I fell in love with Arsenal because it wasn’t like any other sports team I’d ever seen. Growing up in America as a fan of the SuperSonics and the Seahawks, I learned that sports teams were just a cash machine for rich people. Because of cost controls like salary caps, profit sharing, and the college draft system (which is essentially an academy that teams don’t have to pay for, in which the athletes aren’t paid, and in which most of them never see any benefit) teams could put out a mediocre product and still get paid huge sums. If you like football (gridiron) then there is only one professional outlet for you to go see: NFL. These teams aren’t just franchises, they are legal monopolies.
And worst of all, because they are legal monopolies, they can also hold cities hostage and demand that they build them lavish new stadiums funded with taxpayer money. If you go to Seattle, you might be surprised to see two gigantic stadiums a few blocks apart. One is for the baseball team, the other for the football team. They were built on the grounds of the old stadium, which used to host both teams.
That old stadium, the Kingdome, was imploded in 2000 and the bonds to pay off the remaining debt to that stadium reached full maturity in 2015. For 15 years, folks in Seattle (and across Washington) were paying for three stadiums for two sports teams.
How this happens is that teams in the USA simply threaten to relocate. Seattle’s basketball team – the SuperSonics – did this and they received multiple upgrades to their stadium before eventually following through with their threats and leaving to become the Oklahoma City Fart Sniffers or whatever popular thing they do in that hellhole. The Mariners also did this which is how we came to blow up the Kingdome.
So, imagine growing up in a culture where sports are mostly a soulless corporate exercise, where fans are just seen as interchangeable, and where these corporations demand fealty from their cities, to learning about Arsenal. Arsenal was a team that played in an old Art Deco stadium. They had a history which went back over a hundred years. They had a local rival. The fans didn’t just scream at the tops of their lungs (Seattle fans are famous for this) but sang songs and chanted. And the entire league structure was different with relegation, transfers, and even unregulated salary spending. Plus Arsenal had their own academy! If Arsenal needed a player they could buy him or promote him – you had to be good to get good players. If the Seahawks wanted a good player, they would literally tank their season to get a high draft pick.
Plus the way that the leagues were structured, where every team plays each other once home and away was so logical. And there were three or four trophies that a team could win, rather than the very difficult Super Bowl, NBA title, or World Series. In the USA you can go decades without winning anything, in the Premier League a team could win three or four things in a single season.
The action was non-stop, there were no commercial breaks, and Arsenal had all of these beautiful and charismatic players like Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. Plus, there was Arsene Wenger: an erudite and lovable genius. And this was a club at war with Manchester United, the New York Yankees of the Premier league.
When I stumbled upon all of this it was like discovering a magic door into an alternate reality. One where the action was non stop, trophies were won on merit, and nearly every club had a chance to win something (except Tottenham). And Arsenal was a club with an identity: we don’t buy players, we make them; we played rapid, attacking football; we fought back against thugs; we built our own stadium with our own money; we bucked the traditional systems where you had to field 10 Englishmen or play long ball; and Wenger gave young players a chance.
When I started writing about Arsenal in 2008 we were at the peak of Wenger’s project youth. I could tell you exactly what we were doing and why we were doing it. Many disagreed with the project and that identity, many longed for the old days, but it was at least an identity. And Arsenal shaped their goals and strategy around that identity.
But what is Arsenal’s identity now? What are Arsenal’s goals? What is the strategy that Arsenal are going to take to achieve those goals? And what is the plan?
Since Wenger left the club (I will accept that maybe even since about 2012) Arsenal has no identity apart from “corporate investment vehicle for Kroenke”. And the club’s goals seem to be “just get back into the Champions League” with the outright stated reason of “because $$$.” The strategy to achieve that most recently was “just hire Unai Emery, the guy who has won the Europa League a lot” and “let Raul Sanllehi run the business because he’s got experience in football.” And from what I can tell, the plan was “let’s figure this out as we go along.”
After letting Emery go, the identity has remained the same, the goals the same, but the strategy seems to have shifted to “ok, guys, maybe Arteta can do this?” What “this” is is still “let’s get back into the Champions League, because $$$”. And the plan? “Buy a midfielder, get Willian, get rid of the group of players he doesn’t like, and leave the rest of the squad imbalanced.”
