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. :)

The Last Four

Ever since June 11th, ma life's been hectic watching footie. I had been thinking of penning down notes after the group stages where I wanted to abuse the French, Italians and the English badly. But the games flew thick and fast and I found no time to do it. Then, I thought of writing again after the pre-quarters to highlight FIFA's growing negligience towards introducing the simplest of goal-line technologies in their sport. Well I finally found time today, to write this piece of article to talk about Germany's prowess & my thoughts on how semis will unfold.

Meself was nevva a German fan, but I asked one of my friend to start following football by watching the way Germany play and it has been a delight watching them give footballing lessons to proud egoistical nations like England and Argentina. "Blitzkreig" is a famous word in world war history and this German team symbolizes their attacks on the opposition by that word.
Thomas Muller, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose have all been scoring goals but one player that stands out is BASTIAN SCHWEINSTIGER. He's strong on the ball, controls the pace of the game in midfield and sets up those goals for the team. He's playing like Zidane's 1998 & 2006. He's been well supported by Ozil and Khedira who are barely as famous and rich as players playing in established clubs. Germany have hit the jackpot by having a excellent domestic setup run by good administrators and they are reaping the rewards. On the current form, they are favorites to lift the World cup 2010.

A team that has qualified to semis by virtue of "Hand of God" is the only South American team left at this stage of the tournament. With two World Cup titles to their name they are the dark horses to lift the title. Diego Forlan is their most recognized player and he works his socks off every match to ensure they do not get drubbed by the opposition and the young Luis Suarez who has scored one of the goals of the world cup will miss the clash against the Dutch.

Viva Espana!!! The chants can be heard from the Spanish fans who cheer every pass that gets played into path of David Villa. The striker who moved to Barcelona is showing his class to the rest of the world and currently favorite to win the Golden Boot. But, coach Del Bosque will not be satisified with that, he's here to claim the big prize and Spain still have a lot to do to justify their pre-tournament favorites tag. El Nino has not been sharp and they should try his look alike Llorente in game against Germans. The short passing game looks good to eyes but one mistake and Germans are lethal on counter.


Finally, I speak about my team that I picked at the start of the world cup - The Netherlands. Men in Oranje must be high on confidence after beating the world favorites Brazil in intense quarterfinal match. Who would have thought they will turn the tables on Brazil after going a goal down in just ten minutes of the first half? Ofcourse I knew they would! ;) The DUtch are doing an efficient job and are on a 24 match unbeaten streak, a national record. They havent exactly produced Total Football for which they are known, but its been giving them the results wanted. I have been banking upon the trio of Robben, Sneijder and RVP to lead the Dutch to their first ever World Cup victory. Hup Holland Hup!!!



I do not want to jump the gun and give my bold predictions for semis, I will rather sit back, have fun and watch the events unfold themselves.

Cheers!