Good morning, it’s the final Friday of the season, and it’ll be the final press conference of the season as the manager does his media duty ahead of Sunday’s game with Aston Villa.
What was likely to be a fairly dull affair – with some talk of Danny Welbeck and, perhaps, final appearances for some Arsene Wenger stalwarts – is likely to be fizzed up in the wake of reports in The Times that say Arsenal are set to offer the manager a new two year deal.
On the one hand, it’s about as unsurprising a piece of news as you can get. Stan Kroenke loves Arsene Wenger, we know that. He’s got a manager who delivers in such a way that the value of his investment continues to rise, and whose financial conservatism means the stockpiling of cold, hard cash continues unabated.
Arsenal have spent around £155m on transfers since August 2013, but the cash balance increases every time a new set of financial results emerge. Swiss Ramble estimates that come the end of May that figure could reach £250m – a quite astonishing amount of money for a football club to have in the bank. Think about it, a quarter of a billion pounds in cash. It’s incredible.
Last week, Wenger said that there has never been any edict from Kroenke preventing him from using that money. Asked specifically if that were the case, he said:
Never, never. The owner is very ambitious of course, we are all very ambitious.
I think I believe him there in terms of not stopping him spending (the ambition thing doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny really). I don’t think Kroenke would lay down the law to a manager as powerful as Wenger – although I harbour deep fears that when Wenger eventually goes, there will be nobody to challenge him and his decision making. The balance of power then shifts from the manager back to the board, and I think it’s then when we’ll see the true measure of Kroenke’s ownership.
However, I do think that Arsene Wenger’s well known reluctance not to push the boat out when it comes to spending money suits him down to the ground. Not only is the value of Arsenal increasing – it’s now at over $2bn according to the latest reports – the club is awash with cash. No wonder he’s happy for Arsene Wenger to continue.
Leaving that aside however, I don’t think there’s any way to justify a new deal for the manager based on his footballing performance – which is what should be the main driver. This season, even if we do somehow manage to finish second, has been a failure. I know there will be people who’ll say ‘Aston Villa, now that’s a failure, they’d love to swap places with Arsenal’, and of course that’s true. It’s true of many other Premier League clubs.
Yet, it ignores context. However remarkable Leicester have been this season, this was a fantastic opportunity for Arsenal to win the league for the first time since 2004, and we blew it. But we didn’t just blow it in that period from January to March when our form collapsed, we blew it last summer when we didn’t prepare our squad properly for a title challenge.
We blew it by only adding Petr Cech to a squad which, at the time, was on a high from winning the FA Cup. We blew it by relying on players who have made little to no contribution this season. We blew it by having to throw Alexis Sanchez in on the opening day when he’d returned spent from his summer exertions. We blew it by not being able to cope with injuries.
We blew it by not building on two successive FA Cup victories and really going for it by adding good players in positions where we needed them. We had momentum, we put the brakes on ourselves, and the season played out in familiar style. We scraped through our Champions League group and then went out in the first knock-out round for the sixth successive year.
In the Premier League we’ve earned fewer points, scored fewer goals, let in just as many as last season, and whatever brand of football it is we’re playing this season is like the knock-off version from a German supermarket. The players don’t look like they know what they’re supposed to be doing, we’re wasteful in front of goal – and you can stick your Expected Goals up your hole – and porous at the back.
Our title challenge crumpled in pathetic style, topped off by losing to a Man Utd side and a rookie striker, followed by that dismal capitulation at home against Swansea. In short, it’s been a season of underachievement and regression.
So, as much as I respect Arsene Wenger, and I really do, how is there any justification to give him a new deal? I’ve gone on record on this site a number of times this season to say I think a new manager is necessary and the way forward for this club. I still hold that position but it’s always been with the knowledge that the club were never going to do anything other than allow him to see out his contract which expires next year.
If, and it’s a big if, he won the title next season and he wanted to stay, then you would have to say he’d earned it. When it comes right down to it, that’s what everyone wants, a title winning side. And yet it seems we’re ready to offer a manager who has been unable to even challenge for it properly new terms.
Unless, and it’s as big an unless as the if in the last paragraph, the manager has declared this summer is one in which he’s going to go big in the transfer market, add the genuine quality the squad needs, and says he wants the time to work with these new players, I just don’t understand it one bit. I mean, it’s a straw and I know I’m clutching at it, but it’s about all I’ve got.
That old saying about leopards changing their spots also applies to 66 year old football managers. As much as I would love us to go out and use that immense transfer power we have to radically improve and shake-up this squad, I just can’t see that happening. Can you?
And yet, here we are. We’re stuck in a chair while the record plays, and needle is skipping back playing the same section of the song over and over and over again. We’ve lived it ten times or more. And it’s about to be writ again.
Final note: I do think that as much as Wenger is frustrating, he’s insulating us from Kroenke to an extent. As much as I would like to see a new manager, I think there are dangers as yet unseen from his ownership. I guess time will tell on that though.
—
We’ll have all the press conference coverage over on Arseblog News. My suspicion is the manager will play down any of the new contract talk, but we’ll that and have all the team news for you throughout the day.
In terms of the podcast, the final Arsecast Extra of our week long extravaganza will be recorded after that, so we’ll have it for you mid-morning. Any questions etc, please send to @gunnerblog and @arseblog and we’ll do our best to get to them.
Yesterday’s show included a quick-fire questions section, Marc Overmars and Ray Parlour going to a social club, and a surprising Limerick about James Blunt. You can listen to that here if you haven’t already.
Until later.