More than anything, I believe that Arsenal’s identity and goals need to be changed and articulated to the fans (and the corporate structure). Arsenal need to have an identity that’s real, that’s not just about making Kroenke money, and one that the fans can hold on to. And the goals cannot be “get back into the Champions League”. Getting into the Champions League should be seen as a side effect of the identity and goals and will happen when the club has matured.
What’s driving fan anger toward Kroenke is that he is treating Arsenal just like any one of his other Sports franchises. And the identity of those teams is “just make money”. We have become almost entirely an investment and it’s almost as fun watching some Arsenal matches as it would be to watch the NASDAQ averages go up and down for 90 minutes.
A lot of cynical folks out there keep saying that what Arsenal fans really want is just someone to put money into the club. There is a truth to this, of course. Modern fans are obsessed with transfers, to the point where I had to unfollow people I like because they just post transfer rumors, repost transfer news, and talk about transfers all the time.
But I’m not entirely sure that him pumping money in will be enough. Because Arsenal have been spending heavily on transfers the last three years, putting in over £220m in NET spend (mate) and fans have gone berserk these last few weeks. I think what fans crave is a club with an identity. We don’t have to win trophies every year. We don’t have to have the best team in England (though it wouldn’t hurt!). But we do have to have something that we can believe in, something that we see is pushing us forward.
For example, Arsenal’s identity could be something like:
Arsenal football club develops young players and teaches them to play our style of attacking football. Arsenal also believe it is every fan’s right to see Arsenal play football both on television and in person. And Arsenal are a high-tech company, using the latest data-driven technologies to help us to make football decisions.
The goals:
Arsenal’s goals are to give young players from diverse communities opportunities in football and we promise to promote 2 academy players every year. We also want to increase fan access to Arsenal matches with a goal of 10 free-to-air games a season and 10,000 seats at the match for people under 18. And Arsenal want to develop our in-house technology team to be a world-class data center for football, leading the industry in 5 years.
The strategy:
Arsenal will invest in youth programs in various places around the world, to make sure that young people get a chance to play football the Arsenal way. Arsenal will also use our enormous power to push for more free-to-air broadcast opportunities and we will lower ticket prices and increase the number of seats for young people under the age of 18 who want to go to games. Arsenal will recruit top data folks and create a football-data center which will be the envy of football clubs everywhere.
The plan:
Etc, etc.
Obviously I’m just giving an example here (so please don’t get too bothered by the particulars) but the point is that Arsenal’s lack of identity (or vision if you want to be more corporate) is killing the game for a lot of us. This is the equivalent of taking punk culture and reselling it at Hot Topic, in the mall. Maybe that’s what people want in the future but I really don’t think it is.
I often hear people opine “why would anyone follow a club like Burnley, they have no chance of ever winning anything?” But the reason why is because Burnley FC has an identity, one that their local fans are proud of. Many clubs up and down the football pyramid still have identities. Many also don’t, or have lost sight of themselves recently, but that shouldn’t be a reason why Arsenal need to change ours in for a soulless cash machine. We need to get back to what we once were as a club. One which makes the fans proud.
Ironically, if Kroenke does that the club will probably be a huge success and he will make a lot more money that he ever will by running things the way he is now.
Build a spine of Hale End boys and have guys like Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp attend training as “observers”.
I’m into it!
I know you point towards the owners but the clubs that have a real identity get it from their manager. Klopp, Pep, Dyche. Their clubs are defined by their current manager. The manager is the face of the club. It’s the only voice of the club. It’s who we as fans connect with. All the things you fell in love with were Wenger.
I don’t want to make this all about Arteta but this is where he just isn’t owning the leadership role. He needs to fill the same space as the other big club managers. For me the following are missing:
– Setting fan expectations. There’s been talk of a ‘process’. But it’s never been defined. If we’re a club in transition then what are we now, what do we want to be and how long will it take to get there?
– Define a style of play. In the past eighteen months it feels like we’ve been all over the place with formations and tactics. You just don’t know what you’re going to get from game to game. If we have a defined style of play it becomes obvious which current players fit and what attributes we should expect from new recruits.
