It’s all eyes on Arsenal at the moment. They’ve lost Toure and Adebayor, debatably two key components from the spine of their side this Summer. I feel that Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea are fairly secure at the top of the table, and Man City have made their pitch to join them. Everton, Spurs and Villa will again be snapping at the heels trying to scrape a European place. But Arsenal are something of a mystery.
Arsene Wenger’s response – he doesn’t feel Arsenal need to strengthen. I respect this statement so much, I just have to highlight it. With all the question marks over Arsenal’s progress, and presumably with a sizable transfer budget in place to provide answers, the manager comes out in public with a glowing endorsement for his weakened squad.
I think it’s a brilliant response. I think his young squad, brimming with talent, will read that statement as a glowing endorsement of their abilities. They will be puffing their chests out – even without Adebayor and Toure, our manager thinks we can do it.
Wenger is wrong, of course, and perhaps he secretly knows it – Arsenal may well struggle this season. But I feel there’s been nobody better at dealing with the mind-games that take place in professional sport. He knows how to take pressure off himself and his players, and there is nobody better in the transfer market in my opinion – Wenger’s hit-rate is phenomenal.
In the same interview, Wenger then went on to lament the modern trend in putting too much store by who teams sign. “In England, people think all problems can be sorted out by buying players.” Again it’s mind games – he is placing himself above the usual horse-trading that goes on in the transfer window.
As a West Ham fan it’s worth looking at Wenger’s approach – after all it’s publicly admitted that we would like to copy it. Zola is okay in the interviews, but just as he would get Carlton Cole to watch Henry videos in his spare time, so Zola could learn from watching Wenger dealing with the press.
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