Arsene Wenger – The Accountant
Five long summers ago, in the magnificent arena that is the Millennium Stadium, legend has it that Arsenal won a trophy. That trophy was the FA Cup and they did so by beating Manchester United 5-4 on penalties. Back then Arsenal had men such as Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg, Campbell and Gilberto Silva.
Mr. Wenger had a reputation for being one of the best, if not the best, coaches in the world back then, having gone 38 games unbeaten not too long before that FA Cup final. But those five long summers as I’ve previously mentioned have been agonizing and drawn out for most Gooners. Thanks to who? The hint is in the title.
Don’t get me wrong. The man still is a pretty decent manager. He constantly is churning out very good, the odd great, youngsters. Fabregas being the epitome of all his hard work so far. Together with Liam Brady in charge of the academy they have invested a huge amount of faith in producing winners from within the club and not a checkbook.
His philosophy is right and wrong in a variety of ways. So many varieties that I would bore the crap out of you by going into detail with them all. At the end of the day though, being a manager of the most successful London club of all-time, it trophies that matter, not the balance in the accounts.
This season he has spent £4.5m more than he has received for player sales. Last season he made a mammoth, £31m profit. The statistics as you go down through the years represent a man trying to balance the debit and credit on both sides of the account, not that of a world class manager. Here is the link of his transfer history.
The last few seasons he has been particularly miserly with his money. It seemingly has to be prised away from his grasp to spend the money sensibly in his eyes. His produce youngsters to sell on for big profits is working, no doubt about it.
However again, I must stress my point like a parrot repeating its owner’s speech, that he is judged by his trophy cabinet not the accounts. The trophy cabinet at Highbury was a long and illustrious one going back many, many decades of Arsenal’s glorious history. The trophy cabinet at the Emirates it dust-laden with the odd tumble weed passing by a la western movie style.
It’s sad to see this really as if he spent as much as his big 4 counterparts, there’s no doubt they’d be challenging seriously and regularly for the top honors. For all the mesmerizing football they play, they truly do deserve a trophy more than any other team on the globe for their endeavors of hard work and do the best with what they have.
But Arsene, don’t try and kid the public and more importantly, the Emirates faithful. You have money. So go and spend it and leave a legacy of trophies behind you. Not an agonizing famine in the wait for a rare trophy.
Topics: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, English Premier League
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Another newbie without the slightest understanding of football management – or accountancy! Judging everything on the narrow boundaries of transfer spending. Only two clubs have spent more in terms of net spending on player budgets (transfers plus wages) over the last 5 years than Wenger. Those are Chelsea and ManU. They have done so because they have had more to spend – the first through the largesse of Abramovich and the 2nd because they generate more revenue.
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:22Why, in a post about Wenger not spending money in the last few years, do you mention the Millenium stadium but not the Emirates?
Here a core fact for you: EVERY Premiership team except one that has built a new stadium has been subsequently relegated due to the impact on player spending. The exception of course is Wenger’s Arsenal who have not just avoided relegation but have maintained a place in the Champions League every year.
That’s is the mark of a “world class manager” not the ability to spend £30m on a player. By your criteria, Mark Hughes is world class. Surely not???
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:27I think some people are missing an important part to Wenger’s plans….he is effectively sacrificing all of his success and glory for the future of Arsenal football club! It’s quite easy to state that no trophies means a lack of praise but if you look at how our future is looking compared to the likes of Manchester United, Spuds, Liverpool and even Chelsea then its clear that Arsene is a much smarter person than people are lead to believe. After building a stadium that put the club in debt he is trying to bring us back into the black before his tenure is over. Arsene is not only keeping us in the top Four he is also building us a future that no other man could possibly hope to achieve and every man and his dog will envy, in his own right Arsene will be in the history books as the man who saved Arsenal.
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:28So lets try and see the bigger picture…short term of no trophies but a long term of watching the best team in the world with the greatest manager who ever lived. Trophies are just around the corner.
What a silly article. Well go figure, Arsenal taking on £300 million of debt to build a new stadium and not being able to throw around cash like confetti at a wedding. It seems the chelski and middle eastlands cash has clouded more than just their own fans.
