How Times Have Changed
When Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal back in 1996 very few football fans had even heard of him. Can you imagine a major club doing this today as it will never happen. It turned out remarkably well as he was the perfect fit for the club and a perfect example of why clubs should not keep chasing the same managers in the pool as there are decent managers out there if you go hunting.
I was watching a documentary on Arsene Wenger recently and it is quite incredible how the job of a Football manager has changed. The role managers have to do today is half the job and responsibilities of what was expected 15 years ago. Managers were the heart beat of the club back then and the buck stopped with them. From recruitment to training they were the club 's main man even though the financial decisions were not in their hands.
When Arsenal wanted to build a new stadium moving away from Highbury the bank lending the money had one condition, The condition was that Arsene Wenger had to sign a new 5 year contract. This is how highly he was revered as his success rate was that good. The fans may not have liked how he did his business, but he made the club profitable and as a business the shareholders would have been more than happy.
How many manages today would be part of the bank conditions of agreeing a loan deal? Maybe only one from all the clubs and that being Pep Guardiola. The bank felt comfortable lending the £420 million to build the Emirates Stadium because Arsene was around and the chances are he would keep the club in the Champions League. Look we know how this all ended up and why Arsene felt bad leaving the club as even though he fulfilled the banks desire of the new contract he eventually left after 22 years in the hot seat. The funny thing is he still felt responsible and admits the stadium not being paid off did weigh heavy on his thoughts. The Emirates Stadium is due to be paid off by 2031.
What is interesting to hear is the players he could have had but let them go. Christiano Ronaldo was in contact with Arsenal 6 days before he signed for Manchester United. N'Golo Kanté was struggling to find a team when he was on Arsene's radar and we know how well he turned out. Kolo Touré couldn't find a club and Arsenal signed him which made their defence the cheapest in the Preniership costing less than £5 million. This is where the club scored and made profits as he was a businessman as well as a football manager. Harry Kane was in the Arsenal juniors and left for Tottenham when he was 11 so Arsene never felt this was his fault as Kane being only 9 was still way too young to see what the future was going to be.
Today with the clubs having split the roles having a Director of football and a football manger it has diluted the managers job and possibly why there are so many questionable transfers. One just has to look at Chelsea spending £323 million this season alone and what do they have to show for it currently lying in the lower half of the table. This would not have happened under Abromovich being the previous owner would have booted the manager out long before it had got to this point.
I find it interesting hearing how things were and comparing it to what we see today as the entire job has changed so much. The job should be so easy as you have 2 people doing what was once regarded as one job.
Interestingly I was listening to piece on the radio about Burnley’s success under Vincent Kompany (by the time you read this they may be back in the EPL) and apparently he has a very hands on role with transfers very much like what the traditional “manager” used to have. Of course he’s been linked with the Spurs job where the opposite would be true.
I remember a press conference Poch gave at Spurs over the summer of 2019, a couple of months before he was sacked, where he implored a journalist to stop referring to him as “the manager” and instead call him the coach which was a sure sign he was frustrated by his lack of involvement in transfers and therefore the press should stop asking him about them!
It does not make sense that the "manager" has no final say in the players they are buying and yet they get fired first. A "coach" is the right terminology and think if clubs revert back to the old system they will improve. Why can't the director of football lay out the plan and fall under the manager and assist him in the purchases if that is what they want.
I am a little bit confuse of the year you wrote if am not mistaken. Arsene wenger signed for arsenal in the year 1996.
Sorry my error I had the Stadium date in my head. Yes he was there from 1996-2018. Thanks for pointing that out.
Well, you are right
Arsenals success in the last season was just like a magic. They have been doing better than people thought.
Arsenal was always losing matches but the last season was a turn around for them. Kudos to the players and also the coach. They have done a great job
Amazing the stability that Arsene gave Arsenal. He was lucky when he arrived with Bergkamp already at the club but boy did he make some shrewd transactions during his timemparticularly luring fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry. I think its a totally different era now for managers in the sense that Sir Alex Ferguson probably wouldn't survive the slow start he during his reign at United if it was nowadays.
You make an interesting point about the split role of Director of Football and Football Manager. It's a classic case of left hand not knowing what the right hand does, and I think the two roles should be one job