“It’s very difficult because the level of expectation is very high. People want to see Lionel Messi. They don’t want to see a promising guy.”
That was Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, in a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper, commenting about how, because of pressure from scouts and fans to bring in big names, it is becoming more difficult for the north London club to sign potential stars of the future.
To me, it sounds like a copout. Wenger is making excuses. Arsenal is a big club, and expectations are bound to be high.
Get over it.
There’s no denying that the Frenchman is under tremendous pressure, and prone to a gaffe or two, but that is not without cause.
Don’t get me wrong, “Le Professeur” has been a fantastic manger for Arsenal. He is both the Gunners most successful manager in its history, in terms of trophies won, and its longest serving, after joining in 1996.
The 1997-1998 and 2001-2002 League and Cup doubles will live long in the memory of Arsenal fans.
The 2003-2004 season was a particular highlight – the league title and a record 49 games in the league unbeaten. The ‘Invincibles’ were a joy to watch, full of flowing football, attacking thrust and French flair with the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Robert Pires, not to mention the goal-scoring potency of Dennis Bergkamp.
So stylish and wonderful to behold, even for the neutrals. It will never be forgotten.
Arsene’s place in English football history is secure.
But it has been nearly eight years since Arsenal won a trophy. They have slipped behind the pack of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea.
They are struggling to qualify for the Champions League this season and they lose more star players every year.
And they continue to suffer embarrassing defeats, with the penalty shootout League Cup capitulation to Bradford City, the 2-0 defeat to Swansea and the 2011 season’s 8-2 pumping by Manchester United coming to mind.
Questions are being rightly asked about how long Wenger’s reign at the Emirates should continue. Gunners fans are split between those loyal to what the man from Strasbourg has given the club in the past, and those who want to splurge in the transfer market like big spenders Manchester City and Chelsea and contend for trophies again.
Arsene’s focus on youth development and shrewd transfer signings has had its successes. Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs are just two of the current crop to have come through the club’s ranks, while Alex-Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott were astute youth buys from rivals that have flourished in red and white.
You can add the development of past heroes like Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Samri Nasri to the mix.
The club has made a lot of money off development. Arsenal has kept its wage bill down and its finances secure. It is well run and its future is bright.
But this policy of developing young players and uncovering gems in the transfer market has not been built upon, not to the extent where a trophy can be won. Progress has been frittered away.
Too many of Arsenal’s best and brightest have been allowed to leave the club, flourish elsewhere and not be replaced. You only need to look at the recent Manchester derby to see former Gunners Clichy, Van Persie, Nasri and Kolo Toure on display and imagine what might have been.
Wenger’s attempted replacements have flopped. His once seemingly golden touch in the transfer market seems to have disappeared. Marouane Chamakh anyone? Park Chu-Young? Emmanuel Frimpong?
Wenger himself says, in The Guardian piece, that this is because supporters want big names and scouts are being more cautious. Sure, fans do want big names, that is true.
But most would be happy if the club hung onto some of the big names it has produced. And blaming the scouts is pure folly.
If they are not doing their job, then sack them, and replace them with better people.
The issue is that, where Wenger was once a trailblazer in the transfer market, he has now been left behind. Other clubs have lifted their game on the scouting front.
Wenger and Arsenal have often relied on plucking bargains from France in the past, but French football is not firing on this front as it has once has.
Places like Germany and Spain are in vogue, not to mention Asia and Africa, and Arsenal has yet to mine these locations effectively.
Arsenal are suffering from a lack of quality in their squad, and it seems as though Arsene Wenger is unwilling or unaware of what needs to be done to bring silverware back to the Emirates.
The 63-year old’s time in the red half of north London has been fruitful, but eventually it must end, like all things do. Just ask Herbert Chapman or George Graham.
Whether it ends sooner or later is the question on everyone’s lips.
Follow John on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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