Arsene Wenger has done something that no other manager in the premier league has, and more than likely could do, continually producing attacking football of the highest order, qualifying for the CL year after year, and challenging for honours in the most difficult of PL environments since its formation.
And at the very heart of this is that Arsene Wenger refuses to bankrupt a club for his own personal ambition and without consideration.., something the media darling ‘arry wedknapp’ has a long history of!!
Wenger should be getting nothing but praise. Playing beautiful football, at the head of a self sustaining club that makes profits, with a strong emphasis on youth development.
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:31If he was English he would be lauded as the greatest manager in the game.
Aren’t Manchester United in more than twice as much debt? And Barcelona in debt along the lines of Arsenal? It’s how they know how to spend money on the right time, on the right player. Arsene refuses to buy anyone over £10m it seems while Barca buy Villa for £40m knowing he will turn a great side into a formidable outfit. With Wenger he won’t buy anyone unless he sells. Every club has some debt to contend with and Arsenal are no different.
August 12th, 2010 @ 12:12Have to agree with the others here. Spurs have spent twice as much as Arsenal over the last ten years and by luck have qualified for the Champion League only this year. Being French is too easy for others to knock and show lack of respect for a classy manager
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:44When Arsene took over at Arsenal, he took the reigns at one of the top teams in the country. He did spend a lot of money throughout his entire career at the Emirates/Highbury but has generated sales almost equally well during that period. Spurs got into it by spending money of course and lots of it but it was only because of infalted transfer prices of the modern day window. Back in Arsene’s day, players were much cheaper and had a more sensible price tag. What you are saying is correct but you must put into perspective the environment of the current transfer climate.
August 12th, 2010 @ 12:08MJC…. Do me a favour.
The debt has is being paid over 25 years in yearly and affordable payments and we are making much more profit every year than what needs to be paid towards the debt but however are not spending the rest of that profit on strengthening the team.
The last 2 years in particular the team is in fact been weaker in terms of strength in depth after each transfer window and when you consider we have just nearly paid off the stadium debt with the sales at Highbury square and the reported £100m profit last season what has Wenger done to strenghten our team? 1 good and free signing… the other an untested cb that looks as though he will be yet another Arsenal defender to be bullied by Drogba.
Wenger identified the defence as Arsenals main weakness before season ticket renewal end date and said he would strengthen… he has let 4 CB’s go and we are left with 3. 1 good, 1 unknown and very slim of stature and the other a complete crock who hasn’t played football in a year.
Nobody is saying he needs to spend £30m on a player but if he spent £30m on a quality monster cb and a world class keeper we would all be confident in getting that £30m back by staying in the top 4 and qualifying for CL and who knows maybe even make more revenue by winning something….
Wenger has even sau=id recently we can now compete financially with Chelsea however this summer when we need to strengthen the team we have let 5 go and brought in 2 and haven’t strengthened the defence, in fact weakened the defence when that was seen as our area of need developement and for what? saving a couple of million? this is a football club not a profitable business
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:50A manager is judged by every possible measure. In a week when MON was sacked for not sharing a sense of the need to keep Villa’s finances healthy, this article looks really silly.
Wenger is not an accountant. He’s a manager, and managers have to deliver results in every way that counts. He has to win trophies, keep his team competitive, within his team’s natural resources.
It’s a scandal that all managers don’t care to do the same.
August 12th, 2010 @ 09:56Why do mjc and j keep referring to the purchase of £30m+ players and bankrupting the club?
August 12th, 2010 @ 10:00I don’t believe any Arsenal fan is suggesting he does either of those things. If both of you bothered to review the accounts you would see that the Wenger has available a substantial pot of cash but he choses not to spend it because he has an unwaivering belief in the current crop of players. Arsenal fans want him to sign a couple of good quality defensive players not for him to bankrupt the club even though he could spend £100m and the club would still be in a strong financial position!
Good article. Of course many of the Arsene Knows Brigade will miss the point.
There is a huge difference between reckless spending and spending to strengthen the team. No one is demanding that we spend millions on players, just asking that we spend some of the funds that have been made available to help us compete.
Buying or loaning a striker in December when all our strikers were injured would probably have helped us win the title. He failed to do that. Instead, Wenger has very cleverly convinced many fans that football is not about winning trophies but about careful banking.
