Guest blog: Arsene Wenger’s Interview Explored

With Arsene Wenger giving a very rare interview with the French newspaper L’Equipe last weekend, doubts have been raised about the Arsenal manager’s long-term future at Emirates Stadium. The Cooler’s Head of Content, being an Arsenal season ticket holder, reports on what could be seen as a ‘PR stunt’, a warning to the club’s board or simply a rare opening of his thoughts to the media.

Arsenal v Manchester United: Fergie shines through

With a recent conversation in the pub inspiring this blog I felt it good timing (ish) to post this with Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating 25 years at the helm. Although the topic of conversation over a pint wasn’t led with Fergie, his brilliance naturally shines through whilst discussing the topic covered.

Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Petit, Vieira.

Scholes, Neville, Giggs, Solskjaer, Keane.

Guest Blog: Cesc is your ex-girlfriend you still desperately love, but she convinced you that the separation was a mutual decision.

The two of you got together in the spring of 2003 when you were a young, ambitious, driven person who had everything a girl could want.  Your job was fantastic at the time, here you were a shining beacon of success, one for the future, people were envious of your success and indeed the girl, who even though you could never truly admit it, was probably going to be the best thing that ever happened to you.  What followed would be a world wind romance which is a story book for the ages.

BCC Football: Will Abramovich’s impatience lead to Champions League glory?

This post started with me posing the following question to Emily, a lifetime Chelsea fan: “Arsenal’s patience with Wenger or Chelsea’s trigger-happy attitude to dispensing with managers? Both finished trophyless this season but what’s the better approach?” However, having accepted her point that it is a little naive of me (alas) to compare Arsenal and Chelsea’s recent (emphasis on the recent – never forget that Chelsea have no history. But I digress) trophy record, the conversation turned to whether Roman’s expectations are acceptable, and who should be Chelsea’s next manager…

Jess: As an Arsenal fan, obviously I’m frustrated with how this (and previous) seasons have gone. However, Arsenal fans (though a decling number of us I accept) find it hard to envisage a future without Wenger. There’s an understanding that he has embarked on a long-term project with Arsenal, based around youth development, instilling a certain style of play throughout all rungs of the club, and changing habits and diets etc, and that this stability will ultimately lead to silverware. Clearly, these assumptions have been majorly challenged as another season ended pathetically and trophyless, but what is striking is the stark contrast with Chelsea’s (by which I suppose I mean Roman’s) approach to winning trophies – after a season without silverware, having won the Double the season before, Ancelloti was out the door. Is this fair enough? Obviously it’s Roman’s club, so to an extent he can do what he wants, but was he wise to sack Carlo? And in general, don’t you think that it would ultimately be better for Chelsea’s trophy hunt if Abramovich meddled less – giving managers stability of tenure and a bit more independence?

Emily: I guess I’m quite split about whether it was a good idea to sack Carlo. On the one hand, it strikes me that Roman is acting like a petulant child, throwing his toys out of the pram yet again because he hasn’t got what he wants. Having won the double in his first season, I think it would have been fair to give Ancelotti a little more time. On the other hand, I don’t think it makes sense to compare our one trophyless season to Arsenal. People talk about how destructive the Chelsea instability could be, but ultimately the facts speak for themselves. Yes, we have had 6 managers in Roman’s 8 years at the club, but in that time we have won 10 trophies (if you count the Community Shield as a cup – potentially tenuous I know). Compare that to Arsenal’s barren run and it becomes difficult to argue that ‘stability’ leads to success. As a lifelong Chelsea supporter, it was literally a dream come true to see Chelsea win the league and for my parents and grandparents who had waited far longer than I have, how can we complain about a strategy that for the most part has brought incredible success? As for independence, there I probably agree with you. You can see when you watch Abramovich at games that he is genuinely excited by football – it is like his own real life Football Manager game he gets to play. For him, I think Chelsea is more than just a business concern for all that money he has poured in; he has a real passion for the game and as a man who is used to getting what he wants, I think he is slightly frustrated that to an extent things are out of his control. That’s why he can’t help himself but buy players like Shevchenko, thinking if he can just make his own little changes, maybe he will get the ultimate rewards he is looking for. And that kind of interference can certainly lead to disaster and a team of conflicting individuals. Whether the same will be true of Torres remains to be seen. To pay £50mil mid-season is a debate in itself, and in a way it is surprising to have expected anything better from thrusting an unfit player, unused to the system, into the team in the middle of the season and hope for miracles. Hopefully with a proper pre-season, full fitness and some confidence, Torres will prove himself to be a good buy. And with Hiddink hopefully back, maybe we will finally get the Champions League winning combination that we’ve all been hoping for!

