According to the Mirror, the Arsenal board have moved to secure the long-term future of Arsene Wenger.
Thought to be an additional three years, the offer shows a signal of intent that the most successful manager in the club’s history is the man to lead Arsenal to a new era of success at the Emirates Stadium. The initial response from Wenger, as expected to the club he loves, is positive.
The rollercoaster 2012/2013 season
Considered good news for the majority of Arsenal fans, the extension seemed unlikely for much of the 2012/2013 campaign, with the losses to Blackburn and Bradford in the FA Cup and Carling Cup respectively being the most notable negatives of a turbulent season.
Many Arsenal fans, myself included, began to turn on the legendary manager during last season as a result of his transfer shortcomings, with mediocre players like Gervinho and André Santos purchased when real quality was needed in these positions in order to effectively challenge for silverware.
The resurgence in league form that occurred following the devastating 2-1 loss at home to Tottenham in March saw Arsenal achieve a league-best 26 out of 30 points in the last 10 games of the season, and secure the last Champions League place above arch-rivals Tottenham.
This helped to alleviate a lot of the pressure on Wenger and the board, however there is a sense around the club that more needs to be done in this summer’s transfer window – reflected by comments made by Gary Neville – in order to ensure Champions League qualification next season as the minimum target, with an effective title challenge or domestic cup success as the main target.
The real financial constraints revealed
Surprising revelations in Arsenal’s financial situation were released during the Arsenal Supporters Trust’s Annual General Meeting following the end of the season showed how much of a financial stranglehold the club was under during the previous few seasons.
Where money to spend on transfers and players wages was thought to be vast, Wenger was really operating with a shoestring budget. These revelations made the achievement of consistent Champions League qualification in a league with Chelsea and Manchester City – two of the world’s most filthy rich clubs owned by oil tycoons spending incredible sums of money for success – even more unbelievable.
To compare Arsenal’s net expenditure with Premier League rivals, you can’t help but think Wenger is a genius. Since the 1996/1997 season, net transfer expenditures are as follows:
Arsenal - £4.5m
Tottenham - £175m
Liverpool - £205m
Manchester United – £250m
Manchester City - £472m
Chelsea - £505m
To show this this kind of financial frugality in order to fund the £390m Emirates Stadium while keeping the club’s head above water – water being the Champions League qualification threshold – in an era of obscene spending (Liverpool’s £35m on Andy Carroll for example), is in my opinion the greatest managerial achievement in modern football, vindicating the Arsenal board’s apparent desperation to keep Wenger as the worthy talisman of this incredible club.
A new dawn at Arsenal
This summer has seen some significant financial changes. As the Emirates Stadium has now been almost entirely paid off, a new dawn for the club has begun. The AST’s AGM in June 2013 revealed that the club can finally compete with the financial powerhouses of European football. With Wenger managing Arsenal through a restricting transitional period, we are now out the other side, and are much stronger because of it.
We have already seen Wenger’s new intent to develop the club into a significant force this summer, with enquiries and bids made for an array of world-class talent such as Wayne Rooney, Gonzalo Higuaín (widely thought to be signing imminently from Real Madrid), Marouane Fellaini, Julio Cesar, and Luis Suárez who Arsenal reportedly made an almost club record-doubling £30m bid.
Along with the focus on current world-class talent, there has also been Wenger’s trademark targeting of the next generation of footballing talent, with interest in Lyon’s Clement Grenier, Saint Etienne’s Kurt Zouma, Bayer Leverkusen’s Lars Bender, as well as the capture of France U20 striker Yaya Sanogo, a free transfer from Auxerre (presumably for showing striking potential akin to a certain Thierry Henry at this early stage of his career).
Wenger is also known worldwide for his potential to nurture talent and coach the best out of players, and as a result, players often cite the reason for moving to the Emirates as wanting to work with the man himself.
Criticisms of the great man
There are criticisms of the way he has run Arsenal over the eight-year trophy less stretch, however. Allowing prized players to leave the club was a constant strain on Arsenal fans, with Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, and Robin van Persie the most recent big names to leave.
However the financial revelations previously mentioned suggest the board pressured the manager to sell them to generate stadium funds. This is reflected in the comments Samir Nasri made about his sale to Manchester City: “I would stay but Kroenke [Arsenal’s apparently invisible majority Shareholder] wanted the money“. This sale of top players to generate money will no longer be needed, with Robin van Persie’s sale to Premier League rivals Manchester United hopefully being the last instance.
Also, Wenger’s reluctance to delegate tasks to his coaching team has invited criticism. Wenger is known as top of the food chain in the Arsenal hierarchy, he controls all aspects of the club, some claim that the Emirates Stadium was built to his exact specification and joke it is dubbed “the house that Wenger built”. He likes to run all training sessions himself, when arguably others would do a greater job, such as Steve Bould not having enough control over the defensive training to make a significant difference.
He is the right man to lead us to more success
Ultimately though, Wenger wants to be as involved as possible because Arsenal is his club. He has done some incredible things at Arsenal, including the never-to-be-repeated Invincibles season of 2003/2004 and the consistent 16 years of Champions League qualification through the transitional period, and he deserves to remain at the helm when his long-term plans come to fruition in the next few years.
Offering Arsene Wenger a new long-term contract is the right thing to do by the Arsenal board, with the vast majority of Arsenal fans, myself included, maintaining that “In Arsene We Trust”.
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