Matthew Reynolds
Sunday’s North London Derby inspired me to record my thoughts on what transpired. First, let’s start with a question. Did anyone see when the camera panned to the stadium and showed Ivan Gazidis, Ken Friar and other board members sitting watching the game in the stadium looking totally glum? They appeared clueless. Leadership? You must be joking. Our annual wage bill is £50 million a season more than Tottenham’s, evidence enough that the strategy of overpaying average players has not worked. This has happened on Ivan Gazidis’ watch, so why the 100% pay rise? Who endorsed and approved that reward for such failure on and off the pitch? We luckily finished above Spurs by one point last season, so the warnings have been there. Talk of watching our costs and only spending what you have are still relevant; however, it just proves that Spurs are doing it better than Arsenal. Therefore questions regarding the board with regards to leadership, energy, dynamism and vision remain valid and deserve answers.
Now for my take on the game. The match itself was a reflection of our season; a couple of mistakes and we were punished. To repeat the same mistake just two minutes later was and is inexcusable. That was schoolboy defending, really. We have all watched and said for a long time now that we are selling our best players and that the replacements are overpaid and simply not good enough. The January transfer- window was a good reflection of this; while we sent players out on loan, we made one addition and that was to replace an injured player where we had no cover. In contrast, Spurs went and reinforced their team with Holtby from Schalke, bringing forward a summer purchase, to help their push for CL football next season.
If you look at the table, we have not beaten a team in the top six this season except Spurs at home when they were reduced to ten men. That is a serious statistic that cannot be ignored. The teams that have the same aspirations as us and with whom we are competing, we have failed to beat!
The board keep telling us that we are going in the right direction with the promise of jam tomorrow. The board resembles the previous Labour government where they were guilty of not listening to the voter - in this case, the paying fan. It’s a case of the Emperor’s clothes where no-one from within the club can admit the players are not good enough and therefore the team is not good enough. The present problem unfortunately will only be resolved by money and will be expensive. Players that are not good enough need to be moved on. However, they will know they will not get the same elsewhere so will stay and want to see out their contract, reference Arshavin, Squillaci et al. At the same time, players of the calibre we need are expensive and will need to be incentivised, as there will be no attraction of Champions League football.
Now the simple facts are that Arsène brought all of the players to the club, sanctioned the transfer fees and the wages. Over recent seasons, we have recruited Chamakh, Park, Squillaci and Gervinho whilst refusing to replace Almunia, who was clearly not capable. This is not a pitch to get rid of Arsène. He has earned and deserves our utmost respect. However, this cannot be overlooked. At the same time, we have witnessed some very astute purchases of players by clubs such as West Ham, Celtic, Newcastle, Wigan, Swansea and Spurs, all of whom have players that we have reportedly watched. I accept watching is different to buying, but this illustrates my point that they are of interest. When Atletico Madrid sold Agüero to Manchester City for £38 million, they immediately went and purchased Falcao from Porto for €40 million - this from a team that is in the Europa Cup.
We have watched and seen our club finish further behind in terms of points in the Premiership, fall further down the table and we are promised we are improving. This season we have been knocked out of the League Cup by a League Two side (Bradford), knocked out of the FA Cup by a Championship side (Blackburn) and beaten in the league by Norwich and Swansea (at home) and we have failed to beat a team in the top six (apart from ten-man Spurs). Depressing statistics. However, that is the reality and a reality that we should accept if we are to improve. The kidology needs to stop.
There needs to be change at the top so that we have a board with strong leadership vision and direction. There must be a rejection of “second is good enough”, and an intolerance of inferior quality. The warnings have been there - an 8-2 defeat to Manchester United in 2011 and a close qualifying Champions League match against Udinese which we could have lost if it were not for a penalty save. I do not understand what KSE want to achieve, as this decline has gathered pace under their ownership. A suitable replacement needs to be found for David Dein, as I do not know who now occupies this role. Yes, we need to raise more money through additional and imaginative forms of revenue-generation; however, we also need to sweat the assets we do have. We need to look no further than our North London rivals who have been doing this better for a few years now. Sunday’s result has been coming and the ingredients have been added by us with a good dose of second-rate purchases and overpaid mediocre players. A quick look at the bench tells a story.
Our future is partly based on a lad at right-back who 18 months ago was playing non-league football and another on the bench who was playing League 1. Is there another team in Europe that takes such an approach to “winning”, let alone a team that is in the Champions League? We have become a club that is seen as Willie Wonka’s golden ticket for average players playing above and beyond their level.
The future is not all bleak. However, changes at the top are required if the correct decisions are to be made. The positives are a massive new stadium, a huge loyal fan base, an ability to generate massive revenues, underutilised sources of revenue, plenty of additional sources of revenue available to exploit, the impending FFP rules and an image and history most players and managers would love to work and be associated with. The two questions that needs to be asked are - how much does the leadership want it and does the capability exist to go and get it?
