Simon Hill
Arsene and Arsene fans like to merge his 19 tenure into one continuous assignment whereas there has clearly been three very marked periods he has had to manage the club through and it is the last period which has led to the harshest criticism from many fans.
The first era was 1997 to 2004 – the glory years. Arsene had the club punching well above its weight due to cutting edge methods and astute buying.
The second was the stadium years 2005-2013 where the upfronting of £120m of season ticket money and sponsorship deals and their investment in bridging the funding gap for the new stadium rather than in the team led to project youth and then following its collapse in 2011 an enforced make do and mend approach. That this period coincided with two new owners pouring hundreds of millions into their teams compounded Arsene’s disadvantage and rightly led to him being praised far and wide for his ability to keep the team competitive and stay loyal despite many many offers. At least twice he nearly built a title winning team but twice faced betrayals from players he had made (Fabregas and Van Persie), a bitter pill to swallow.
The final era spans 2013 to the current day and encompasses the last mega TV deal and new sponsorship arrangements which added over £70m pa to available cash flow and coincided with the FFP initiatives of both UEFA and the Premier League which enforced self sustainability on nearly every club and levelled the financial playing field for the top 4. These are the money years with the club now having £250m pa to spend on new signings and wages and it is these years on which Arsene is now being judged relative to his peers who have all lost their jobs.
For Arsene it meant being judged as a buyer of mature talent as well as a developer and for many there was a nervousness as to how he would cope. His first forays into buying in a big way were in 2011 when Cesc and Nasri left and involved a £70m trolley dash for replacements. In retrospect many of these buys didn’t work out (Gervinho, Santos, Ox) but some did (Merts, Arteta) and then in 2012 he followed up the loss of Van Persie and Song with buys for Santi, Giroud and Podolski – another mixed bag but that was the make do and mend era and he stayed true to his philosophy of attractive possession based football.
In the money years, he first bought just Ozil in a last minute deal placing faith in his young English core who fell foul of injury and poor form and Sanogo a bargain buy that didn’t pay off. In year two he went big buying Sanchez then Chambers and Welbeck but left himself exposed in defence and in goal where he retained faith in the erratic Szczesny. Then last year he got hold of a steal in Cech but again retained faith in his English core who he hoped would finally deliver in midfield and attack. They didn’t.
However, perhaps the bit that is losing Arsene support more than anything is the team’s playing style and tactical nous. The arrivals of Ozil and Sanchez seem to have led to a disjointed style that is neither possession based nor counter attack. Often it seems the strategy is just to give the ball to Mesut or Alexis and wait for them to do something special and all the while the young English core seem to have gone either stale or gone backwards: Ramsey - still lacking composure, Walcott - less of a player than he was 8 years ago, the Ox - less of a player than he was 5 years ago, Chambers - forced into playing a position he is not suited too, Wilshere and Welbeck - tragically injured.
Meanwhile, a new breed of coach has arrived playing strict, intense, pressurised football that excites fans and makes for exhausting viewing and so there is a sense Arsene has been overtaken by time and that it is time for the club to move on. What Arsene and his fans can’t do is keep harking back to the pre-2013 years. That period is over, he now has money, has had time and has a level playing field financially and so must be judged purely on results and a falling annual points total isn’t great.
