Arsènal

by Alex Fynn

  Asked how he would pick his players up for Sunday’s crucial fixture at Old Trafford, Wenger replied simply, “I don’t know”. He was reminded that at times like this he had rhetorically asked himself, “Who motivates the motivator?” He agreed that it was all down to him “and in a couple of days there’s another match and you have to focus on that”. With Annie cooking him “something special for dinner” and Léa doing her homework, he was already looking ahead.

  The FA Cup and Premier League trips to Old Trafford topped and tailed the two months that pulled the rug from under Arsenal’s season, as defeat to Manchester United in the second visit ended the remotest hope of landing the title. As at Anfield, the team played without fear, took the lead, made United look distinctly second best, but succumbed to a penalty and a set piece, even if the award of the latter – a free kick on the edge of the area, looked harsh. A relieved Alex Ferguson actually had some words of consolation for his opposite number at the final whistle. At least Arsenal’s display was in marked contrast to their embarrassing FA Cup debacle. This time, hundreds of the travelling fans chose not to head for the exit at full time and stayed behind to chant “We love you Arsenal, we do” for ten solid minutes, by which time the rest of the stadium had emptied. It was a heartfelt endorsement on what Arsène Wenger had accomplished from those who had accompanied him all the way on the tumultuous journey that was Arsenal’s 2007/08 season. Arsène had allowed the fans to tap into their dreams. He had inspired loyalty beyond reason and created such a strong bond between himself and the supporters that his mistakes, even at this most sanguine of times were readily forgiven: ‘Arsène knows’ and ‘In Arsène we trust’.

  In the end, Arsenal fell four points short of the 2007/08 Premier League champions. Manchester United retained the title on 87 points, with Chelsea runners-up on 85. “I feel we were one game away in this championship,” Arsène Wenger reflected. “If we win at Old Trafford, we are champions. It’s just one game, and in that game we were 1–0 up and we had two or three chances to score the second goal, so you cannot say we had a bad season.” Wenger’s point that the final outcome was a close run thing was entirely justified. Further, for the first time since 2004 Arsenal had been in with a genuine chance of adding to their tally of titles.

  When Arsenal won the Premiership in 1998, they accumu lated five points less than the total posted a decade later in finishing third. But in that time the bar had been raised and a Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea (who had eliminated Arsenal’s victors Liverpool in the semis) showed that Premier League prosperity was being reflected both domestically and internationally to ever-increasing effect.

  Wenger had tried to win the Premier League and the Champions League but came away empty-handed. By the uncompromising rules of sport, he failed. But for Wenger, victory alone is never enough. So by his criteria – the style in which the team played and the pleasure it gave to millions around the world – it could be said that he won. As always. However, it could be argued that if his view was taken literally, he was providing his players with an alibi when they failed to land a title or a championship: never mind the score, in the boss’s eyes they were victorious. But to watch the feverish figure on the touchline towards the end of the season was to realise the fallacy of this view and appreciate just how much Wenger wants to win.

  If great teams are measured by their trophy count, there is still a long way to go before his current squad can be awarded this accolade. Never one to rest on his laurels, it was simply a case of asking himself “What’s next?” and he already knew the answer. “Same again please, but this time with trophies.”

  Wenger has managed to get Arsenal dining at the Ritz on a budget that should only buy them breakfast in a greasy spoon. And no one at the top table has ever questioned their right to be there. Clubs like Tottenham, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Everton rack their collective brains and bank balances to find a way of emulating Arsenal since ‘Arsène Who?’ arrived from Japan in 1996, a time when they all had genuine aspirations of dethroning Manchester United. Yet until the transfusion of Roman Abramovich’s millions into Chelsea, Arsenal were the only club to keep the runaway United in check.

  The financial constraints Wenger has had to work within expose those critics who censure him as being more short-sighted than the man himself is notoriously supposed to be from the touchline. It was put to him, “You know people say that you don’t see things because you choose not to but you’re down on the pitch – you can’t see from there, can you?” Wenger answered, “Yes, it’s true. I can’t see. But what is also true – because I have this reputation now – is that I will not come out against my players. But now, even when I am honest, people don’t believe me. Because it’s true that [by the touchline] you are in a bad position to see everything.” Short-sighted or not, on a net spend of £4 million a year in the transfer market, Wenger’s vision means he has never failed to get Arsenal into the Champions League after their first qualification in 1998, and has overseen the transformation of the club from the also-rans at the tail end of the George Graham era into a football superpower. In spite of not winning a trophy for three seasons, such is the level of popular support the team enjoy, they continue to sell out a 60,000 seat stadium where the price of admittance does not make for a cheap day out. Over 40,000 are on the waiting list for the opportunity to buy a precious season ticket.

  Could any other manager have both maintained the club’s much envied status as permanent members of the Premier League’s elite and provided quality entertainment while doing so? Could they have put Arsenal into a position where, going to Old Trafford in 2008 with five matches remaining, the title was still in the balance? To put it another way, is there a club anywhere in the world who would hesitate for a second if they had the opportunity to employ Arsène Wenger as their manager?

