Whose that man?

By Neil Fry
October 4 2011

Part 1 of this article set the scene and parameters for a management review of Arsenal's recent failure to win trophies. A period typified by a lack of flexibility by the coaching staff, a lack of quality players due to the loss of key stars. This has been compounded by a lack of investment in suitbale replacements.The link to part one is immediately below this introduction.

_{Return to Part 1}

_Organising

_{The first team coaching staff supporting Monsieur Wenger has remained consistent throughout the period:  Mr Rice (stalwart 1971 ‘Double’ winning full-back), Mr Peyton (former Fulham and Bournemouth goalkeeper) and Mr Primorac (former Yugoslavia centre-half).  The specific nature of their roles remains unclear.  It has been suggested, for example by BBC analyst Mr Dixon, a key member of The Invincibles defence, that Mr Wenger’s input on defensive matters was not substantial.} 

_{Nevertheless, Monsieur Wenger has himself identified key failings in the club defending set pieces over recent seasons, but these failings have not been rectified.  Defensive problems appeared to have been exacerbated by failures in other players’ positional awareness after conceding possession.  And, since the German International Herr Lehman left the club, progress has also been undermined by a succession of goalkeepers regularly making very costly errors.  These risks have both remained unchecked over several seasons, but worsened still further in the last season.  Last season, for instance, Arsenal conceded the highest proportion of goals from set pieces (53%) in the Premier League.  It was not possible to ascertain the extent to which Messrs Rice, Primorac and Peyton have been retrained and re-qualified in modern developments within training and coaching or if they have any substantive say in player recruitment.}    

_{Questions have also been asked regarding offensive tactics regarding a lack of flexibility following an apparent change in tactics from pace and stretching teams’ defensive lines to a game more based on passing patterns.  For instance, whilst this rewarded with the best away form in the Premier League last season, home form suffered considerably as massed compact defensive became barriers Arsenal often struggled to overcome.  Four matches were drawn and three of the four defeats were against significantly lesser clubs.}

_{It is notable that the nature of the coaching staff at Arsenal contrasts that at key rivals.  There, is a suggestion that assistant managers among the key rivals have tended to have previously had a greater status in the profession, be better qualified, and more willing to deploy contemporary development in coaching.  For example, Senhor Queiroz at Manchester United and Mr Clarke at Chelsea (and now Liverpool).   In addition, a key development in coaching in recent times has been in the very detailed analytical surveillance of opposition  tactics, and players strengths and weakness.} 

_{A key foundation of, for example, Senhor Mourinho’s success at Chelsea was his well-resourced team of staff carrying out this process.  No such undertaking was detected operating under Monsieur Wenger.  Anecdotal evidence, such as his assertion that Chelsea Forward Mr Drogba - despite his devastating record of goals against Arsenal - bore no special threat and necessitated no special treatment, suggests Monsieur Wenger believes a focus on Arsenal’s own game is sufficient.}  

_{Notable successes under Monsieur’s new recruitment policy have included the unqualified success of full-back Monsieur Sagna and the relative success of midfielder Mr Song (although some issues over his positional awareness competence may remain).  The unrivalled champion of Monsieur Wenger’s policy is however, undoubtedly, Senor Fabregas – initially an inexperienced 16 year old from Barcelona’s academy, he became the Captain and lynchpin of the Arsenal team.}

_{However, apparent and ongoing deficiencies in coaching have been exacerbated by shortcomings in certain competences of many players recruited to the Arsenal squad.  For, an enduring difficulty with Monsieur Wenger’s new recruitment policy has been that players recruited from Continental leagues, often the French league, have been unprepared for the hazards of the much greater pace and aggression of the English game and have either struggled to readjust, or never readjusted.  The players have been repeatedly unable to hold onto leads in matches, often two goal leads.  For instance, last season, there was an historic home 2-3 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, and this problem reached its lowest point with the failure to hold onto a 4 – 0 with just 22 minutes remaining of the match at Newcastle United.}  

_{During that, their debut season, Messrs Squillaci, Koscielny and Chamakh struggled on a number of occasions.  Other members of the squad, including Messrs Alumunia, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Rosicky and Bendtner have endured longer standing problems attaining the necessary competences.  The greatest problem has been that of goalkeeper and centre back in dealing with the often robust nature of the Premier League offensive play.  On a number of occasions Arsenal have appeared unprepared for, and were unable to cope with, the particular difficulties posed by overtly physical teams such as Stoke and Bolton.} 

