John Evans
An interesting week both on and off the field has come to an end with the sad news of the demise of one of the main men behind the move to The Grove. It became clear to me upon hearing the news of Mr Fiszman’s death why the recent takeover at our club has come about. One of the main shareholders at our club was on his death bed and the other simply wanted to sell her shares and get out whilst the going was in her own eyes still good. Would Mr Kroenke currently own so many shares in our club if this wasn’t the case? The clear answer would be no. I personally do not see the proposed takeover doing any harm to our club at all. In my own humble opinion we have gone stale in recent years as a club. Don’t get me wrong, in many ways the move of stadium was a move born out of ambition, even though the soul of the club has clearly been damaged if not lost altogether in doing so. It was a positive step up for the club to take at the time and one that should make success on the field of play easier in future times, but it has also been dealt with in a negative manner in my opinion. We have not seen the club remove the shackles to any extent so far since the move and this has meant less transfer funds being used season after season at the precise time that we needed to be investing more funds on the pitch rather than less. The reason for this is simple, our rivals have done so some in spectacular style and therefore we must do similar within our own means to keep up with them. As we have not done so, teams like City, Spurs and Chelsea along with United have caught us up over the past five seasons and in some cases overtaken us.
Spurs being in the Champions League this season has been no fluke. It has come about because ambition as a club has been shown over a period of time and that pretty much boils down to them investing in playing staff in recent seasons and getting improved results on the field of play after doing so. City are clearly too much of an extreme example at one end of the scale and we are too much of an extreme at the opposite end of that same scale. It has to be said that teams like Spurs do seem to be getting that balancing act rather better in recent seasons than ourselves. They buy players that are better than the ones they sell on and through doing so over a period of time have improved their own playing squad dramatically. Have we done the same thing over the past five seasons? I do not think so. I am not for one minute advocating the way City go about things. It goes without saying that we couldn’t maintain such an existence for very long and such a stance in the transfer market would be the demise of our great club. But what I am saying is there is a simple need for a balancing act and at the moment that does not exist within our club. AW has become like an addict in my opinion and his substance of choice is himself and his own ideals (that in actual fact are not required and every bit as extreme as those shown recently at Eastlands).
With Kroenke in charge I hope that the club I support over time shows a little bit more ambition. I do not expect this to be an instant change, it will come over time but it will come at some stage as Kroenke is a businessman. One that wants a good return on his original investment and who knows from his experiences in USA that to get a good return on your investments you need to invest the right money in the right places and maximise what the return will be for yourself. In the case of AFC this means getting the maximum out of marketing on a global scale, something we have been so poor at that we have spent every pre-season in Austria whilst teams like United and Chelsea have toured USA and Asia on a regular basis in recent years. Where is the money going to pour in from in touring Austria? A few skiers on the mountain tops might buy the odd woollen scarf but that would be about it.
With Kroenke at the helm this will not be allowed to continue to happen. We will tour places like Asia and USA on a regular basis, our fan base there will improve over time and our turnover will go up as a result. This improved turnover needs to be re-invested on the field of play every season for us to really see the benefits but most importantly of all it needs to be re-invested on the field of play for Mr Kroenke to see the benefits. If we win trophies rather than being happy with being 2nd, 3rd or 4th every season as is the current state of play at our club we will see continued improvement in turnover, not just from the income from winning the trophies themselves but from the higher levels of global support we would get as a result of those on field successes. United have the highest level of worldwide support for one reason and one reason only, they are successful on the field of play. Young Japenese kids buy United replica shirts not because of the great traditions of the club with past players like George Best etc, they buy the replica jerseys because they have the golden emblem of winners on the sleeve of the shirt most seasons as United are Champions. They want to be recognised as supporting a winning team, not one that prides themselves on simply being in the Champions League season after season but one that actually fancies their chances of lifting the coveted trophy come May.
Once we get to this level - and it is possible - we the fans will be happy as Larry. So will Mr Kroenke as the club shares will have risen sharply as a result of the on and off field improvements and all round the club will be a happier place to visit. Who knows we might start enjoying ourselves again and stop arguing with each other over what constitutes a failure at our club. All the AKBs currently point to the fact that we have been spoilt by results over the Wenger years and that is the reason we can’t be realistic about what a failure really is at our club. But does this point really stand up under scrutiny?
We have won the League title three times under AW’s Arsenal reign, three times in 15 years. In the 15 years prior to AW taken over the reigns of the club we won the League title twice. We have won four domestic cups under the guidance of AW over the 15 years and in the previous 15 years we won three. We have failed to win a European trophy under AW’s reign where as we managed to win one in 1994 in the 15 years prior to AW’s taking over. So overall we have won one fewer trophy in the 15 years prior to AW becoming Arsenal manager than we have won in the same time period with him in charge. To me a swing of one trophy over a time period of 15 years is not being spoilt. So for me that argument does not stand up under any scrutiny whatsoever. People no doubt will come back at me with comments about the Invincible season and sure that is something that will always be in the history books and one feat that is unlikely to be repeated ever again. But in 1991 we won the League title and lost only once in the entire league campaign, which from memory may have even included an own goal away to Chelsea in that defeat. So we nearly pulled the Invincible feat off a full five years before we had even heard of the name Arsene Wenger. I am not for one second undermining what AW has done for our club since he has taken over as manager but I do feel we need to get real about the facts and history of our club when people bound around comments that he has made our club etc as the truth is he hasn’t.
I personally hope over time the man in charge of our club feels a little more pressure from the men above him than what he has done over the past five seasons or so. For me the lack of pressure has added to our problems and in my eyes it is never a good thing for anyone in whatever line of work they have to not feel under any pressure to perform. To be reeled in on certain occasions and to have your own beliefs and opinions challenged at times is no bad thing. It is those working factors that make you improve your own performances and also contribute to keeping you on your toes.
Who can argue that AW has not had that in recent times? Is he on his toes? Not in the slightest and it is this reason why we get comments from the man like we did last week where he stated that second is not a failure and he would take that for the next 20 years quite happily now. He pointed to the fact that 18 clubs in the Premier League would gladly have our current plight and in fairness to him they would. But then again we do not start off the season with the same ambitions as teams like Wigan or Blackpool so it is a comment in my opinion made out of desperation to make his own performances seem better than what they actually are, something that seems to have become a regular event with AW in recent times. The more we fail to win things the more second is acceptable in his eyes, whereas the opposite is true in the real world. The more you fail the more you need to succeed next time around in all walks of life. That is reality and that is the real world we all live in, whatever line of work we have. The reason why AW is allowed to air these opinions is the simple fact that he has had no-one in recent times to challenge his own beliefs, no-one to push him on to better things. That is not a positive place to be in any line of work as all it does is add to the feeling of staleness and it also adds to the likelihood of future failure all over again. It is a vicious circle that breeds the very thing we all - including AW himself - surely do not want.
Maybe, just maybe the events of the past week will go some way to changing this staleness at the club we all support over the coming years. I personally feel we should all be hoping so.
