Last week Arsene Wenger held a very defensive, spiky press conference ahead of his side’s game away to Blackpool.
The Arsenal manager stood by his faltering squad, insisting that they had overachieved and that we should be praising the effort and application of a side who he continues to describe as youthful.
This prompted questions about success and failure to achieve targets laid out at the beginning of the season, or even as recent as February.
Wenger claims that “Success is doing the best with what you have available to you”.
Can we infer from this that he no longer believes his side is capable of achieving what he adamantly believed they would? Is it a way of understandably covering for a group of players who have failed to deliver on his promises?
Wenger’s description of success is not a generalisation which can easily be applied to any football team.
To say Blackpool has succeeded this season is an accolade we cannot give them even if they avoid relegation. What if their goal, while high, was to finish in the top half of the league? If they finish 15th, avoiding the drop, it will still be seen as a failure on their part to deliver the target laid out at the beginning of the season.
Arsene Wenger’s target was to “Go for all four trophies” with the insistence that his team was good enough to deliver at least one.
While it may seem unlikely that they do win the Premiership, will Stan Kroenke force Wenger to rethink his idea of success and push him towards ensuring that trophies are on this horizon via ruthlessness in the transfer market?
As there have been for a number of seasons, Arsenal fans have been calling out for a dominant central defender and a goalkeeper who is good enough to give Arsenal much needed stability at the back.
But almost in a perverse way, Wenger opted to keep faith with Manuel Almunia as the club’s number one, despite a catalogue of errors.
This is not a slight on Wojciech Szczesny or his ability, as few could have foreseen his quick rise to number one at the club.
Wenger has had little pressure from above telling him to spend and strengthen the squad accordingly. Not with bargain signings where the need was for him to open his cheque book and acquire a player in the mould of David Luiz or Gary Cahill.
Stan Kroenke, who is not an imposing owner and lives up to his nickname of “Silent Stan”, will want to see a return from his huge investment into the club.
You only need to look at his other sports teams such as the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL to see that he will spend money where its needed in order to achieve success and trophies.
The 2001 Stanley Cup Champions went out and signed defenseman Rob Blake from the LA Kings, a leader with enormous amounts of experience who would complement then captain, Joe Sakic.
The team’s wage bill also catered for star goaltender Patrick Roy and Swedish international Peter Forsberg.
The potential is there to spend and push this team over the finish line, while also possibly having ramifications on future commercial success for the club.
There’s no denying that Kroenke and recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Fox, will want to maximise the revenue for the club by taking the brand further a field than Austria for summer tours.
But a market in the Far East and America is built on the foundation of trophies and star players.
Similarly to Manchester United and Chelsea, Arsenal’s new majority shareholder will want to take advantage of a growing market in North America and ensure the club becomes a global name.
He also may use his position to change the sponsor of the team’s kit from Emirates to something a little closer to home, most likely Pepsi.
However, much of this is speculation as we’re still in a period where the changing of the guard is taking place. But what is quite clear, and what the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust has set out to ensure, is that Kroenke holds true to the traditions of the club.
And while a new superstar at the Emirates would be a good way of putting himself over to the fans, it is important that the future financial stability of the club is kept to heart.
Arsenal FC: Will Kroenke Force Wenger to Change His Interpretation of Success? | Bleacher Report
Thoughts? Discuss.