Jess: Unfortunately, as a Gooner, I do have to admit that the trophy record speaks for itself. Clearly winning the Champions League is the benchmark for managerial success at Chelsea. If Hiddink does come back, do you think he’ll be given any longer than Ancelloti? Or actually do you think Roman is only getting more impatient?

Emily: It’s such a hard thing to tell – he is certainly unpredictable. Interestingly, Hiddink has the best win record of all our managers in recent years, even Mourinho, and the fact that Abramovich has continued to use Hiddink as an informal consultant since he left shows he has an enormous amount of trust and respect for him as a manager. As we’ve seen it takes a massive amount of luck as well as anything else to win the Champions League and it is interesting to wonder whether Avram Grant would still be the manager if Terry hadn’t slipped on that fateful day in Moscow! I would hope Roman will give Hiddink more time, as I think Chelsea are in a bit of a transitional period – we lost a lot of senior players last year without properly replacing them, and the ‘spine’ of our team is certainly getting older. After some talk of focusing on youth and a smaller squad, with buys like Torres and Luiz in January and rumoured many more over the summer it looks like there is going to be major rejuvenation. Combining some big buys with the experience we have in Lampard and Terry, and the youth of players like McEchran will hopefully bring further success, but as we have seen from Torres, it is going to take some time for that elusive gelling of players. I hope that Abramovich can appreciate that…I think that because Hiddink has been his target for a few years now, he will be reluctant to dismiss him too quickly – if anything, because we have gone through most managers with impressive CVs already! Hiddink is hugely popular with the fans, the players respect him and Abromavich has coveted him for years…as a fan it makes me nervous, if this doesn’t work – what will?!

Jess: I’m not sure Grant would have stayed even if he had won the Champion’s League; especially with hindsight from his disastrous season at West Ham, I’m not sure how great a manager he is, he was just lucky to be left with a great team! To that extent, maybe Hiddink, respected hugely by Abramovich, would be given the time he needs to build a CL winning team. For my final question then, is he your number one choice to fill the seat left by Carlo?

Emily: I agree, I don’t think Grant would still be at Chelsea, nor would I particularly want him, but it definitely was a bit of a sliding door moment in Chelsea’s history – had we won, Abramovich may have been a calmer and more patient owner. Saying that, given what we were saying earlier about our success record coming from constant change– ironically it could have been the last thing we won, or Roman may have got bored from the success and moved on. For me, Hiddink has to be the man. Personally I wouldn’t have got rid of Ancelotti as I think his record speaks for itself, he adapted quickly to the Premiership and he had plenty of other factors to deal with this year with Wilkins leaving/injuries etc. But, seeing as he has gone, Hiddink seems to be the best bet. In all honesty, there don’t seem to be many viable options – yes, a Mourinho return would bring excitement to the headlines, and I would love it for the enjoyment of seeing such a good looking man talk so passionately about the team I love but realistically the football we played under him was not all that enjoyable to watch (other than the winning in itself) and I doubt the clash between him and Roman would not re-emerge. Guardiola obviously has an incredible record at such a young age and I’m sure could be inspirational – although, he himself admitted the ridiculously gifted players who surround him make his job look easy. Ultimately though, he looks committed to staying at Barcelona. As for Hughes, no thank you. To me, the fact that his name has even been suggested for the job is fairly laughable – given Roman’s ambition, to replace a man who has won the Champions League twice to a guy who steered his club to a hardly inspirational 9th place does not make any sense. The way he left Fulham so abruptly for bigger and better things also rankles me – he doesn’t seem to have much evidence to back up his clearly inflated sense of self worth. Of course, there have been some other names banded about – the idea of Redknapp or Benitez (one of the most hated managers from a Chelsea point of view) seems unlikely, perhaps Van Basten or Villas-Boas are more likely/credible options, but ultimately I believe Hiddink is the strongest candidate. What makes him so, I think, is the fact that he has been at Chelsea before, he has flourished, he wasn’t scared away and he can come back and do it again. Why take the risk with seeing how a new manager reacts to the players and higher powers when we know that we have a guy, itching to get back into club management, who has already proven that he can cope with this. Like I already said, we know the players respect him (Terry and others still keep in touch with him) and worked well under his particularly training methods, we know Abramovich respects him (a seemingly rare accolade) and we know the fans respect him (the passion in singing “we want you to stay” at the end of his interim season made for one of the loudest atmospheres at Stamford Bridge). Combined with the fact that I have met him and decided he is a lovely man, my vote goes to Guus.

