Arsene On Spending And Shhh, There’s A Football Match Going On
And on the fiftieth day of boredom with transfer rumours, the Lord said, “Let there be a football match to take their minds off such things that divide them”. Actually, had that been true, I am pretty sure the fixture might have been a bit spicier than a pre-season runout at Barnet although if he had a warped sense of humour…I cannot get excited about this afternoon’s match other than it means the season is coming in one month’s time. It will be interesting to see the youngsters and new faces get a runout but anyone who takes it seriously needs to get some therapy.
Anyway, back to the trivia. Arsene has the combination to the safe where the petty cash is held but he is reluctant to use it so the media will tell you. Wenger said,
Of course I am in a position where I can spend the money. But every time we have done such a great job with the young players that you are concerned ‘do we kill a young player or not by bringing another player in?’ It is a very sensitive subject which is not especially linked with money
Therein is the rub for Arsene. He has built a young squad by Premier League terms and one that challenged for the title for the first time since 2004-05. However, he is in a position where he has talent to use but needs to balance it against experience. One of those who has made the transition is Cesc Fabregas who should be held as an example. He had the luxury of the 2003-04 season to establish himself in the squad, plenty of experience around him.That, so we are told, is the difference between then and now.
Yet if you look at the squad, there is enough experience around. There is a European Champion; Premier League title winners; Champions League runners-up; regular internationals. There is experience so it is time for this myth to be expunged from the record. If nothing else, most have the bitter experience of the Premier League last season and the Champions League exits. They know what they have to do to win titles so the question then becomes do they have the talent. In abundance is the answer.
Arsene identified one of the changes that they need to make,
We were very close, we were in the race and next year we want to show we can win it. The team is performing well, but the target of a top-level sportsman is to always improve and I believe we can be more clinical, we can score more with the chances we create
That is true to an extent. In the run-in last season there a number of games where chances were squandered - not just by Adebayor either - and that needs to be rectified. Equally though, the team need to get into the habit of clean sheets.
Last season saw a progression in Arsene’s Theory Of Attacking Football in that everyone was encouraged to push higher up the field. There were occasions though when the centre of the defence went to sleep. Gallas and Toure are capable defenders and should be able to deal with such moments but they did not. It does not mean that they cannot play together, merely that they have to concentrate on the task at hand, protecting leads such as those at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge or the position in the second leg of the Champions League. It is not just Gallas and Toure who were responsible; the whole team need to concentrate - Anfield showed that - and defending as a unit might well have been high on Arsene’s pre-season training schedule. If they are able to strike that balance then the sky is the limit.
The final piece of his jigsaw,
There is a lot of talk in the press, but we have always managed at this club by balancing the budget. We should not be criticised for that and should be respected for that
There you go Arsene ruining the media’s fun and not understanding that in this Championship Manager era, spending money sells papers. Especially since they are all raiding the club magazine for stories at the moment but that’s for another day.
Finally, the worst pre-season review has been written. Anything that says ‘The departures of Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb to AC Milan and Barcelona respectively leaves Arsene Wenger with a midfield lacking creativity and guile‘ cannot be taken seriously. I am sure that the author will tell you it is all ‘post-modernistic ironic humour’ but that would be a fib - it’s guff. And funny as well in a post-modernistic ironic humour sort of way.
’til Tomorrow.
