Arsenal - Losing its soul?

A club losing its soul?

For a team that once used to be a powerhouse in English football, Arsenal has been a shadow of its former self this season. 22 games in, the team is now languishing in the mid-table zone, 21 points away from leaders and rivals Manchester United. Even the now- familiar ‘Champions League qualification’ looks like a distant possibility at this stage of the campaign. To rub salt further into the wounds of hurting fans, that very spot is occupied by the friendly North London neighbours – Tottenham Hotspurs.

Watching a match of two halves at Stamford Bridge, the missing element was quite obvious – Spirit. There is only one player in the current XI with any semblance of attachment to the club and feels the pain of the disappointed fans – Jack Wilshere. While Cazorla has the magic, the Ox is blessed with talent, Arteta has the grit and Walcott has his pace, only Wilshere has the spirit.

Jack Wilshere – the embodiment of a Gooner

Wilshere is the embodiment of what is missing with the other players who turn up for every game – the Gooner spirit. He is not content with just turning up and being selected in the playing XI. He wants to win, and he wants to make his presence on the field felt. His hunger to thread that through ball is telling, his eagerness to win every tackle is quite evident, and most of all, his disappointment at a loss or a missed chance is immense.

The team currently consists of a set of players who are confused about their roles in the team; the utility players – Aaron Ramsey and Gervinho, the forgotten pair of Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Arshavin, and the new signings – Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski – to name a few. Each of them is deployed in a different role at different times, asked to step up or move to the sidelines, and when contract negotiations stall, injuries line up, or the manager just can’t make the right decision.

Do some of these players really care about the Red and White jersey that they wear when they are out on the field? Do they really want to make a difference to the life of an average Joe who turns up at Emirates and cries his heart out at every game? The era of Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry or Patrick Viera, where players used to be fired up for the derbies and scream their lungs out at referees for a wrong decision, seems long forgotten. In fact, I can’t even seem to remember the last time I saw an Arsenal player kiss the badge after scoring a goal!

The larger issue though remains whether this buck stops at the team and the players. For a man who has been around for 16 years now, there is no doubting the spirit in “Le Professeur”. The doubt remains whether he can do it all again with this completely fresh set of players. It takes a shambolic performance, like the first half at Stamford Bridge, for the manager to inspire his players into turning up with their best game. Does he have the team playing for him every week, or does it take a crisis for him to win them back? Does he lack the resources to tackle the issues at hand, or is it his stubbornness to give up on a lost project that is holding the club back?

Fingers could also be pointed at numerous others behind the scenes. CEO Ivan Gazidis has a resume that boasts of semi-failure in the form of running a soccer league in his past life. While other clubs have raked in numerous commercial deals over the past few years, Arsenal has fallen way behind in this aspect too. I am not even getting started on the efficiency with which the club operates in the transfer market. In Stan Kroenke, the club has a majority stakeholder who runs a successful sports franchise in the USA, and owns numerous other mediocre clubs across sports in the country. Does he have any intentions of keeping the glorious past alive? Or is he happy with the mediocrity prevailing in the club as long as it’s a successful business model?

Ivan Gazidis – part of the problem?

The DNA of the club has gone missing from all elements – both on and off the field. It no longer looks like an ailment that is going to heal itself. It looks more like a life-threatening mutation that can consume the club. The wait is on for any one of the above cogs to bring the stuttering machine to a halt and provide some direction to this headless chicken. Unfortunately, if the wait stretches on for much longer, the supporters too will stop making any noise and start mourning for the lost soul of the club. As a small part of that very faithful crowd, I hope and pray that the day never comes.