Bags' Blog

Ooh to be a Gooner or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust Wenger

One of the rites of passage for most people is at some point to decide to pledge their loyalty to a team. This can be for any number of reasons. Spite, location, your parents, a book, movie etc can all lead one into the arms of a sports team; so to speak. From there, depending on that choice, is a life of joy, resilience and oftentimes total despair. As a Mets and Dolphins fan, it has been mostly despair. Both of these teams have been dominant for many years only to find themselves spiraling into last place teams in recent years. Funny enough these transitions from big clubs usually don’t happen all at once. It’s usually a slow decline; a downward spiral as is the term of choice these days. I like the idea of that term too as if supposes one would be going in circles, dizzy, seeing “different” scenes as one spins not realizing they are moving downward in the process. This is how most things in our modern age transpire and the Mets and Dolphins are no exception. The hard thing is being able to tell when that spiral begins as within the confines of a team’s daily routines, be it games, transactions etc one is so wrapped up in them that he rarely sees “the big picture”.

Which brings be to Arsenal FC, my football (soccer) club of choice. It all started when I saw “Fever Pitch” (the original) back in 1999. I indentified with the main character and his heartbreak and waiting 18 years for the title in 89. I immediately thought of the similarities of the 86 Mets and was in love. I also dug the idea of their name not being linked to a place. I know it’s silly but most love affairs often start this way. Unbeknownst to me was that at the time the movie came out and I professed my love, Arsenal were in the process of being a dominant team. This was new to me. I’m used to struggling and collapses and shattered dreams. The first few years of the love affair was something. We won…a lot. Thierry Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, Vierra etc were all legendary players. Unfortunately this was also a time before Fox Soccer and seeing them regularly was quite hard. Oftentimes I found myself having to find out results only, but it was cool and fun and I felt like I was part of a cult more than a large fanbase.

As time has gone by with more channels and companies realizing people want to see these games etc I became more active watching them. With my last job it was difficult so I wasn’t as active as I was with say, the Mets as those games would play at my last job. After I lost my job I found myself with more free time and decided to dive in deeper. With that, the last few seasons juxtaposed with the Mets and Dolphins have been a total nightmare; even my basketball team, the Magic (don’t even get me started about them in the 90s) have been close but so far to winning it all. So my sports mojo has been seriously damaged since about 05/06 when the Mets almost went to the World Series and Arsenal won the FA cup. Since then it’s been quite the rollercoaster of late season collapses.

Which brings us to now. The Mets still suck, but Arsenal are still a top team that just can’t close the season, and who keep ending up playing and losing Barcelona in the Champion’s League (or so it seems, fickers). This season particular has started quite poorly though which is unusual for the Gunners, but not if you examine this summer’s goings on. Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas; arguably our two best players decided to leave the club. This is bad, but making it was worse was the long drawn out drama that lasted the entire transfer window (and summer), and essentially brought the squad building to a standstill. Wenger (AFC’s manager for those of you not in the know) still bought players he identified before the season ended in Gervinho, Carl Jenkinson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and the surprise of the lot, unknown until the Copa America, Costa Rican Joel Campbell. Except for Gervinho, all of them are young low cost, high payoff type players. This is Arsenal’s way, we accept it, we love it; in Wenger we trust.

The problem is we were losing two players in their prime at 24. This doesn’t happen to big clubs and certainly not the 5^th most valuable club in all of football. Now here’s where it gets tricky. Fabregas has wanted to “go home” to Barcelona for years. Last year there was a rejected £40 mil bid, drama, he stayed with us with what was understood as a gentleman’s agreement between he and Wenger that they he’d let him go this summer (something the cunts at Barca used to lowball and eventually get him cheaper than his worth). Nasri on the other hand was even trickier. After going to sign a contract extension during the season he walked out at the last second claiming he wanted to focus on the season and would negotiate after the season. Those that follow baseball and particularly the Mets should get a raised eyebrow about that as it is the universal sign to “I’m walking”. In football however, unlike baseball this happens before the last year starts whereas in baseball a team would keep him and move him half season, in football at that half season the player can sign a “pre-contract” so basically if you don’t extend him, you sell him. So what’s my point about all of this? It is that Arsenal saw this coming, it was no surprise and they had plenty of time to rectify the situation.

Which (finally) brings us to the transfer window. Arsenal got those youngsters, dragged out the sales of nasri and Cesc up until right as the season began even playing Nasri in our losing home opener against Liverpool. All in this time they hadn’t made a move to replace the two marquee players. There was an assumed done deal with Juan Mata that blew up in our face when we bid £18 mil on a player with a £21 buyout clause. In our defense we negotiated with the player and thought it done but Valencia stalled up until that buyout was about to run out (7/31) to get AFC to pony up £3 mil more. Plus it was known Spurs and another team were in on it so Valencia had everything to gain. Arsenal walked and Mata ended up on Chelsea for £23 mil a mere £5 more than we were willing to pay. I’m assuming he’s making more than AFC would pay him. Whatever, not the point. The point is this was the guy, the marquee player that would energize the fan base and help us forget about Nasri and Fabregas.

