Arsenal and Wenger Need a Trophy to Take Back Control of the Message

All it would take is a single win for Arsenal and boss Arsene Wenger to change the narrative.

After seeing the cycle of, “Player X wants to leave Arsenal for a more ambitious club” continue anew with Robin van Persie, it’s starting to become a bit weary. (Soccernet)

It is fixable, though.

One piece of silverware in the club’s trophy room (more is always preferred) would reshape the debate for the club.

An FA Cup or newly minted Capital One Cup win would give Wenger and Arsenal all the leverage they would need to continue their policy of building the squad from the ground up.

I.J. Yarison has a fantastic look at the financial matters of the club. It’s well worth the time to read all the parts of his series on the matter.

Here, consequently, is a look at the PR game that the club is currently losing.

Currently, players such as Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, van Persie, et. al. have been able to get away with their desires to move to a different club based on the idea of “ambition.”

Somehow, I don’t recall their being a business model where “ambition” is in short supply. At least in one that thrives, anyway.

What Arsenal are currently the victims of is lofty expectations based on their history of success and numbers produced by such services as Deloitte's Money League.

The connection (on the surface) is that Arsenal are raking in money yet not creating an outlay for better players to come through the door.

When combined, there is a tendency for a supporter to want and begin to demand more from the club than what they are perceived to be putting forth.

Perception, of course is a dangerous word.

Depending on one’s point of view, as Oscar Wilde once put it:

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“The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist sees the hole!”

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In this situation, the quote can be broken down in to pieces.

Arsenal, of course, is Wilde’s “doughnut;” the barren run of trophies represents the “hole.”

Wenger is the eternal “optimist” in the quote, who understands the whole complex that is Arsenal. He does everything within his power to make sure that the ideals of the club are put into practice.

The “pessimist,” in this case, is the collective group (players, owners, writers, pundits, supporters, etc.) who don’t see or who have lose sight of the big picture.

The successive failures to take a title have constantly diluted their vision to the point where there is nothing but a hole to see.

But suppose, in this season, that Arsenal finally win a trophy.

There will be three immediate responses.

1. Many that are wavering in their support will immediately rush back and embrace Wenger and the club as having “kept the faith” and produced the goods.

2. Many others will want more proof that the system will work for a longer, sustained period.

3. The eternal pessimists will still parade through the streets, insisting that the title was a fluke and that until the club is sold or Wenger moves on, that the club cannot ever attain the heights they once held.

Fortunately, most will fall into the first category. In the PR war, this will become vital.

Those players that would want to leave will now not have the excuse of “ambition” to hold on to as they look to move elsewhere.

Image, of course, is very valuable to most athletes. Image creates a brand and players want to protect their brand at all costs.

To use an example from basketball, at the trade deadline in this past season, Dwight Howard had been pressing for a trade to New Jersey (now Brooklyn).

But, just as the deadline approached, Howard suddenly reversed course and stayed in Orlando for the rest of the season.

Why would a player angling so badly for a trade change his mind so drastically?

Image.

Realizing he was trashing himself with his constant flip-flops, Howard finally had to give up his chance at moving at the NBA’s trade deadline in 2012.

In much the same way, footballers are careful to consider what happens to their own image, and if they feel a move harms it more than it is worth, then they might feel reluctant to go through with a plan.

It also gives the club a helpful promotional tool to continue to attract the players that Wenger covets at the club.

Most importantly, it will ease some of the ferocious pressure that has built around the club.

It wouldn’t take long for someone to Google search and find rants from fans, articles from papers, columns and headlines that show frustration with recent Arsenal seasons.

After a while, the words become a truth unto themselves. In time, people begin to have problems separating the fact from the fiction.

Wenger has never been shy about stating his policies on “playing the Arsenal way,” but the longer the drought goes, the less of a platform he has to preach from.

A trophy in hand, however, would give Wenger the power to make his ideas connect better to supporters who are taken in by elements of negativity.

It might turn some of those post-match boos back into applause.