Bard
Those fans who seriously thought Wenger would leave the club are guilty of delusional thinking. Conversely the euphoria enjoyed by the Wenger disciples is misplaced in the extreme. By the time Bayern administered the ritual Champions League thrashing and the team had collapsed like a deck of cards in the league it was already too late to make a proper assessment of the managerial alternatives. That and the fact that there is no one on the board with a clue about football left dear old Stan with very little alternative. However what he has done is give Wenger enough rope to hang himself and in the process kept himself out of the firing line at least for a while.
I read a hilarious but serious piece about the ‘new’ resolve. Wenger is set to be given £100m to turn Arsenal into title contenders. He apparently wants to get transfer business done early and cited the fact that we have all but signed the Belgian 19-y-o Henry Onyekuru for £6.8m. Despite having half a team full of duds, Wenger apparently feels we only need a couple of players.
We have read this kind of guff for years but even if true it’s worth a minute or two of deconstruction. £100m doesn’t get you a whole lot these days. It’s one worldie plus a journeyman or three journeyman whichever way you do the maths. Dear old Henry is a punt for the future. He may be a star but as likely could be another Sanogo or Park, so we can ditch that. The idea that we get business done early is fanciful at best. Our transfer negotiations are protracted for two main reasons. We haggle forever over the cost of an Oyster card and Wenger dithers because he can’t make up his mind. Somehow the fact that he has signed a new contract appears to have automatically transformed our transfer process. Answers on a postcard please.
To add to our summer transfer woes we have Sanchez disappearing over the horizon despite a monster offer to stay. He wants to win trophies and doesn’t seem share the board’s optimism over the boss’s capacity to deliver them. That’s 25 goals a season gone west. Ozil’s position seems more fluid but after having gone missing for a large part of the season, is it really a massive loss if he leaves? A number of other players’ contracts need negotiating and several need shipping out. So the idea that we are the proverbial ‘one or two’ short seems wishful thinking.
There is also the backdrop of all the other top clubs apart from the Spuds and possibly Liverpool investing heavily in top players and the potentially toxic atmosphere at the Emirates. If we add in the familiar lack of tactical flexibility and periodic defensive chaos you might be forgiven for thinking that suggesting we might be title contenders is a gross misrepresentation of our ability and ambition.
From my perspective it’s more likely that Wenger will disappear under the weight of the fans disgruntlement by Christmas than he is of makng this current side title contenders.