– Get results that signpost progress is being made and we’re on the right track. The one thing Wenger did until we knew his time was up was to always arrest a slump before it became a run of bad results. I’ve made this point before but if we were in Leicester’s current league position we’re not having these conversations. Everyone is happy. As it stands our league position keeps on falling each season and the reality is we’re worse this season.
That’s my take. It’s no wonder fans are frustrated.
I think Liverpool have a very strong, non-Klopp identity; they are a very fan oriented, Champions League winning, attacking team. It’s why it stung so bad that they wanted to join the Super League. Chelsea have an identity too: win at all costs (literally). Man City’s identity is “Expensive but extremely effective marketing campaign to whitewash how terrible the oil industry is”.
I get that your MC line is at least partly a joke, but as unsavory as their authoritarian kleptocratic ownership might be, they actually run their global football business about as well — and with an eye on long term success — as one can imagine.
Wenger didn’t come out the the packaging freshly minted, he came to Arsenal a well seasoned pro, you get their through ups and downs, he did well with his first season with Nancy finishing 11th (when they were tipped for relegation), nearly got relegated in his second second, then actually got relegated in his third, but did enough in his first three years to get a job with Monaco and won the league in his first season with them. Arteta has yet to have a full pre-season, is over seeing a squad that was assembled by 3-4 different committees of people no longer at the club and were by far the worst positioned “big” club in the face of COVID, being the most unsettled team and by extension the most likely to be unsettled by something like COVID. With young managers as with young players there is a risk, but that risk comes with the upside in that they have so much more to learn. If you’re going to go with a young manager you have to allow space for that, otherwise don’t go for young managers, in for a penny in for a pound. There’s talk now he could be sacked if he doesn’t win the Europa League, which strikes me as idiotic. I would imagine a more experienced coach might have done better than him (but with more expierneced coaches you get what you get, Benitez is Benitex, Mourinho is Mouinho, the dream with a young coach is that the club grows with them and gets a more solid sense of identity through that), but only ‘might’, the circumstances he’s been managing under are literally unprecedented. As it stands he’s a young manager who comes with a pedigree of having played under Wenger and coached under Guardiola, with a little Moyes on the side, he seems to have something about him, is thought of highly and so on. I don’t think given the circumstance he can fairly be blamed for the current state of the team and he managed to do what his rival tonight didn’t which is beat Chelsea in a Cup final. He’s not Wenger, but then who is and not even Wenger was Wenger at the start of his career. The 24/7 news cycle approach to football X social media X people having nothing to do but be on social media, where every lost match is a new crisis and every victory a new dawn means write off seasons are hard to swallow, but it is what it is, even if there were no signings this Summer I would be shocked if the league performance from this season carries into next. We are at risk of becoming the most fickle fan base in the league.
Side note: Interesting piece in Aeon today about the notion of authenticity https://aeon.co/essays/a-history-of-authenticity-from-jesus-to-self-help-and-beyond
This.
I don’t understand the craving for an identity, when there’s so clearly one available.
It’s called “hire a novice manager because he’s wicked smart, wants to play versatile attacking football, wants to promote from the academy and loves the club – and let him do root and branch reform, even if it means holding strong through some tough times, because we’ll be #ucked if we’re going to do a Man Utd or a Spurs and hire Van Gaal or Mourinho or some other joyless mercenary just to try and win.”
As a narrative goes, it’s got balls, class, integrity and ambition. It may fail, but it has all of those.
We knew we would need to give this project some time. We can let off steam when it looks like it’s going badly, but I don’t see how we can complain that it’s not an identifiable project.
I hate the fact we’re owned by a billionaire, it sucks the soul out of the club, and I wish it wasn’t part of our identity. But I’m glad we had the balls to hire Arteta, even if he fails, it makes me feel like part of the club is still mine.
SOMK thank you for that link. Fascinating. May I direct you to WTM..World Transformation Movement. They suggest mans greatest battle from year dot is the battle between our intellect and instinct. Fascinating and truly stimulating
Sigh!
You are spot on though Tim. Could have been one of Wenger’s (data) assistants.
