Where Arsenal leads, others will follow
ByIt’s often said that the difference between insanity and genius can only be measured by success. Invariably, the great visionaries amongst us mere mortals are summed up as folks with issues that are too complicated to understand. Our very own genius Arsene Wenger has from time to time been swiped by this ignorant brush, particularly by those who find it too complicated to understand what the man is trying to do.
Stingy, thrifty, obsessed, egomaniac and a host of other superlatives have often been used to describe Wenger, especially when simpletons try to explain away why Wenger refuses to bankrupt Arsenal by going out and “buying” over priced big name players. These are supposedly players that Arsenal must buy to be able to challenge for trophies.
Until recently, the emergence of ’sugar daddies’ from the Arabian peninsula, America and Russia threatened a new model to the order of football as we know it. While these billionaire owners pumped obscene amounts of money into their new clubs in a ’get success quickly’ scheme, many others sought the comfort of debt financing and shook hands with the devil in a bid to try and survive. This profligacy and ’cheque book’ management of clubs went unchecked (well, is still going unchecked) – when it seemed that it was the normal thing to do.
Arsenal on the other hand, were led by a combination of a prudent board, an economist masquerading as one of the best managers in world football, and the restraints of financing a mortgage for a new stadium. These factors alone have contributed to Arsenal being perhaps the best managed club in the world in the way it handles its affairs on and off the pitch. Key to this success has been Wenger the economists vision of building a team that is capable of playing sexy and scintillating football, while challenging for honours – all without bankrupting the club.
More importantly, Wenger has built a youth development structure and training infrastructure and facilities that would rival the best in the world. Very few clubs, if any, have such comprehensive and state-of-the-art facilities. The vision to do this will only guarantee that for years and decades to come, Arsenal will benefit from the legacy of a man who has had the courage to take on and deliver an audacious vision and strategy.
While all this has been going on, ignorant and misinformed folks in the establishment have spent a considerable amount of their time and energy castigating Wenger and looking for every excuse under the sun to discredit his development policy. It’s so often you hear submissive sweeping statements like ”Arsenal haven’t won any title for 5 years” or “Arsenal need to buy big players to compete”. The perception that Wenger’s development work is fraught with difficulty has been compounded by the fact that patience is a very rare commodity in today’s ”we want success now at all costs” football. Very few have actually had the time and patience to appreciate how far the young men Wenger has been leading have come and how mature they have grown to be. The faith that the manager has put in them is starting to show.
There are those who have noticed though, but short of taking a gulp of the humble pie and stating it for what it is, there’s a clamour around footballing circles to try an emulate what Wenger and Arsenal has been doing for over 10 years.
In an interesting interview Guus Hiddink had at the end of last season, he suggested that one of the areas that he advised Abramovich on is the fact that he needs to get Chelsea into the mindset and philosophy of supporting and promoting youth. Hiddink cited Arsenal’s youth infrastructure and policy as one to emulate.
Around the same time, Fabio Capello the England manager hailed Arsenal’s youth development and training policy as one of the best in the world and one that clubs around the world should emulate.
This past weekend, under pressure Liverpool manager Rapha Benitez was setting out his stall to the Sunday Times and drew a beeline from Melwood to London Colney – pointing out that the Arsenal way is the only sustainable way to follow and the days of big money ’cheque book’ management are numbered.
This week, Gary Cook and his team at Manchester City have also hailed Arsenal’s youth development policy and said that it is the system that Manchester City want to follow and just because they’re seen to have money, they can’t keep buying off the shelf, over-priced and over-hyped players in defiance of common sense.
And many wonder why Arsenal is the greatest club on this planet. The truth is that by the time the simpletons in the footballing establishment realise the benefits of Arsenal’s vision, we will be well and truly straddling the footballing landscape as the greatest club on earth – and making a hell of a lot of money while doing it.
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Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
“insanity and genius can only be measured by success”
Yep but what is the measure for success?
In football some would say the only success is trophies won, promotion gained. At the top level it would have to be PL or CL.
On that criteria around 80 league teams out of 92 are failures.
