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The sooner Arsène Wenger gets his head round this frustrating yet foregone conclusion the better it will be for everyone.
For years, Wenger has been a disciple of superior technical ability, of agility, of an exquisitely sharp, speedy passing game in search of the perfect goal, the perfect win: the “beautiful game”.
To accuse Wenger of taking the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola (and Frank Rijkaard before him) as the example, the template, is, in my humble opinion, nothing short of disrespectful to the boss, especially when you remember that he has been managing in the game longer than both aforementioned Barca managers put together. Of course, I appreciate that weaved into my title above is a tacit inclination towards that very accusation. It is not, but merely a message to all those concerned, intrigued, and obsessed by the newly crowned European champions.
It does so happen that the rise of Barcelona’s current generation of stars and their ensuing astounding success has elevated the Catalans to that exalting of the example. The blueprint. The team.
Brushing their off-pitch antics aside for a moment (antics we are sure to see more of in the coming weeks), what that Barca team has achieved, and will continue to achieve for some years yet in all probability, is both, astonishing and awe-inspiring given the ultra-competitive world that is modern football. The stuff of dreams, well, the stuff we, as Arsenal can only dream of. And footballers we can only dream of seeing grace the red and white.
This is where I’d pay an arm and a leg for Arsène Wenger to be reading this.
While no one can begrudge Barca their successes, especially on the European front, a small reminder that we are involved in the most feisty of leagues, a league which happens to be the playground of the most active investors in world football. We reside in London, facing eight derbies at the very least in your average season.
Crucially, the youth policy Wenger has invested his very reputation (and our souls) into has not yielded the type of football players that we so pleasurably watched play United off the park at Wembley on Saturday.
No one will ever be convinced, including the manager himself, that for the likes of Pique, Iniesta and Pedro read Djourou, Diaby and Walcott, while Barca happen to have world football’s greatest in Lionel Messi. The list can go on.
To cut a long story short: our players are simply not talented enough to go about their business the way Barcelona can and do.
Neither is any other team! A message heeded by several in the past in their pursuit for glory, with some success, including the Spaniards’ vanquished victims, the English Premier League champions.
If Wenger is serious in his quest to end this painful drought and avoid future business-end embarrassment, he must show that he has now learnt that lesson.
Would Barcelona win three successive English championships with an amateur defence and an average height of 5′ 8″? No one knows, no one will ever know (obviously)!
What we do know is that a change of ways at the very top is needed and needed fast as far as we are concerned. That I doubt anyone cares to disagree with, given the shocking stats spanning six bloody years!
Indeed, Wenger is still at it, clinching the signings of youngsters Jon Toral and Hector Bellerin from, where else, but Barcelona; in itself an implicit admission that we simply haven’t got the grassroots talent coming through at Arsenal’s academies. Wenger has also promised to put things right in the past when it comes to the first team. And failed. A failure to address the chronic goalkeeping problem, failed signings in defence, and the lack of any sort of commanding presence down the spine of the team. For us to see us winning anything any time soon, we need to be tighter; almost more “boring”, if you like. We need to be stronger, physically and mentally. We need to be bigger.
We must retain the habit of investing and investing wisely in the right personnel for this league and this league only, before worrying about Europe and the threat it may bring. And, in fact, safe in the knowledge that an experienced, solid, winning side can hack Europe even in Barca’s domineering presence, as the likes of Inter Milan and United themselves have proven in the last three years.
That is why an investment into top, experienced Premier League campaigners will be essential this summer. Toral and Bellerin are well and good. But, for heaven’s sake enough tomorrows. What about the here and now? The quality centre back? The strong midfield? The big, fully fit striker? The organiser, the leader? Failure to address those gaping holes this time around, and you fear that, again, we will not get all we need, will strike as gross negligence and lack of ambition.
But tweak the team around such signings, and the perception of tippy tappy Arsenal immediately changes. Then, we can be confident of success for a change, shedding any inferiority complex towards Barcelona.
For me, and certainly for most of us out there, Barcelona must be the blueprint for success, not just style.
