Arsenal’s players react after the opening goal from FC Porto’s Bruno Alves. AP Photo/Paulo Duarte
Coach Arsene Wenger of Arsenal FC is one coach who does not allow the facts to interfere with his conclusions. His mind is made up that he should develop football talents by not going for the big names and not focusing primarily on silverware.
So far, he has not won any silverware in five years, but he is not ready to change his mind or his tactics.
Not even after FC Barcelona outlined the fact that big names are synonymous with silverware in a compelling Champions League ouster of Arsenal FC on a 6-3 aggregate.
Coach Wenger is actually one of the best coaches in the world, but he in the wrong line of work. He should be heading a Football Academy somewhere and developing talents for mega clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, AC Milan, Arsenal and the like.
But, perhaps, he has successfully proved that a man can give expression to his passion anywhere – he has turned Arsenal FC into a glorified Football Academy. An Academy which has churned out so many world-class stars and has prepared and lined up many others, like Cesc Febregas, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby and Denilson for the world football community.
Thierry Henry was a “subscript” when Wenger brought him to Arsenal FC and there he became a superstar and a superscript.
FC Barcelona came knocking, like the Pied Piper of Hammelin, and Henry was away and gone.
Then there was Emmanuel Adebayor who stepped up from oblivion, at Wenger’s beckoning, to lighten up the Arsenal skies.
But Manchester City snatched him up and he was gone with the wind.
And now poor Wenger is in the fight of his life to hold on to the classic Cesc Febregas as FC Barcelona comes knocking one more time.
Other players that the great Wenger unearthed (while in Monaco FC) include George Weah, who went on to become FIFA World Player of the Year with AC Milan, and Victor Ikpeba, who later became African Player of the Year while in R.F.C de Liege.
At Arsenal FC he discovered relatively unknown footballers like Patrick Vieira, Francesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Kolo Toure and turned them into world-class athletes.
That Wenger manages to secure a spot in the Champions League almost every year and makes some reasonable progress in the League is a testimony to his incredible coaching abilities.
With less than five million pounds he assembled a defense which went the length of ten matches in the Champions League of 2005 without conceding a goal, before losing the final to FC Barcelona. But that the team has not won anything in about a decade is proof that experience is still thicker than youth and determination.
But that would not change anything because after five years of not winning anything Wenger is like a gambler who has become used to disappointments and losses. His explanations of losses could put the political establishment to shame.
Summing up the routing of Arsenal by a merciless Messi, he said that Arsenal lost to the best player in the world and the best team in the world.
He forgot to note that the best team in the world was put together by paying cash for quality – not developing talent!
According to Arsenal shot stopper, Manuel Almunia, Arsene Wenger will stay true to his project of youth development despite Arsenal’s mauling at the hands of FC Barcelona.
And adds Wenger, “We’re at a stage where we’re developing players. Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby and Denilson are 22 or 23. They have shown great qualities and they will get stronger every year. We have to add something, for sure, but we have time to think about that. We were very young and what we did was very positive. We had six or seven players under 23 in the team and we had plenty of opportunities. We showed we lacked maturity in the weight of the final ball.”
A very touching story, but it sounds a little like a wish.
It is Wenger’s wishful conclusion and it does not interfere with the fact that many of the mentioned players may leave “the pseudo Academy” when other clubs come calling with blank cheques.
They may not stay and be developed by Coach Wenger! And what did the wise coach mean by “We are at a stage where we are developing players?”
He has been developing players for over years now and he has not learnt yet that a developed player is a loose cannon which could end up anywhere.
Football is not about developing players, that is a job for football academies. It is about winning silverware.
You cannot send recruits to warfronts without the back up of battle-hardened warriors showing them the way and the skills. But then Wenger is someone who plays the game according to his rules, not the rules of the business.
Another fact Wenger does not care a whistle about is that Arsenal FC has not won any silverware since 2005.
That is just the way a Football Academy, which is allowed to play in the Premier League, would think – because its goal is to develop talents not win trophies. In fact Arsenal’s performance convinces me that if Oxford University were allowed to put its football team in the Premier League, they would do pretty well.
If Arsenal, run with a football academy’s mentality, could do so well, think of what the great Oxford could do?
At least it may not do worse!
Perhaps another coach with a stronger competitive spirit would have been concerned that for the first time in a marvellous career, Lionel Messi, scored four times in one match against his team.
This would have meant that his defence lacked depth and quality and needed experience to cope with the rampaging Messi.
He had scored three hat tricks this year but used Arsenal FC to shoot himself into a quadruple. Not Wenger the nice, good old coach who is developing talents as a top priority and not interested in such talks.
