On Money, Names, and Cakes

By: Abby | May 13th, 2008

The season is over. And as it was last year, the press is endlessly discussing on how Arsenal is imploding and how we’re going to lose all our players. Arsenal fans themselves are fretting about who’s going, who won’t come, and there’s a pessimism that I don’t even recall being around last season this time, despite us doing far, far better.

Certainly, part of that is the departure of Mathieu Flamini. One of the surprising standouts of this season, the debate over his contract stretched on and on before finally concluding in a deal with AC Milan. Who may not even be in the Champions League next season, although I have a feeling they’ll sneak in (and I’m not just saying that for the sake of rossonero friends of mine). Still, that he’s still going despite Milan’s state, and the way of his departure, has shaken the Arsenal faithful.

Players have come and gone quite a bit in recent Arsenal memory, but them leaving in the way Flamini did is rare. Normally Arsenal players go for quite a bit of money when they’re a bit past their prime. At least one or the other, usually both, has been a feature in most high-profile transfers of Arsenal players. Anelka, Vieira, Overmars, Henry, the list goes on…only Anelka left before Wenger had run out of major use for him, and he left for a rather large sum. Flamini’s shaken our view of ourselves in the transfer market. (As will Hleb, when/if he leaves, although it looks like there will be money involved.)

So now we’re questioning. What kind of club are we, that lets an integral player leave on a free transfer? What kind of club are we to not buy those marquee players? What kind of club is Arsenal?

For a long time, we’ve had this interesting combination of having our cake and eating it too, to use a cliche. We’ve been winning trophies and championships without having to act the same way as other clubs winning trophies and championships. There isn’t the same swagger and arrogance that you’ll find at a Real Madrid. Arsenal staff don’t go about talking about how they’re going to sign other team’s superstars. There is something different in the way we do things. Which is an arrogance of its own, certainly, particularly in the way fans see it. We take an inordinate amount of pride in the way we’re not like everyone else. Arsenal fans love taking the moral high ground on anything- on how we don’t spend like all the clubs around us, on the way that Wenger builds superstars rather than buying them, that we play the most attractive football. We like to think we’re different. But every team has their pride.

So what we have/had was basically the football equivalent of an extremely popular indie-rock band- perhaps a Death Cab for Cutie. Extremely popular, with all the perks that come with it (loads of fans, big tours, not needing a day job), while still maintaining a sense of distance from the crassly commercial. Arsenal had all the perks of a big club- namely winning big leagues- without having to act like one. But for the past three seasons, nothing has been won.

And now, Arsenal is at a crossroads. Do we continue on in the hope that this is just a blip, that we can go back to our days of spending little, talking less, and reaping big? Or do we push forwards and act like the sort of big club that, in all honesty as ex-G14 members, we are- spending on big names, ruthlessly stabbing everyone around us, and hopefully winning just like they do?

(On the other hand, are we really a big club, in the AC Milan sense of the term? Do we have the name that draws players no matter what state we’re in or who’s in charge? FC Barcelona, the Milan clubs, even Manchester United to an extent have a decades-long clout that we don’t yet have. I’m 23, which means I was 11 when Wenger took over, and if I was a footballer I’d be around my peak age. It’s only fairly recently that boys who grew up knowing the Wenger Arsenal have been of playing age, and even then it’s unlikely that the name Arsenal has the same resonance to non-English players. Flamini likely grew up hearing of AC Milan- how old was he when he first knew Arsenal? Perhaps in the next five or ten years, that will change.)

I’m not sure what’s best. I’m not sure where we’re going. But speculation is part of the fun, isn’t it?

In less philosophic terms, we may have some new players joining us. Hatem ben Arfa looks promising. There’s talk of a central defender. My favorite rumor is that we’re linked to Mario Gomez of VfB Stuttgart- while unlikely, in my opinion (I think he’ll go to Spain when he leaves Stuttgart), he’s the sort of player that just the thought of him playing for Arsenal makes me smile. And with Jens gone (possibly to Stuttgart, actually), I think we could use another German. I like them.