So August began and we waited. And waited. And waited. Gary Cahill who was assumed to be joining us (he wants to play here) from early summer since losing out on Phil Jones to Man U, was dragging out so Wenger turned to Phil Jagielka. Everton overvalued him in Wenger’s eyes but the haggling went on over a few fronts with Scott Dann, Chris Samba and Per Mertsacker being possible alternatives. The thing about Arsenal is that when it comes to haggling over price they will not go over what they think a player is worth. Most teams pony up because they want that player. Arsenal do things differently because it is commonly believed that Wenger will make the alterations to a player like a pair of slacks to make them work and flourish in our system; in Wenger we trust. We assumed we would get a CB, he’d be okay and life would move on. A CB was ALWAYS coming.

The midfield was another situation. With Mata now gone the speculation was that Wenger had several options up his sleeve. Most notably M’Vila, Marvin Martin, Eden Hazard and even for five minutes Wesley Sneijder (probably the only midfielder available that would be an upgrade over Cesc, but he’s too expensive). I’m not going to bore you with bids or more fringe players, there’s plenty of blogs out there to do that, the point is we didn’t close a deal by mid August. Then suddenly through the “collective narrative” (as I like to call it) it was accepted that until we are definitely in Champion’s League we can’t lure a player in (even though M’Vila and Martin both play in Europa on 6ht and 5^th place clubs) and we accepted. We beat Udinese and it was assumed, okay NOW here come the players. And they didn’t. Nothing, nada. Then Wenger says in an interview he wants another striker (sure, sounds good to us!), midfielder and one defensive player. The striker was a bit of surprise but fine. As the Man U game loomed, our high from qualifying for CL and the £25 mil had us all thinking things were going to turn around. Reports had Lille saying Hazard was going nowhere but we all assumed it was gamesmanship and we’d get our man. Then came the Man U game. Once again not going to bore you with the details, there’s plenty of outlets for that but we lost big. Historically big. Panic was back on. We hadn’t signed those three players we knew were coming and we were three days away from the transfer window closing. Still, we all knew something would happen, after all there’s a lot of very talented players in Europe, in their prime that want to play in CL on teams they would leave and we had roughly £60 mil to spend. The list of targets got longer of midfielders etc, but nothing. Then we stole J S Park the Korean striker from Lille the team that has Hazard and many though “uh oh, this could harm us getting him” but some said it wouldn’t matter if we bid the right amount. Nevertheless striker was taken care of. Sure not as bona fide as some would like (I wanted Zarate who was only about £10 to get), but once again a low cost, high payoff type player, this was Wenger’s way and in Wenger we trust.

Then came the news of the Santos’ signing, a Brazilian LB whom most of us were wanting, as to not trust the oft injured Gibbs with the spot the whole season. And by wanting, I mean the position, not the player, as most Gooners had never heard of him since he played in Turkey. But this is Wenger’s way; in Wenger we trust. Then with Jagielka finally off for good, and then Cahill off we got Per Mertsacker. The opinion on him is split, I won’t go into that here because there’s plenty of places for that and it isn’t the point or theme of this. He was the CB we all knew was coming. This was on Tuesday. This was good, we got that extra player at LB and a bona fide CB. Great. With Park as a crafty striker to back up van Persie we all figured okay, we got the Wenger type players, now comes the big midfield signings that will energize us all. The marquee players if you will, after all as Wenger said you can’t be taken serious as a big club if you allow big stars like Cesc and Nasri to leave. We needed big name players.

See there’s this unspoken rule in sports, you need big names on big clubs. It is how it is done. Sure we’ve got Walcott and van Persie but they aren’t that player that every single team would take in a heartbeat. Walcott has potential but isn’t there yet and RvP as he is known amongst Gooners (Arsenal fans), is injured too often to be considered elite by everyone. Sure we think it, he wears 10, he’s our main striker, but he’s brittle and not a better striker than the other top four clubs in Europe or the Premier League. And that’s okay because we always had elite midfielders in Cesc and Nasri, but alas they were gone. The point is to be a “big” club you have to have big players. We let our two big players leave and to be considered a big club you need to replace them. We all assumed something big was coming as Wednesday loomed.

Wednesday came, the last day of the transfer window and many got up early. All we needed to do was get two midfielders and maybe, just maybe one more CB in Cahill as he still wanted to come. Well that went to crap. The word leaked that M’Vila was off with his club was wanting £30 mil, £5 mil more than we valued him at (notice a trend?). Then came the news that Lille jacked the price or valued Eden Hazard (depending on who you believe) at £40 mil. This was too high for us and we were out. “Oh shit” I thought, maybe Marvin Martin? He’s crafty a playmaker, French and on the rise and plays for a mid table club in France and is 24. Perfect. Nope, he disappeared off the radar. Can’t even find out what happened when I googled it last night. The fan base was going crazy. Then came David Arteta the universally accepted “on decline” midfielder from Everton who also is Spanish, went to Barca’s academy and is a decent passer. But he’s universally known to be in decline the last 18 months. I personally thought, great insurance, experience and a smart pick up to go with whatever young in their prime playmaker we were bringing in. Then it was off and Yossi Beyanoun was the new target and then shit got crazy. The Gooners were either yelling bloody murder or rationalizing what a good pick up. I saw it as a rival top club dumping a player so they can get another player…why the fuck would we, the fifth biggest club in all of football want him? Then the unthinkable happened! No not a big marquee signing, but David Arteta was “back on” as Sky Sports put it. Shit got even crazier. All of a sudden Gooners were crazy elated- Arteta was the greatest MF in all of the PL and we NEEDED him! Yum delicious kool-aid! And then we heard Beyanoun could still happen regardless! And Gooners ecstatic and were frantically hoping he’d sign. It was all over Sky Sports as the time ticked down and the fan base was enthralled…would he sign in time? Was this Arshavin all over again?