If you know where Wenger is coming from, you would understand the man’s warped psychology. He started his football career playing for FC Duttlenheim before being recruited to the third division club AS Mutzig by Max Hild.
AS Mutzig was known for playing the “best amateur football” in Alsace.
Now you know where his philosophy of having Arsenal FC play the best football even if they do not win trophy come from?
What Wenger loses in not winning silverware, he makes up in transfers.
A 2007 survey proved that he was the only coach to make profit on transfers. In successive years between 2004 and 2009 he averaged a profit of £4.4 million per season on transfers by buying players cheap, developing them and selling them high.
He bought Nicolas Anelka from Paris St. Germain for £500,000 and sold him to Real Madrid two years after for £22.3 million. With this profit he bought Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires.
Wenger is undeniably the most successful coach in Arsenal FC’s history.
Under him the club has won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups, though its best run in European Football has been the 2005 Final which it lost to FC Barcelona. Wenger is a great coach and his ability to read the game and make tactical changes are legendary.
But all said and done, if Wenger fails to appreciate the fact that football is too serious an affair to be left in the hands of boys, Arsenal FC may wait longer for silverware and he may continue to console himself with his past successes. Unfortunately, the world does not live in the past – this explains why automobile makers give us one reverse gear and five forward gears.
The future, Coach Arsene Wenger, is the message.
Do not rest on your history.
Brian
Guest
Alvez & Abidal were not exactly cheap. Barca have done well and there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of talents like Xavi, Iniesta & Messi when they come along. However they are not a development club paying off a stadium. They spent years paying big money for Romario, Stoichkov, Hagi, Kluivert, De Boers etc. when the Catalunya production line was weaker and I am sure they will do so again.
Colin N
Guest
If everything was as it was (e.g ticket prices as they are now etc) but the Glazer's weren't in charge of United then United would have made a £91m profit even without the sale of Ronaldo
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
Debt in a balance sheet item. Interest repayments are a profit and loss item. Loan principle repayments are also balance sheet items. So the debt is not directly related to profit. It very simple accounting. I read that 75% of profit (or maybe revenue) goes towards loan repayments and lining the Glazers profits. Man Utd has the biggest revenues of any football club. In spite of this, they only just earned a profit last financial year and that was due to the 80 million pound sale of Ronaldo.
Davstar
Guest
im talking clean profit ManU have heaps of debt
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
Man Utd turned a profit but only because of the Ronaldo sale to Madrid.
Davstar
Guest
Arsenal is the only big Four club to turn a profite im a Man U fan and my biggest fear is that in years to come debt will destroy our club like it did with leeds, Arsenal will never face this problem. Arsenal would of won the EPL this season if Van Persi didnt get injured and Fab is out and Arsharvin has been playing injured for half the season. Amongst the countless other injuries Sagan, Ramsey etc Manchester United lose Rooney and we stuggle, Liverpool lost Torres for most of the season and they are 6th on the ladder when they came 2nd last season. All Real Madrid is a great example of club that wll fall sooner or later due to financial pressures if they dont win something. Arsenal is the best run club in the world.
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
I'm a Man Utd fan but I have a lot of admiration for what Wenger has done and continues to do. Arsenal is the most financially sound big club in England. No sugar daddy and no astronomical loans (the loan they took to build Emirates is leveraged against the stadium and the repayments are reasonable). If Arsenal keep their current squad together and add a bit of experience over the next few season, they will win trophies. I can't fault them for selling Adebayor and Toure because they got extremely good offers. Howeer, they should have done more to hold on to Hleb and Flamini. Furthermore, Barcelona is the perfect example that Wenger's approach does work. Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Kirkic etc all came though the Barca academy (the list goes one). Yes, they added some experienced, expensive players to complement what they already had. Wenger did folk out a lot of money for Arshavin, so he is willing to spend when the price is right for him and the club. The key for Arsenal is hanging onto their players. When their current group gets to their mid 20s, you'll see the fruits of Wenger's labours.
Slippery Jim
Roar Rookie
The information you are asking for is found here: http://transferleague.co.uk/ Enjoy.
David V.
Guest
In defence of Wenger and Arsenal... Arsenal are not a club that live beyond their means, and never have. It's this financial prudence that will benefit them in the longer run, especially in the current climate.
Fisher
Guest
"his ability to read the game and make tactical changes are legendary" In fact, that is one of Wenger's biggest weaknesses!
Vince
Guest
I remember reading somewhere that Wenger has to generate a 25m pound profit each year to meet the costs involved with the Emirate Stadium loan. If this is correct then making the UCL each year and making profits on selling players is more of a priority for the Board than winning the EPL / UCL itself. It is hardly like Arsenal play boring football and struggle each year, they are just 2 or 3 'superstars' short - who knows, maybe Torres will be available at seasons end?
