Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

A Tale of Two Transfer Philosophies

“It’s very difficult to buy because, if you ask a player of the medium level, they might ask for £55 million, It’s very difficult to enter the market with these prices and in this condition.”

“No. I’m not comfortable. I don’t like to pay a lot of money. If a player deserves it, then it’s right. But for a medium player, it’s right to pay the right price, not £20 or £30 million over. That’s not right. We must be patient and wait. We need to sign some players.”

Not the words of Arsene Wenger, but the words of new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte in this mornings Telegraph.

“I’ve tried my best, but I don’t think in the short term…You can’t just go ‘We have money’, and throw it away and take any players you want. It is always about the decision, you can sign a lot of rubbish with money or you can make really good decisions.”

“I cannot say, ‘It is only money going somewhere else’. We have money, but we are not in Disneyland and can say, ‘Come on, take what you want’. We have a budget, we work with it. This is for the long-term development of the club.”

Not the words or Arsene Wenger, but the words of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp back in January.

“I personally believe that no matter what you do, it’s never enough. In the Premier League, every club is hugely ambitious. With the cheques that everybody signs, it’s quite scary. But I believe we know what we have to do.”

That one was Arsene Wenger back in July.

This summer there seems to have been a clear line in the sand when it comes to the transfer policies of top clubs.

On one side, you have the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United. Between them they have spent over £300m on players. They are paying what selling clubs are asking for. Turning up with their suitcase full of cash and walking away with the player they need. Even if they are paying over the odds. Between them they have spent more than a third of the Premier League’s total outlay on player.

You then have the other side of the fence, where the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool & Spurs sit. Between those 4 clubs, they have not yet breached a combined spend of £200m. They are refusing to be held to ransom by European clubs who want a share of the Premier League TV money.

So why do England’s top 6 clubs have two very differing transfer policies? The answer is management.

At Manchester City and Manchester United, we have 2 short term managers. Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola rarely spend more than a few years at a club.

Manchester United is Mourinho;s 4th job since leaving Chelsea in 2007. Guardiola has been well quoted in the past that he never really wants to stay more then 3 years at clubs.

Both come into clubs with short term plans.

Spend big, win big, move on.

It has proved successful, but it has also proved expensive.

For both, they have been lucky that they have joined clubs where nothing needs to be built around them. The likes of Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid & Chelsea are designed for short term managers, come in, win, leave.

It is what has given them both the philosophy of spending big, spending quick. I would be surprised if any manager in world football has outspend Guardiola or Morunhio in the last 6 years.

It is the way they both work.

Than you have the likes of Wenger & Klopp. Both have built a legacy at the clubs they have spent the majority of their time at. Arsenal & Borussia Dortmund. They spent sensibly, and built the clubs up ensuring that they were not only successful during their era, but giving them the best chance of being successful in the future.

Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino seem to of be of a similar ilk. Even though both have already been through a few clubs, they now seem to want to build a legacy at both Chelsea and Tottenham respectively. They are in it for the long term.

And that is the line in the sand. If you are a short term manager like Guardiola & Mourinho, you are spending big, on short term solutions, with a short term goal of winning the Premier League and Champions League quickly, before leaving.

If you are in it for the long term, you always have one eye on the future.

What Conte has said about transfers is completely correct.

Napoli are demanding £55m for Kalidou Koulibaly. A player whom a year ago no one had heard of. John Stones went to Manchester City for £47.5m. A crazy amount for a player dropped by his club side last season, and did not play a minute at the recent European Championships.

You feel had Mourinho still had have been at Chelsea, Stones would be at the club, and probably Koulibaly too. Mourinho pays the money, no matter the price.The transfer window is a crazy place at the moment. European sides are basically naming their price, in the hope a club pays. It all depends how desperate, how short termist, the club is. Manchester City and Manchester United have thus far paid the price. Other clubs have basically turned round and said “don’t take the piss”.

Of course, this does not justify Arsenal’s lack of spending. Conte talks about the medium player who he values at under £30m. There have been plenty of said players move this summer who would have improved us. Shkodran Mustafi is one.

Just because we do not, and correctly should not, pay £55m on someone like Koulibaly, it does not mean we should not be paying for players who are worth what the asking price is (or a little bit more). And if someone like Antoine Griezmann is gettable at £90m, we should go and get him.

