The Arsenal manager has the right to do things his way for at least one more season but flaws are visible
The cemeteries, Arsène Wenger pointed out on Friday, are full of irreplaceable people. "We are all replaceable, you know," he said. "Sometimes when you lose a big player, other people stand up and take more responsibilities – and the game is a bit different, but not less efficient. But you do not want to lose big players, if that is the question."
Indeed it was. On the eve of his 16th season at Arsenal, Wenger is seemingly on the verge of needing to replace two of his most influential figures, Cesc Fábregas, the club captain, and Samir Nasri, whose desire to leave calls into question the ability of the 61-year-old manager to repeat the successes of his first decade.
According to the reports from Spain, Fábregas will travel to Madrid on Sunday with the Barcelona squad, his transfer to be formally announced after the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup. Nasri is widely expected to join Manchester City, perhaps by Monday, rejecting his existing club's offer of a pay rise to £90,000 a week in favour of almost double that salary at Eastlands. Neither player is in the Arsenal squad for Saturday's match against Newcastle United at St James' Park. According to Wenger, Fábregas is not match-fit while Nasri is still recovering from feeling sick while playing for France on Wednesday.
Yet the manager would not give an inch on Friday in his contention that the two players remain part of his squad. "I believe the best for us, one day before the championship starts, is not to focus on possible transfers. I cannot say it will not happen. I do not say it will happen. Since I have been at Arsenal we have been in the middle of transfer speculations – with Vieira, with Petit, with Overmars, with Bergkamp. We have that every year. It is part of our job. They are disruptive but they are not an excuse."
When all other means of defence had been exhausted, he resorted to a piece of semantic blocking. Asked, in what seemed like a point-blank question, whether he expected Fábregas and Nasri to leave, he replied: "I expect nobody to leave the club." He also claimed not to be taking the possible defections personally. "My personal feelings are not important. Overall I have not been disappointed by Cesc's attitude or by Samir Nasri's. They have been professionals."
Reminded of his claim that if the pair were allowed to go, it would mean that Arsenal could not be considered a big club, he came up with an oblique response. "Manchester United let [Cristiano] Ronaldo go," he said. "Do you think they are not a big club?"
In recompense for their departure, Arsenal will bank somewhere in the region of £50m. The season-ticket holders would like Wenger to have spent that money in advance on adding mature, authoritative players to his lightweight and predominantly young squad: someone to partner Thomas Vermaelen in central defence, someone to sit at the base of the midfield, and someone to score the goals that have been missing since the departure of Thierry Henry.
So far he has acquired Carl Jenkinson, a young English full-back, and three wingers: Gervinho, the Ivory Coast international, and two teenagers, the Japanese player Ryo Miyaichi and the English prodigy Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Total outlay: £24m. Out have gone Gaël Clichy (to Manchester City for £7m) and Denílson (on loan to São Paulo), soon to be followed by Nicklas Bendtner. "He is on his way out," Wenger confirmed. His destination? "He looks like he knows, but I don't know." No sign of the arrival of Phil Jagielka, Chris Samba, Gary Cahill, Scott Parker or Karim Benzema, the players most frequently linked with moves to the Emirates this summer.
By turns thoughtful, jocular, obdurate and mildly exasperated, Wenger dead-batted all discussion of deals yet to be concluded. "Society dies on speculation," he said in another freshly minted axiom.
There would be no deal, he said, for Juan Mata, the Valencia winger. And Jadson, Shakhtar Donetsk's Brazilian midfielder? "We are nowhere near doing that." But would he be introducing a new centre-back before the closing of the transfer window? "Yes, because Vermaelen played only five games last year."
His interrogators were more than usually aware that they were asking their questions on behalf of Arsenal's increasingly frustrated fans. Some of those supporters indulged in a little light booing of their team in the 1-1 draw against New York Red Bulls in the Emirates Cup two weeks ago, having detected, even in a pre-season friendly, signs of the mental softness they believe underlies the club's failure to win a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup.
Wenger continues to deny the existence of a flaw that was most visible in the match at St James's Park in February, when they led Newcastle 4-0 at the interval only to collapse to a 4-4 draw, and in the gift of a late winning goal to Birmingham City in the League Cup final that same month, which began the unravelling of their attempt to win four trophies.
"People forget that 4-4 is normally a good football game because you see eight goals," he said, temporarily forgetting the football manager's creed. "We had an exceptional first half, and we were only caught back when we played with 10 men [after Abou Diaby was sent off] and we conceded two penalties under very special circumstances. So on the day we were a bit unlucky and we didn't get any credit for that performance in the first half, maybe our best of the season."
This seemed a strange and unconvincing litany of excuses from a man who once said: "A great player is one who makes his team win. Anything else is just talk." But Wenger has earned the right to do things his way for at least one more season, even though his latest choice of captain – Robin van Persie – looks no more likely than Henry, William Gallas and Fábregas to fit the mould of Patrick Vieira, Arsenal's last trophy-winning leader, a focal point of resistance when the going got tough. "You always hear that," Wenger said. "But I think what would be very nice is to have 11 leaders. Football is not about one magical man who can make miracles."
The season's target, he said, is qualification for the Champions League, for the 14th year in a row. "We may not have won a trophy but we have been consistently in the top four. You will see one day that it is not as easy as it looks."
Source: Richard Williams, The Guardian on 12 Aug 11
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