Arsene went to war on players who are disrespectful to the club and their contracts. Pictures of Adebayor and Hleb adorned the article in the News of the World and a headline of ‘Mercenaries’ gives away the tone. Before you get excited, it is was not much of an exclusive interview with the paper. Despite taking up the majority of the back three pages, about three paragraphs were new quotes set alongside opinion of the journalist in question and most of the Adebayor interview last week with Arsene commenting on his loyalty and the lack of the same quality from the players.

He is then featured in a link with Huntelaar, supposed replacement for Adebayor if he leaves, valued at about £18m. According to the News of the World, Robin van Persie has been selling the club to him. That signing though is dependent upon Adebayor leaving, a situation that is apparently no closer to being resolved and may be open to some doubt with reports that Barcelona are now looking at bringing in Shevchenko on loan if Ade is not signed. The sensationalist part of the interview,

The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players. We manage at Arsenal to maintain all our football ambitions, national and European, while having to free up – for 17 more years – an annual surplus of £24m to pay for our stadium. The club’s strategy is to favour the policy of youngsters ahead of stars and to count on the collective quality of our game

Which contains nothing new at all and is a matter of the interviewer’s interpretation. The club’s ’strategy’ has been Wenger’s ’strategy’ since he joined, in that he has always bought cheap and sold expensive. Anelka, Overmars, Vieira, Henry out for big fees whilst Campbell, Ljungberg, Henry, Adebayor, van Persie, Rosicky, Fabregas, Toure, Sagna all came in for more modest amounts or nothing at all. The list goes on and you could add who you want to that. The change came when The Emirates construction started and the youthful element became more prominent yet he had been moving towards this plan anyway as it takes years to develop an Academy system to pick youngsters who can come through to the first team.

For Wenger, he ran out of time when the ‘Invincibles’ broke up and key personnel left or suffered injuries. The weakness of the strategy shone through as inexperience came into the first team. Yet in the rebuilding phase the team finished fourth twice and third last season. The absence of trophies was exacerbated by what had gone before but this summer has seen less of the demands for big money names and more shoring up the squad in key areas, as well as replacing departed and unsettled players, a mix of recognising that buying big is not financially possible or Wenger’s M.O., along with tacit acknowledgement that the rebuilding was heading in the right direction but not yet the finished article.

The most disconcerting part for some will be that Wenger has stated we are a selling club. Perhaps the definition that you and I have is different. To me that is one where a club sells its players at the peak of their powers, something Wenger has not done although that is a heady mix of luck and judgement. The latter for Henry, the former for Overmars and Anelka (for example) as he could not have known the Dutchman would suffer with injuries at the Camp Nou nor that Anelka would land in more cities of Europe than British Airways.

His comments though contradict those of various Board members over the past months but should they be taken at face value or be looked upon as PR? For me, they have elements of both. The selling aspect I have dealt with above but the financial results last year propelled the club into the European riches stratosphere and this year the sensationalist headlines will emphasise that further. Wenger may already be suffering from this, being quote exorbitant prices already. He needs to bring those expectations down and his words seem designed to do so.

The summer though has been marked by interminably drawn out transfers, Hleb and Adebayor out with Nasri in. To some extent, that will be reducing Wenger’s ability to sign any others that he may desire. However, the man himself has said that he will not be bringing many in players. Nasri meanwhile will apparently sign this week but that was the case four weeks ago so if and when it happens, I’ll believe it. A shame the player was not so keen to sign that he would not interrupt his holiday.

’til Tomorrow.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Vieira, Saha-ha-ha-ha, Theo And Traditionalism Ought To Win Through
• Everton Get The Blues, Gudbye To Jens And Flamini Is Off
• Arsene On Debt, Transfers And Newcastle Preview