A guest post from Muppet ( @MuppetGooner }
No sooner as we had won the FA Cup, the media narrative was being played out in the newspapers and on the radio. We were being reminded of our entitlement to the premier league. Of course, this was due to the amount of money we are all paying to support the club. Martin Samuel penned an article largely advocating that spending on Ozil and Sanchez had actually made us better. Words like “Cohesion” and “Stability” were all well and good, but we needed to continue to spend. The hacks clamoured to tell us, then ask us, what were the missing pieces of the jigsaw in order for us to win the title ? If I wasn’t so cynical, I would think it all sounds delightful. We are all over the radio. The media are chipping in and asking who we need, Martin Samuel is helping out. Hooray !
Well, not exactly. First of all, the acquisitions of Ozil and Sanchez are just two purchases that represent the first glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel. One which had a train coming the other way. There will be more. That is not to say that every signing will work out, that is not always possible. There have been some players that didn’t work out, like Gervinho and Santos, but there have been others that have. On the whole, I don’t know about you, but I am happy with our signings in the period where we had no money. As I look forward and have been enjoying the last 2 years, where we have had more money. Actually, there is a difference in my opinion and that of the media. I really really look forward. Not because we’ve got lots of money. No. It’s because we’ve got lots of money and Wenger is going to spend it. I actually believe, and will argue, that Wenger with lots of money will be the most frightning prospect in Europe. The media can print stories about Bale, and about Pogba, and valuations of £80m. But what the media forget is that Wenger created Vieira and Henry, and in their prime, they would have exceeed those valuations on today’s rates. So my question is this, if Wenger can develop a player, what is so difficult about buying a player ? The media clamour is that Wenger is famously reluctant to spend big. We know this is absolute nonsense. Wenger is actually famously reluctant to spend big on a player that he does not rate, or he cannot afford. Don’t believe that it is possible to spend over £30m on players that won’t improve the squad ? Look around you. Di Maria, Mangala, Torres to Chelsea, Andy Carroll to Liverpool, before that Juan Veron.
Samuel concedes Wenger’s point that three outstanding performers in the FA Cup final were Cazorla, Bellerin and Coquelin. The latter 2 players costing nothing, the former, criminally undervalued. So what is Samuel talking about ? Wenger knows he has to spend. This is the reason for the stadium move, the improvement in the commercial deals. This isn’t some deluded positive narrative. ! We are not going to ramp up our commercial operation to bring in £300 million a year so we can stick it in the bank ! The Chelsea fans know this, and are ringing the radio stations and telling everybody that we have lots of money, and therefore we should have won the title. But a title winning squad takes time to ferment. The Chelsea team that won the title were underpinned by at least 10 players who won the champions league. You cannot expect to win the title after two years by just spending £40 million in each year. Chelsea spent £111.3m net in 2003-04, and when that didn’t buy them the sought after trophy, they went out and spent a further £92.2m net in 2004-5, acquiring Drogba, Carvalho, Ferraira and Robben. Our purchases in the last 2 years have been nowhere near on a a comparable scale to this, but we are expected to win the title ? I can accept some of the argument that Chelsea had to spend big initially, but they went on to spend at least a further £300m net in the subsequent 8 years after 2005.
Now that the FFP regulations have been relaxed, Chelsea, Manchester United and City will all spend at least £100 million each. Even if we could match that, the only way in my view that we can hope to win the title, is to put faith in our squad and the players that we have now. Which is why Wenger’s comments about “Cohesion” resonate. He believes we are not far off. He is defensive on preferring to promote from within and not necessarily seeking solutions from outside, because those solutions don’t necessarily exist. Yes, Aguero may be an upgrade on all our strikers ? But he would cost the GDP of Sweden. It’s hard to not sound like an apologist for coming 3rd or 4th, but we can see already that there is a scramble for the best players in europe amongst all the top clubs. Which is why we need to maximise our squad development and home grown players. Ox, Bellerin, Toral, Coquelin. This is why I feel optimistic. I think we are nicely positioned, and have already shown improvement in the last 2 years. 2 FA Cups, and an average of 77 points each season. I don’t know the exact stats, but I think without the injuries, we probably average over 2 points a game. And recently, we have beaten all the big teams, save Chelsea. And I belive there is more to come, because there is surely, still, a huge amount of untapped potential in terms of players like Wilshere, Ramsey, Ox, Welbeck.. even Walcott, to develop more individually, and as a team, with the other, more experienced players. Sanchez in his 2nd season could be Henryesque, which would be sensational.
But for the half glass empty merchants, the concerns will be at the back. But what is interesting there, is we are not lacking in numbers. Gabriel and Chambers to cover for Kos and Mert. A coquelin partner/back up/replacement is where most concerns are expressed, and a goalkeeper. It will be interesting to see what AW does. But whatever happens next season, if you can’t be happy with some of the football that was served up this year, then you are probably a miserable bastard. Yes, Monaco was the nadir, but let’s console ourselves that no one else got any further than we did in the CL.
Positively Arsenal 
Very well said Muppet – agree with every word.
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These people will never get near having a glass half full. They are on the dregs.
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I think we need three new players, but have written a blog as to why this is part of an improving picture for The Arsenal:
http://www.rightattheend.co.uk/2015/06/arsenal-pulverise-under-par-villa-where.html
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Ian, you are entitled to your opinion But have to accept that it is only that.
Do we “need” a goalkeeper? I think not. My opinion.
Has Arsene accepted we need a player like Coquelin or has Arteta just not been available? We dont know. Again its opinion and guesswork.
A striker? Theo?
If we do know anything it is that we know nothing and sometimes the missing piece is at the club or in a position we haven’t considered.
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Muppet
“Wenger with lots of money will be the most frightening prospect in Europe”
Bazinga!
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Ian
Le Grove is on your blog list.
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“Wenger knows he has to spend”
No he doesn’t – in the sense that a) he will do wtf he likes, which may or may not involve spending on signing new players. The other element of being “richer, considerably richer” as Harry Enfield would say is that the funds do not necessarily need to be spent in what is likely to be a difficult and very expensive market on new faces. Use the cash to tie existing players into longer cast iron contracts. Splash the cash on infrastructure, on medicine and fitness. As massive an influence as Alexis has been this season his contribution pales in significance to our position for most of 2015 at the foot of the Injured Players League.
Great piece Muppet – got me thinking.
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Ian,
If you are new to PA you will need to understand that comments like the following from your piece will be remorselessly challenged. Please supply the evidence for Arsene being ‘bounced’ and are you really taking credit for the deep midfield issue?
“This is why he had to be bounced into the decision to recall Francis Coquelin from Charlton Athletic, a decision which in effect turned around Arsenal’s season. As a result, the manager has acknowledged what the majority of us having been saying for years, namely, Arsenal were weak in deep midfield and the team didn’t have an effective screening player – actually we did, it was just that he was never picked.”
Now back to work…..
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Sorry I should have said excellent piece Muppet, thanks….
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I agree with the general gist, the media obviously concentrate on the things that make them money rather than producing good content, but we probably do need to buy. If Theo is stepping up, then the goalscorer that seemed a necessity is now more of a desire to upgrade. If Szczesny’s mental state is now trusted by Wenger, and I have no idea whether that is the case, then we don’t need a keeper, but if it isn’t then an upgrade would be nice, but certainly not a necessity to win the league with two solid guys in there already.
All of which, is to say, that it’s all up in the air but there are probably areas we can improve, and should look to do so, and probably will.
I also think that we are in a very good position, we have some fine talent waiting to come through and only the best youngsters could force their way through now with our first team squad being stronger, rather than getting a chance through default; that can only be a good thing.
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Andrew “Use the cash to tie existing players into longer cast iron contracts. Splash the cash on infrastructure, on medicine and fitness. As massive an influence as Alexis has been this season his contribution pales in significance to our position for most of 2015 at the foot of the Injured Players League.” A bit short, but that could be a blog.
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Hunter – you are off the blog – thank you for the many good contributions, but in the past few days you have gone overboard, and not in a good way. Fair to let you know I think as I see you have been active this morning.
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Well put Muppet.
I think our current forwards – Welbeck in particular – will all improve next season. Who do we really need?
Its only if ‘top top quality’ becomes available on the market. I daresay Arsene knows what he wants. We shall see. I look forward with anticipation.
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Did hunter get banned, anicoll?
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He did, Again.
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There’s the rumour that Arturo Vidal will sign after the Champions League final this weekend. Apparently a nice but unconfirmed Argentinian source.
But where does he play?
Who does he replace in the 1st eleven?
Not saying no…just saying goodness, we have alot of good players.
Not to mention those injured or on loan.
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It’d be Santi or Rambo out for Vidal, with whoever isn’t dropped being pushed out wide. Of course, that is purely on a ‘best first eleven’ basis, with injuries there is plenty of gametime for everyone. Believe it when I see it though, plus Vidal was VERY divey in the CL so it might well be that he’s lost all desire for physicality and aggression these days, cutting down on his usefulness.
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Well thats the rumour, no idea if it eventuates.
But apart from mythical Viera-Beast-Wolverine-Hyrid (can I patent that player?) that is easy for the media to spot, I don’t know slots into the 1st eleven mid-field easily.
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Arsenal Fixture News @AFCFixtureNews 3h3 hours ago
The 2015/16 UK Arsenal Puma kit launch takes place on Monday 15th June 2015 at 10pm.
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Small technical issue I think here – I shall return to the workshop
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Other than relentlessly scouring the planet for players the other job Arsene has to do this Summer is finally decide what to do about Theo.
Now it appears to the outside observer that Theo and the club are on the edge of resolving outstanding contract issues and that our longest serving player ( almost a decade, odd I know) will be a fixture for the next three years.
But where oh where will he play ?
Now the past two games, and it is only two games against by no means the strongest defences in the PL, he has rocked as a striker, a roving assassin of the green baize, and his goals have been things of beauty as well as decisive in both victories.
But is Theo REALLY a central striker, has he got it in him to impose himself not just on the Villa’s and the Baggies of this world, but put in a big performance against those teams who really know how to defend. His fitness seems ok. He is now much more muscular/stronger than he was. The speed is there, and the finishing when he has time and space to unfoot a defender is top notch. He certainly, in my opinion, will need to work on his technique around the six yard box, that flash of one second pace to get in front of a defender. He will also need to applying himself to heading ball (has anyone ever seen him head a ball ?)
It may be that before Arsene decides to sign this mythical top top striker Theo’s progress over the past few weeks, and in training, will be in his mind.
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Pod on his way to Galatasaray
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-transfer-news-lukas-podolski-close-to-galatasaray-switch-10291416.html
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Muppet knows. I love his dissection of the numbers to give weight to what we already know; we are becoming more competitive without having to waste millions like United and the oilers. At this point in time we can use our cash to keep our best players; we know how fickle is their loyalty (Cesc, RVP and Nasri come to mind) while keeping our powder dry for any player coming on the market who can really improve us. We have the money. If there is any manager in the world who can pull this off it is Arsene. Thank heavens he has been resolute and stubborn in approaching this the right way or we could easily have blown our reserves as 1st Tottenham and lately Liverpool did with the Bale and Suarez money respectively.
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thanks muppet for the effort.
personally, i am not a big fan of big money transfer for two reasons.
1. it doesnt always guarantee success and 2. the pressure that comes with it.
so to spend big money on player except his name is messi doesnt always sit well with me.
ian, every club needs inprovement. but you cant just mention aparticular number. for instance last season, no one was talking about cech. and after the perfomance of szczesny in the final, the call has gone down a bit.
in my opinion, our defence is as good as any in theleague. themidfield is better than any in the league. infact coq is better than most in the league, including schneiderlin. our foward line is better than anyone in the league.
yes, we can improve on giroud but at what cost? we can even improve on sanchez if we like. but at what cost?
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Thanks Muppet.
Call me a cynic if you please, but I can’t help noticing that everything Arsenal is somehow dependant on what non Arsenal, ‘paid experts’, say this club needs.
This has been going on for as long as I’ve watched footy, but of course it has stepped up expo-thing-ily, as the years have passed.
“Buy a striker”. Really?
Would someone kindly tell me how many of our players scored this season?
For me this season was thrilling partly due to our many players scoring. Monreal at OT, for one example.
The reliance on RvP might have been damaging to some deeper team ethics-ness, though of course, I appreciated that he ‘scored when he wants’. (And pisses off when he wants, too).
I feel so warm when I hear our players talking about their/our team.
What was Theo saying about “trust”?
What was Wojo saying despite having been left out of the team for half a season?
Gibbs got the number 3 shirt and seems faster than Nacho. Did he start angling for a move, or complain?
Nacho got assaulted at Stoke but licked his wounds and carried on. Artetta got battered, Flam appeared to slow a little but could still bring someone down.
TR7 might’ve played more – but he didn’t.
I’m just so happy with Team Arsenal. The Arsenal. Team, team, team. Teamwork?
Team.
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Alan Sugar former owner of Tottenham:
“Arsene Wenget knows the market”
looking at the record: better then anyone else!
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if we have followed the trend of things in the past couple of seasons, then we’ll understand that this squad is good enough to win the title. all that we have to pray and hope for is injury free season. no club will have the number of players we have out injured and finish above us. none.
barca will likely win the cl on saturday. do they need improvement? yes. alaba is better than alba, koscielny better than anyone in their defence, veratti isan improvenent on anyone in their midfield. what they have lewy coming ofthe bench than pedro? with all this additions, if they have injuries to four key players including messi for four months, will they win the league title? i doubt it. just last year they were beaten 7-0 by bayern because messi was injured.
so before i will agree that we need a certain number of players to give us a chance to win the epl title, i firstwant to see us have a relatively injury free season. at least as chelsea and city.
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Ian @ 10.06
You are not being honest. Because Coquelin previously broke through into the arsenal first team. It happened. We all saw it.
We also saw the blatant deliberate uncalled foul (bit of a pattern with those at AFC) from Ramires which took him out, led to a goal and a defeat, and a setback in the young players career at AFC, a pattern with a frequency unequalled at any other club. So many names to choose from, I can’t even be arsed to name any others. Oh alright then. Ramsey, Wilshere. I could go on. But I won’t.
Please muster up the footballs required to admit what everyone can see, what has been observed recorded and cannot be argued against – AFC players have not been receiving the same protection as their rivals from the officials in this league. It was nice to see Reyes pick up another medal. He made the right call for himself & his career.
You can continue to blow your own flaccid trumpet, but you can’t edit the observations and memories of other arsenal fans. Thank you.
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In case Ian needs to be reminded
Viera an silva were both on he field for that 49th game that everyone songs about. Didn’t stop the official tilting, didn’t mean they could win the game, and it didn’t provide protection to the AFC players – that’s the job of the officials. It’s why they are on the pitch, why they have cards and whistles. This is not a difficult or outlandish consideration.
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The difference between Reyes and the F Word is that although following the infamous bruised bone (similar impact injury for welbeck ATM?) is that although they left for similar reasons one kept his dignity intact and the other did not. It’s not why you leave but how you leave that matters.
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“yes, we can improve on giroud but at what cost? we can even improve on sanchez if we like. but at what cost?”
This .
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Song had a successful season as a v.young D**Mer that was edited out above.
Then there was Arteta. How do you ignore AFCs best captain since Viera, their most important CM since, well, Viera. Or silva? That is strange to me.
Some would argue that Arteta has been the most important signing of recent years. The difference between last autumns run to the top and this season’s starrt was affected by the loss of the leader that some refused to acknowledge that the club have had.
But it’s allowed the opportunity to Coquelin to stake his claim as Arteta’s heir. 100% with his long range passes in a final? He’s on the way?
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“Some would argue that Arteta has been the most important signing of recent years”. That “some” would be me.
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I read a comment from Coquelin that he had not enjoyed his time at Fribourg because he was asked to play on the wing. There was a moment in the Cup Final when he ghosted past a player – in no space at all – tight on the left wing. I wondered then how much his deployment in that position at Fribourg was due to instructions from AW.
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Our terrible defenders and goalkeepers conceded 3 more goals than Southampton (who had no Euro games) and 4 more goals than Chelsea, who can hack and handball away any dangers with impunity.
Not counting our injuries and breakdowns at the back.
Our terrible attack scored only 2 goals less than Chelsea – and not one of our main strikers was fit or available for more than half a season. OK Alexis was amazing, but I don’t call his position a striker. Hunter probably has a fancy name for it. A 9.5 perhaps?
City scored more – they still have a superb attack line, but so do we.
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coughs
and me too, George.
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the funny thing is whenever pundits and fans want to talk down our DM position,they mention vieira. i ask, was vieira a DM? now they talk of vidal. is he a DM? will you sacrifise ramsey to accommodate a 28year old who may not even adapt to the league?
is he a big improvement on ramsey enough to win us cl? i dont think so. i’ll rather go with ramsey who was the best midfielder in the league just last year. what do we do with jack? andthis guys are product of our youth team, they love us and wont agitate for a raise once think an oiler is looking their direction.
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Freiberg was bootcamp for a young Coq to mature at. He had played 39 times already for AFC before that penultimate loan move.
He passed the exam, not many starlets at Arsenal do.
Arsene said BEFORE he was loaned to Charlton that he was impressed with his new attitude and approach to training and Coq need game time to bring his match fitness standard up and be Arsenal ready when called on.
He might have got lucky when Arteta got hacked down, but every player needs a bit of luck to get into the 1st team. I’m a massive fan of our club captain – but le Coq has taken over that position for the foreseeable. It’s Carling Cup and Bournemouth away for our Mikel from now on.
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AW asking for a CM to play wide during development or on the way back to full fitness? It has been a pattern.
Another consideration is that playing in CM is where all the fancy dans want to play (Ramsey, Cazorla, it’s a tricky one for the gaffer, so he plays them both! )
As a loanee perhaps Coquelin’s manger at Freiburg was not prepared to annoy or lose some of his permanent perhaps older CMs in order to accomodte Francis’ needs and desires?
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And home games where we wIil dominate DC
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Following his return on 12th December it did not seem to me that Francis Coquelin was the same impetuous young player who we had seen in his earlier phase at Arsenal. He puts the foot in, not to mention his nose, but he is a lot better in his timing and staying on his feet in challenging for the ball.
Those first few games back he was still very much under scrutiny though. When he replaced Giroud at Anfield on 82 minutes and Liverpool then scored their equalizer, and was part of the disappointing defeat at St Mary’s ten days later, the Groaners went into overdrive about the young Frenchman’s shortcomings and how Arsene should spend some farkin’ money in the window.
After the Etihad however it went a bit quiet
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it’s almost a concensus among pundits and fans that matic is the best DM in england (i dont agree). they praise chelsea for it.but wait a minute, matic was on their book, he was theirs until they gave him away plus 25m for a player that never made into their first 11 until they sold him in the summer. we could have been in the same position had wenger listen to those who think coq was a deadwood last year. should we do the same with ramsey and jack?
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Mr Byrne seems to think Vidal is a DM, a la Coq.
Oh my.
We actually could have played without Le Coq on Saturday (Hindsight is always 20/20 vision) – I have said before the team don’t really need a DM for a lot of their games, like who are we defending the ball from really?? We own the ball in games.
Put two playmakers in there and let’s rip ’em a new one.
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our improvements this season, as in every other where we have gone on a long run, is down to continuity and cohesion within the team. it is certainly not some mythical beast rocking up and stopping the talent and tactics of opposition, thats just for the lazy hacks and shallow thinkers.
It seems strange that those who recognise the major effects of injury have on our title ambitions cannot see the perverse logic in saying we need 5 massive signings.
many people suggest the title would have been very close if chelski wernt able to open such a gap during our broken spell early doors (and that included a dubious ref at the bridge) so surley we just need to match any improvement if any they and city make.
As always history tells us that the position you most need is very rarely the one that seems obvious at the start of the season so buying the correct player with the correct desire, character, talent and discipline is extremley difficult. It is for this reason that so many people, including top managers, get it wrong however I think I know a man who stands the best chance of getting it right and he doesnt work for the media.
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Patrick Viera was not a defensive midfielder, neither was Roy Keane – they were just the complete article, by Premier League standards anyway.
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Arteta was in the team for 5-1 loss at Liverpool, so was much of the 1st choice team from last season. Ditto for the 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea, and the 3-0 loss at Everton.
As results like these never happened again this season, I suggest the Manger and team have figured out where it went wrong, and how to deal with it. There is a quote from Mikel who says he discussed this with AW and the team before our lovely 2-0 win at City this season.
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It’s true Mikel is not getting any quicker at his age, I guess that’s one reason why Coquelin was in the squad at the start of the season.
A master and an apprentice in CM.
At LB too.
And at RB.
A couple of masters in AM and a few apprentices.
Oh. Nearly forgot Chambers. Still excited by his CB debut in the super cup: what a performance opposite, yes, aguero and a full strength city front line.
Alexis’ English clone Chamberlain. Alex might be more at home with the old passing and movement (?) but he’ll also be looking to copy as much and as many of alexis’ skills as he can. And that is also exciting. Gnabry starring in this all star cast as
Sanchez’s junior apprentice?
Interesting times ahead.
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Rantetta
June 2, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Thanks Muppet.
Call me a cynic if you please, but I can’t help noticing that everything Arsenal is somehow dependant on what non Arsenal, ‘paid experts’, say this club needs.
yes Rantetta, it always amazes me that Arsenal are always the target for these experts advice, it seems like every other day ex Liverpool player Jamie Carragher concerns himself with what Arsenal should do, must do, need to do, have to do etc etc, why does he not concern himself with what lfc must do, what rodgers should do, etc etc etc
why is one(Arsenal) of only 3 BPL clubs(Man city, Chelsea, Arsenal) to have won a trophy(2 ieach n fact) in the last two seasons the club being targeted by the media for all their wisdom and expert advice, why not advise Man Utd, Liverpool, Tottnum, why are the obsessed with Arsenal, is Agenda Arsenal Trophyless still in full operation by the media, and if so we all need to ask why.
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changing the topic
I feel Arsenal need an inspiring club song or club hymn or anthem, one that the team comes out to, one that the fans will sing before/during/after games, something along the lines of what other football teams and other sports teams have
liverpool – you’ll never walk alone
man city – blue moon
southampton – oh when the saints come march in
England Rugby – Jerusalem
Munster Rugby – The fields of athenry
Ajax – three little birds
you get the gist from that list of what I mean, what you guys think, and what would be your choices, I suggest it could be Queens “we will rock you”, or the Hymn “Amazing Grace”
I think that the club should get fans groups like Redaction to organize it
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My Old Man’s a Dustman?
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