As an Arsenal fan I am proud to support a club where inconsistent young players will be granted several years of first team football with which to finally fulfill their potential and the perennially injured are treated with patience and given every opportunity to prove their fitness.
I think that, as an institution, Arsenal goes about its business with a degree of dignity which reflects very well on everyone involved whether they are on the playing side or working in an executive or corporate capacity.
However it is becoming increasingly clear that, despite this admirable modus operandi, Arsenal are falling further and further behind rivals who conduct themselves in a much more ruthless manner and have no qualms about pursuing a ‘win at all costs’ transfer policy.
I’ve always wanted Arsenal to have a core of English players in the side and found it a bit embarrassing when they started flashing ‘allez les rouges’ up on the big screen at Highbury during the early days of the Wenger reign expecting supporters to take up the chant.
So I’m delighted to see Wenger systematically signing up young English talent, building a team around the like of Callum Chambers, Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck and tying them down to long term contracts.
But, while the majority of fans would probably support this homegrown policy, it makes it virtually impossible for Arsenal to keep up with rivals who will not hesitate to cut underperforming players from the squad and replace them with proven internationals.
Look at Ryan Bertrand, a key component of of a Southampton defence that has proved significantly more reliable than Arsenal’s this season. He’s exactly the sort of player you could see Wenger signing yet Jose Mourinho didn’t even deem the young Englishman good enough to be his second choice left back, spending £11.3 million on experienced Brazilian Filipe Luis instead.
Consider Josh McEachran who was for so long hailed as one of England’s most exciting young talents but has lurched from one loan to another because he can’t get anywhere close to a Chelsea first team in which every midfield player seems to have cost an absolute minimum of £20 million.
Manchester City, meanwhile, have no qualms about leaving Scott Sinclair permanently sidelined or loaning out pretty much the only recent success story from their academy, Micah Richards, as they scour through Europe’s elite looking to recruit two world class players in every position.
Manchester United were mocked for their decision to sell off Welbeck in order to bring in Falcao and there’s no doubt they splashed out an inordinate sum of money in order to own the Colombian for a single season but Louis Van Gaal was showing the sort of ambition in the transfer market that Arsenal often lack.
Wenger might feel he can enjoy the moral high ground here in that an emphasis on English youth will strengthen the national team while creating a bond with supporters who still prefer to see homegrown players on the pitch but this policy has not been vindicated by recent Premier League results.
Arsenal are 13 points off the top spot yet it is Manchester City who are set to splash out £30 million on Wilfred Bony this transfer window despite already having a wealth of talented attackers at their disposal including Sergio Aguero (£35 million), Edin Dzeko (£32.5 million) and Stefan Jovetic (£22 million).
There is no question that Arsenal are in much more urgent need of reinforcements than the joint league leaders which begs the question; ‘if the club fail to match the ambition of their rivals in the transfer market, how can they hope to ever move closer to competing with them on the pitch?’
It is a final line because many fans were speculating that Aaron Ramsey was ripe for a loan to a lesser side and hoping a higher caliber replacement would be brought in before his breakout season. Would he have been given enough time to fulfill his abundant potential at any other top club in England? I very much doubt it.
Walcott is another example in which Wenger’s patient approach has paid dividends. Once the subject of much frustration, he was famously described as not having a ‘football brain’ by Alan Hansen during a particularly profligate period but is now a fixture in the first team for both club and country, when fit.
So where does Wenger go from here? Does he break the club’s wage cap to sign Sami Khedira either this month or in the summer? Or does he decide to leave sufficient space in the squad to ensure either Gedion Zelalem or Ashley Maitland-Niles get an opportunity at some stage?
Does he sign the best available centre back in Europe, a player like Mats Hummels who will not just bolster the squad but potentially supersede the occasionally unconvincing Per Mertesacker? Or does he continue to pick Chambers regularly while potentially opening the door for Isaac Hayden to get some game time?
It is a dilemma which strikes at the very heart of the football club but some urgent soul searching is required as the decision figures establish to what extent they are willing to sacrifice the principles with which Wenger has basically built both a squad and a stadium in return for success.
The league title is already out of reach and the levels of optimism required to believe Arsenal have a realistic chance to win the Champion’s League this year are inordinate but sooner or later Wenger needs to start matching the ambition which rival teams show in the transfer market and January wouldn’t be a bad month to start.
