Pierre Walch, Arsenal centrist and football lover
Since the beginning of the pre-season, I am reading very pessimistic articles written by fans who are not satisfied by our transfer window. Even more surprising, more than a third of published articles in August are speaking about cutting Wenger's head or buying the very-very-best players of the richest clubs in the world.
Today however, I was happy to note there was finally a positive article (by Richard Lancaster) pointing out all this negative atmosphere and telling people to calm down. I think Richard is right, we have gone too far in negativeness in many ways.
We do not hear Arsenal supporters sing at home anymore, and when a wild defeat appears, we sadly hear people booing their own team. Every time a team come at the E******s, their fans are giving everything to support their heroes. What about us? The rest of the spectators can barely hear the home fans and even the 5:0 down Turkish fans were more enthusiastic last Tuesday. Our team don't care about people screaming money-spending things, they are expecting support.
Obviously, a big part of the booing was addressed to Wenger, but how could we possibly blame him for the transfer window we're having? Did you expect Wenger to sign the guy who broke our unbeaten record by diving for forty million, or the other one who bites his opponents for fifty? Maybe you thought we would sign players from Real Madrid starting eleven like Özil, Di Maria or Benzema? Did you sincerely think Abramovich would sell Mata after having spent nearly a billion euros for many, many players around Europe and all over the world for ten years?
This is what tabloids want you to believe. They say simple things because they target simple people. They do not care about making sense, they just want to surprise their customers today to make them pay again tomorrow. Then, fans get angry because it doesn't correspond to reality. In recent Online Gooner articles, it's very difficult to understand how tabloids could make such a devastating effect on fan's approach to transfer window. We can see fans complaining about fake bids, brainwashing, or even about Wenger commentating on France matches during international breaks. This tabloid nonsense has gone too far in recent years, so we must come back to reality and stop believing everything we are told.
In the real world, a business of the kind of our football club cannot be managed like a cart in a supermarket. It is about writing a budget for each part of the business. Paying more than £8M more for Suarez corresponds to adding more than 20% to the expected cost, and this increase cannot be accepted by any serious business owner.
It is not about spending a supplementary coin for better cookies, it is about managing a big company employing hundreds of people. All the cash reserves mustn't be used only to strengthen one part of a business, and this is how qualified people run companies nowadays. They do not throw away the money they make through the (transfer?) window. The point is we don't have the financial power to compete with the big spending sides in the transfer window, simply because they can afford to splash out hundreds of millions of euros or pounds to buy football players.
Stop dreaming, we cannot beat these clubs at their own money game. We need another approach, and Wenger's strategy seems to be the one that could work. Building a team and not a sum of individuals led Borussia Dortmund to Champions League final in 2013 starting from just 10 points ahead of relegation in 2008. You could argue Wenger has been trying this "young player formation" approach for a long time without experiencing a lot of success, but the history in Islington has not been the same as in Dortmund latest years.
Since 2010, Nasri, Fàbregas, Clichy, Song, Van Persie and other players left Arsenal for teams offering them a bright future with many trophies and the biggest pot of gold they would ever see in their lives. The manager tried everything to avoid these escapes, but the board was so desperate for money they sold Wenger's years of work to the big spending sides. We must not believe tabloid nonsense about Wenger being the hypocritical banker who makes money for the board's chest. How can we blame Wenger's long-term strategy if everything he produces is given to competitors?
However, it seems a new step has been taken last season with Walcott signing a new deal instead of being the next player on the departure list. You could also see how the club extended the contracts of all the players of the "British core". Notice the changes since our player management failed to handle Nasri and Van Persie contract issues. I am sure the club will not make these mistakes again. Now almost all our key players have long term commitments, and only Sagna and Szczesny are one-year-left threats. Our management will have to handle these two cases wisely in appropriate time, but it will probably be done over the course of the season. We will also not lose any major player this season, and we can be sure Wenger will bring in some quality players before the end of the transfer window.
Why are we Gooners focusing on putting pressure on the team and the manager? Please, write articles about how Ramsey finally shows high class qualities, about how our style changed dramatically regarding the end of last season. Just write about how we could improve the support for home matches. We do not care about tabloids.
Please, just write things about our beloved game: football.
