Wenger-ball and the cost of Arsene-omics

Arsenal: Wenger-ball, and the cost of Arsene-omics

Catalysed by the 5 – 1 rinsing delivered at Anfield yesterday, but built on years of Arsenal, Wenger's Arsenal, and now Wenger's trophyless Arsenal, I think there's two problems that need to be resolved before there's going to be any real chance of picking up some silverware.

We have to play Wenger-ball

Which is fine, when you're winning. For example, yesterday, it didn't take long to work out what the officials were going to give us: nothing. A decent amateur club will have someone on the park who, either naturally, or through learned behaviour and orders, will get the picture and start getting into the officials faces. The most successful clubs do it even when they're winning, because they want to stay winning, or to win by more. United under Ferguson were masters, to the point where as a player was booked, he took a back seat in berating the referee, to be replaced by a team mate without a yellow card. Wenger appears to see himself as a custodian, as a curator of the beautiful (and it is a beautiful) game. Professional sport is all about winning, and doing whatever it takes to win, or to maximise your chances of winning.

I wonder, now, whether the departure of some of our better players, and some of our more spiteful, more practical, players, might not have something to do with Wenger's insistence on adherence to his philosophy and ethos. If the opponents have a player prone to going down, going off, clearly unsettled by rough treatment, then rough him up.

Jason Burt was hopelessly wrong in the Telegraph. We don't need less Jack Wilshire petulance and willingness to get embroiled in feuds, we need more back-up for Jack, and more of that type of player so he doesn't stand out so much.

Wenger needs to concede that it's about winning, that sometimes there's a dark side to winning that makes all the difference, and that all the time there's a dark side that can give you an edge, or restore an even playing field when things are against you. I don't for a moment suggest we turn into Stoke under Pulis. But the best teams have a player who will turn to a referee giving them nothing and tell him that if he doesn't start looking after them, they'll start looking after themselves, and he'll have carnage to deal with.

Arsene-omics

Wenger has spoken out about the money side of the game, about unsustainable player wages (although he doesn't mind pocketing a decent wage himself), about the need for financial fair play. He appears by nature conservative, adverse to shifts in the environment and unable to adapt to paradigm change.

The simple case is that the team with the most points, and not the most points per pound spent, wins the league. The team that gets to the final and wins the game lifts the cup. Not the losing semi-finalist after income / expenditure adjustment and sustainable practice bonuses.

Too frequently Arsenal fans write about the oil-money clubs as if they're not real rivals because they have that oil-money. To win anything, at some stage, we need to overcome Chelsea or City, or a club that have themselves beaten one of the mega-rich two. As more big investors become involved, the situation isn't going to ease anytime soon. Anyone hoping the financial fair play rules will have teeth doesn't have that hope on the basis of any experience or precedent.

Sometimes there's overwhelming needs that trump any requirement for financial prudence or achieving value for money. I think the January transfer window was one of those, only because not enough business was done in the summer. I don't expect Wenger to morph into Redknapp overnight and splurge on anyone (a) available and (b) willing to transfer and see if some of them work out; but I did expect a more practical, commonsense, and less entrenched approach. That hasn't happened, and we were sat at the top of the league with (to use his words) players in the red-zone in positions where the cover clearly was insufficient: at centre forward, where Bendtner hasn't suggested he represents a viable back-up to Giroud, and at centre-half, where we're one injury or suspension away from a defensive shuffle, with Sagna moving into the middle and Jenkinson coming in at right-back, in turn leaving us no right-back cover.

Overall, sadly, because he has been a great manager in the past, the club seems hamstrung and inhibited by the manager, or by some of the manager's sticking points, or by the club not taking responsibility, and over-ruling the manager on those points.