Sunday, April 15th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Tony Attwood
I mentioned in the last article I wrote that Arsenal are sometimes criticised for not getting the ideal player for each position. The argument from the AAA is always that if only Arsenal managed themselves better they would always be able to buy exactly whomsoever they required – and keep them as long as they want.
So we have also heard the story about Arsenal not being able to hang on to their own players. We had the article recently that said, “Arsenal has always been a selling club,” and I wrote a little piece on the meaning of “selling club”.
In short, the argument is that Arsenal cannot either control their own players, nor choose who they want to bring in. Behind this is the implication that any player, from Messi at Bara to Fred Blogs playing for Porthleven Town Reserves, would come to Arsenal if Arsenal came looking. Failure to bring in players, and failure to hold onto players must be the fault of the senior management and directors at Arsenal.
But of course it is nonsense.
No club has a perfect record in signings, and by and large clubs get some right and get some wrong. Some clubs are worse at this than others – Liverpool of late certainly seem to have been spending a fortune on players who are ok, but not stunning, as their league position asserts. True, they have won a cup and are in a second final, but even so, if the quality was there, they would be higher up the league. Tottenham on the other hand solve the problem by doing lots and lots of deals, and picking out the ones that come out best. But even so they are not certain of a top 4 finish.
Arsenal on the other hand specialise in buying in slightly lesser known players, and sometimes the AAA really love to pick on these players – almost it seems because they are not famous or expensive enough. Van Persie received the treatment two years ago now reserved for others – a player who should be off-loaded as he was never fit and had never proven himself. Koscielny was clearly never going to make it. Song was not fit to wear the shirt. This season Arteta was a panic buy. Vermaelen was criticised because he was from Belgium. And on and on.
Now we have an outburst again about our failure in negotiations. Theo and Van P are going to walk because we didn’t tie them down to long term contracts earlier. But when we tied Robin down to a long term contract earlier then our manager was criticised for wasting money on a player who was not good enough. Then when he became good enough it showed how vulnerable we were because he was the only one scoring…
The latest round of this relates to Yossi Benayoun who has, according to media sources who apparently have a direct line into how he thinks, “expressed his frustration about his fringe role” at Arsenal, and refused to commit himself to the club. So there we are. Yossi will go back to Chelsea, Robin is going to Barca or somewhere. Theo is going to Tottenham. Or Liverpool. Or Barca.
If fact Yossi said nothing to suggest he is any more unhappy than anyone else who does not start every game. “I think it is difficult to speak now about the future,” he said. “It’s better to concentrate on the last five weeks of the season and do my best. I am fully committed to Arsenal and after, we will see. After 30 June, I am going back to Chelsea and then the club decides and I need to decide, also. Each one has to think about what is best for them.”
What else can the guy say. He can’t say he wants to leave Chelsea, since he is signed to Chelsea. He rightly said, “In big clubs, you have to be patient. Of course, it’s hard to find rhythm. For every player, it’s not easy. You want to play a run of games but, like I said, it is a big club…. I was negotiating with three teams but as soon as I heard Arsenal were in, I knew it was a big chance for me. I knew that with Villas-Boas, I would not get enough credit. I have not played as much as I want but it is great to be at a club like Arsenal.”
So let’s try and answer this once and for all. First, why don’t players come to us when we are trying to sign them?
a) They were never going to – it was the agent’s invention. Hard to believe I know, but a lot of the transfers we hear about are fantasies from agents trying to build up their client’s reputation.
b) They were never going to – it was the other club’s invention. Clubs too have PR departments. They want to be seen to be looking for new players because it improves their image. Remember Hoddle at Tottenham? He really used to do this.
c) They were never going to – it was a blind by Arsenal to disguise a move for a different player. Arsenal do this too, as do all clubs. They want to sign Player C – but they are hardly likely to make a big fuss about it. So they let slip that the scouts are watching, D, E and F. All focus on them, and quietly they sign C.
d) They don’t like the way Arsenal fans turn on Arsenal AAA. Yes it is true, some players don’t want to come to Arsenal because of the noise that the anti-Arsenal Arsenal “fans” make. Why come to a club where you are likely to be booed by your own fans? The fact that, as we have seen recently, the AAA make up about 1% of the fanbase in the Ems shows that they are just a bunch of people who make a lot of noise outside the ground, but not all players realise that. In fact the biggest help that there has been to signing the players that the club wants has been the incredible atmosphere in the ground this year. Anyone seeing the response in the Ems at the Milan or Tottenham games and all games since, will know this is a good place to play football.
e) They have read the propaganda and believed it. Some players read the papers. Not many but some. And some believe that Arsenal is in crisis, Arsenal don’t pay good money, Arsenal fans are in revolt. So they don’t come. All we can do is try and counteract these stories. Thankfully Untold now has a huge audience, and so we can do our bit to encourage players to come to the club.
f) They want to play every match and see the strength that Arsenal has in the squad. This is a problem – everyone wants to play every game, and many players don’t come or leave early because they don’t get enough games. It is sad, but that is how it is. Sorry you didn’t get enough games Mr Bentley.
Why are players thinking of leaving us / not signing a contract?
a) The contract is not an issue anyway – it is agreed there’s no problem and some details are being sorted but the player is under agreement to say nothing. Remember Mr Wenger’s contracts? Not signed and not signed, and the press make a fuss – only to find that when Mr Wenger has a moment he signs.
b) They want more money. Of course it happens. The agent and the player holds out for the best deal. What else do you expect?
c) They have fallen out with someone in the club. This happens too. Maybe one player doesn’t like another player. It happens everywhere. Perhaps no one liked Mr Nasri.
d) They are really fed up with the AAA. Most clubs don’t have an anti-club support section within the club. It is primarily an Arsenal problem – and it has undoubtedly caused some players not to sign. As I said above, all we can do is try and make the stadium a wonderful experience during games.
e) They don’t like not playing every game. That too was mentioned above, but the policy of using reserve players in cup matches is a good one. At least that way you get a chance.
f) Aggressive marketing from another club. And of cource Barca, Milan and Man City will try and steal our players. Since Uefa and Fifa won’t apply the no tapping up rules, we can’t do anything.
g) Aggressive agent who makes money on each transfer. This is a major problem. Agents get money when players move, so they want players to move. Nasri’s agent spoke about him moving 2 years before he did and there is no doubt he encouraged his client to move.
So there we are. Lots of reasons why it doesn’t always go as planned. But even in the chaos of last summer when we found two of our top players were suddenly going to leave even though we didn’t want them to, and another was out injured for the whole season, we still managed to get in players like Arteta and Yossi.
Far from being a club that can’t bring in the players it wants Arsenal is in fact brilliant at bringing in players. We have seen that when Barca, Man City, Chelsea or any other club that is utterly without any morality or regard for the tapping up rules and wants to sign a player, they will do so no matter what. But that should never mean that we should slip into the gutter alongside them.
We are after all, The Arsenal