Mesut Ozil to Redefine Arsenal's Success Formula

Hello All.

What a frantic 2 days if you were an Arsenal fan! The first hurdle was to beat a resurgent Spurs team on Sunday and then try and somehow restore the faith of supporters by going big on the Transfer Deadline Day before the market closed at 11PM BST. And I think the manager did meet expectations of most fans if not all of them. As our manager says “You cannot always please everyone in this profession and he has been long enough in the job to know what needs to be done in the best interests of the Club”. I’ll buy that argument for now and the signing of Mesut Ozil certainly justifies his belief and his statement.

But then I am not writing this blog to sing praises of “One Arsene Wenger” nor is this about Mesut Ozil and his exceptional stats as one of the best playmakers in European football right now. Today I have read host of articles and blogs and spoken with friends who support different clubs mainly on the Ozil transfer – like always there have been articles that have been painted with a negative brush. Some people just cannot accept Arsenal doing something good for their own sake. These people don’t want to see the Arsenal perspective or the bright side ever; they just have their personal agenda and biased opinion to boost their own ego and they will always spurt nonsense vile about Arsenal. Hence this blog is to counter them and also accept some of the valid points and to find a way around that. Every problem has a solution!

So what are they saying?

1.       Arsenal did not need an Ozil more than they needed a Fellaini or a Benzema or a David Luiz or a Dani Alves.
2.       Mesut Ozil needs to be complemented with other star players to get better out of him.
3.       Arsene Wenger left it too late with large portion of warchest still unspent. Spurs spent 100m compared to only 50m by Le Prof.
4.       One signing will NOT win a trophy. Arsenal fans celebrating too early.

I think it’s always easy to say ‘Spend some fuckin’ money’, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ , ‘X is better than Y but Z is cheap’ or ‘Team T bought PQRS so they have more chance to reach lofty heights this campaign because Team A only bought a Z’.  It is more difficult to do so in the actual market. An investor knows the value of blue chip stocks in a stock market – they are meant to be bought for long term stability and they always give good returns in a bullish market. A trader will always want to go for derivatives option in order to make more money in the bullish market. I think that is the difference between Arsene Wenger and say AVB or Brendan Rodgers. Arsene is an investor as compared to your intra-day trader AVB who seems to have taken punt on average buys who will perform well in short term.

When we started the summer I think Plan A was always to sign 1 marquee striker first and then 2 or 3 good supporting players. We tried and we failed miserably. We all know that. When Arsene mentioned after the victory over Fener in 2^nd leg that transfer window starts now and lot of activity will happen between now and the end of transfer window – I think that was the moment he drafted his Plan B. So Plan B was quiet simple sign the first available marquee player irrespective of the position he plays and the demands of the seller club. Arsene was prepared to pay more than premium for his marquee signing but also kept pursuing the search within talent pool that will fit his valuations. Well we got out marquee signing but not the supporting cast that will complete the squad. Yet I would say it is better than what we envisaged after Aston Villa game.

Imagine a scenario where Wenger landed only support players like Cabaye or Ba or Draxler without a marquee signing on last day, it would have been a total disaster. And I don’t even want to think about public outrage it would have caused by our own set of fans.

Mesut Ozil signing provides the Club with an opportunity, ray of hope for improved performances, improved team spirit (check the tweets from Ramsey, Jack, Cazorla and Poldi) and thus better results. If we can go on a decent run till January with cup competition and Top 3 in sights we can again go big in the market and complete where we left on Sept 2^nd – buy those extra bodies that will help overcome the fatigue and  games that come thick and fast in Jan and Feb. With Ozil we have hope for acquisitions in long term and scope for much better results. Think about the commercial side – shirt sales. How many of you have preserved an Arshavin shirt or RvP (Judas) shirt today?? But we all still have our Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Cesc shirts framed and hanging on the walls…Right??  Right.  I am not even thinking about a trophy yet but the fact that we have taken a foundation step to reach that level of success is what is the most highlighting and the satisfying part of the Ozil deal. So kudos to the team that worked on bringing him to the Ashburton Grove.

Now those who still think signing of Ozil is a redundant signing they need to find a better pastime than Arsenal. Those who want more signings remember it has never been our style to smash 200m on one night let alone the entire summer. Those who want to measure success only in terms of trophy again find a better pastime than football.

As said above every problem has a solution. The problem at this stage is NOT that AW still has portion of warchest left. The focus should be how to build from here with or without Arsene Wenger. Any manager out there will be dying to coach likes of Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil, Ramsey etc. Any manager out there will be dying to manage a team with resources like ours – CL, sponsors, stadium and a global fan base. We’ve everything going in our favor except the trophy bit. If we are to continue with Wenger there has to be strict timelines as to this season or next or at max the one after in 2015-16 we need to win PL title and team that boasts of 6-7 Ozil category (top top super exceptional) players and 9-10 Flamini category (hardworking and point to prove) players. The warchest is still there – it is not Wenger’s to take away so if he leaves at end of this season we can bring in new manager with new ideas and he will spend this cash to achieve the same objectives within same timelines that were set for Wenger.

As I see it there are no problems but there is an opportunity to go to the next level. And all this is because of the arrival of Mesut Ozil. Up The Arsenal. :)

How Many More Days Left???

