In an attempt to piece together elements of the puzzle that creates Arsenal’s current malady, it is useful to travel beyond the pitch where the team are struggling to perform. By all means start at the Emirates Stadium. After going out of the FA Cup, Per Mertesacker faced the music and tried to give an honest assessment of the team’s frustrations. “It looks like we play and play and play until the other team scores,” he said. Meanwhile Heurelho Gomes, the Watford goalkeeper who watched it all unfold, made a withering observation. “Arsenal give you too much space,” he assessed.
These are familiar criticisms of the team’s weaknesses, and Arsène Wenger seems not to have any easy answers right now.
Next stop, Villa Park. The visiting Tottenham supporters could not resist the chance to sympathise with poor old Aston Villa and mock their rivals in one pithy chant. “Lerner for Arsenal” was the message. Wishing Randy Lerner, a man whose ownership is leading his festering club towards inexorable relegation, on Arsenal was the kind of teasing to be expected across north London’s footballing landscape. But there is a finer point here.
Arsenal already have a generally absent and not palpably enthusiastic US proprietor of their own in Stan Kroenke. The sense of demise may not seem anywhere near as acute at Aston Villa’s but the lack of visible involvement and ambition shown by both men creates a distance that is not helpful in difficult times when leadership from the top can be influential.
Next destination, MIT Sloane Sports Analytics Conference, Boston. Last Friday afternoon Kroenke made an appearance at a big gathering of sports minds in the USA to take part on a panel called Evolution of Ownership.
Kroenke does not often speak publicly so his opinions were valuable in gaining a little more insight into what he thinks about Arsenal line. He admires “rational thought” in club ownership “so that they become real industries and real businesses. I have to have some reality involved. If you want to win championships then you would never get involved”. Such sentiments clang for a team who were top of the Premier League table on 2 January but are now trailing Leicester by a distance.
There was another dialogue that was very striking as he spoke about the levels of commitment of those who inject money into football clubs in Europe. “Over there it was sort of like: ‘Well, we’ve got guys from the Middle East, the oil price is over a hundred bucks, they can spend anything they want.’ The problem I saw with all that is that those people can lose interest. What happens when the Middle Eastern family loses interest and they decide to go home?”
There is specious logic at work here. Kroenke used the example of the Qatari owner of Málaga who was in and out the club like a whirlwind. He was pleased that in this case Arsenal were able to profit, buying Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal as Málaga began a fire sale. “We actually got two good players out of it,” Kroenke added.
But what of the owners who don’t lose interest? What of Manchester City who have just appointed Pep Guardiola to take over from Manuel Pellegrini and spent heavily last summer to recruit Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling? What of Paris Saint-Germain who have just won Ligue 1 in record time and are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and desperate to push on? Arsenal, surely, have to at least attempt to measure their hopes alongside a Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain rather than the Málaga example.
The convergence of Kroenke’s speech about sports business and Arsenal’s latest blow on the pitch screeched. It can be frustrating having an absentee landlord when the boiler breaks down. Kroenke is not hands-on and prefers not to be involved in the day-to-day management of the club while things tick along with a handsome bottom line.
Naturally it is up to each owner to make their own choices about how much energy as well as finance they are willing to invest. There are plenty of examples of owners who overly interfere so it’s hardly a perfect science (mentioning no names, Massimo Cellino). In Arsenal’s case, though, it’s reasonable to ask whether the relationship between Kroenke and Wenger is a little too comfortable.
The two men get along. The American likes and admires the Frenchman very much. In many ways, he is the perfect manager, and delivers a perfect model for an owner who maintains a focus on the business side performing. Conveniently, Wenger is also a lightning rod when there is any unrest. Hence a banner about the manager becomes an issue when there is seldom any visible negativity aimed at the owner. The majority owner has been present at the last few AGMs, the one day of the year he is exposed to fan agitation. Other than that, Wenger takes the flak.
The manager is thankful for the unquestioning support of the owner. The owner is thankful for a manager who understands economics and whose work suits his ideal of “real business”. The stasis goes on.