So unsurprisingly and inevitably Arsenal are self discombobulating again. Hardly 10 games in and the fans have turned on the manager and the captain.
They aren’t wrong to feel that way of course and I’m not here to lecture anyone on how they express such emotions but this is a good opportunity as any to take a look at Arsenal and the league at large.
So one of the main complaint of the anti-emery gang even when arsenal win the odd games is the lack of flair in the football we see. Fans talk with immense nostalgia about wenger-ball and how they were okay with the results because the team had “identity”.
I usually roll my eyes at such opinions. I mean there is recency bias and then there is some form of memory loss. Arsenal haven’t played attractive football since the Nasri-Fabregas era was disbanded. Sure, there were a few moments of flair when Carzola and Ozil played one touch football but the main criticism of the latter wenger teams had been the lack of creativity. There would be constant sideways passes to the full back without much impetus on how to beat a set defense. We had our moments in transition but even those were rare and few partly because of arsenals inability to press and win the ball.
Now does that mean I believe fans are being spoilt in demanding to be entertained even when arsenal win? No, of course not. I just push back on the notion that we were playing champagne football under wenger.
Another common belief I hear around arsenal fans is that the club has become too corporate and focuses more on successes off the field than on it. Again, I think arsenals current board and management have drastically failed in both ventures by actually not recognizing the two are strongly correlated. They tried to market themselves as a good avenue for companies to bring their clients or guests as demonstrated by the number of corporate suites at emirates, taking advantage of their plush central London location. They gambled on ticket sales etc being their main source of revenue. Of course, the model has turned on its head with majority of a clubs revenue coming from TV and commercial sponsors.
What drives commercial sponsors? Success. What made Manchester United such a commercial juggernaut under Ferguson. It was them successfully building a brand of champions which allowed them to demand premiums from brands that wanted to be associated with Manchester United, the team of proven winners.
Liverpool is enjoying a similar surge in commercial revenue built of their recent successes. Why would a brand want to be connected with arsenal. Sure, they can point to their global reach but surely even they realize most of that strong global brand presence was built off teams from past decades with kids from Mumbai and shanghai admiring the Henry, Pires etc of the world.
But, all blame doesn’t really lie with arsenal. It’s also to do with the structure of the premier league which doesn’t really enable upward class mobilization from the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ clubs.
Liverpool have managed to do it successfully by excellent player recruitment and finding the right manager at the right time. Is that replicable ? Maybe. Likely ? Hell,no. Ultimately , a club needs a huge wage bill to succeed in the league and some clubs that don’t already offer the brand or champions league have to lure potential star players by paying even more to build a squad capable of realistically targeting league honours.
This ultimately brings me to my main point about the league. What is the actual point of it. If you’re a team in the doldrums of mid table. Is avoiding mid-table relegation enough of an incentive to keep you engaged in the happenings of your club. Enough to follow them up and down the country? Enough to be emotionally invested? Of course, the answer for previous generations was an emphatic yes because supporting their club was a part of their lifestyle, embedded in their culture. However, in an increasingly globalised world with easy access to different forms of entertainment, I doubt this trend continues.
Premier league clubs need to have a coherent strategy of what exactly their fans are buying into. What’s the vision? How do we get to the top? Unfortunately the structure of the league doesn’t really allow for any easy answers.
In American sports leagues, it’s a widely established fact that the worst place to be is in the middle. You either compete for the title or compete for worst place as that allows you a good chance of landing the next biggest star from the draft (Lower placed teams get first dibs at the upcoming draft). This creates fairness and allows for clubs to be honest with their fans on what direction they are going to. It gives fans reasons to be engaged even if they aren’t competing for the NBA championship that year as they become invested in the youth player development. They understand when their window is and they are okay with it.
Compare that to a club like Southampton. What’s their incentive for adapting a youth movement. Sure, a coherent strategy would be , we are going to build from within and develop our farm players into the stars of tomorrow. But unfortunately the economics of the league dictates that any good players they develop will be utilised by other clubs
I think these are serious issues the premier league needs to answer and I think it would be a mistake to assume that fans level of interest and engagement will remain. Apathy is their biggest enemy and lack of engagement could really affect their next TV contract. My next article will be about looking at some drastic solutions to fix this but feel free to suggest some in the comments below.
Nuanced hot takes 