Is the maddeningly long football off-season getting to you as well? Do you spend major chunks of your work day wondering why (insert favourite club) have spent stupid money on (insert unproven English youngster)? Do you still browse the club's official website for breaking news OR keep hitting refresh every 30 seconds on transfer gossip blogs? Are you switching channels while watching India vs West Indies OR Wimbledon, hoping to catch a rerun of Arsenal vs Chelsea, Barcelona vs Real Madrid OR Swansea vs Reading anything, really, as long as 22 men are kicking a ball around?

The Champions League final, which marked the end of the 2010-11 season, ended with Barcelona lifting the trophy in the fag end of May. Most of the top European leagues kick-off in the second week of August. In between is pure mental torture.

Irrespective of who you support, this is a nerve-wrenching period. Take just the English league. Liverpool fans will wonder if they’ve done enough with the signings of Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll in January, plus Jordan Henderson last month, to break back into the Top Four, forget winning the league.

Manchester United supporters, defending league champions, top manager and all, will be tearing their hair out thinking whether their squad can cope with the retirements of Paul Scholes and Edwin Van der Sar, and how much longer a 37-year-old ever controversial Ryan Giggs can carry their midfield. Is it even possible to replace that kind of quality? Well they have done brilliantly so far getting what they wanted at good prices. Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David De Gea have will be sharing the Old Trafford dressing room and all too happily.

Those who scream for Chelsea will be buoyed by the arrival of the Andre Vilas-Boas; but even they will be consumed by what mini-Mourinho can do with an ageing spine. Or whether he can get Fernando Torres to score a goal.

Man City fans are used to see them spending big in the summers but that hasnt happened yet this time. Probably the reason being UEFA's Financial Rules or they feel they already have the right players to challenge their bigger neighbours for the title. But that has'nt stopped press reporting every single player linked with the club, be it Sanchez or Pastore or David Villa.

For us Gooners, the misery of summer continues wondering if Fabregas will leave, now have to make time for fretting over whether or not Nasri will quit as well and who else wil join the so called mass exodus; and if the imminent arrival of Gervinho and Ricky Alvarez will be enough to off-set the departures of the two men who took them to, erm, fourth place in the league.

And Tottenham fans… well, they don’t count.

Building football teams is like working on a shape-shifting jigsaw puzzle and every team, all the time, need someone who will make them a better version of what they are. I understand that transfer business is complicated and time consuming, but the reality is that pre-season training begins early next week followed by the Asia Tour.
We still are not sure what our starting line up will be for these pre-season tours and we have'nt even worked upon our weaknesses from past 3-4 seasons, forget about closing gap on the Champions.

Barcelona, over the last three seasons, have been hailed as the greatest club side ever assembled. Even they’re looking to spend massive money on Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas because, in their rearview, they can see a wounded Mourinho's Real Madrid charging at them. Standing still is not an option. For nobody. I

And this season, more than any before, the money is completely mental. With the international meltdown having no impact on football’s bizarre billionaire-backed economics, the figures being bandied about make the mind boggle. If Pastore = £50m, Neymar = £45m, Sanchez = £44m, Hazard = £30m that’s what clubs are paying for promise these days, Then how can proven game-changers i.e. those 2 players Who Shall Not Be Named from the club You Know Which cost only £32m and £20m respectively!!! Mind-boggling!!!

Makes you wonder where the bidding for Messi would start.

Makes you wonder when the madness will end.

Makes you want the new season to get underway soon because, more than anything else, you want the painful stupidity of the transfer window to end.

Then again, it makes you want to hit refresh, just in case your club has finally put in a bid for the defenders your team so desperately needs.

Thank You Arsenal

Happy New Year Gooners! One made all the more pleasant of course by a huge morale lifting win over title rivals Chelsea. OK, so the game wasn't technically on the Boxing Day but Arsenal made sure they threw a heavyweight punch into the faces of those critics who questioned our ability to win the big games.

Having lost to Manchester United away at Old Trafford a fortnight ago still pinches a lot but this victory should come as healing cure and restore the belief about this side that has maturity to win the games when they matter the most.

It does'nt get any easier from here on. The fixtures for festive period have just begun and we need to maintain the consistent run of form in our next 3 games against Wigan, Birmingham and Manc City.At the same time we must also hope our rivals and current leaders drop some points, as we do not face them at Emirates till end of April.

The Champions League draw is always very exciting, arguably even more so when you reach the latter stages. Fortunately for us Gooners it is something we have had bitter experiences in recent seasons against the super favorites Barcelona. To be honest, Barca play at a totally different level; so I will be content even if we manage to lose only by an odd single goal.

And of course there is the domestic cups that Arsenal are chasing and as a fan I will take them all this season. Bring on whatever cup we can win this season. I believe this has to be the season which will wipe out the tag line of "5 years without trophy".

The only regrets for this season so far have been the defeats at home to Spurs and Newcastle. Also in some small proportions Wenger's resistance to signing a decent goal keeper. But on the plus side, we retained Cesc Fabregas after intense summer speculations and also don't get me wrong, we have played better this season, in fact for me we've played better and lost but may be we have been so much better that it still keeps us very close to our opponents.

The season is long,
Our squad is strong.
We have the desire,
to go higher.
We shall overcome the syndrome,
The Cup will finally come home.

Good Wishes & Happy New Year To Everyone. Cheers!