Hello and welcome to Friday, the day that pre-season begins in earnest as we play our first real fixture in the build up to the new campaign. We face RC Lens tonight, and although it’s likely to be a fairly makeshift sqaud/team with so many players still away, it’ll give us our first glimpse of the Arsenal since May. More on that anon.
Nothing stirring in the transfer market as yet, but Ivan Gazidis has been speaking to ESPN about Arsene Wenger, the club’s philosophy and our approach to building a successful team. I had re-read it a few times because it all sounded very familiar.
Take this, for example, when discussing the transfer market and how we might act in it:
We’re making progress in what is a fiercely competitive world, against competitors that have the capability to spend far more money than we do. We’re doing it by being very, very disciplined; spending money where we believe it makes a difference, but also giving young players a chance and believing in ourselves and our values.
Ok, there was a time when we didn’t have as much money as other clubs. There was a time when the gap between us and clubs who had owners willing to dig deep into their own pockets meant we were at a disadvantage. But now? Are we really trying to play the poor relation here?
Just so we’re clear about this, let me quote from Swiss Ramble’s examination of Arsenal’s finances from February of this year:
Everything else being equal, Arsenal’s cash balance will again be significantly higher when the next set of annual accounts is released. Depending on when transfer fee stage payments come due, it should be around the £225-250 million level. Arsenal have more cash than any other club in world football.
Not only have we stored up this cash for years, we’re now – like every other Premier League club – awash with even more spending money because of the new TV deals. But don’t worry folks, we might find some bargains in the French league that nobody has spotted yet. He goes on to cite the example of Leicester as one we might follow:
Leicester identified players from the French second division, so maybe there’s talent that we’ve been overlooking. They did their talent identification well, they had great unity within the group, as well as quality. It wasn’t built on money. It was built on the great fitness work they did. It was built on all of these other elements. I think that’s going to be a continuing trend within the Premier League.
COHESION!
Look, I’m all for a bit of common sense in a world gone mad, but isn’t the message we get from Gazidis indicative of what frustrates people about this club? We have an absolute fortune at our disposal to use to buy players to make the team better and more competitive – yet the Chief Executive is focusing on clubs who can spend more, and citing a once-off fluke season from a team who will never win the league again as a model for success.
I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but where’s the war cry? And even if you don’t want to talk like that, act like it. Bring in the players everybody knows we need. Actions speak louder than words, but so far this summer what we’ve done is far more in-line with Gazidis has said. It doesn’t suggest we’re going all out to make ourselves as good as we can be.
It’s certainly a long way from the bravado of 2013 when he talked about the future of the club as new commercial deals were on the brink of being struck:
We’re very confident with the new deals we’ve got coming through … we should be able to compete at a level like a club such as Bayern Munich.
Where’s that confidence gone? Even if we haven’t done that, it was good to hear that this was the idea. Has the message come from on high, Stan’s Rocky Mountain Throne, that such talk is to be curtailed? No point building up expectations as when you don’t fulfil them aspeople get crotchety. Best to dampen it all down.
Of course there’s still time, of course the season doesn’t start until August 14th, and the transfer window is open until the end of next month, but this feels like a road well travelled. Safe, conservative, risk averse, timid Arsenal unwilling to push the boat out – leaving us stranded on the shore as others paddle away from us.
Perhaps we’ll see something different, this is just us playing a crafty hand, and we’ll see a show of genuine ambition in the transfer market. If that happens I will quite happily eat a great big slice of Gazidis flavoured humble pie with a side of Kroenke crumble. However, I just think it’s worrying that we’re so focused on the minutiae of operational matters rather than footballing ones, which ultimately determine what will happen to us next season.
Also, I have to say that as I see the prices quoted for players this summer, I fear the manager will retreat from the market rather than accept this is the new reality. Yes, €35m for Moussa Sissoko sounds ridiculous based on everything we’ve known until now, but in the end this is what’s happening. Even average players are commanding high prices, and it’s because of the money that clubs have.
We also have that same money, on top of the massive amounts of cash we have already, so there can be no excuses. We can’t hear about how some other clubs have a bit more money than us. So what if they do? It’s not about what other clubs do with their cash, it’s about what we do with ours, but we know that Arsene Wenger is a man obsessed with value.
Looking at what’s going on and the prices being paid, you’d have to say there is no such thing any more, or if there is it’s even harder to find. So, it worries me that a manager who so resolutely won’t pay what he considers over the odds will struggle to cope with a market that is changing in front of our eyes.
Anyway, let’s see what the next few weeks hold, but if you were looking for a show of intent or at least some words of encouragement from a man tasked with running this football club as well as it can be run, you won’t have found much here.
Elsewhere, the boss has been talking about his only signing of the summer thus far, Granit Xhaka. He’s backing him to add something to our midfield, talking up his his qualities:
“His passing ability to play through the lines from deep positions, his work rate, and he’s good in the air. He’s a young boy as well, 23 years old. There’s a lot to come from him.”
At this point he’d better be able to anchor the midfield, provide cover for the centre-halves, zip down the wings and finish off his own crosses in the box like a top class centre-forward. If he can do all that I reckon we’re well set for the new season!
As mentioned at the top, the game against Lens kicks off this evening at 6.30. I think it’s streaming via the official site, so there’s your Friday evening entertainment sorted. Finally, check out Tim Stillman’s column from yesterday, looking back at 10 years of the Emirates since the move from Highbury.
We’ll have news throughout the day on Arseblog News, more tomorrow.