True football fans understand the difference.
August 12th, 2010 @ 10:06Like Patrick Devaney, too many of “the Emirates faithful” have NO FAITH. If the current recession turns out to be a double dip, like many financial analysts are now predicting, where will that leave the teams that have overspent and overextended themselves in pursuit of silverware? Possibly dropping down several divisions like Leeds or trying to fend of bankruptcy and dissolution like Portsmouth.
August 12th, 2010 @ 10:40With the recent and soon to be introduced changes in rules of club financial operations, the likes of Chelski and Abu Dhabi Citeh will no longer be able to buy, or in Citeh’s case – attempt to buy success, with the financial doping of uber rich and over indulgent owners. Citeh will have to sell or loan out six or more players before they submit their list of 25 players on September 1. Poor planning to say the least.
Meanwhile Arsenal have a stream of talented players just starting to flow from their Academy at far lower prices. There are reasons that Arsenal have the longest uninterupted run in England’s top flight. The foresight and strategic planning of real managers like Arsene Wenger. I too would like to see Arsenal win some trophies, but NOT at the expense of the club’s traditions. it’s soul, or it’s long term survival!
A couple of points – “it trophies that matter, not the balance in the accounts.” – All very well but you can’t win trophies if you go out of business. We have one of the surest financial footings of any club, thanks to Arsene Wengers vision. This will see us reap rewards in years to come. There seems to be far too much short sightedness amongst modern Football fans.
Finally, it’s all very well for fans to demand expensive signings but you have to be able to find players who are better than those you have. There aren’t many world class central defenders or goalkeepers just lying around waiting to be picked up, even if you do want to splash £20m+ on them.
August 12th, 2010 @ 11:18It is not that the Arsene knows brigade will miss the point it is the fact that Arsenal are a self financed club competing in the best league in the world with a manageable dept. Would you prefer the Arsenal we have now or a Man Utd or Liverpool. One club is seriously in trouble and haven’t won the league in over 20 years, the other has had success but are a billion pounds in dept and have had to tighten their belts and their fans want their owners out. I know that I will be forever grateful for what Arsene has done for the club I love and have supported for over 35 years. If you want to talk about depressing times the early 80′s were much worse than now when we couldn’t fill Highbury for league games. Please get some perspective before criticising.
August 12th, 2010 @ 12:11My point exactly GooerJay. I’m glad someone has gotten the jist of my article.
August 12th, 2010 @ 12:14Wait to see how other ‘trophy needing’ teams like Liverpool and Man Utd fare in a few years and I’m sure Arsenal fans will be glad they had Wenger at the helm.
Christ, ’30 million on a quality monster cb’, look at the masters of excess, Man City last season. They took Toure (from Arsenal themselves at £14 mill after a £150k original purchase) and Lescott at £22 million and there wasn’t the slightest bit of synchronicity. Central defence is an area where the team is more important than the individual and spending big is in no way an indication that it will improve the team.
August 12th, 2010 @ 12:17I think you are right- more money does need to be spent- we dont have to go mad but we do need to rebuild the defensive capacity of the team- we have very little real capacity to defend as things stand- this constantly undermines our great attacking potential.
August 12th, 2010 @ 13:19I most confess that sometimes i get frustrated by our dealing in the tranfer market or lack of it. However, i cannot disagree more with this article.
August 12th, 2010 @ 14:53You can only buy what you can afford and what is available. He AW said that he needs to buy a GK and CB, he has bought a CB and all the decent GK are either not for sale or rediclously expensive. Secoundly, all the great players in our team turned to world class in Arsenal. AW was never a fan of buying world class players. In all his managerial career, i cannot think of one. TH, PV, Petit, Overmas, Anelka, Cesc, RVP..etc weren’t world class players before they joined Arsenal.
Barca just borrowed £140m to pay players “Salaries”, last month. I don’t know what their cashflow situation is like but i would be scared stiff if for whatever reason we have to do that in this club. Real are backed by the whole banks in Spain. With more than £200m loan last season alone.
We know about Chelsea, Citeh, and Man U. The first two have super rich owners and Man U are in so much debt that makes UK public finance look healthy.