  Arsène Wenger may not be perfect. Yet he has ascended the heights with Arsenal. On several occasions, within sight of the peak, they have fallen short, but without the man from Alsace they’d still be sorting their climbing gear out at base camp. It’s a place they are unlikely ever to return to.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HIS WAY

  The real eye-opener regarding Arsène Wenger’s current team is not that they failed to clear the final hurdle at the end of the 2007/08 season, but that they reached it at all with so many non-world-class players in their line-up. Getting the balance of the team right so quickly was a startling achievement by the manager and mitigated the loss of stars – Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry – he could previously call upon who were the fulcrum of his successful past teams. But finding the right balance is a delicate business and when injuries and bad luck piled up, a lack of worldliness was apparent in so many.

  To underline the point, how many of the current team would get into the Invincibles side of 2003/04? Sagna certainly, perhaps Fàbregas and Gallas, maybe Clichy and Van Persie. But that’s it. Sagna apart there are no undisputed certainties and arguably he owes his selection to Lauren being the weakest link rather than his own world-class status, although that may yet come.

  Prioritising invention and trusting that winning is the natural consequence is all very laudable, but winning trophies is also a laudable end in itself and one that has been absent for too long. Pound for pound, Arsène Wenger has probably given his employers more value than any other manager in the history of the English game, but relativity does not win titles. In absolute terms of winning trophies, he has in recent seasons finished behind Ferguson, Mourinho and Benitez. Perhaps George Graham’s discredited mantra, “I love one–nil victories”, needs to be revisited, at least in spirit. Certainly, Arsène Wenger can point to the plentiful number of goals scored and to the fact that they arrive from all over the place, but how many opportunities did Adebayor squander? And the combined goal haul of Arsenal’s midfield in 2007/08 was just over half of the 42 Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo managed on his own. Alexander Hleb was not able in three seasons to equal w
hat Robert Pires scored in one. Nevertheless, the quantity would have sufficed if so many hadn’t been given away so readily at the other end. Arsenal’s lack of aerial dominance at the back exposed a crucial vulnerability. Since when did an uncapped goalkeeper and a less-than-world-class central defensive pairing anchor a championship-winning side?

  After paying the penalty for failing to buy in January 2008, Wenger made encouraging noises when speaking at the season’s end that he is prepared to deploy more of his budget and pay the price to add quality in key positions. Unfortunately, there was no indication that he was prepared to face up to other deficiencies. Prospects must be given the opportunity to play, to demonstrate the skills learned under his tutelage. The few-and-far-between cup appearances are no substitute for the experience gained in the school of hard knocks that is the Championship. Loans can be beneficial both to the individual and the team. Wenger just has to make sure that he is sending his young players to the right club with the promise of a starting role.

  But who will tell Arsène that this should happen? Certainly not Boro Primorac; it’s not his job. Nor Pat Rice, more assistant than manager. Unlike Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, where former top bosses are happy to take a supporting role, Arsenal do not have the calibre of back-up. At these clubs, despite his status, the manager does recognise he might be wrong on occasions. “I’m not perfect, me least of all,” says Arsène Wenger. But if he had a strong number two, he would have certainly felt that he could delegate more and indulge himself in his love of international talent-spotting. How many more bargains might he have picked up?

  However unchallenged on and off the field, it doesn’t appear that he will change his way of working. So just as there is no one to tell him that on occasions his selection and tactics might be questionable, there is no one on the board to tell him that he should tackle certain issues which could shape the club’s future, the main one being his succession. Wenger’s legacy in bricks and mortar – the training ground and the stadium – is an infrastructure that should provide a conducive working environment for whoever follows him. The process of planning for this eventuality should start now. When there was past talk of him leaving, it was accompanied by the fear of how his exit might precipitate a similar reaction from his players. Now the fear is more of leaving a young team bereft of a father figure. The board should insist that one of Wenger’s main tasks is to put in place a three-year plan for his succession (his current contract ending in 2011).

  Questioned on this very subject, clearly Wenger has given the matter some thought. It was put to him, “As you get nearer to the end of your time in England, you’ve been here an awfully long time . . .”

  “Yes, you want me out!” he interjected.

  “No, I don’t want you out. I think you’re a national treasure!” his interviewer replied. “But then I am biased.”

  “Listen, as I told you before, I had the feeling to work here that I could push this club into a position where I really feel ‘OK, I’ve accomplished something.’ I would like to be proud of the work I’ve done here and push the club as far as I could and then someone else takes over who’s better.”

  Whoever takes over should do his utmost to persuade Wenger to remain involved. He would surely benefit by welcoming him as a Director of Football whose main task would be to determine the strategy for the playing side and develop a conveyor belt of young players. However, finding talented footballers is not an end in itself for Wenger. Would he be satisfied with turning them over to other people to work with?

