Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s principles are to be admired, writes Kevin McCarra. The Frenchman strives to field a young team that plays good soccer. The problem is that it could cost the team a place in the top four, and that would mean financial calamity for a club still paying for its stadium.
Wenger, says McCarra, “has too analytical a mind not to realize that he is in the midst of more than just a sticky patch.” A home defeat to Hull and road defeats at Fulham and Stoke City, not to mention throwing away a two-goal lead at home to Tottenham in the game’s final two minutes last week, have all contributed to a feeling that the club is physically too weak, and that it has never adequately replaced Patrick Vieira. Since Vieira left for Serie A in 2005, the club has won nothing.
Arsenal’s squad has “limitations that were obvious before the season opened.” While Wenger is “a remarkable manager, whose perspectives on the game are invigorating and heartening, domestic football would be severely diminished if his team were no longer prominent.” With Aston Villa and possibly Manchester City lurking to take that lucrative fourth Champions League spot, Wenger should cease to be disdainful of spending the $48 million thought to be available at Arsenal, and cease to think that low-budget solutions are the solution. “His principles,” concludes McCarra, “are becoming obstacles for a club he has led so brilliantly.”