Petr Cech Deal Shows How Much Arsene Wenger Wants Another Premier League Title
If you want an indication of how much Arsene Wenger wants to win another Premier League title, consider the deal he's made for Petr Cech ample proof. Arsenal's official site confirmed the Chelsea stopper has finalised his move from west to north London.
Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph confirmed just how much finally acquiring a world-class goalkeeper has cost the Gunners:
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The size of those numbers isn't the only surprising thing about this deal. In fact, the biggest shock is from the man who's paid them.
Paying £10 million for a 33-year-old goalkeeper entering the final year of his contract shows how serious the manager who's won three titles is about adding a fourth.
Arsenal's manager is no longer prepared to wait for the promise of youth to be fulfilled. He's no longer willing to subjugate his own ambitions for financial concerns.
Wenger wants the title, and he wants it now.
As recently as three years ago, the deal Arsenal have handed Cech to swap Chelsea blue for Gunners red would have been unthinkable. There was just no way Wenger would pay over the odds for a player with little-to-no resale value, a player whose contract situation should favour the buying club, not the seller.
Remember, this is the same manager who once refused to pay the fee to seal a deal for then-Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. Writing for Metro, Massimo Marioni noted how Wenger "balked at Fulham’s £4 million asking price for the 37-year-old."
Going from not seeing the value in that type of deal to paying double figures for Cech represents a major change in Wenger's approach. It's one that was kick-started back in 2013 when he paid a club-record fee for Mesut Ozil and followed that up one year later with a deal close to £35 million for Alexis Sanchez.
In both cases, Wenger was dealing with clubs who wanted to sell. Real Madrid wanted to rid themselves of Ozil in order to cover the cost of completing a world-record deal for Gareth Bale. Meanwhile, Barcelona happily sold Sanchez to help recoup some of the major outlay it took to sign Luis Suarez.
Usually when it's obvious clubs want to sell, their negotiating position is weakened. But both Los Blancos and Barca got a premium for players they no longer needed.
By the same token, Chelsea have actually made a profit on a 'keeper they signed 11 seasons ago but who's now forced to play second fiddle to young upstart Thibaut Courtois.
What do the Ozil, Sanchez and Cech deals prove about Wenger now?
They prove that the man whose prudence and negotiating skills once prompted Sir Alex Ferguson to say "He could run a poker school in Govan" no longer has the patience to play hardball.
More specifically, Wenger doesn't want to haggle, nor does he have to.
He's already seen the instant gains big and risky financial outlays can yield. The Ozil deal was the immediate precursor to the end of a near-decade-long trophy drought when the mercurial German schemer helped Arsenal win the 2014 FA Cup.
Sanchez and his four goals in the competition led the Gunners to retaining the trophy this year. It was an achievement that cemented Arsenal's return to winning ways and serious, annual contention for prizes.
Of course, the type of deals that land superstars the calibre of Ozil and Sanchez are only possible because of the patience and restraint Wenger showed between 2003 and 2013. In particular, it is the selective spending, big sales and ability to consistently keep regenerated squads in the lucrative Champions League places that created the Arsenal squad that's on the rise today.
Wenger can afford to indulge front-loading a deal for Cech because of the way the sales of Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie kept the coffers swelled and paid down the Emirates Stadium debt.
That period, often used as the focal point for wrath by Wenger's biggest detractors, now rightly looks increasingly like sensible safeguarding of the club's future. Now that future has arrived, Wenger doesn't want to waste a second winning the trophies he once collected for fun before the new stadium was built.
An encumbered manager is now free to make deals with instant success in mind. Ferguson could appreciate that when he paid £24 million to free a 29-year-old, injury-prone Van Persie from the last year of his contract.
In fact, there may be more similarities to Ferguson's situation three years ago than there appears. He signed Arsenal's free-scoring Dutchman to ensure a silverware-laden sendoff into retirement.
Perhaps Wenger agreeing to a fairly lopsided deal for Cech is the first step toward a glorious exit ahead of schedule for Arsenal's greatest-ever manager.
Signing his third star in as many years is a major step toward winning a first league crown since 2004. Make no mistake, Cech belongs in the same bracket as Ozil and Sanchez.
As the first standout 'keeper the Gunners have had since that last title win, he'll solve a seven-year itch that began when Jens Lehmann was shown the door in 2008. So there will be no more calamity figures between the sticks, or even reasonably solid citizens you could still never completely trust.
When it comes to coordination and efficiency, Cech is the successor Wenger never really found for David Seaman. Consult any save from Cech, and you'll see body control and positional sense that belongs on the pages of a goalkeeping textbook.
While Lehmann had the savvy and winning temperament Seaman had exuded for years, his struggles claiming crosses were a big part of why the "Invincibles" of 2004 failed to repeat. However much Cech's skills may have diminished over time—and it's debatable they even have—his list of high-profile errors is pretty short.
These things make Cech the perfect tonic for a club that's too often seen poor technique between the sticks cost points. It certainly did when David Ospina dived without full extension with two hands to repel a late header that condemned Arsenal to a 1-0 home loss to Swansea City in May.
Cech's the ideal remedy for a team that could put together its own blooper reel of Lehmann, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczesny's particular low-lights.
The Gunners have solved their biggest problem position with the new season still over a month away. That's a perfect start to a significant summer.
It's the first salvo in what should be Arsenal's most serious title challenge in more than a decade. Wenger is certainly serious.
He's gotten used to the idea of established stars accelerating the pursuit of success. If he's lifting a fourth league title next May, a more serious Wenger will look back with a smile on the day he landed Cech.
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