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Wenger has changed and Arsenal will flourish

By 2011/09/09 8 Comments

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For many Arsenal fans, Saturday brings a mixture of optimism and caution. Following the defeat at Old Trafford, the future direction of the club has been questioned and debated in the press and in the pubs alike. The collective voice suggests that Arsenal can no longer compete at the top level for player transfers and wages. It has been said that Arsenal has now become a feeder club for the Premiership’s top dogs, and Barcelona.

Fans gathering around the Emirates on transfer deadline day were calling for a marquee signing. A £35 million bid for Eden Hazard was the rumour. Fans have been asking ‘Where is our Aguero?’ The reality of whether Arsene Wenger has the money to spend has become almost secondary to the reality that he refuses to spend it. But is it any wonder?

Arsenal now head in a different direction to the other pretenders for the Champions league places. Tottenham andLiverpoolhave spent millions in the hope that they can secure a top four finish. Chelsea and the twoManchesterclubs have spent more in the single minded pursuit of holding onto their Champions League spots while also making a realistic push for the League title

So where does that leave Arsenal, consistently in the top four since Arsene Wenger arrived? The top wages are out of reach and by default so are the top players. Wenger has two options. He can bring in promising players for the future and continue along the path he has trodden for many years, see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The same path that hasn’t landed a trophy for six years. Or he can bring in players with a growing reputation aroundEuropeand eager to improve at the top level, for this see Gervinho.

Wenger has been burnt many times by mercenary players who use Arsenal as a stepping board to greater riches. Adebayor, Flamini, Nasri et al. But to open the cheque book to the tune of £35 million for a player such as Eden Hazard, only for the player to leave a season later would only cement in the manager’s mind that his policy is the correct way to go.

Now we find an unfamiliar scenario about to unfold on Saturday. Alongside the promising young talent set to take the field againstSwansea, Wenger has opted to open his wallet and secure the services of a couple of proven players, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta. This represents a change in both the philosophy and the style for Arsenal.

The tall commanding centre half we have been asking for has now arrived. A proven midfielder with no shortage of guile and skill has come into the centre of the park. Alongside the other new signings and our established squad a new direction for Arsenal football club seems to be emerging.

Whether by forced hand or by free will, Wenger’s approach will now have to change. And I can not wait to see how all this unfolds on Saturday, and beyond.

ANDY KYRIACOU

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  • mr waitandsee

    the proof is in the pudding!…..im yet to be convinced as i believe we all are.
    there is still an element of tight purse strings in these transfers

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  • Roymah

    sometimes i simply do not understand arsenal fans, or fans in general. they seem to have tunnel vision. wenger pioneered the big athletic men, sprinting across the field and bullying opponents into submission a decade ago. he signed experienced wingers like overmars and pires, bought grimandi and various other experienced players (remember wiltord ?). Wenger is not a manager who is obsessed with kids and does not NEVER buy experienced players. different circumstances call for different measures. when the sugar daddys came knocking, he knew the club had to move to a new stadium and since you cannot spend heavily on both the stadium and players, he built a young team based on fabregas. in fact, he sold vieira when he was convinced fab was ready. was he proven wrong ? did fab get injured frequently in the first 3 seasons ? no ! so he built a team around THE marquee player, fabregas, and got rid of players who could not fit into this system because every system require different types of players. we need more technical players, so wenger bought rosicky (not a kid), arshavin (not a kid),  eduardo (not a kid) and walcott to complement and begin a new system. unfortunately things did not work out as well. we know what happened to eduardo, ramsey and rosicky (always injured). whose fault was that ? wenger ? maybe ? cos hes supposed to be supernatural and knows and gets everything right huh ? and during this time, while having to compete with sugar daddy clubs, building a new system, and his superbly skillful team chopped down by opponents resulting in long layoffs, can we really say unreservedly that wenger did everything wrong ? and just because he bought 5 players in the last few days of the transfer deadline (fyi, only 2 were last minute, the rest were already confirmed), write articles that said ‘told u so’ ? sometimes i really question the intelligence of some people out there criticizing wenger. if i were his boss, or if i have any capability of being a boss (which i am), i will say that wenger is a gift to his employers, willing to adjust plans for the sake of the organisation. remember benitez ? or some of those shameless managers out there threatening to quit if funds were not made available for them to spend ? THINK about these before criticizing wenger …

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    • Venky

      spot on

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    • Frazer_d9

      it make me sick the way every1 is out there criticizing wenger…wht is all this witch hunt about! his ex-players, pundits, media et al… its very sad but im really surprised despite all this he still has the courage to stand up n fight… i mean hes still highly coveted by Real Madrid! 
      n this guy managed the INVINCIBLES! so he knows his football…he knows whats defence, midfield,attack is all about…so ppl saying he is blind to our problems are so wrong maybe they need a history lesson….
      this year we ARE winning a double 100%

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  • http://www.facebook.com/alireza.fayyazmanesh Alireza Fayyazmanesh

    what ever we say about Wenger , and  no matter how many times we mean he made mistake but there is a only one thing , which we have to pay attention of            
    “WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE A ONE OF THE BEAST MANAGER IN FOOTBALL WORLD”  if you now replace him with one of the other top managers, the first thing they ask for from club is big name players otherwise they don`t will come (Josef Marinio) believe me or not noun of them can do the same work he has done in 15 years. so i think we have to give the man time and space and do not let our frustration blind our judgement, and if we think we can replace him with better one then we have think twice, first we have to finde a manager in his level or better then talk about replacment.

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  • DD in LA

    Changed??

    We got Arteta at last minute as Wenger had to do something after man U mauled us. Motes was completely surprised and bummed Arteta was leaving and Arteta himself said he has to jump at the chance – translation, this had not been going on all summer. Translation: there was NO plan here to get him, or Benayoun.

    Mertsecker is a second best last minute for Cahill Jones and others we were pursuing.

    Wenger was obviously satisfied with toddlers Jenkinson and Oxlade until 8.2.

    Translation: the bungling mismanagement continues. So don’t get too excited yet.

    Look for a draw tomorrow with Swansea — we are traumatized and have a
    team that has barely practiced together, been playing internationals and a striker stuck in Paris (?). Swansea have nothing to lose. Could be Hull all over again.

    We are at the beginning of maybe a recovery to 5 or 6th.

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  • Anonymous

    Where is TGIF?

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    • Berg10

      JiN
      I think TGIF will have to be TGIS or NTGIF

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