Arsenal: Why does no-one want to play for Arsenal?
Still clenching your fist and cursing the board and Wenger? Come on. You guys should know better. Except for loan deals the likelihood of
any signings in the January transfer window is unlikely.
Wait, what happened. Suddenly there seems to be a
dearth of players wanting to come to Arsenal. We are still considered
among the best in the world (pinch of salt please), we are supposedly
among the richest clubs in the world, so why is it that no-one worth his
salt wants to come to us?
There was a time when Arsenal used to be an
attractive proposition for the best players in the world to come and
play. We played great football, had the tradition and most
importantly the players knew they could play with freedom and not much
restraint. These things may still remain but then why do no "top class" stars ever comes to us?
Let's look at how the world of football operates
nowadays.
There are certain teams that have either sugar daddies or oil
driven merchants who can pump money in to their respective teams
without worrying to much about getting back their returns. Roman
Ahbramovich can sack as many managers as he wants, buy as many players
as he feels because he can write off the loses he may incur due to the
fact that it's his personal wealth that he has invested.
There are also the likes of Man City,
Man United, Real Madrid and Barcelona who have investors who pump in a lot of
money to the club, again not worrying if the debts continue to pile up because they know the commercial implications of
investing in such clubs will have diverse and profitable dividends.
Then we have the clubs who are self-sufficient and dependent on the money they get from the revenue they
generate from their own means. Arsenal fall into this category. Even though we now have a majority stakeholder, the decision
continues to be that the board believes the self-sufficient
model is the best way for the club.
This model effectively means even when there may be
funds made available, the funds will be first utilised towards repaying
the loans, developing the brand etc. This has helped Arsenal become a
better brand but the football team is losing out, or are they?
Let us
take an example shall we. Juan Mata. Arsenal made a bid for him what was a very
reasonable amount of money. What happened was Chelsea simply came and
said we will pay you much more, so Mata choose Chelsea. He may also
have had other reasons to join Chelsea, but money is a huge factor and if
it does come down to a bidding war, we all know Arsenal cannot sustain
because of the way the club is run.
What Wenger did was to retain the players he bought,
and the high wages that they were on. When you see a Diaby getting paid
say 60k a week, all of us exclaim oh no, but remember when Diaby
was bought, there was a huge hope that he could become someone like a
Vieira and Wenger, in the hope he may become one, wanted to retain him at
all cost. Hence the wages were high. That he turned out to be the
medical table guest forever is another story.
Wenger's way of thinking
was this - buy players who can be bought under the budget, who have some
potential and try to install in them the sense of this is my club; this
gave me the chance to shine etc in the hope that they develop, play well
and remain at Arsenal as we cannot afford to buy the so-called proven
stars. The sad part in this was, some of the players were over-estimated
and never truly had the potential needed to succeed consistently. The
ones who developed the potential into substance conveniently ditched us
when the time came to stand up and be counted (we all know who).
Now we all know where the problem is and what is the
reality. Arsenal cannot buy big names or proven stars until the player decides he wants to play for Arsenal only. We cannot get into
a mad bidding war just to prove we can compete because that doesn't make
any sense.
Arsenal and Wenger's mistake has been the certain players
bought, who aren't even good enough to play for Arsenal. Someone who
should have basic ability (Denilson, Chamakh, Bendtner, Silvestre etc)
and more importantly the awareness and passion needed on the pitch. Hence when contract negotiations are stalled and
players hold the club at ransom, the sad fact is usually Arsenal are in a
helpless state because players either demand exorbitant wages or simply use a lame excuse saying the club
has no direction, knowing very well this was the same club which gave
them direction.
Let's all be critical of Wenger about the signings
which didn't succeed because it was under his control. Don't keep blaming
him and the board for not buying certain players because, simply put, we
cannot.
Until next time, farewell.
Calling all Arsenal fans:Do you agree with Vinay's assessment? Should Arsenal change their wage structure in order to attract big-name players or should they stay true to their principles and remain self-sufficient? Whatever your views, we'd love to hear from you.
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