Good transfers come to those who wait
The final scenes of that encounter were the jubilant Gunners celebrating on the pitch with manager Arsène Wenger after finishing fourth in the log and clinching the final qualifying spot for the Champions League.
The sight of players and a manager celebrating rowdily was the final confirmation of Arsenal’s status as a club in decline: once a regular league and cup winner, its only ambition was now a berth in the lucrative European competition.
Club legends Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljunberg said they hoped the joy was about keeping bitter North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur out of the Champions League and not just about finishing fourth.
"Putting Tottenham out of the top four, and I really do hope that’s what they were celebrating about, that’s the only thing you can celebrate," Henry said.
"If you’re an Arsenal man through and through, that’s like winning something. I said it when we did to them in 2006. It wasn’t the fact that we qualified for the Champions League, it was because we kicked them out of it and we went in."
As the talismanic leader of the side that went unbeaten in 49 matches in the 2003-04 season, such an opinion coming from Henry burns.
Who could forget the unpleasant scenes at a club annual general meeting in October 2012 as shareholders and supporters took Wenger and majority owner Stan Kroenke to task for the club’s failure to land any trophies since an FA Cup in 2005 while losing top players to other clubs along the way? Wenger’s defence of his strategy was clumsy in light of the hostility before him.
He said: "For me, there are five ‘trophies’ — the first is to win the Premier League, the second is to win the Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League, the fourth is to win the FA Cup and the fifth is to win the League Cup. I say that because if you want to attract the best players, they do not ask: ‘Did you win the League Cup?.’ They ask you: ‘Do you play in the Champions League?’"
It has been a horrible few years for Arsenal fans. Not only was the club tripping up at vital times — like the horror loss in the 2011 League Cup final to Birmingham City or the loss to Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final — but we also had to watch as the best players departed for greener pastures. Henry, Francesc Fabregas, Alexander Hleb and Alex Song went to Barcelona. Gaël Clichy and Samir Nasri went to Manchester City, and Robin van Persie went to Manchester United.
This was a club with no ambition to compete any more, and Wenger’s bargain-hunting ways that saw him bring unknown quantities such as Henry, Kolo Toure, Nicholas Anelka and Patrick Vieria to Arsenal to become superstars seemed naive in a world dominated by the throwaway money of Russian and Arabian oligarchs.
The end of the season came, and Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis promised the club was finally in a position to splash out. It was in for Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuaín, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and Man United’s Wayne Rooney. Arsenal needed a big-name striker, and the targets were big fish. But as a spring of expectation turned into a summer of disappointment, the despair sank in once again. Despite a massive clearout of dead wood that saw 26 unwanted players leave over two seasons, it seemed we were doomed to repeat the failures of the previous few years. With only a few hours left in the transfer window, the club had only signed French U20 striker Yaya Sanogo and Mathieu Flamini on free transfers.
Then the club finally made its announcement — and what an announcement it was. It had shattered its own transfer record three times to bring the German international Mesut Özil from Real Madrid. His £42.5m fee made him the second most expensive player in British football history and instantly transformed Wenger into a transfer-market genius once again.
The signing of Özil was such a paradigm shift that Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho refused to loan Arsenal striker Demba Ba, since they are title contenders now.
The news sent us Gunners shooting through the roof, and just like those people who sneered at the team celebrating at the end of the season, we are now asked why the signing made us so happy. Özil has not yet even seen the Arsenal training ground (he was signed while in Germany on international duty) but has the hype of a trophy winner. In the same window that Gareth Bale joined Real Madrid for a world-record fee of £85m, the Gunners transfer drew far more mentions and activity on Twitter.
Here’s the thing. We’re giddy with joy because by God, we have been patient. It was no mistake that Arsenal chose to fund transfers by selling its best players of the past few years. In 2006, the club moved to the new, £390m Emirates Stadium. With such a debt to shift, there was no splashing in the market like Chelsea and Manchester City did. And even when Wenger found bargains, those deals were often hijacked by Premier League rivals.
For years, we were told that once the new financial fair-play rules kicked in and the stadium debt was sufficiently serviced, the spending and trophies would return. We just had to keep faith in Wenger.
The purchase of Özil signals the intention to bring Arsenal back to glory days. Just how Madrid let go of a player who at age 24 has already been dubbed the German Lionel Messi and the next Zinedine Zidane will perhaps remain a mystery. But it is no mystery why he chose the Gunners, despite the bigger sum offered by French side PSG.
"I am really looking forward to it because I have the faith of the coach," Özil said to the German press after his signing was announced. "I had spoken to him at length on the telephone, he explained his plans and that he has faith in me — that is what I need as a player.
"I am looking forward to the new challenge. I have already heard that they have super fans, the city is great and the team is fantastic.
"Wenger gives me the faith and I can develop further. I know what I can do and I know that I could make the grade with any club in the world because I am so convinced in myself, but if I don’t feel people have faith in me … that is why I had to leave. At Arsenal, I feel I have this fully."
His signing is a reward for the faith of the fans who had not given up on Wenger. The reaction from Arsenal players at the news shows the dressing room has been invigorated already.
http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2013/09/04/good-transfers-come-to-those-who-wait
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