Arsene Wenger is under increasing pressure (REUTERS)
How to create a PR disaster (part one): With your club slipping out of four competitions at the end of a season that had promised so much, thus extending a trophy drought to six years, why now wheel out your chairman to greet unhappy fans with the following statement?
“I simply cannot believe Arsene will react to these stupid comments from these silly people. They are supposed to be supporters, but, in fact, they do quite a lot of damage.”
How to create a PR disaster (part two): Despite the hurt and pain at the aforementioned collapse still hovering over the club like a dark and angry cloud, why not take the decision to raise ticket prices by 6.5 per cent? After all, you already charge some of the highest prices in Europe, so why not charge some more? Easy money.
How to create a PR disaster (part three): Let your manager insist that the club will not countenance the sale of both of your best players in the same summer. Then, a few weeks later, concede defeat and sell both.
How to create a PR disaster (part four): See your manager claim that you only want “super-quality” signings to improve the squad. Then when you balk at the price being asked for his primary defensive target, move on to a much cheaper option. Even if he has just been relegated, and missed the final four months of last season with a hamstring injury. Goodbye Phil Jagielka, hello Scott Dann.
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So far this summer, Arsenal’s PR department have been having the sort of nightmare experienced on a weekly basis by Sebastian Squillaci. Almost with every passing week, the public image of the club has deteriorated further. This week Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri will go. Next summer it could be Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott. Could even Arsene Wenger join them in the revolving door at the Emirates marked ‘Exit’? It is by no means inconceivable, and the next three weeks will go a long way to defining the next few years for the club.
It is paramount that the club show some real ambition in the transfer market over the next 20 days. They may be rightly proud of the model of self-sufficiency they have adopted, but as has been repeated ad infinitum, football fans do not want a healthy bank balance, they want trophies. For some fans, it is perplexing to see two billionaires with major stakes in the club, yet continue to see Arsenal scratch around for the next bargain.
Never has their place in the upper echelons of the Premier League been so threatened as now.
Manchester United have strengthened significantly, a real show of ambition from a club not prepared to sit back and admire their achievements in winning the league last season. Manchester City have, predictably, spent big to bring the superb Sergio Aguero to Eastlands. Liverpool have spent heavily to immediately improve their midfield, with Jose Enrique set to fill their problem position of left-back. Chelsea have added some much-needed youth to their experienced, powerful squad. Only Tottenham have had a similarly frustrating summer to Arsenal, though at least they have kept hold of Luka Modric so far.
Despite the defensive errors that have come to characterise this Arsenal side, it comes as no real surprise that Wenger’s two major signings this summer are Gervinho – a winger/second striker – and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a precocious attacking midfielder acquired for around £12m from Southampton. The only defensive reinforcement to arrive has been Carl Jenkinson, a 19-year-old right-back with less than 10 first-team appearances for League One side Charlton under his belt.
If ever there was a time for Arsenal to spend it is now. They must convince Van Persie and Walcott, whose contracts expire in two years’ time, that they can achieve their ambitions at the Emirates. And they can do that with some positive, morale-boosting dealings in the transfer market. If not, we will come to next summer and – just as the club have been forced to do with Nasri – Arsenal will have to sell both players to avoid losing them for nothing the following year.
But it is perhaps Wenger’s action that will be most closely monitored by the fanbase. Losing Fabregas is a grevious blow for the Frenchman. Fabregas was the emblem of this Arsenal team, the man chosen to lead the club into a brave new world following the departures of Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry. Now he too is exit-bound. That Nasri has joined the Spaniard in losing patience with the Wenger ‘project’ can only be a slap in the face for a manager who has placed such faith in his two young tyros. What can he do to pick up the pieces and rejuvenate an ailing squad?
When sections of the Emirates support booed their team off two weeks ago following the 1-1 friendly draw with New York Red Bulls, it was not an expression of dismay at missing out on lifting the Emirates Cup. At its root was a deeply-held frustration at the regular capitulations of the team at the first sign of adversity, and also anger at the club’s perceived lack of ambition at a time when it is clear that urgent surgery needs to be undertaken.
This was meant to be the summer that Arsenal were “very active”, to quote Wenger. Instead it has been a summer of anger, upset and uncertainty, a summer which will be remembered for the departure of two of the brightest talents at the club. Arsenal have been “very active”, but it has been in terms of outgoings, rather than incomings.
Wenger is now under pressure like never before. How sad it would be if the Frenchman, who has done so much for Arsenal in his 15-year tenure, was to leave the club under a hail of anger and abuse. Undoubtedly he is partly responsible for the current situation, but the board have been more than happy to hide behind their manager and let him bear the brunt of the criticism.
Wenger deserves much more than that. But over the next 20 days, it will be up to him to change perceptions and change the fortunes of a club that have experienced a summer that could prove pivotal in its recent history.
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