounts (never mind Man City later on). We couldn't replace the top players we lost with other top level players, the money was just not there, just this multi million pound ball of debt swallowing up transfer funds. Again I know funds at that level these days are managed in ways that do allow for some movement, which is why were able to purchase some players during that period, but debt is debt, in the football world it must be paid. We had to show prudency if we were going to balance the books asap. Job very well done in my opinion, we've more or less finished that now. We're cash rich, sound business model still in tact, with a team that's been improving and winning trophies since our recession/transition was over.
Yes a lot of Arsenal fans do tend to forget that we went through both a recession and a transition during this period. Most of the Invincibles were gone within 2-3 years of that undefeated season. Lots of top clubs have found a transition hard to manage by itself, let alone a recession running alongside it.
2. Ensure that every season we finish and qualify for the Champions League proper.
Now make no mistake Arsenal fans, during that time period, Liverpool or Tottenham should really have taken advantage of everything and leave us finishing 5th or 6th, even if for only one season. That, realistically should have happened because they were GENUINE threats at the time and it came ever so close to happening on a couple of occasions... but it didn't.
Somehow Wenger and his team would ALWAYS find something, even when the odds were against us. I cannot BEGIN to even stress to you how important it was for us to qualify for the Champions League EVERY season during that time period. Had we failed, for even only one season, we may have NEVER recovered to get to the level we are at now. One season not qualifying for the CL would have had DISASTROUS consequences for Arsenal. I don't even want or have to go into what might have happened had we failed even once on our quest for C.L footy every season. It was absolutely imperative we succeeded on that quest every year.
Tottenham and Liverpool were hell-bent on taking advantage of our weakened situation, but were not able. We got lucky one season, but you need luck in football. We never failed. For this you have to praise the manager, most of the players who played through that are gone. Wenger is still here, he's been the constant. He's the only one who's been at Arsenal since we last won the league. Lots of Arsenal fans and football fans up and down the country have laughed hard at Wenger for calling 4th place a trophy, but you ask ANY football director, owner, stakeholder, anyone who would have a financial interest in the club what would you prefer, Champions League qualification or the FA Cup/League Cup? At a time where money is ruling? At a club where money IS actually an object? Any of these types of people who'd say the Cups would be bare-faced lying to you.
Credit to Wenger for steering the Arsenal ship away from dangerous waters at a critical time.
It almost seems to me how things have panned out in football over the last 10 years have conspired against Wenger and his plans in every sense. Yet he still managed to keep us competitive enough over all these years. He still haven't allowed Tottenham to finish above even when they have qualified for the Champions League we've still finished above them and we STILL are YET to fail in our season-by-season quest of securing Champions League football ANY of the seasons Wenger has been manager at Arsenal.
Now that we are out of this recession/transition we are keeping our top players, and adding world class players to the fold and we are winning trophies again.
Anyways, like I said, I am going to try give an unbiased view of the great man. Wenger is the greatest manager ever to manage Arsenal, and we are extremely lucky to have him. However, he does not come without his flaws and faults like every human being walking this earth.
Some of his dealings in the transfer market have been absolutely ludicrous. I have been hurt at Wenger for players we almost and should have acquired (Vincent Kompany, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Yaya Toure, Luis Suarez) but missed out on. However I understand that due to financial reasons, we couldn't always, but this was not the case with a few of these players. I have however, absolutely lambasted him for some of the signings he has made: for example: Francis Jeffers, Pascal Cygan, Sebastian Squillaci, Marouane Chamakh, Christopher Wreh, Nicklas Bendtner and Park Chu-Young to name a few are all players that should have NEVER donned an Arsenal shirt. He obviously must have seen something in them, but I saw absolutely nothing. (even though I was a sly fan of Lord Bendtner) They were never Arsenal grade players in my eyes. For someone who is supposed to be an economist, these signings were certainly wasteful.
Wenger has also sanctioned the sale of some players that should have NEVER left Arsenal, the most prominent one being Robin Van Persie. Don't get me wrong, Van Persie is the biggest snake ever to don an Arsenal shirt in the Premier League era. How you can want to join MANCHESTER UNITED after everything you have been through with Arsenal, for all the money we spent fixing you up, ONE full season out of EIGHT without injuries, he bags a few goals and all of a sudden he's too good for Arsenal?
He fully traded his soul for one PL Title, the Judas, but these times, had he stayed at Arsenal that year, there is NO way in hell or God's green earth that Manchester United would have won the 2012-13 Premier League title. I also have an argument that had the 25+ goals he scored for United hit the back of opponents nets in an Arsenal shirt, I think we might have just won the league that season.
For that I will always berate Wenger, there is no way he should have been allowed to join United, he almost rubbed it in Arsenal fans' faces that Manchester United were purchasing a top, top player.
Wenger too often lacks that ruthlessness you need to be a top-top manager who consistently wins honours. Can you imagine someone like Diego Costa telling Jose Mourinho that he wants to leave Chelsea to go to Arsenal? Telling the fans that a little boy inside him told him to do so? (Van Persie was actually an Arsenal fan as a little boy) LOL! Mockery.
Or someone like Wayne Rooney telling either Sir Alex Ferguson or Louis Van Gaal that he wants to leave Manchester United to join Chelsea or Arsenal? again... LOL!! These things just wouldn't happen, but they do happen to your club if you're an Arsenal fan. Then there's Samir Nasri, Thierry Henry, Aleksandr Hleb, Mathiueu Flamini (1st time) to name a couple that should never have left?
Some players have even been able to get into Wenger's heart so much, that they will still be earning money at Arsenal even though they don't play? Diaby springs to mind.. 149 appearances in 9 years for Arsenal? How was he able to secure 3 new contracts? THREE? Joke. Too much father-figure and not enough manager in my eyes.
The list of mishaps dosent end there.
Wenger also oddly sometimes looks tactically bereft. To begin with you just have to look at the Arsenal squad and the imbalance of the squad over the past few seasons. We have absolute strength in depth in midfield. But defence? Attack? We have, over the past 5-7 years, woefully lacked in these departments, but things could have been done to balance the depth within our squad but he opted not to.. For example, Theo Walcott is a striker. Always has been. He scores goals for fun, teams CANNOT play a high line against Arsenal when Walcott is upfront due to his searing pace. He rarely misses a golden opportunity, in my eyes, he's the best finisher in the Arsenal squad. However, Theo Walcott is not skilful. His crossing is just not really that good either. He just is not a winger, never has been. I have a theory on this, hear me out.
Everyone knows that if you have a striker who has blistering pace, teams will be very reluctant to play a high line against you. Which automatically frees up more space in the middle of the park.
Had we bought an out and out winger or two like Ashley Young before he went to Man Utd, our front 3 would all have blistering pace. (Walcott upfront) In my opinion to really be a devastating team you NEED pace in your attack. Don't get me wrong, I highly rate Giroud, but you need pace in your attack to REALLY worry teams. And don't get me wrong you can play players like Giroud as lone strikers, but if you play inside forwards as opposed to wingers then they need to be THE BANG (as I would say) to really worry teams. Players like Giroud are best utilised when a team is playing 2 central strikers, so the other striker can feed of his touches and flicks etc. However, if you have proper old fashioned wingers in the Ashley Young mould who can dribble, beat a man, cross a ball, then you CAN play a lone striker in the Giroud mould because he can feed off crosses from wide and feed off midfield to feet. You have more variety in play.
Arsenal have cried out for an out and out winger or two since we lost the likes of Pires and Ljungberg. Alexis Sanchez is genuinely good enough to play as a winger, but he's really an inside forward, crossing aint really his game. I liked Gervinho and Jose Antonio Reyes, they were close to the types of wingers we needed, very direct and skilful, but they just didn't cut it at Arsenal, personally I think they needed more time and/or weren't liked. We've got and had the likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Arshavin, Hleb, Rosicky, Nasri, and Cazorla, all who can play wide but are not actually wide men. They all want to play centrally and have a genuine eye for that central area, and are probably all better in central areas. They are not WINGERS!
Wingers are the guys that provide pace and crosses from the flanks, they're the guys that hug the touchline because they love it there, its where they love receiving the ball to dribble and beat players and importantly they also stretch teams and create space in the middle of the park and between players on the field.
How many times have you watched Arsenal, frustrated at all the USELESS possession we have... its because there is NO space in the middle of the park, we have wide men who don't WANT to play wide, and a lone man up top that teams will play a high line against. Creative players in the middle need wide men who want to play wide, AND/OR a man up top that defenders would rather not play a high line against, creative central thrive off that. You see what I mean?
To continue, we've lacked a world class defender for years. Koscielny is stepping up properly, but before that, no one in his mould really. Since we last won the the only defender who was good enough to be in a Premier League winning defensive unit was Sol Campbell and MABYE Thomas Vermaelen.
Phillipe Senderos? Johan Djourou? Kolo Toure? William Gallas? Per Mertesacker? In my opinion they just haven't been good enough for Arsenal to win trophies, Mertesacker is okay, but lacks ANY sort of pace, Koscielny carries and saves him a lot (which must get on his nerves sometimes.)
Anyways..
Wenger also has this very one dimensional way of managing... He's never worried about what the opposition bring to the pitch, always only focused on his teams game. Why? Personally, I believe its because he honestly believes that if Arsenal play their game well, we will always win. Which I understand to a degree but personally, I think it is a slightly backwards way of managing a football team, you have to be concerned about what the teams are bringing to the table, if only because you play a different team every week!
The best managers always do this, and had Wenger adopted this a bit more, especially when playing against top teams in crucial matches (because I'm sure he does to SOME degree) again, we might have more honours.
Taking EVERYTHING into consideration, look again at Wenger's Arsenal honours record (scroll up) and comment as to whether you think he has done a good job or not and whether he is the man to take us forward into the next 5-7 years.
Anyways, I will end my assessment here re-iterating my opinion that Wenger is the man to lead Arsenal forward. He's done an awful lot for Arsenal, we have come a LONG way under his tenure and his record amid all the changes in football is actually very good. Like I said above, we are buying world class players, we are not losing any of our top players and we are winning trophies now and to put it bluntly, he is the most experienced Premier League manager available. We have him. Be grateful.
There is more we need to do to be Champions again, but we are improving season on season, it wont be long before we get that crown back!
I just hope that this season, we stay serious-injury free, and we should be able to mount a serious challenge for Chelsea's title!
Time will tell.
So much more than can be covered on this topic, hopefully you guys have questions and comments that can expand this post and get us discussing!
In my next post I am going to have a look in depth at Arsenal's current playing squad, what they bring to the Arsenal team, who I would like to see join Arsenal, why I think we need them and who needs to leave and why we don't need them. I will also be providing fairly simple and vague match reports on the two matches Arsenal played during the Emirates Cup (Olympique Lyonnais and Wolfsburg)
You've read a lot, and I honestly thank you for getting this far. To say thanks I have left you with a little eye treat/reminder of the beautiful football and goals Arsenal have scored in the last few
years.
Keep The Faith - In Arsene We Trust
