da betcris： The FA cup triumph at the end of last season, Arsenal’s first trophy for nine years, was meant to signify a new era at the Emirates; one where the club had rediscovered it’s winning mentality, shaken off the cobwebs of the last decade and started to produce prosperity both on and off the pitch.
da wazamba： It coincided with the activation of a sponsorship deal with Puma, improving Arsenal’s financial firepower by £22million plus bonuses per-annum, in addition to a three-year contract extension for Arsene Wenger, taking his stewardship of the club into an unprecedented third decade after silencing those who claimed he’d never again bring silverware to north London.
Plausible excuses for the Gunners not to awaken from their fourth-place malaise were quickly wearing thin.
Yet, just eight games into the 2014/15 Premier League season, less than half a year since the Wembley showdown against Hull City, and Arsenal’s ‘new era’ is already feeling eerily like the last.
Recurring themes are aplenty; a seven-man injury list, despite hiring German World Cup fitness guru Shad Forsythe during the summer. Poor performances and results against top sides as a direct consequence of Arsenal’s naively progressive philosophy. Mesut Ozil, the £42.2million club record signing, still proving he’s completely wasted out wide. The Gunners already eleven points off the pace set by Premier League leaders Chelsea as Wenger remains without a win against Jose Mourinho.
And it’s all underpinned by a summer in which Wenger, not for the first time, failed to use the transfer market to address any of his squad’s long-term flaws, barring locating a replacement for Bacary Sagna in Newcastle’s Mathieu Debuchy.
Indeed, the Gunners spent an incredible £80million this summer, marking the most lucrative transfer window in the club’s history, yet they’ve somehow still entered the season without a superior option to Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta in holding midfield or enough defenders to see out even the most ordinary of injury crises. Against Hull City last weekend, Arsenal’s ad hoc backline included 5 foot 10 full-back Nacho Monreal at centre-half and 19 year-old Hector Bellerin starting at No.2, in his first ever Premier League outing.
Amid the rare euphoria of silverware in May, it was quickly forgotten that the only person Arsenal truly required to change had, over the years, become the most resistant to it – Arsene Wenger.
In fact, winning the FA Cup for the first time since 2005 appears to have only served as a justification for the Frenchman’s methods; his narcissistically arrogant view that the strength of Arsenal’s philosophy alone is enough to quash any high-quality opposition, his continual reluctance to add any genuine physicality to the squad, his perpetual disagreement that the Gunners’ midfield requires more balance, his unwavering faith in fate, his own intelligence and Arsenal’s academy overcoming any issues of squad depth.
At this point, as Arsenal find themselves at seventh place in the Premier League table after just two wins in seven, with Wenger already deflecting criticisms of his transfer policy, one has to question whether he’ll ever show a conviction to change, whether the Gunners will ever truly challenge for the English title under him and whether signing that new contract was actually a good idea.
Of course, you can’t blame Ivan Gazidis and the board for offering him one, as spineless as it may have been. This is one of the greatest managers in Arsenal’s and Premier League history, in theory reinvigorated by winning his first trophy in almost a decade.
Likewise, after witnessing the debasing effect Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement had on Manchester United last season – a club far more capable of handling such stresses financially than Arsenal – Gazidis was never going to take the gamble of throwing his club into the same downward spiral.
When Alan Curbishley stepped down as manager of my beloved Charlton Athletic in 2006, he taught me a lot about football, and indeed life. With tears in my eyes as well as his, he orated to the Valley crowd “it’s better to be clapped out of the front door than booed out the back.” He could sense the winds of change in south east London, he knew he could take the club no further.
The FA Cup win would have been an enormous high for Wenger to leave on – one that fairly represented his servitude to the club over the last 18 years. Yet, as he appears as resistant to change as ever, as another Arsenal title pursuit seems over before it’s started, as transfer policy once again stands in the way of balance and consistency, it’s likely only a supporters’ revolt – a proverbially violent and bloody mess – will remove Wenger now.
And what a fantastic opportunity the Gunners could have presented a new manager with this summer; an Arsenal high on confidence after winning the FA Cup, a new sponsorship deal giving him enormous manoeuvre in the transfer market, a squad of young players ready to adapt and learn. If a Roberto Martinez, a Jurgen Klopp or a Mauricio Pochettino were brought in, Arsenal’s ‘new era’ might already be proving more successful than the last.
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