Peter Le Beau
I have a rule which I am just about to break, which is not under any circumstances to say anything constructive or good about Tottenham Hotspur. I detest the club with a loathing that comes from so many experiences and encounters, yet I want to spend a little bit of time explaining why they have adapted much better to the modern world of transfer politics.
I need to say that when I die, hopefully in many years to come, my loved ones will drape my coffin in red and white and play 'Good Old Arsenal ' and other Gooner ditties as I am laid to rest. I hope this establishes my Arsenal credentials, because what I am going to say may antagonise some readers and I have no wish to do this. But I think we need to be honest about our failings and this year for many of us has seen a totally unacceptable performance by the Arsenal management and board. They need to read this and weep and understand the humiliation they have heaped on Arsenal supporters.
Two close seasons ago we suffered dreadfully as there was huge speculation about the futures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. It dominated our agenda, and despite Arsène Wenger saying that big clubs don't sell their best players, we did - far too late and with no adequate replacement plan in place. This led directly to a totally inadequate side losing 8-2 to United and the mad trolley dash to sign players before the deadline. It was a disastrous close season and, although we recovered to finish a distant third, we should have taken the lessons on board fully and ensured it never happened again.
Last close season was better in that we at least signed three decent players (one extremely good) before we sold off our star player to United - thus guaranteeing them the title - and selling Song to Barcelona, books nicely balanced for Mr. Kroenke's benefit at the end of the window. We failed to stop RvP dominating our news agenda and, while last season was moderately successful, for the second year running we were out of contention for the League some months before the season ended.
Everyone knows that this season was going to be so different and that with no obvious star player to leave we would get onto the front foot and make sure we built the best squad we have had going into a season for ten years. At the time of writing the window has been an unmitigated disaster.
Our sworn enemies down the Seven Sisters Road have been duly mocked for failing, despite our transfer shortcomings, to overtake us and the fourth place we achieved last season was made sweeter by the false hope that Lord Sugar spread to the assembled masses at the Lane that Newcastle were on terms and the Champions League beckoned. Not so my Lord.
Going into this season it was all going to be so exciting. We had money to invest, and Spurs were going to have the same problem as we had with RvP. A one-man team - and boy was Bale that last season - losing its one man. Yes, we speculated, this will dominate your news agenda all summer.
Now this is where it gets tricky, because things didn't work like that at all. Rather than remain paralysed by the uncertainty surrounding departures as we were with Cesc, Nasri and RvP, Spurs have gone about building a quality squad, shipping off their less stellar contributors like Huddlestone and Parker (though Caulker was a surprise) and bringing in real quality - Soldado, Paulinho, Capoué, and striving to purchase the brilliant Willian. Coming back they have a much improved Danny Rose and Andros Townsend who proved so tricky for QPR against us when we played in May. This - and I hate to say it - is a high-quality squad which has been assembled despite the soap opera surrounding Bale. He will probably leave close to the end of the window for a seriously obscene amount of money (about £10 million more than we got in total for RvP, Cesc, Nasri and Song) but the whole saga has not derailed the club or left it uncertain what they can spend before receiving transfer fees in. If Bale stays (highly unlikely now) their squad would be frightening, but they have given themselves a range of options. We began the season with Yaya Sanogo and a bulging bank balance that we seem to have no idea how to spend.
The pain of this summer will live with me for years, just as 2011 did. Arsenal have proved that they have not learned key lessons and there must be grave doubts that the current management knows how to improve the squad. I write this before a vital two-leg UCL tie that we just have to win. If we do scrape through, as we did against Udinese two years ago, it will save face but it also underlines how poor our preparation has been that we risk so much with a squad that is so thin and lacking in key areas, judged by the top standards (which are the ones we need and want to be judged by).
I have no doubt that the Arsenal Board and absentee landlord, Kroenke, feel the pain this time and I sincerely hope it cuts through them and reminds them of their negligence and dereliction of duty. Wenger has lost a huge amount of the respect that Arsenal fans had for him as he has signally failed to adapt to a new environment. Sadly, our less successful neighbours, who we should have been able to keep in our shadow for generations move coherently and with real strategic intent as we teeter precariously towards September 2nd.
Sir Chips Keswick has had a highly ineffective start to his reign as Chairman. I think it falls to him to ensure that this time we identify exactly what has caused this ridiculous paralysis of action. It would seem to me that the root cause may be dysfunction in the relationship between Gazidis and Wenger but, whatever the cause (or, more likely, causes), they need to be rooted out and action taken so that it never happens again. It matters not a jot to the supporters of this club if we have the most effective business model in the world if we make diabolical mistakes in putting our football team together. Perhaps Mr. Kroenke might consider who ultimately a football club exists to serve, especially when the fans have to contribute so much to follow it.
I am a proud Gooner and have rarely felt we have anything to learn from our near-neighbours. But if Sir Chips wants to see how a better transfer window can be conducted, perhaps he might look up the Seven Sisters Road. I sincerely hope we don't have to rue the consequences of this come next May. We have always managed to get over the line before, but in a world of continually higher stakes and improving standards our dysfunctionality may cost us this time.