_{Similarly, failings in the requirements from players promoted to Club captain have also been detected.  For instance, Monsieur Gallas appeared unaware of the requirements of his post and, prior to serious disciplinary action by the Club, fell short of the minimum levels of conduct (and cannot excuse the latter validity of some the sentiments expressed).  Club captain Senior Fabregas, in publically expressing his concerns on a number of occasions; for example, the wisdom of the player recruitment policy and a lack of players of sufficient experience to mentor the many inexperienced players.  Mr Fabregas has not taken part in pre-season matches and appears about to leave the club for his home club Barcelona.  Unfortunately, Monsieur Nasri, another of Monsieur Wenger’s star players in his prime, appears also set to leave for similar reasons.  There is a significant danger that this will exacerbate the shortfalls in player competencies elsewhere.}   

_{Key rivals have, however, often appeared better equipped for the rigors of the English game.  Key to their success has been the recruitment of world class foreign international goalkeepers, albeit at relatively modest cost compared to offensive players (for example, Messrs van der Sar, Cech and Reina) and the deployment of battle-hardened physical centre-backs who possessed good leadership skills (Vidic, Terry, Carragher).}

_{Planning and Implementing}

_{Significant inconsistencies in the implementation of the player recruitment policy were detected.  Monsieur Wenger appears to have had significant financial resources made available when he felt he needed them.  Indeed, he has on occasions spent significant sums on player recruitment.  For example, sums of £15.8m, £15m, and £10m were spent on Messrs’ Nasri, Arshavin and Vermaelen (best available estimates used for transfer fees, when undisclosed by Arsenal, excluding later ‘add-ons’).  Well known and sought after Internationals playing in foreign leagues, they have been relatively successful – albeit their records are to different extents marred by a lack of consistency or, in the latter’s case, serious injury.   Similarly, Master Walcott, a young English talent was recruited for £9m and had mixed fortunes (these improved, injuries excepted, after scoring three goals for England in an important away match and he regained his place from Mr Eboue).} 

_{At the time of writing, Monsieur Wenger has just signed the third tier, English born 17 year old offensive player, Master Oxlade-Chamberlain for £12m.  There has, however, been some significant expenditure on player recruitment that has been less successful.  For example, the offensive player Messrs Reyes was signed for a reported £17m, rising to £24m, but struggled to consistently repay the investment.   And in an explicit attempt to deal with problems at centre back, Messrs Koscielny (£10m) and Squillaci (£6), were recruited for last season but struggled significantly to adapt to the physicality of the Premiership.}

_{Other similarly priced, and often more established, foreign players in that position, signed by key rivals, have adapted more readily.   For example, Messrs Vidic and Kompany, signed by Manchester rivals, quickly became the backbone of their teams and cost lesser sums.} 

_{There has also been contradictory evidence regarding the reigning in of player salaries.  The current expenditure on salaries for the last year was some £110m and there are question marks over the coherence individual salaries paid in recent years.  For example, the English born Mr Cole – developed by the club into one of the world’s best left-backs, famously left the club having, been refused a salary of £60K per week,  Nevertheless, within a few seasons this sort of sum was said to be paid to fringe, squad players such as Messrs Eboue and Rosicky.  In addition, the club has a large squad of players, many of whom are young and merely future prospects and there is a high level of players on temporary loan.} 

_{Similarly, there has been a very generous remuneration of senior management and Directors.  For example, Monsieur Wenger, despite his recent failures was rewarded with a long term contract of £6.5, whereas the much more successful key rivals manager of the period, Mr Ferguson, earns less - as does even Senor Guardiola at Barcelona, the biggest and most successful club recently in world football.}

_{Also, basic principles of sound financial management have not always been followed.  For example, players have been allowed to run down their contracts, such as Messrs  Flamini and Nasri, with unsatisfactory repercussions.  Other financial opportunities appear to have been missed. For example, there has been a failure to - in contrast to Big Four rivals - engage in lucrative foreign markets such as South East Asia and China for pre-season friendlies until the 2011 /12 pre-season.  Finally, it is not possible to quantify the potential financial benefits from trophy success, for example on player recruitment and retention and marketing, had persistent gaps in player and coaching competencies been addressed in a more timely manner.}

_{In the absence of trophy success, the greatest achievement of this period was becoming Champions League finalists in 2006 where ultimate success was unluckily compromised by the sending off of the goalkeeper Herr Lehmann.   The most recent two seasons have seen the club struggle in the competition.  Despite spirited performances in the home legs, the club was eliminated from the competition at earlier stages by eventual winners, again, Barcelona.  The campaigns were undermined by failures to finish top of the Group stages and benefit from more favourable seeding.  Indeed, there appeared to a conflict of policies of pursuing the Premier League and Champions League.  The latter campaigns were compromised by Monsieur Wenger fielding weakened teams away from home in Europe and recently Arsenal have fallen to a number of lesser clubs.  For instance, last season, there were away defeats at Shakhtar Donetsk (having just beaten them 5 – 1 at home) and Sporting Braga.} 