In the last year, Arsenal fans have said that we should have gone and the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte. Their philosophy fits in with Arsene Wenger’s. They would have been perfect for a club like ours. They are in it for the long haul.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

Arsenal Underprepared, Understaffed, Unsurprising

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“We paid for a lack of experience at the back and the fact some players are not ready physically to compete at this level.”

So in short, Arsene Wenger is saying that we were unprepared and understaffed for the opening Premier League game against Liverpool. And there is only one person to blame. Arsene Wenger.

Unprepared

By now we have all ready the statistic. Arsenal have lost 3 of their last 4 opening day games. And that took a 91^st minute winner by Aaron Ramsey against Crystal Palace.

That victory against Crystal Palace is our only victory in 7 opening day games.

“We are not ready. Physically we are not ready.”

Wenger go’s on to blame the Euro’s. Stating that he could rush players back, and risk injury, like what happened with Aaron Ramsey or “give them a rest and you start the season without many of your players”.

This catch 22 situation I do understand. Last season we were moaning in October when Alexis Sanchez picked him an injury against Norwich. Despite the injury being caused by an impact, many blamed him being rushed back from the Confederations Cup. Not being given a proper summer rest was also blamed for his early season lack of form.

Fast forward 12 months and we are demanding that the likes of Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny should be rushed back.

But the argument over a summer tournament is made completely redundant what you look at the form in the last 7 seasons. 1 win, 3 draws, 3 defeats. There has not been a major tournament every one of those years.

The lack of preparation is down to one man.

Like many things Arsenal, and Arsene, form can be split into two parts. Highbury & Emirates;

Highbury: DWWLWWWWW – 22 from 27
Emirates: DWWWDDDLWLL – 16 from 33

So why this massive drop off in form? Is it because we now chase the $$$ around the globe? Rather than concentrate on preparing in Austria like we used to, we now play friendly’s in America, Singapore, Australia, Norway & more.

But then every club does these now? So why do we start off so badly, every season?

Arsene Wenger’s pre season preparation is clearly the problem.

Understaffed

Before last season ended, the consensus on what we needed was a centre back, a central midfielder, and an attacker. We now sit here after the first game of the season with just the central midfielder. It is simply not good enough.

And like the lack of preparation, this is not the first time under Arsene Wenger that we have started a league campaign without the players we need to start a title challenge. We have a history of not making senior (over 21) transfers before the 2st day of the season:

Again, there is a clear split between Highbury and the Emirates.

We make nearly 50% of our transfers after the 1^st game of the season. This shows a clear problem with our summer transfer planning.

It is almost as if Arsene Wenger planning is that he gets the current crop of players back into pre season training, see how they develop, before making any moves in the transfer market.

It leaves us short every single season.

I would not be surprised if we go out this week and buy an attacker and a defender, but once again it is too little too late.

We have already lost 1 game, and it will take a few weeks for the new signings to settle at the club, in the team, in the Premier League, in England.

Often sides do start slowly. They scrape scrappy wins. Like Man City at the weekend. That is part of a team settling. But their players will be more settled by the time the international break comes round in. Ours will take longer. By which time we could be out of the title race.

Unsurprising

And ultimately it comes down to a defeat on the first day of the season. And none of us were surprised. It was underwhelming.

Yesterday there was none of the vitriol of previous 1^st day defeats. The odd dissenting voice. The odd “WENGER OUT”. A couple of the free programmes thrown on the pitch. The single man with a sign. But it was not like previous where you have had 60,000 people singing spend some f***ing money.

It is like we now suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

We have been mistreated by the club for so long that we are now indifferent to the poor treatments. Whilst we do not accept it, we do now expect it. Yesterdays failure came as no surprise. Rather than turn anger at the management, we turned round to those we sit near and simply muttered oh well! Here we go again.

Wenger is a man who always has his excuses ready. Any office manager will know the sort of employee that Wenger is.

You pull an underperformer into a meeting, they spill out all the excuses under the sun for the reason they have not met the expectations. When the reality is they have just not performed well enough.

They refuse to accept anything is their fault. Always something or someone else to blame.

The systems were a little slow, a couple of days off sick, the bloke I sit next too is a little noisy, not enough merchandise to hand it. The reality is they are just pre-prepared excuses. The reality is the individual has not worked hard enough, has not done what was asked of them, has not followed the instructions or advice given by management.

We lose against Leicester; Wenger will once more roll out the excuses. None of them will be his fault. It will be players still returning. New players settling, the injury list. He will absolve himself of any blame, even though he can control all of these things.

Once against we are entering a league campaign underprepared, understaffed, and we are just unsurprised.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC