By Tony Attwood
One of the regular comments made against Arsenal is that there is no coherent plan. I disagree. In fact, I think the club has over the past two years had three plans.
Plan A: to wrest back control of matches from PGMO
This, we’ve been following for over a year. Cut out tackles and the ref can’t give fouls. Cut out fouls and the ref finds it hard to give yellow cards.
And it was important as in 2019/20 Arsenal got the most yellow cards in the league, getting more than twice as many as the least carded club – Liverpool. This season we are 16th in the yellow card league with just four more cards than the least carded club WHU, and only one more than Liverpool.
Plan B: bring in a new young defence that could keep the cards low.
To do this Arsenal replaced the defence with the best young players we could find, who would learn from a younger age, how to play with minimal tackling. That was completed last summer.
Plan C: cut the wages bill
This consisted of two parts. Get rid of the players on top salaries (Aubameyang and Ozil) and only buy young players, while also promoting brilliant youngsters. As a result, we have the youngest team in the Premier League.
Of course, this is not just an Arsenal issue, for all the big clubs in Europe are struggling with wages, which last season continued to rise across football, as revenues collapsed. Indeed 15 clubs in European first divisions and a further 37 clubs in European second divisions were subject to insolvency proceedings during the 2020/21 season. All for this reason.
But at the same time player wages kept rising across Europe. As a result, the top clubs between them lost £3.4bn in 2020-21 season, largely due to a) covid, and b) having a loss-making model and c) wages still rising.
In fact, the total insanity of football is revealed by the fact that across the top leagues in the world salaries and agents’ fees took up 91% of revenue. As a result, the top clubs took on another £670m debt – that is new debt to be added to the old debt they already had.
It is simply impossible to carry on like this. True there are always a few more rather silly billionaries who would like to throw away a few hundred million pounds, but that is hardly a way to sustain football.
So the obvious solution is to cut costs, which means reducing the amount spent on wages and transfers.
Now obviously last summer Arsenal were hardly a perfect example of this, having spent more on transfers than any other club in the Premier League. But they bought young, cut Ozil and Aubameyang from the salary structure, and developed radical previously unseen tactics to reduce the yellow cards.
As a result of all this, although a lot of money was spent last summer, the actual cost of running Arsenal has been reduced quite considerably, which is what is needed. Also by bringing in young players either in transfers or through the youth system, there is the possibiliity of more profit in the future – which was part of the Wengerian model.
Now of course none of us wants to see our brilliant young players brought in and then sold on, but on the other hand that is what Mr Wenger used to keep the club going, from Anelka through to Henry, from Overmaars to Nasri, from Vieira to Clichy, from Toure to Adebayor… and that is not even mentioning Fabregas.
Of course there are still some supporters who are critical of what Mr Wenger did at Arsenal – of how after the unbeaten season we didn’t win the league again, and how becoming the club that spent more consecutive years in the Champions League than any other except Real Madrid was not a trophy, and how winning the FA Cup more times than any other manager and any other club was not a trophy of importance.
But he also ensured the financial well-being of the club. And that I believe is what Mr Arteta is doing. He and the club are not getting it all right at the moment – Mr Wenger’s genius for selling players on at exactly the right moment to maximise the profit has gone. But it is easier for Mr Arteta because he doesn’t have a new stadium to pay for.
There is nothing wrong with bringing in young players and promoting from the ranks of the youth team. And besides big money transfers often don’t quite work out as one might hope.
If you want to see the success of the new Arsenal model consider Smith Rowe, Saka and Martinelli (who, remember, was rejected by Manchester United before coming for a trial with Arsenal).
There are some real positives in the club, and maybe it is time to focus on them.
One other way to look t it is this :
the youngest team in the league and in contention for a place in CL ?
When has that happened last in the PL ?
Throw into the lot a few players now regular Three Lions members and one wonders why the so-called press cannot aknowledge what is happening. Or rather it becomes clear why they are not. Any other club would be the media’s darling.
The media usually acknowledge the quality of Arsenal’s young players by promoting the idea that they need to move to Liverpool, Man City etc, in order to realise their true potential and win trophies.
It has already started with Saka, ESR and Martinelli.
So even a positive Arsenal story is turned into a way to denigrate our club.
Chris
Spot on. That the media won’t acknowledge it doesn’t diminish the excitement of this young team. Not a finished product, but Edu and Arteta have a plan that has AFC in contention for European places and some real talent; Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Odegaard forward and a young, athletic back 5. I enjoy the football and realise that mistakes and missteps will happen. The team is moving up the table and is moving, as it says on the shirt, FORWARD.
https://www.insideworldfootball.com/app/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-20-at-19.24.35.png
How sad to see Arsene Wenger in league with the man in the middle!
A & B a is pure conjecture. Unless you have some evidence that is!
Has the coaching team really sat down and said “the key outcome we need to bring about is reducing yellow cards, and our cunning plan to do that is by reducing tackles”. Much more likely to have said “we need to reduce the number of shots on our goal and increase the number at the other end”. But that is pure conjecture on my part.
The reduction in number of given fouls could be a statistical anomaly, or it could be the unintended consequence of any number of other things.
(A change in application of the laws, or due to change in personnel, for example. Or a dozen other causal factors.)
Can you point to any member of the coaching staff, a player, or anyone with inside connections saying in an unguarded moment anything like “we’ve been working hard at reducing the number of tackles” or anything similar. That would be evidence.
Measuring the number of fouls/ yellow cards and saying that shows there was a plan to do so is deductive reasoning, but it is not evidence
Of course you’re deductive reasoning may be right. Maybe there was a plan around reducing fouls and it was executed successfully. But, personally, I think that’s unlikely.
Some things aren’t looked at with a diagnostic approach and end up as being evidential rather than evidence of an assumption.
The system of tackling has changed and the new system of interception without physical contact seems to have got results.
Do not ignore the resultant stats that confirm this.
Arteta has been excellent for the club in that he has injected a set of processes to improve the club. The discipline has been an absolute necessity to get arrogance back down to earth. His use and manipulation of all the clubs assets has been exemplary. He has a confidence with a humility that controls the media and deals with the PGMOL. He will need a few honest managers to join him, if there is going to be any movement in the FA and their arrogant position of monopoly.
Why would we need the media to praise us or tell us that we are moving in the right direction ? When was it ever the Arsenal way to get accreditation from the press?
After do most of us read the news with a particularly penchant of gaining something tangible ? I think not ! Most of us give them the required amount of disdain and incredulity that they deserve.
But in truth , I’m surprised that many still earn a living from media work and in the press – they could do better by sacking these layabouts ! Maybe even show a profit !
With this transfer window dusted and done with , I am looking forward to see our youngsters play as well as they can. I do love to watch my breath being taken away by dashing football .
Up the Gunners !