Have Chelsea Become the Arsene Wenger of Football Clubs?
For all the recent celebrations of Arsene Wenger's 20th anniversary as Arsenal manager, they've been delivered with an undercurrent of regret.
By reliving how the Frenchman played a big part in redefining the landscape of English football—Wenger is famed for introducing new training techniques and approaches to diet, for instance—the contrast with Arsenal's fortunes now highlights how he's fallen behind.
From those halcyon days when he first took charge, Wenger's Arsenal fell into a steady decline in the mid-00s before they plateaued to become English football's also-rans. Finishing trophyless and in the top four—as they tend to do these days—may well be good for business, but in terms of sporting prestige, it's dented the Arsenal brand.
The Gunners aren't the same ruthless force they were. They can't attract the best players and have been nudged out of picking up silverware as a result.
Wenger's power has waned; despite being a manager very much in the present, he's equally become a symbol of the past. New, younger coaches have knocked him off his perch. Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp are the big names in the Premier League now. They're the coaches we expect things from—the coaches who are taking the game forward.
Much like his club, Wenger remains in the elite, but it's at the bottom end of it where we find him. A failure to adapt with the changing face of the game has meant his methods have become dated.
When we reflect on how new money has changed the Premier League in the past few seasons—the likes of Bournemouth can suddenly sign players for £15 million on the back of broadcasting deals—it's a theory we can apply to Chelsea and the club's recent demise.
Whereas rivals picked up on the changes Wenger brought in at Highbury before implementing them to their own advantage, Chelsea's willingness to control the transfer market is beginning to haunt them. The club's policy was built around that, and now they can't, it's affecting success on the pitch.
The arrival of owner Roman Abramovich in 2003 had a massive influence on how we view transfer windows these days. In his first summer as Chelsea owner, the Russian spent over £150 million on new talent to propel Chelsea to a position of title challengers.
The Blues were already a Champions League club, but Abramovich's investment accelerated their push to the top. Rich and willing to spend, he was the final piece of a jigsaw that had been gradually pieced together since a decade before, when Glenn Hoddle became manager in 1993.
"I remember being at home and seeing it on the news [that Abramovich had purchased the club from Ken Bates]," John Terry once recollected in a Chelsea magazine interview. "I didn’t really know what to make of it at the time, but it is one of those days that I look back on now and realise the significance of."
The significance was that few clubs could keep up with Chelsea's desire to spend big, and it meant they could control the market simply by dictating price. When Abramovich first came in, the spending sprees we saw at Chelsea were unheard of in one transfer window; now they're becoming the norm.
Terry continued:
"That first pre-season, we were all texting each other about which players were going to come in and stuff like that. I think that was probably the first thing the fans thought of.
However, from our point of view, it was a case of, 'Who are they going to bring in and is your place in jeopardy?' Then we came back to training, with all the new signings there, and we realised how good they were. The standard in training went from being good to being very good on a daily basis.
"
That isn't the case now at Chelsea. A decade ago, the club was bossing things; Abramovich's vast fortune determined who was moving where in the Premier League. Chelsea were cherry-picking the best up-and-coming players, and if they weren't, the fear they may well do so drove up prices.
Take Shaun Wright-Phillips, whom Chelsea signed from Manchester City for £21 million in 2005. That seems like small change in comparison to the fees we've seen this season, yet 11 years ago, it was one of the biggest transfers that summer.
Remove Abramovich from the equation, and that fee for Wright-Phillips drops significantly. But through inflating the prices of players, Chelsea would often get their targets by simply outmuscling their opponents.
In the present day, it's not as simple. Abramovich's money isn't stretching as far, as clubs no longer have to sell; they can't be strong-armed like they were before, and it means Chelsea are missing out on their top targets. They're not the only big spenders. Other options are available.
It was the case in 2015. And this summer just gone, signing two defenders on deadline day, tells us the trend continues. At the conclusion of the 2015/16 season, we heard of any number of major signings Chelsea were hoping to make. There was the move for Radja Nainggolan and reported attempts to sign defenders Kalidou Koulibaly and Leonardo Bonucci. Alvaro Morata recently told Bild Chelsea tried to prise him away from Real Madrid (h/t Callum Davis of the Daily Telegraph).
They failed in every instance, as they did when chasing John Stones for much of the summer 2015 transfer window.
Such failure is all very Arsenal. More to the point: It's all very Arsene Wenger. Chelsea haven't adapted.
The principles from the past are still having an effect for Chelsea, but they're not as effective. The problem is the club is still trying to get away with it. The Blues haven't acknowledged where the faults lie.
Still Chelsea are sacking managers, looking for short-term fixes to what are long-term problems. Forget the issues surrounding Mourinho last season, the fundamental concern for Chelsea was the squad needed to be revitalised despite winning the title in 2014/15.
Rather than look at that, the manager paid the price for failure. Now Antonio Conte is in the hot seat. And a summer of relative inactivity has meant the Italian inherited the same problems that cost Mourinho his job last December.
It's a combination of factors. There's not enough being done to integrate the club's all-conquering youth-team players into the first team, while Chelsea are still relying on the transfer market to bring them ready-made stars who can deliver instant success.
Abramovich's investment was always a short-term solution, and it worked when the going was good. But it isn't these days, as Chelsea are competing in a different environment. Manchester City and Manchester United are paying the big fees to attract players now, while clubs overseas are equally willing to get in on the act.
For players and their agents, the options are plenty, and it means Chelsea must revise their strategy if they are to conquer that. So far, they haven't, which is a criticism Wenger has faced this past decade or so, with Arsenal having just two FA Cups to show for their toil over the past 11 years.
It's because of what Wenger achieved when he first came to the club that Arsenal fans find that record hard to digest. The Frenchman's presence meant they were used to winning league titles and being England's best team. Now they're not, those past glories don't mean as much.
Where Chelsea are concerned, it's the same principle. They were used to signing the players every other club wanted, but now they're scrapping with their rivals and losing out.
At Wenger's peak, Arsenal fans wouldn't have celebrated as wildly as they did by pipping Tottenham Hotspur into second place on the final day of last season. It would have been a sign of a season gone wrong, but now it's a reason for buoyancy.
Witnessing Stones move to Manchester City this summer just past, Chelsea fans seemed apathetic despite the club's very public pursuit of him. Chelsea are getting used to it; it's almost expected they will miss out.
Times have changed, and Wenger is flirting with irrelevance. Chelsea are threatening to do the same.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.
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