Arsene knows?
EVEN in the unthinkable event of Arsene Wenger being solemnly called into the chairman’s office at Arsenal, he’s unlikely to read the signals.
“When I first went to Japan,” he recounted to friends recently, “I coached in the English language. I had an English translator but we lost the first five or six games and the chairman asked to meet me. I expected the sack, losing five or six games usually means bye-bye. The chairman told me he’d taken a very big decision, and I said ‘I understand’. He told me he had sacked the translator. I said ‘thank you very much, but it’s not his fault, I lost the games’. I saved the translator, we won a few games and I stayed at the club.”
He did more in fact. He was named manager of the year after guiding Grampus Eight to the Japanese league title.
Wenger has won so many games and honours in the intervening 13 years that he is the most successful manager in Arsenal’s history and one of the most celebrated in the global game. But the lack of tangible reward since 2005 demands a reappraisal of his policies in the transfer market.
It arises out of Arsenal’s demise in the Champions League. From Mourinho to Montrose, Wenger is deemed culpable for not ensuring Arsenal’s squad ran deep enough with quality to overcome the loss to injury of Bacary Sagna, Tomas Rosicky, Robin Van Persie, Eduardo da Silva and even Mathieu Flamini, who retired injured in the first quarter against Liverpool.
The consequent criticism and images of a frustrated Wenger on the sideline irked RTÉ analyst Liam Brady to such an extent that he failed to appear on the panel the following evening. Brady, however, made some salient points in the televised spat over Wenger, not least his rebuttal of the view that the final scoreline always reflects a game.
“People criticise you,” a defiant Wenger said yesterday. “at the beginning of the season we were supposed to finish between 10th and 15th. Now they slaughter us because we were third. I don’t understand the logic of that.
“We made mistakes against Liverpool but to say that something is wrong is going overboard because this club is admired all over the world for the football we play, and we have been unfairly punished in the games against Liverpool. It would help sometimes if somebody said that.
“If you say we maybe lack maturity, perhaps, but to suddenly have to kick everybody out and buy 10 new players? I don’t see why, even if you have money.”
BRADY’S tv testiness was understandable and not only because he works hand in glove with Wenger. The Dubliner started last Tuesday preparing for two hours for his first press conference as Republic of Ireland assistant manager, before offering himself for the same amount of time answering print, radio and television questions. He was then spirited away to Donnybrook without a moment’s pause for analysis (or a change of clothes) on his beloved Arsenal’s harrowing defeat to Liverpool. He was, in the vernacular, as high as a kite.
But was Eamon Dunphy right? Is Arsenal’s end of season implosion partially attributable to a conservative transfer policy? What about the three decisive moments of defensive madness at Anfield? Or that he selected the hapless Philippe Senderos by choice, not necessity (Eboue could have played at right back for the injured Sagna.) Lost perhaps was Graeme Souness’ more relevant point about the lost leaders in the Arsenal dressing room. The Adams, Bould, Winterburn or Keown. The Petit, Vieira, Dixon, Henry or Bergkamp. Compare and contrast them with captain William Gallas’ meltdown at St Andrews, and the vain search for men as Souness would call them.
Wenger’s crime, say his critics, is not torpedoing a giant Rio Ferdinand-type hole in the £70m war-chest the new Emirates stadium allows him. Fair criticism? With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps Wenger’s guilty. Not because it facilitates Eboue and Senderos’ selection, but because it denied Fabregas, Clichy, Flamini, Hleb, Gallas, Sagna and Toure the rotational rest that Alex Ferguson was able to afford his front-liners against Roma on Wednesday night. Fabregas, once a shoo-in for player of the year, is surviving on memory at this stage, but there is nobody in the squad to replace him.
But using the deep pockets of Man United and Chelsea as a benchmark for spending is something Wenger will never countenance. Besides, some of his most expensive signings were poor value for money — he spent around £40m on Sylvain Wiltord, Francis Jeffers and Juan Antonio Reyes.
There was an implicit acceptance that leaders are lacking yesterday as Wenger revealed his intention to add just one experienced player in the summer.