So who do you think will/should be the next Chelsea manager? Would Abramovich sack even Hiddink if another season went by without a trophy? Or tell Emily what you think at @EmilyKraftman.

Jess – Head of Content – Gooner – @jessicaenoch

BCC Football: Kick Off

The idea for the Football Water Cooler blog came from a genuine email chat between George, our Editor-in-Chief and me – that has been only slightly amended for public consumption. A few posts on Twitter became a more meaty discussion via email (this is a bigger issue than 140 characters could possibly contain), which now forms the basis of our first post.

The expectations of Arsenal fans and the reaction to recent ticket price increases.

 

George: I don’t understand why fourth isn’t good enough for the Gunners. Do Arsenal fans need to lower their expectations?

Jess: It’s not good enough on the basis of rhetoric from the players and manager about challenging for the title, and our alleged “mental strength” and desire. Plus the fact that as late as March we were in a position where we’d win the league if we won all our games. Now we will probably come fourth and have to play an awkward qualifier for the Champions League – and pay more money to watch that game.

George: but surely fourth is good enough in terms of spend on players and the fact that Arsenal are without a trophy for a few years now, which is surely where expectations should come from. I think generally football fans need to spend more time supporting than expecting. Saying that, the fans pay their hard earned money so are entitled to think, say and expect what they like.

Jess: I’m lucky that I’ll still be able to go to Arsenal next season. But there was A LOT of discontent at the match on Sunday regarding the 6.5% season ticket price increase. A lot of “six percent, you’re having a laugh” and the players booed off at half time. For Arsenal fans this stark juxtaposition of the hike in prices and a pathetic display like Sunday is just too much to bear. I think that at somewhere like Arsenal, the very extent of the elevated ticket prices means the focus is taken away from simple supporting – we can’t help but feel like investors in the club’s success, given the amount we spend on our tickets. I don’ t think you can get away from the fact that the level of investment fans make in the club breeds expectation.

George: In my outsider opinion, the problem is with Arsenal fans and the almost catch 22 position you lie in. From what I know, Arsenal fans pride themselves on the fact that they aren’t in debt, they aren’t owned by foreigners (historically / at the mo), they breed young talent, etc etc. They’re run as a business, they’re solvent. In my eyes, as the club is ran that way, which I think is something to be hugely proud off, the price hike is down to simple economics. The demand is there so they’ve upped their prices. It’s as simple as that. Arse will still sell out next season and fans will still come as there is a long waiting list at Emirates. In summary, surely you can’t be proud of your club being run that way, then not expect the profit-driven decisions to come.

Jess: I think that’s true to an extent, although fans are very fickle, and for me, that pride mainly comes out when stats are released about Man City’s debt for example. Though you’re probably right, I would guess that most supporters are more pro the self sustaining model. In fact, I’ve even seen some accept that a 6.5% increase equals 4% inflation + 2.5% VAT rise, so it’s not so ridiculous; but you can’t deny that announcing the rise at exactly the point when the season is imploding is very undiplomatic timing…

However, not all Gooners think in the way you suggest, putting pride about our business model above all else; most want more spending under the current regime, and some even wish for a big money backer (not going to be Kroenke from how he’s managed his businesses in the past). My view is that while we aren’t going to spend £50 mil on Torres (and quite right too), surely there is a middle ground where we could pay £15 mil, say, for a decent centre half and remain self-sustaining, solvent and all those other good things. We moved to the Emirates to challenge Manchester United – scrimping and saving in the first few years was defensible, but it’s been five years in the new stadium now without a visible reward for the fans. I know that might sound spoilt to teams battling relegation, and clubs with no money in the lower leagues, and you might be right that recent history suggests we should lower our expectations – but there is no denying that they have been built up by the club, the players and the manager at various points and in various ways.

Finally, and (sadly) your point about supply and demand is spot on. For example Wigan season tickets are bloody cheap (for the Premiership). But they have no supporters (relatively). A lot of fans in the ground actually support Man U and Liverpool, and just go to Wigan because it’s so affordable (I heard this from talking to fans when I went to Wigan this season – the shambolic 2-2 draw only slightly less shambolic than the 3-2 defeat last season). The prices are low because the demand isn’t there.

I hope you enjoyed our first BCC Football post – please leave your comments below, and let us know if you’d like to be added to the panel to take part in future discussions about your team.

 

Jess – Head of Content – Gooner – @jessicaenoch