Wenger in danger of doing a Clough

ONCE Arsenal’s fixtures for 2011-12 were announced, it was obvious August was going to be a difficult month. Aside from three tricky Premier League fixtures, there was the small matter of a Champions League qualifier.

In this of all pre-seasons, Arsene Wenger needed to do his business and settle his squad early. Knowing that Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri were almost certain departures, the club needed to sort out their replacements, but with 48 hours of the transfer window remaining, the only significant signing, ignoring young potential, has been Gervinho.

With senior squad members Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Eboue also sold, Arsenal have started the season with a weaker group of players than that which finished the previous campaign so disappointingly.

That the final 11 Premier League fixtures of last season brought only two wins when the title was there for the taking should have started alarm bells ringing, yet the sense of complacency at Arsenal has brought the club to the situation they face today, where they are offering to effectively refund the cost of tickets to those fans who had to sit through the nightmare at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The most damning aspect of the defeat to Manchester United was that it was not, to those who watch Arsenal regularly, a surprise.

In the build-up to the game the hope that we would not witness a repeat on the scale of the 6-1 defeat in 2001 was expressed more than once. Many knew the writing was on the wall.

Most painful of all, in Arsene Wenger’s evident mission to create a team of winners built around a core of young talents he has developed, was that Manchester United’s starting line-up was on average five months younger than the visitors’.

This was no case of men against boys, simply an exposure of the lack of depth at Arsenal, a problem created by the prioritising of young potential over experience, attack over defence.

Winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is 18 years old and was thrown on to try and turn the game around with the score at 3-1. He cost £12 million. One suspects that Arsenal’s offers for Bolton’s Gary Cahill so far have been less than that. And therein lies a huge part of the problem.

The club regard their players as assets that can grow in value, rather than thinking a little shorter term about what is required to get across the finishing line when victory is in sight.

The problem for the younger players is that they need guidance. They don’t get that at Arsenal any more. Experienced players have been moved on too quickly — unlike Manchester United — and are rarely replaced by anyone who has been around the block.

There was certainly no evidence of coaching or any tactics beyond ‘‘try and play them off the park with beautiful football’’ at Old Trafford. The lack of pressure on the man in possession when the offside trap was utilised looked worse than a Sunday morning pub team.

It is far from evident that the manager has changed anything after defeats or damaging draws, so players make the same mistakes again and again.

Wenger now has to accept he has to pay more than he would like for his targets, as his hand has been forced by results. However, it will take some turnaround for the players to recover — psychologically — from a scoreline out of the late 19th century.

For many, that task would be a lot more easily achieved with a complete change of personnel in the dugout. Arsenal can claim they can no longer compete with the amount of cash being splashed by the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

Yet Manchester United’s net transfer spend and wages costs between summer 2004 and 2009 was £52m compared with Arsenal’s £48m. In that period, United won six trophies, including three titles and a Champions League, compared to Arsenal’s solitary FA Cup. The reason? Alex Ferguson focused on teams to win trophies, not plaudits.

The sooner Arsenal realise the team is being held back by the current manager, and embrace change by moving him on, the sooner they can move in the direction they need to.

Whatever happens in the transfer market between now and midnight tomorrow is not going to change Wenger’s approach. Sometimes, a legend can be indulged too long.

Anyone remember what happened to Brian Clough? nKevin Whitcher is the editor of Arsenal fanzine ‘The Gooner’ and co-author of the recently updated Vision Sports Publishing book, ‘Arsènal, the making of a modern superclub’.