Joe Mardon
As I sat down with a cup of tea to reduce the gloom that Monday mornings bring, Sky Sports News announced that Chelsea had signed a player who Arsenal had been targeting all summer. In a deal reportedly worth £4m more than we were prepared to pay, Arsenal lost a player who, alongside David Silva, is the finest Spanish talent outside the grasps of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The girlfriend wanted to know why Arsenal hadn't signed a player they had wanted. I briefly explained the self sustaining model handicapping the club at present and realised that I was no longer excusing it. The club is effectively owned by two billionaires whose money we do not use because we, as a club, have not generated it.
"That's like you sitting on the floor because you didn't buy the sofa."
I like the self sustaining model and the principles at its core. The way The Arsenal has been run is fit and proper and one that, as Arsene says, we should feel proud of. And I am. I just think I'd be prouder of something silver and I'm starting to tire of sitting on the floor when there's a sofa staring me in the face.
I didn't want Stan involved in the club and I certainly wish I'd never heard of Usmanov, but he is and I have. The two are already associated with the club. How much more tarnished would we be by either of them dipping into their deep pockets and coming out with Juan Mata?
In an ideal world the fantastic Fanshare format would see us owning Arsenal Football Club, aided by UEFA strictly enforcing their financial fair play rule. But with Manchester City creating their own naming rights for their stadium at a fantasy figure of £400m, the rule has been p*ssed on before it's even been put in place.
The club have worked tirelessly by moving stadiums to put us in a place where a self sustaining Arsenal can financially compare with Manchester United to ensure we can compete with them on the pitch. Massive credit is due to them for doing things the right way. But billionaires have taken a fancy to football and doing things the right way is completely washed over. We've got two of these billionaires ourselves, only ours can't spend that which gives them the label.
Going back to Juan Mata, Arsenal didn't even have to break the self sustaining ethos to secure his signature. The difference in signing him and sitting here without was £4m. Arsenal make £3m from every home game. In ninety minutes the difference would have been all but made up without even mentioning the Cesc money sitting on top of the unused pile already in place.
Matching the wages Chelsea offered Mata might have seen our few remaining star players demand the same. There lies the problem which our model struggles to sustain, especially in competing with City, Chelsea and United each time a top player becomes available. Or, in the case of Samir Nasri, once your own top players realise they can earn twice as much elsewhere.
So as well as failing to attract the top players we'll also struggle to hold on to our own. A vicious cycle sets. Arsene finds a relatively unknown player and turns him into a star. With a year left on his contract that star knows he can go to City or Chelsea and double his pay. The wage structure has cost us Cole, Adebayor, Flamini and Clichy. Now Nasri has joined the cash queue and Van Persie must have started to think about how many zeros he can add to his salary come the 2012-2013 season.
If we continue to rely and comply with the self sustaining model whilst others stick two fingers up at it, how are we meant to build a team that will challenge?
We might have to wait for the stadium to be fully paid off. Maybe Arsene became so obsessed by having to make do whilst we were moving home that he doesn't realise the shackles are looser.
That and he's tight.
But it's not all his fault. Football and the weak spine of those who run the game have made it impossible to do things in the right way. The Arsenal way. So how do we go 'Forward'?
There has to come a breaking point which forces a change in approach, and it's not going to come UEFA.
It might have to come from Arsenal.
I don't want the billionaires’ money and characters like Usmanov are not Arsenal. But neither is staring at mediocrity.
How much longer are Arsenal prepared to sit on the floor looking up?
*Follow me on Twitter@TheArsenal_