_{Monsieur Wenger’s policy of fielding weaker teams in the FA and League Cups has also appeared to result in other unintended outcomes in the Premier League campaign.  In addition to sacrificing potentially moral building trophy wins, and additional revenues, there may have been a residual impact on collective morale and confidence of defeats to key rivals in those competitions.  For example, a heavy defeat at Manchester United in the FA Cup was followed by adverse events at Birmingham City which included then Club Captain, Monsieur Gallas - who lost the captaincy as a disciplinary measure - and a subsequent ebbing away of that Premier League campaign.} 

_{The policy appeared, however, to be reversed by Monsieur Wenger for the 2010/2011 season.  However, having struggled in overcoming lower league clubs Leeds, Huddersfield and Leyton Orient, Arsenal exited the FA Cup competition to a major rival once again (Manchester United).  Monsieur Wenger also made the League Cup a firm priority – with the expectation that winning the trophy would be a launch pad for winning an unprecedented ‘Quadruple’ in winning all four competitions.   Unfortunately, a serious defensive / goalkeeping misunderstanding at the end of the match gifted the League Cup to subsequently relegated Birmingham City.  The group psychological trauma appeared such that it served only to pre-empt a catastrophic run of results which, amongst other things, left the club trophy-less once more.  This appears to have provoked a significant number of seemingly culpable players, players that Monsieur Wenger had afforded a great deal of faith and trust, to publically express their desire to leave the club in search of success.}

_{End Part 2}

Final Part to follow

Organising For Failure Management Review Part 2

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 04/10/2011 19:43

Arsenal Times
04/10/2011 19:43

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:10:16:18:09:06 by Padre Pio.

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celine dion
04/10/2011 19:58

I do like your approach Mr Fry, something akin to an audit. Very hard to argue with any of it, just like it is with the HSE itself.

I must warn you that an independent body known as the Eduardo Exective will probably submit a secondary audit in due course, disputing several elements of your original body of work.

In the meantime I would like to report a series of RIDDOR accidents that have occured since your investigation, on behalf of the same organisation. I am sorry to record that all included instances of part of a work team undertaking activites for which they were clearly not trained and very obviously inadequaltely prepared.

Highbury , North London August 20th
Old Trafford, Manchester August 28th
Blackburn, Lancs September 17th
Tottenham, North London October 2nd

The results were catastrophic/traumatic both for the parties involved and sections of the public at large, and I reccomend that the management bodies responsible should be held fully responsible with consequences up to and including summary dismissal.

regards

Celine Dion.

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weedz
09/10/2011 01:28

4 games, CD? Gosh!!!

And I thought words like catastrophic/traumatic were to be left for 21st of Dec, next year.

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

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Padre Pio
09/10/2011 13:57

Might not be a catastrophe, but out of league title by October, and being thrashed 8-2 at Man U is hardly brilliant is it?

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

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weedz
15/10/2011 01:32

I`m not saying it is brilliant, Padre. We haven`t been brilliant since the 04/05 season buddy. That`s exactly my point.

Some are using terms like relegation, catastrophic and end of the world terminology to address this debate. Whilst our present situation is not brilliant, it is not catastrophic either.

We are not going to be relegated this season. And any who seriously believe this to be true are deluded with hatred. I will defend my club against this stupidity.

Next will be some one saying` Don`t be too sure about the relegation, Weedz`. Well I am sure, 100% sure. Willing to take a bet type sure. Anybody?

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

Reply Quote Report

Padre Pio
15/10/2011 09:09

What is this straw man of relegation? The article above doesnt mention relegation, nor does any serious pundit.

I know what will happen we will finish 6th and Wenger will crow we did well as it was predicted we would be relegated.

Its nonsense as no one of any importance even said that

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Reply Quote Report

weedz
15/10/2011 20:02

Not on this thread, but there are posters on here using `relegation` as a tool of fear, to make a point.

Catastrophe/traumatic are similar examples of the point I`m making.
I will accept, however, that our present situation might seem traumatic to a weak minded individual.

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

Reply Quote Report

Padre Pio
15/10/2011 20:55

Finishing outside of top four isnt good enough for a club as big as Arsenal - some might find it traumatic.
We are beginning to look at the end of Wenger - like it or not

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Reply Quote Report

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