Alex Steine
I have seen Einstein's quote bandied about our web often enough, attributed to Arsene Wenger, I've even had it quoted to me by a well-intentioned Gooner. 'The definition of madness is repeating the same thing over and over expecting different results.' Well it is insanity, rather than madness, but the blunt point is the same. It is an easily understood statement. People's minds grasp it with such ease. It says it all! Then again, perhaps it doesn't. Possibly we see that bit showing just above the waterline, and not the huge foundation beneath the waves, anchored, solid and true. Yes aspects are repeated. Painfully so. Confusion within the camp? What does go on behind our fortress walls? What are the dynamics at play? I don't know. Others profess to have a handle on such Machiavellian chicanery, going on at the training ground. Proven? Not really. Nebulous thoughts, often produce phantom conclusions. In truth most of us, if not all, are in the dark on many takes. I try to read the situation, but have to be honest, many of my views are coloured by others. And despite trying to filter out the hearsay, the rumours, and the speculative, an outlook forms.
I know this, Arsene Wenger achieves an accepted standard, accepted by the board, that is. Let's be honest, if a manager performed as successfully for our business, as he does for the business of AFC, we would be financially very happy indeed. Before anyone levels the ridiculous overpayment strategy as a criticism, it probably isn't viewed that way. Whether it was the manager who took the kernel of an idea to the next person, who took the baton and ran, or someone else floated the idea, the upshot was a decision was made to pay average or developing players too much money. Their contracts were rubber-stamped, perhaps hoping for a paid loyalty. The system has blown up in our collective faces. We've been saddled with stagnating players, unable to move on. A poor scheme in my eyes, but only so with hindsight. What if we hadn't tied Fabregas down, and now Jack? So the manager achieves the standard expected by the board. That is the crux of the matter, in that one sentence. No other brief statement could encapsulate the position any better. It is as simple as that!
The board are happy to give him his head for two obvious reasons, he makes the club money (keeps them viable at least), and keeps the club in contention (as far as the TV and sponsor paymasters are concerned). This is his pass mark. He needs no more, acquires no less. His main function is keeping the train on the tracks, heading in the right direction. He doesn't have to reach a destination, he just has to be on course for it, that is enough. All around, on blogs, in pubs, written in newspapers, (fanned by the media clowns), and espoused by many who either should know better, or don't know enough, comes that facile bleating. The same bleating, same complaints; spend money, forget the fourth place trophy, buy better, get a new man. To what end? Nothing changes, why should it? Just because a few customers, sorry fans, want silverware, or at least a tilt at winning some, do you honestly think the club will suddenly throw overboard a successful strategy, which gives the returns they desire, without that huge gamble of buying the likes of an established Fabregas, or a Van Persie? Pin everything on a couple of superstars turning a promising also-ran, into a genuine contender? I would say, generally speaking, not a snowball's chance in hell. Except...
That is the key word; that is the word that exemplifies the conundrum that is, and has been Arsenal, for fast approaching a decade. The word personifies all that becomes us, as a club. We dare to hope. Despite another year of the same, we are prepared to go around again. And 'we' is all of us! Even those hard-nosed, bitter, pessimists who shout from the rooftops, 'Enough is enough!' OK, some may have jumped ship, not too many though. So it's all of us, we don't think things will change, except..! So, what are those exceptions? Each season brings a plethora of different particulars to the forum, the nucleus remains fundamental though. Our squad isn't quite good enough to take on those three big boys, and nothing much to alter those circumstances appears on the horizon. Yet this close season may be different, we may just get those men on board, those two or three, who just make the difference. We grumble and gripe, threaten in provocative terms to overthrow the status quo at AFC, then don't quite come through. Just about all of us cannot desert the ship that is Arsenal, nor should we, for who knows if this will be the season we begin that long haul back to the position we regard as ours by divine right. I'm not sure things will get any better this coming season, except...
