In Arsene we trust

In Arsene we trust: a divisive phrase amongst Arsenal fans and one that will forever be laced with a withering inference; those who imbibe the credo and use it without irony are simply unable to question Arsene Wenger, just happy to bury their head in the sand like many a pious fundamentalist, at least that is the view of many Arsenal fans. This summer could see the phrase being used with increasing sarcasm, by increasing numbers, if recent weeks are anything to go by.

Arsenal’s season has been one of peaks and troughs: the progression of Jack Wilshere undermined by the Don Balon debacle with Cesc Fabregas; the continued brilliance and goals of Robin Van Persie diluted by his consistently glassy physique; the heights hit by Samir Nasri for two-thirds of the season eroded by his mediocre final one-third; a one-off defeat of Barcelona ultimately proving irrelevant as the club were put in their place during the return leg. Above all else, though, Arsenal failed to win a trophy, flopping in the League and both the domestic Cups; the club have not won a trophy since 2005.

But, of course, Football Managers exist in a shade of grey and if viewed through a prism of transfer expenditure alone, Arsene Wenger has punched far beyond his weight-class: Arsenal stand 19^th out of the current 20 Premier League clubs for total net expenditure, trading at a profit in player recruitment, for the period 2006-2011. Pound–for-pound sterling, Wenger’s record bears comparison with any.

However, in electing to regrow an already established club from its roots - accentuating Arsenal in their entirety towards youth and imposing a specific playing ideologue - Wenger unilaterally instigated an initiative so challenging that he must have realised it could prove beyond almost any manager. It would seem justified to wonder whether it was an objective motivated by egoism as much as love.

A degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in economics, Wenger exudes intelligence and educated in a field founded on truisms, it is perhaps no real surprise that his team’s style has evolved into an absolute. Indeed, the imagination of one who conceives in science and maths seems hugely influential in all Arsenal’s football: angles, refraction and a playing imperative with all the precision of calculus.

Though, given the righteous beautifying innate within the French and their postulations in football, Wenger will inevitably observe through an artistic lens equally as vividly as that of the scientific. Indeed, Wenger has openly hypothesised that football is now another legitimate art-form.

It is of no consequence, but it is easy to imagine that if Wenger’s conceptualisation of football could be symbolised in a piece of art, the result would be akin to the work of Russian surrealist Wassily Kandinsky.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, however, football is not a game predominantly of grids or absolutes, nor is it sketched with the arc of a compass. Football remains a game played by free-willed individuals and all clubs are subject to external forces. Of course, Wenger does not stand alone in the desire to inculcate an ideologue into a football club and although Ajax is another example - a close relation in many ways - it is openly accepted that the style Wenger most seeks to mimic is that of Barcelona’s.

Herein lie further shades of grey: although Johan Cruyff successfully insinuated an evolutionary leap into the football paradigm via the Catalan club, it was also much of a staccato process. Barcelona suffered growing-pains during their reinvention: the Dutch heavy era of Van Gaal ultimately succumbing to the weight of expectation; between 2000 and 2004, the team won nothing; whilst Frank Rijkaard’s term ended anti-climactically, after it became increasingly stodgy and ill-disciplined, self-indulgent.  

Moreover, while Barcelona’s educational infrastructure [La Masia] has been evolved over decades, Wenger has sought to accelerate the culture in his Islington petri-dish, players pulled together from far more disparate homes than the current grouping in Cataluña; no collective identity unites this Arsenal dressing-room, just a moral loyalty to Wenger and to the club, to differing extents. A shared intelligence and appreciation of collective aspirations is fundamental to the Catalan’s playing style – this is how Barcelona consistently exceeds the sum of its parts.

Though, of course, Barcelona have also been able, and willing, to operate at a different level to Arsenal in the transfer market: the Catalan’s spending over €700m since the turn of the century; whether it is Wenger or the Board that are unwilling to invest in recruitment to the extent that they might is unknowable, which is unfortunate for those fans seeking to make a definitive judgement on their manager.

However, perhaps most significantly, this Barcelona simply possesses something Arsenal does not: three extraordinary footballers performing on a different level to any at Wenger’s disposal, all home-grown, all attuned to the club’s playing philosophy: Messi, Xavi and Iniesta.

Effectively a poorer version of Barcelona; the predictability of Arsenal’s system can render the team exactly that, but also undermine them before a game even begins. Where Ferguson, Ancelotti, Dalglish et al are able to ensure Wenger remains uncertain over the team and formation Arsenal may be facing, the only question they have in evaluating Arsenal’s strategy is which digits will they use in Wenger's [one] carefully constructed football equation.

It is indisputable that everything good about “this” Arsenal originates from within Wenger and when they achieve solutions he is acutely responsible, but he is now undeniably complicit in their prevailing flaws and his simple inability to appoint a new Assistant manager could be his biggest failing.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s career at United has been punctuated with myriad Assistants – Knox, Kidd, McLaren, Ryan, Smith, Quieroz and Phelan – all forcing the United manager to evolve from consistent exposure to new ideas and to perhaps temper his own methods to reflect the changing attributes around him; Arsene Wenger has retained Pat Rice as his number two since 1996.

Dragan Stojkovic has been named by Arsene Wenger as his intellectual soul-mate where football is concerned, also asserting that the Yugoslavian manager of Nagaya Grampus Eight would be his ideal successor as Arsenal’s manager. Wenger advancing to a role upstairs, whilst his friend takes his role on the bench, would seem likely, at some point in the future; but more of the same or mutual back-slapping might not be what Arsenal need, attention to defensive organisation and set-pieces might be of greater value. If he remains without help, Wenger will at least have to challenge himself.

Whilst, Pat Rice seems insitu, solutions on the playing side will certainly be sought. Although, they are unlikely to be found in the combination of Scott Parker, Brede Hangelaand, Robert Green or Michael Owen, as one pundit advocated; any reference to a lack of Englishness being the cause of Arsenal’s impotency is just a classic case of Godwin’s Law.

Keisuke Honda, Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard have all been mentioned as targets of the club and all would improve the team’s quality. But regardless of quality, the Arsenal dressing-room also lacks characters without fear, who take defeat as a personal slight and who see passivity as a preserve for others. Yann M’Vila and Christopher Samba are both rumoured targets; both would dramatically improve the team’s mentality and its physicality.

And unfortunately for Wenger, one further challenge lays ahead: the annual transfer tug-of-war over Cesc Fabregas is still to be fought; a time will surely come when the team’s best player seeks to increase his chances of success, if not securing his preferred return home.

These are clearly testing times for Arsenal - with United, Chelsea, City and Liverpool all in the team’s vicinity - but the odds favour Wenger keeping the club competitive, if he is able (and/ or willing) to spend at the same level as his rivals, based on his performance without real financial expenditure.