About immediate matters, I’m very worried about tonight’s game. While when Emery was at Arsenal we said had no football philosophy or clear strategy, his current team have a clear identity and play like one his famed Spanish teams. We are the ones suffering from split personality and putting up Jekyll and Hyde performances!
Morning guys. Brilliant post as usual Tim spot on the money. As a side note I’m here to ask you and any m all of your readers for advice and help. I wish to start a blog, not on football or sport in general, just my opinions and views on life in general, real life stories from my life interspersed with houmor but.. How do I get started and draw reader? Any advice would be welcome and greatly received. Many thanks in advance and cummon you Gooners lets win this game tonight.
But how will your strategy affect what happens on the pitch? What attracted you was the way Wenger’s team played. I agree we need an identity, but it should show itself in how we play. City have one, as do Leeds. Like them or not, Allardyce’s teams have one. I think Arteta has an idea of what he wants but we have to understand and believe in it if Arsenal are to regain the support it had twenty years ago.
I am a hopeless romantic, as is a certain dapper and elegant Frenchman.
“Football is an art, like dancing is an art – but only when it’s well done does it become an art.
– Arsene Wenger.
I’m not saying this is even half-way reasonable or achievable in sport, especially sport in the 21st century but it is beautiful and that is the identity I fell I love in love with to become an Arsenal supporter.
the brethren are right. it’s the manager that we as fans identify with. essentially, what wenger did was implement the old brazil approach; that we’re going to play our way and not worry about how our opponents play… they’re going to have to deal with us, not we deal with them. it was a clear and defined way of play based primarily on a brazil/holland hybridization of mobility, tactical flexibility, and tempo.
emery was the anti-wenger. instead of making slight VARIATIONS to his strategy based on opponents, his strategy DEVIATED from one game to the next. players are humans, not computers. that’s simply too much information to process and execute on the fast-moving football pitch where too many things change from week to week. then players have to determine, in real time, the best way to execute the plan while minimizing it’s weaknesses that the coach didn’t cover. that’s not sustainable for success. it’s also why emery always struggles to do well in domestic leagues.
arteta doesn’t seem to have a defined way of play. he’s a smart guy who overthinking things. it seems he’s constantly chopping and changing things that don’t really need to be changed. sometimes, he gets lucky but it’s a crap shoot. did he know smith rowe would be so effective? meanwhile, while trying to make nketiah the next gabriel jesus, arsenal dropped points. you can’t treat aubameyang like joe willock. how disrespectful is it to be a european champion fullback and sit on the bench while a slow center mid plays left back? it’s why arteta can easily beat a good team today and just as easily lose to a bad team tomorrow. he’s far too easily swayed. imagine if he’d dropped lacazette after missing that sitter against sparta prague. if auba was available, i’m sure he would have.
Sadly, not even the Brazilians play samba football anymore and Total Football didn’t bring Holland the World Cup. I’m really missing the style in the game these days.
Awesome write up Tim. Kanu brought me to Arsenal and Wenger’s beautiful football made me a lifelong fan. I actually don’t know the brand of football we play anymore, hopefully Arteta will find his feet and establish a football identity through out the club.
This is quality. How can we get you in front of AST and Josh Kroenke?
I cosign. 100%
Before we get to specific goals there needs to be a clear sense of our core values that is abstract enough to be always applicable, but clear enough to guide our actions. If I could choose, I would build from victoria concordia crescit. To me this means we are focused on team play, rather than being a platform for a handful of stars, and harmony is beautiful.
Arsenal has always been open to new ideas, from floodlights, to the white sleeves for visibility, to Wenger-era nutrition, sports science and data. We win by being smart and adapting to change first.
I also came to the team through France ’98 to Thierry Henry to a deep admiration for Arsene. To me, especially as an international fan, Arsenal was cosmopolitan and inclusive in its outlook.
So, I propose our core values are:
– Harmonious, highly-technical team play
– Openness to new ideas
– Welcoming to both young players and global fans
Thoughts?
Well, it’s 4 hours from KO against Villareal and I am not sanguine. I am nervous as f%$k and the only personality I want from Arsenal today that of a chef with mean streak: A knuckle sandwich afternoon tea to the solar plexus of Emery and the Yellow Submarine. Come on Arsenal!!!