I believe that AW will buy players he feels will improve this present squad and reasonably priced too. With money at his disposal, he need to be smart in his spendings as he cannot compete with the Citehs, Chelseas, Reals and Barca to mention but few. Lets face it, we cannot attract the best players to Emirates by offerring huge wages because about 10 other teams in Europe will offer more. Another method is needed which is what AW is trying to do.
Roman took over Chelsea and unbalanced the tranfer market making it impossible to buy an average player with been ripped off. Just about the time the market is getting back to normality, the Abu Dabi people came in and turn everything upside down.
Maybe the board should fire him and sign Martin O’neil or Benitez to help us spend all the money.
Grant says…..”Another newbie without the slightest understanding of football management – or accountancy! Judging everything on the narrow boundaries of transfer spending. Only two clubs have spent more in terms of net spending on player budgets (transfers plus wages) over the last 5 years than Wenger. Those are Chelsea and ManU.”
Well Grant did you know when Arsenal do their “player budgets” they include all the staff in there, the manager, the physio’s, the coaches, the lot not just the players. Bet you didn’t know that eh?
August 12th, 2010 @ 15:02I don’t mind the current cb’s at arsenal the frolish guy seems to be a smart player and vermaelen is a gun, i think arsenal realistically need to invest in a keeper for the future. Any goals that have been conceded in the pre season friendlies have come from really shonky keeping and not from bad defending. Fabianski has been at fault for many of these. I’d prefer to have john terry don the gloves (circa 2006) than any of the current crop of keepers at arsenals disposal
August 12th, 2010 @ 16:14Slowly but surely most gunners seem to have bought Wenger’s philosophy of balancing the books as opposed to winning the trophies. As a result. most gunners blogs now proudly discuss how Arsenal FC have made tons of money and have stayed in the CL without spending a fortune. It seems that we all are now working for a giant profit-oriented corporation called Arsenal FC.
I already work for a big corporation whose sole point of existence is making money, lots of. My employers’ passion for making money at any cost may seem deplorable to some, but I have no control over their policies, so I couldn’t care less. Arsenal FC, however, are NOT a profit-oriented corporation. It is a football club that is loved and supported by millions of supporters worldwide. These passionate and loyal fans have every right to know what their club is doing to address the weaknesses that have hampered its success in the last five years.
While I respect Wenger’s idea of balancing the books, I still want to see an occasional trophy heading towards Emirates. And while Wenger’s project looks set to guarantee a lot of success to future generations of Arsenal fans, it would not be a bad idea to provide something for the current generation of gunners as well.
August 12th, 2010 @ 22:21your not listening bro wenger believes that he can win major honours without spending the massive amounts that chelsea man u and now man city are and have been spending hes committed to youth and building a team rather than buying one
August 13th, 2010 @ 01:06what i do think though is if we are going to spend big money it should be on a world class keeper and we do need reinforcements defensively but we are not that far away
GO GUNNERS
What a load of crap!!! Surely you wouldn’t be saying that if your own business is 300M in debt? With the global financial situation not getting any better by the minute. Who in their sane mind would throw money around thinking there will be no consequence.
I know why don’t you go and buy a few buildings and put yourself 300M in debt than talk!
So I guess you must be running Arsenal afterall. Knowing that AW didn’t go out to buy players. Are you sure about that? Not being able to sign players doesn’t mean he didn’t try to sign them!
Here is a scenario! NOT EVERY PLAYER IN THE WORLD WANTS TO JOIN US! If it comes down to we must sign a player to keep people like you happy, does that mean you would be happy if we sign the likes of Brambo?
We can’t defend, is because we don’t defend as a unit not because we don’t have the player for it! We used the same set of players during 2002/2003 & 2003/2004 season. We were poor in defending in the 2002/2003 season, that’s why Manu beat us to the title. During 2003/2004 we only let in 16 goals with the same set of players.
Djoure was part of the defence in the 2006 world cup (or was it the Europeon cup? Can’t remember!) where they didn’t concede a single goal. So give the boy a chance. Stop your yepping!
Be a fan and support your team! Not consistantly whining about not signing players!
August 13th, 2010 @ 04:06