  For Wenger to stay in a new capacity, the club would have to change its structure radically. However, until the ownership issue is resolved, there is no incentive for the board to initiate the draconian reforms necessary. Of course, in an idealistic world, the club would be well-served if it became a member-owned club as Rogan Taylor is attempting to achieve at Liverpool, based on the Barcelona model (where the 150,000 members – socios – vote for their president and management board). The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust could have a paramount role in such a situation. They only have the interests of the club at heart – which is not to say the incumbent board don’t, but they do not represent the vigour and depth of resources that are available through the Trust and the wider world. Despite the lockdown agreement, the Arsenal board are at the mercy of their own financial proclivities and free market forces. Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City are just three examples that illustrate the instability that can occur when a club is bought and sold like any other commercial enterprise. Aston Villa and Middlesbrough just got lucky with the support and financial commitment of their owners.

  Similarly, the Arsenal board can be praised for the importance they attach to stability. There has never been as much as a whiff of a suggestion that Wenger’s job has ever been under threat. He is one of only four contemporary managers in the top four divisions of English football to have served more than a decade at the same club (along with Crewe’s Dario Gradi, Alex Ferguson and Hereford’s Graham Turner). In sticking with obviously talented men, these clubs have experi enced peaks and troughs, but recognised that they would not have achieved their respective successes unless they kept faith with the man at the helm. It is a lesson Everton seem to be taking on board with David Moyes. But not Chelsea. Avram Grant’s narrow failure to win the club either of the two major prizes in 2008 cost him his post, with Brazil’s World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari becoming the third astronomically paid manager at Stamford Bridge within 12 months.

  “Arsene has a philosophy of how you play the game,” says Tony Banfield, admittedly a biased though absolutely credible witness. “He has lived his dream, producing open, fresh, mature, powerful and quick football that is beautiful to watch.” At times Arsenal may have fallen agonisingly short, but with the entertainment they have given it would be churlish not to acknowledge their contribution to football folklore. When people talk of Hungary in the 1950s, Holland in the 1970s, Brazil of the 1980s, do they talk about the World Cups they failed to win? Are the teams who actually lifted those trophies talked about with the same fondness and reverence as the vanquished? Only in their own countries. Yet Wenger’s Arsenal won trophies as well, and are likely to continue to do so.

  The second season at the Emirates was evidence that the club had come through the lean times and were credible contenders again. If a couple of situations had worked out differently, it could easily have been Arsenal in possession of two trophies after the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow. The season before had probably been Wenger’s most frustrating, as the growing pains of his ‘third’ team, the youngest ever, saw their interest in titles and trophies evapor ate after early March. However, excited by the potential of his players and the superclub status Arsenal have attained, Wenger signed another contract to see the job through. The refinements continue. So, as Henry, Ljungberg and Lauren move on, Sagna, Eduardo and Diarra join. Two unqualified successes and a quick profit, whilst Adebayor matches Henry’s goal return of better times. Despite the expenditure by Premier League clubs on players’ wages and transfers continuing to rise inexorably – they comfortably exceeded £1 billion in 2007/08 – Arsenal, along with everyone else (apart from Chelsea) are at the mercy of the Italian and Spanish mega-clubs whose ability to sell their Serie A and La Liga broadcasting rights individually give them a financial edge. So when Flamini, Hleb and Adebayor are known to be on the wish list of a Milan or a Barcelona, the sound of euros talking might drown out any plea on Arsène Wenger’s part. Already the offer of a substantial pay rise wasn’t enough to persuade Flamini to re-sign and others tempted by the prospect of a huge salary hike may well follow him out of the club. However, new names will be recruited and become stars. Why should the manager’s eye for talent let him down now? The scouting system is in place and young prospects will prefer to join Arsenal, confident that they will receive a good apprenticeship and knowing that if they make the grade, they are likely to see first team action. As if to emphasise the point,
in June 2008, 17-year-old Aaron Ramsey was signed from Cardiff City for £5 million. The young midfielder chose north London in preference to Old Trafford.

  Despite admitting, “I don’t think I will ever work as a manager in France any more,” he and Annie would like to return home eventually. He intends to continue working but not as the national team manager. “I’ve worked so much in my life on a daily basis, that I think I would be lost. If you have a good generation in a country, you can do a good job. If you don’t, you can do nothing. With a club, you can find someone in Spain and a player in South Africa that nobody has seen and still make a good team. That is not possible with a country.” And if FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter has his way it may not be possible any longer with Arsenal. His controversial ‘6 plus 5’ proposal to restrict the number of imports to five in order to enhance the quality of national teams may have received an unequivocal thumbs down from the European Commission, but it has the backing of world football’s governing body. If the regulation actually came to pass, would Arsène Wenger feel content to change his priorities and work with players who might have less quality but possess the necessary birth certificate?

  In revolutionising Arsenal, the imitation of his methods has raised the general standard throughout the Premier League. In cementing the preference for continental talent at the expense of domestic, an area in which Wenger has led the way, as England’s clubs become more popular and successful, the reverse effect has befallen the national team. So it was no huge surprise that as a Euro 2008 pundit for French channel TF1, he would not be analysing the efforts of the country where he plies his trade. Now the Football Association can’t even find an English-born coach capable of qualifying the country for a major tournament. He might claim he never looks at his players’ passports when quizzed about the limited number of Englishmen in his squad, but if he ever goes to catch a potential signing in the flesh there is every chance he will need his own. It is a policy that has served Wenger well, especially when the price of English players makes Arsenal’s imports look like such bargains.