That is clearly ridiculous so, for me, success is fulfilling realistic expectation, understanding the resources that your team & their competitors have at their disposal.
The problem has always been unrealistic expectation allied to ignorance of how success is normally achieved.
You have explained very well the situation of how AFC had to develop after the conclusion of the ‘Invincible’ period, combined with the general upgrading of the club with a magnificent new stadium, at a time when buying the best was simply not an option because of the reckless purchasing policies of Man U, Liverpool & the whatever it costs attitude at Chelsea.
We would indeed have been bankrupt. It was not even a fair expectation to remain in the CL places whilst building an essentially new team.
“ignorant and misinformed folks in the establishment have spent a considerable amount of their time and energy castigating Wenger”
- add to that the anti-support.
Absolutely baffling!!
Almost there now, I think, against the odds. No guarantees but AW with the board have produced a club & team set up to challenge, long term on a world stage.
It will be interesting to see how easily Chelsea handle the changes that will be inevitable in the next few years. Will there always be a £30m player to instantly fix all their ills & what happens if Abramovic is unable or unwilling to fund it?
I now find it hard to remember when teams actually fielded a majority of their own developed players with a sprinkling of signings, maybe one of which actually cost much money. Yet this has been the way of Britih football for over 99% of it’s history. T’was not that long ago.
The days when you knew that Sammy Nelson would one day replace Bob Mcnab. the days when if your centre forward was injured, the reserve CF was called up. That’s why there were reserve teams.
It is astonishing how quickly this model of football team development has been discarded by clubs and forgotten by the seeming vast majority of fans, certainly those at the ‘top’ clubs.
It should return, you’d think, more or less, as the money runs out. The thing is, most clubs now could not support such a structure without a huge investment of time and resources. In an age when all resources are splashed on the next ‘big’ player, what clubs will actually manage, or bother, to spend that time and make that investment.
Would managers able to do it, if they are around, be given the time?
Especially as the debts mount and the pressure grows for more succes to service the debts to enable the purchase of players to…?
To be fair C’bob Man U sides have always had a splattering of home grown players coming through the ranks.
What you say is true, plus you could add that a number of players made their ways up from the lower divisions. Going back to the ’60s I can think of several England internationals who were playing in the old 2 & even 3rd divisions.
The difference today is the technical ability of the English lads has been shown up, particularly over the last 10 years or so.
This an important element in Darius’s article because it would appear that AW has us some way ahead in giving local talent the right sort of training at last.
It does seem that where AW leads the others will follow. Maybe what you described is on its way back albeit at a totally different level & format.
Interesting times ahead.
I agree Flint. Funnily enough I was listening to Letissier the other night and thinking if he would, or could, have stayed at a small club for the whle of his career these days. Ditto the likes of Stan Bowles.
To me Wenger has always been a leader in almost all of his doings…when he did things people tend to follow no matter how stupid it seemed to them at first.
Darius, Flint, C’bob, D’man1984, you have all made very valid & valueable points. I thank you for it.
The ingenuity of the man called Wenger, the Arsène of the Arsènal, is just rising for all to see. It is not yet at its full bloom. Indeed, many are still following the cloud that lead to deceit and they do not know it, but some are now following the stars that will lead them to the Bloom; then all shall see.
I think the media is the one who has equated trophies to success. Yes, trophies are nice – but if you go back in history, then the teams that people still talk about didnt win anything. I cite the example of the Hungarian team under Ferenc Puskas and the Dutch team of the 70s. Both still have a lasting legacy. Arsene Wenger has already achieved that with his Invincibles and he now wants to prove he can do it again by bringing on the youth. I feel lucky to have that man at the helm – I just hope I am not spoilt for life.
[...] system that will stand the club in good stead for decades to come. In my recent article – Where Arsenal Lead, Others Will Follow – I touch on the fact that Arsenal are trailblazing the direction in football and it’s [...]
Do we now see why Silent Stan is going about plotting silently on how to buy the club? The man has vision, it takes a visioner to recognize a genuine vision playing out.
Nof said.