Arsenal's season had flirted with glory for so long it
seems perverse that Arsène Wenger must consider the summer ahead
with a growing sense of frustration rather than any satisfaction.
His team had carried all before them at times, the combination of
the scintillating and the exhilarating threatening to yield a
Premier League title and the European Cup. A lack of depth to his
squad undermined those aspirations at the last. Now the fear nags
that this set-up is to be stripped when it needs to be strengthened
in the weeks to come.
Already, infuriatingly, the talk is of this side being
dismantled. The departure of Mathieu Flamini, arguably Arsenal's
most improved and consistently impressive player this season, to
Milan provided further deflation just as the last puff was leaving
this team's pursuit of Manchester United and Chelsea. Jens Lehmann
and even Gilberto Silva had been expected to move on, but the
French midfielder had been offered fine terms to remain at the
Emirates Stadium. Those proposals still fell well short of the
£65,000-a-week deal to be had at San Siro.
Alexander Hleb, courted unashamedly by Internazionale, also
appears destined for transfer, denying Wenger two key components of
the side he had hoped would continue their development and win the
club's first silverware since 2005 next time around. There have
been suggestions emanating from France that William Gallas, soon to
lose the captaincy, may yet join the exodus, while Real Madrid were
back courting Cesc Fábregas again over the weekend. "Cesc is
Spanish, and one of my first objectives is to make Real Madrid more
Spanish," the Real president, Ramón Calderón, was quoted as saying.
Fábregas is contracted until 2014 in north London and revels under
Wenger's tutelage. Yet his closest friends at the club were Hleb
and Flamini.
Arsenal's supporters may not have anticipated such a
demoralising denouement to what should be considered a hugely
encouraging campaign, but Wenger might have seen this coming. Back
in December, the Frenchman had obliquely reproached Lassana Diarra
as his compatriot bemoaned a lack of opportunity barely six months
after departing the bench at Chelsea. "You tell me one club in the
world of our size who gives a chance to the young players like we
do," said the manager. "At our club, young players are in
paradise." Diarra left utopia in search of first-team football.
Flamini appears to have been enticed away by higher wages and what
he perceives to be a more immediate promise of trophies.
Wenger might disagree with that, and would be disheartened to
lose such a key performer, but he has experience of a side of huge
promise unravelling despite his best efforts. Back in 1992, his
Monaco side's campaign which had threatened so much ended in
crippling anticlimax. Marseille, the dominant domestic force, had
been pursued in the French championship only to squeeze out the
Monegasques at the last for a second successive year. Monaco's
appearance in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Werder Bremen was
overshadowed by a tragedy at Marseille's Coupe de France semi-final
against Bastia on the eve of the game. Some 17 people died when a
temporary stand collapsed at the Furiani stadium. The Coupe de
France final, for which Monaco had qualified, was never played;
Otto Rehhagel's Germans won the European showpiece against Wenger's
numbed players 2-0.
Monaco were tagged as nearly men, the memory of the league title
secured in Wenger's first season at the club, back in 1988, long
forgotten. What should have been considered a successful season
ended without a trophy and, in the summer of 1992, one of the most
talented teams to grace French domestic football began to break up
in search of silverware elsewhere. "We had the best players in
France," said Jean Petit, Wenger's assistant at the Stade Louis II.
"With such a squad, with such players, we wanted to keep the
structure in place for subsequent years. It was so frustrating that
we didn't manage to do that."
George Weah was sold to Paris St-Germain and Gérald Passi to
St-Etienne. Wenger would not win another trophy with them. "For me,
the disintegration of that squad started in May 1992 [with the loss
to Werder]," said Claude Puel, a midfielder under Wenger at Monaco
and currently the coach of Lille. "A fortnight from the end of the
league, we were tied with Marseille and we had reached the finals
of the Coupe de France and the Cup Winners' Cup, but we ended up
fading horribly."
Wenger had wheeled and dealed as best he could at his first
club, Nancy, but he had built his first great sides at Monaco. He
has constructed teams of wonderful quality during his 12 years in
London, yet there had been real thrill in his voice whenever the
Frenchman discussed the current crop over the course of this
season. This was a team he had nurtured towards fruition while
Chelsea distorted the transfer market and spent so lavishly to
eclipse him. It was a side who might dominate as they learned, yet
the concern now is that their development may have been
checked.
The Arsenal manager has insisted, once it was clear that his
squad was not strong enough to compete to the end on two fronts
that his philosophy will not change. Recruitment would be in youth
to be shaped, rather than in experienced, expensive players ready
to hold down first-team places. That ideology may have to be
re-assessed. Wenger had hoped to tweak his squad in the summer, not
overhaul it. Yet, as key players suggest their futures lie
elsewhere, the number of reinforcements required increases.
Frustration may prompt a rethink.
Changing faces Wenger's previous rebuilds
1997-98 League and Cup Double
1999-2000 Uefa Cup finalists
Arsène Wenger inherited the indomitable English back four. Patrick
Vieira provided the midfield mettle and Marc Overmars and Nicolas
Anelka did the scoring. By 1999 Thierry Henry was making his
presence felt
2001-02 League and Cup double
2003-04 Unbeaten League winners
Tony Adams bowed out, replaced by Sol Campbell, who formed a superb
partnership with Kolo Touré. Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg
established themselves on the flanks; Dennis Bergkamp provided
continuity
2005-06 Champions League finalists
2007-08 A season of near misses
Vieira had gone, Ashley Cole and Pires wanted out and José Antonio
Reyes was a rare miss in the transfer market. Cesc Fábregas emerged
as a leader but the failure to replace Vieira has been a problem
ever since