“I will buy but not too much in the summer. If we can add one player we will do it, not one in each department just one experienced player.”
He added at the club’s Shenley training facility: “I’m not pretentious enough to say I didn’t make mistakes. Even if I managed for 150 years I would still make mistakes. I’m humble enough to accept I make mistakes and I will every year. But I don’t know if I made a big mistake this season.”
Wenger’s principles are commendable. The question is how serious a disadvantage does it put Arsenal at when Man United, for instance, can splash £54m in a single summer on Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves and Chelsea fork out £15m in the January transfer window for Nicolas Anelka.
The lack of psychologically durable players at Arsenal is surprising, given the extensive character research Wenger undertakes before every purchase.
He explained: “I believe that the top of the game is only for motivated people. If they are only motivated by money, it does not last. You can’t build a career purely on a hunger for money. In the modern game you can earn it at such a young age, it’s not a sufficient ingredient to build a career. You need that internal burning desire. You can be average now in the game and have money.
‘‘If you buy because it’s someone you are after and there is a specific weakness inside the club in his position, and it’s an opportunity to take the player, then it is a good moment. I do it only when I feel it is the right moment.”
Has that moment come, and gone, for this season? Whatever happens tomorrow, Wenger needs a dependable centre-half, but instead will be tempted to facilitate the development of 17-year-old Norwegian Havard Nordtveit, who joined the club last summer. An over-reliance on Emmanuel Adebayor in attack has blunted his edge in the critical last third of the season, but Wenger was robbed of Robin Van Persie for most of the campaign, and Eduardo in that season-defining leg-break in February. He will bring in a summer striker to be sure, because Eduardo will not play again in 2008 — but expect it to be returning Mexican loanee Carlos Vela from Osasuna.
Whether tomorrow’s visit to Old Trafford finishes his season or revives it, Wenger’s summer is mapped out. And the portents are encouraging. He’s created and undone three great teams at Arsenal. Wenger isn’t afraid of change — after all, he has opened the door for Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry to leave Arsenal, and none prospered on that green, faraway hill.
The next generation is already known to some, but after Armand Traore, Denilson, Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner, expect to hear the names Fran Merida, Carlos Vela, Gilles Sunu and Nacer Barazite along with English trio Henri Lansbury, Mark Randall and Kieran Gibbs.
Wenger says he has two reasons for putting his trust in young players. The first is psychological. “There has been research done by psychologists which explains that at 18 to 20 years old a person’s motivation is set, and after that you cannot change them,” he said. “It is about the environment they are in at that age and how they feel, but if somebody is not motivated you cannot instil it in them later.”
The second, appropriately for a man whose contribution has propelled Arsenal into the top tier of richest European clubs, is financial. “The cycle of life is like a (bell) curve. It goes up like this and then it goes down like this,” he said. “Most of the time in football, clubs pay the maximum wages to players at 29, 30 years old, when they are on their way down. Here we like to buy players when they are on their way up. This is the most exciting squad (I have coached at Arsenal) because they have all been educated by us.”
Gerard Houllier has nothing but praise for the job his French compatriot Arsene Wenger has done at Arsenal. “There are three things which make Arsene special,’’ he says.
‘‘The first is that he is a hard worker blessed with a rare expertise, not just on football in general, but also on world football. In other words he is a hard worker, an expert and also takes a very active approach towards the psychology of his players.
“Every manager has his own philosophy. I know the philosophy of Arsene Wenger’s game depends on speed, technique and movement. That is why he always creates the type of play that is spectacular, attractive, pleasing and the fans really love.”
Although Wenger might seem to command his club, when matches are going against his team as they have been lately, he does sometimes ask for external assistance.
“I was brought up as a Catholic in a small village where the priest was the boss,” he said. “My dad remembers me going to church with my mother, praying to God to make us win games. I got the Bible out when we were 1-0 down, saying, ‘Jesus Christ, let us win this game.’ I still do the same thing, but without the book now.” Maybe he should consider bringing The Book tomorrow.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