Mattay
Guest
If you have a club like Real Madrid or Man City offering to buy your decent players at ridiculous prices, this should really have no effect on being judged a net buyer or seller. It also ignores the effect of not "buying" a player like Sol Campbell even though his transfer fee was effectively built into his signing on bonus. And just to clear up some of the Wenger myths: "An Academy which has churned out so many world-class stars and has prepared and lined up many others, like Cesc Febregas, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Samir Nasri, Abou Diaby and Denilson for the world football community." That "academy" hardly created Fabregas (a player Barca never wanted to leave but was snapped up due to not being able to sign a professional contract in Spain) and Walcott (a product of Southampton's academy and has not come on as most would have expected during his time at Arsenal). And I would suggest Bendtner and Denilson are hardly successes at the moment, neither Chelsea or Man U would take them I would imagine. Nasri and Diaby are decent enough but hardly superstars. And from recollection, Nasri was very highly rated when Wenger signed him. "Thierry Henry was a “subscript” when Wenger brought him to Arsenal FC and there he became a superstar and a superscript." Not quite. He was a left winger at Juventus who rarely played to his potential. He was still thought of extremely highly, hence why Arsenal paid so much for him. "At Arsenal FC he discovered relatively unknown footballers like Patrick Vieira, Francesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Kolo Toure and turned them into world-class athletes. " There was nothing unknown about Van Persie - he was extremely highly rated, just thought of as a bit of a prat. Nothing seems to have changed since then. Barca were well aware of Fabregas's potential and didn't want him to go but were powerless. Toure and Vieira are the two players I would highlight as being ultimate Wenger successes. But then you'll find there are a lot of teams with similar achievements (Man U with Solskjaer, Spurs with Lennon, Liverpool with Hyppia, etc. Not saying that Wenger has not shown brilliance in the transfer market, and quite possibly his successes do outshine the others, but you often hear about how he is head & shoulders above the rest. In my opinion, he is not that much better than the others, and do believe it's part of the Arsenal PR machine to compensate for their recent lack of success and unwillingness to spend. (And I also believe it's got nothing to do with Wenger not wanting to buy success - his purchase of Arshavin proved that if he has the money to spend to improve his squad, he will spend it. It's more about the funds just not being available).
Roger Rational
Guest
"If you can’f offer the figures then you can’t qualify your 4 points. For example, if #1 is proven by Animan’s stats then how could Wenger afford to buy various players? Likewise, #3 relies on #1. Aside from that I’d like to know out of interest. I have a rough idea, but not a complete one". NET spend. If you sell someone for £20m and buy someone else for £14m, that makes you a net seller. You judge a club's financial power by how much they spend net in the transfer market, not gross. Animan's stat tells us all we need to know.
Wavell Wakefield
Guest
If you can'f offer the figures then you can't qualify your 4 points. For example, if #1 is proven by Animan's stats then how could Wenger afford to buy various players? Likewise, #3 relies on #1. Aside from that I'd like to know out of interest. I have a rough idea, but not a complete one.
Roger Rational
Guest
Oh ok. Well #1 is proved by Animan's stat. #2 is easily available in the Arsenal yearly accounts. #3 is opinion, but I reckon qualifying for Champs League every year even as a net SELLER is truly awesome stuff by Wenger. #4 is a rumour, but it makes sense given #2.
Wavell Wakefield
Guest
Because I'd like to know how many players Wenger bought, and for how much. I think it relates quite strongly to your 4 points.
Roger Rational
Guest
Nah, why? The original article has some great stats. £4.4m per season profit between 2004-9 is pretty good going.
Wavell Wakefield
Guest
Do you have a full list of Wenger's purchases over the past decade?
Luke W
Guest
As an Arsenal fan, a pretty fair article, except for this point: "Summing up the routing of Arsenal by a merciless Messi, he said that Arsenal lost to the best player in the world and the best team in the world. He forgot to note that the best team in the world was put together by paying cash for quality – not developing talent!" Barcelona doesn't develop talent? You could argue that Barcelona develops youth better than any other top team in the world. In the current squad, Puyol, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Valdes have all come through their amazing youth system. In recent years, only Henry and Ibrahimovic have been big-money signings, and they have come through money gained from the sales of Ronaldinho and Eto'o.
Roger Rational
Guest
Some facts... 1. Wenger has had little money to spend for the past decade because of the move from Highbury. 2. Arsenal (unusually amongst English clubs) have been very prudent and are now in fantastic financial shape. 3. What Wenger's achieved on a shoestring has been absolutely incredible. 4. Wenger WILL get money to spend this summer and I, for one, would back him to spend it wisely.