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56836757
According to the table in this article, Arteta is not doing better than Emery did at this point, but measurably worse. Being eliminated by Emery and Villareal might well be the end for him.
I’ll drink to that
laca is not in the side. likewise, no one who’s ever played center forward for arsenal are in the starting line up. did arteta watch guardiola yesterday and say, “hey, i’m gonna do that too”? i hope not…because that’s why city lost to chelsea.
xhaka starting at left back against that nigerian kid; if emery’s smart, he’d pick on xhaka like you pick on a fat kid at the playground. i can’t remember his name but he’s a lot like saka. if he gets at xhaka, we could see arsenal get a disaster tonight; maybe even a red card and the tie could be over tonight.
i don’t know what arteta’s doing. i hope it’s something not only clever but effective. we’ll see.
chukwueze…the kid that’s gonna give xhaka that work!
correction…pepe and auba played as a front 2 in a 4-4-2 diamond that emery tried some time ago.
odegaard and ceballos have a real chance to show their quality tonight.
ugh, down a goal after 5 minutes then the sloppy give away from ceballos leads to the second goal…not to mention the cynical yellow as foyth was giving him that work.
biggest problem, arsenal have no leadership on the pitch…no direction. the attack looks impotent without lacazette.
second, and one of my continuing gripes with arteta’s arsenal, the midfield gets back but they don’t do anything. they don’t get in passing lanes. they don’t mark. they don’t talk. shape is all they do and that’s not good enough. it can’t be. there’s no pressure on the ball and opponents have time to find one of several targets when the weak pressure finally comes. a bigger problem is this transitions into the game. arsenal’s midfield spend all week training not putting pressure on the ball so they don’t know how to do it as a team in the game. likewise, they don’t experience pressure put on them in training so in the game, when they see actual pressure, they needlessly give the ball away.
i would have normally been upset watching that second half but i wasn’t. i was just laughing at unai emery. how can you be up two goals and up a man early in the second half against an absolute crap arsenal and not kill off the tie? instead of looking for the killer third and 4th goal, he sits in this deep block, allowing arsenal to attack, hence wining a penalty and get an away goal. what a clown!
…and if auba didn’t slip, arsenal would have gotten a draw!
i can’t believe that dude was the arsenal manager.
Was that pitch ridiculously over watered? Players falling over regularly
Two blah managers facing each other. At this point OGS is looking much the better of the new former player managers in the PL.
Xhaka has to be back in the middle for the next match. He did OK today defensively, but the midfield loses a ton at the moment when he’s not in there. If Tierney isn’t back by the return match surely Cedric or Mari should play there.
Partey runs very hot and cold, and needs to be told not to shoot from outside the penalty area.
But mostly this was down to MA. Pepe and ESR aren’t strikers. Saka perhaps could be, but he can’t be everywhere. One of Auba, Laca or Martinelli needs to start next match. And why on earth leave Ceballos in on a yellow when he’s lunging and not playing particularly well. And we have 5 subs?
Really interesting thoughts. Right now I would suggest our identity is the mid table team that over performs in cup competitions.
My own take on the identity issue is that whatever Identity you choose it has to bring success on the pitch which lives up to expectations. The latter part of the Wenger era the expectation was to finish in the top 4 and that was the best we could do. The expectations for 2005 -11 era were higher and we were wanted was to compete for and occasionally win a PL title and win some of those trophies you describe. However, as you point out the identity Arsene was trying to build from 2005-11 fell apart around 2012 and I believe the reason it fell apart was we were not winning trophies. Man City even before Pep and Chelsea have had big success in the commercial arena without a real identity other then spending a lot of money because they have had success on the pitch. ManU has hit some road bumps on the pitch but they are still a huge commercial success because they are living vicariously off their success in the Fergie years and fans love the idea that they spend a lot of money on players. I suspect eventually ManU will start having success on the pitch that matches expectations.. In the end it depends on what your expectations are for the team in terms of our success on the pitch. Right now getting back to the CL would be a huge win. Like it or not having an identity as the nice team that plays by the rules and loves its fans and plays hard on the pitch and gives its youth players a chance can only take the team so far and will eventually fall apart unless you can combine that identity with success on the pitch.