Except me. I took a step back and saw it for what it was. It was reported Arteta was at AFC’s training ground since 6pm BST for what I always thought was our £10 mil insurance for whatever big name they were trying to make happen (supposedly now Gotze?). But now he (Arteta) was the big midfield signing. It seemed to me as if the whole situation was some PR manipulation as Arsenal; unlike Spurs, don’t tell anyone much. It seemed to me (still) that upon realizing no big name was coming and since Maluda was off the table, that Arteta became the big signing and Beyanoun became the insurance…on loan no less from Chelsea so they can sing a scrap heap player from Liverpool (wow he must be world class eh?). We got played in my opinion, but whatever. In the meantime Gooners and journos were ecstatic and caught up in the drama. I felt like the guy in the end of the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” movie screaming at people but the hive mind was ruling.

Maybe I’m a cynic but when a team loses players of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri’s quality, you don’t replace them with Beyanoun and David fucking Arteta. But far be it for me to be a Negative Nancy, right? We brought in 5 players in 48 hours and we should be happy, right? I say no. As I stated on Twitter Arteta is Southside Johnny to Cesc’s Bruce Springsteen. Johnny puts on a good show but is by no means Bruce and never will be. I mean can you imagine a festival replacing Bruce with Southside Johnny??? And sure people say you “can’t replace Cesc” which there is some truth too but does that mean we should accept players on the decline or oft injured because of the assumption that simply being at Arsenal will make them good again? Eden Hazard won player of the year in France and is 20 and clearly becoming one of the elite of Europe. M’Vila is considered the best young holding midfielder in Europe (and we had fucking £60 mil to get it done). At least there’s hope they can be what Nasri and Cesc were talent wise. These two will not. Ever. But a lot of Gooners drank the kool-aid and believed the “collective narrative” of needing “more experienced” (which it became after the Man U loss) players in place of the “failed youth experiment”. Sure, fine, but how about the talent level to go with it for a team as big as Arsenal? We got fucking Everton’s playmaker and Chelsea’s midfielder they wanted rid of. Is this who we are? Aren’t we a big club? This is what mid table teams do. Big clubs snatch away elite talent from the mid table clubs to win, not their players in delcine. And sure maybe our young talent we already have now blooms more with that experience but we are banking on: Arteta finding his form, Beyanoun staying healthy, Wilshere coming back and continuing to get better and Ramsey doing the same. That’s a lot of gambling in our midfield (won’t bother with Rosicky, Arshavin or soon to be as good as a new signing Diaby). And sure it could work, but what about all that money the board just banked? £50 mil to be exact. What about that? Has anyone bothered to realized the club with the highest priced tickets who mismanaged the summer and replaced Nasri and Cesc with Arteta and Beyanoun just banked £50 mil???

And spare me the “Gervinho is Nasri’s replacement” horseshit rationalization. We got him with the full intention of trying to keep Cesc and Nasri.

I dunno, I just don’t like how it all went down, and I don’t feel good about our midfield. And I feel like they had no intention of signing a big name in the first place. Wenger insists he has the young talent to become elite on the team already, but many doubt it. Maybe the experience is what we need but really, is Arteta and Beyanoun the best we could have done? Why did we wait so goddamn long? Why did we let Juan Mata get away? Why was this summer so mismanaged? No one that is happy with these results can hold their hand to their heart and state that had we got all of these players in July and simply did nothing like Man U in the last weeks would be okay with it. No one. And to make it all even more comical is that Arsenal’s “big signing” of the summer ended up being Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who…wait for it…is a teenager most hadn’t heard of or seen play, without any Premier League OR Championship experience. As it stands now, that, was our “big” signing of the summer. Comical as most that make fun of Arsenal usually say stuff like “they will spend too much on some teenage no one has ever heard of” in jest. Sure he may go over like gangbusters but he’s not a midfielder and one wonders when he or the work permit granted and “next Ronadlo” Ryu Myaitchi will get the regular playing time that is needed for players at their age. Wasn’t this the problem with the on loan and disgruntled Bendtner and Vela? I sure hope I’m wrong about all of this as this is crow pie I will gladly eat, but my gut is telling me we’re finishing 5^th now. One has to really wonder how we even can call ourselves the elite of Europe or a “big club” after this debacle of a summer.

Time will tell I guess. And like with the Mets, I will be supporting the club and our new midfielders 110% as it is done and that’s what we do. That’s what being a fan is. In Wenger we trust.

1 September 2011 ·