Marco Silva
Six years ago, we were told that moving was the future for Arsenal. Arrogance and flair were abundant at Highbury and the burning embers of success continued to smoulder for a bit at the Emirates. Fast forward, and the fire is out. Nothingness remains. At our old home, we were ambitious. We were run by people with football in their blood. At our new one, we are soulless. Now we have people with money running through their veins.
Opta stat tweet: this is Arsenal's worst start to a Premier League season in the Wenger era, beating the previous low of 16 points in 2011-12. Decline.
Before the Man Utd Game, I watched the 2006 Sky Classic, Spurs v Arsenal, when we won 4 - 5. Watching Vieira, Henry, Pires, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Cole, made me smile. Even Cygan made me smile. I felt happy. These players loved playing and scoring for us. As a fan, I felt connected to them. Watching Utd destroy us today showed me how far we have fallen. Humiliating and sad. Sad, because we used to do that. We used to be up for games of this magnitude. My heart used to beat ten-to-the-dozen. Adrenalin. Now, I have to force myself to sit and watch. Valium.
We used to play in the top tier of the Premiership. We used to score at will. Now we have a plethora of strikers, all of whom can't buy a goal. We didn't have a single shot on goal on Saturday. Did we replace van Persie? Of course not. These new players are balance sheet depreciators. They're not assets, that's for sure, because we wouldn't be able to get rid of them if we wanted to. I mean, we still have Bendtner on the books! It's not just the front line, though. Why didn't we challenge Spurs when they bought a goalie like Lloris? Why do we think our midfield is good enough when we are still (duh!) relying so heavily on sick-notes like Rosicky and Diaby (if they were horses...).
We continue to sell our biggest names. We lost Ashley Cole for the equivalent of a few quid in the football world, and we've been trying unsuccessfully to replace him ever since. We lost out on Xabi Alonso for £2 million. Mata pulled out when he realised we had a wage-cap and van Persie left for a competitor because we are dead wood. We only need to watch Saturday's game to see what that has cost us. We're now heading into the world of Financial Fair Play and our board seem to think that it will be our saviour, our shining knight. Are they bonkers? Are we that short-sighted that we honestly believe this directive will actually help us? With any new directive, there'll be loopholes. FFP is a big, wet, red herring, and our board continues to use it as a smoke-screen to not invest in the club. We have £70M available to spend on players.
The AGM was ugly. At the top table there was Hill-Wood, an obnoxious hooray complete with Arsenal birthright hanging round his neck like a 'Jim'll Fix It' medal, Gazidis ("...what the f**k do you dooooo?"), with his monotone sound-bites about sustainability and FFP and, lastly, Silent Stan - who obviously has dementia because he can't recall not meeting people. The nonchalance is astounding. Stan's objective is simple. He wants to build a franchise and then to extract regular dividends. He isn't in it for love. But what exactly is a franchise and do we want to be part of it? An ironic part of proceedings unfolded in front of disbelieving shareholders. Whilst Gazidis eulogised about controlling players' wages, the board agreed for him to trouser the highest CEO salary and bonus package in the league! What are friends for eh, especially considering Arsenal made an operating loss of £31M (ie before transfers)?
An important flaw in our wage-controlling policy is that we don't save money on salaries. Our wage-bill is fourth highest in the Premier League. Seriously. It is. So where are our Rooneys, Agueros, Yayas, our Matas, Hazards, Oscars or even our van Persies? Nowhere. A legitimate question to ask is why we have a wage bill which is up there with the best, but continue not to be anywhere near the best? Arsenal pay a greater-than-average wage for players and impose wage caps. Ideologically a good idea, but realistically, totally flawed, because low wages do not attract top-class players. World-lass players want to earn world-class salaries. They don't want to be on the same as the likes of Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Ramsey or Djourou. We're in a position where we have no truly world-class players, yet our wage-bill is one of the highest in the league. Our player economics are painful reading. Meanwhile, the fans continue to fund the equivalent of a football Ponzi scheme.
The question of whether the board has lost its ability to steer the club towards silverware answers itself. More importantly, the board betrays decades of tradition as we move away from a focus on the pitch, to an almost obsessive focus on money. As my mate always tells me, there's no point in being the richest bloke (club) in the cemetery.
Player underinvestment is also nonsensical from a sponsorship perspective. Sponsorship is simple. Winning things brings larger sponsorships deals, which means more money. Chevrolet's marriage with Utd demonstrates this perfectly. So why tolerate underinvestment and underperformance just when new sponsors will be needed in 2014? Maybe we think Chevrolet spent £360 million because they like Manchester? If only money was that fickle.
So where does this mismanagement leave us? In decline. Serious decline. As a season-ticket holder, I've had enough and next year I'm non-renewing. Seeing how quickly the stadium empties recently, I won't be the only one relieving myself of the league's most expensive football tickets. Welcome to Premiership Tier-Two football. It's November and we've already been 'relegated'.
