WENGER UP FOR CRUCIAL TITLE BATTLE
TITLE DRIVE: Wenger expects his players to show the same desire to win as himself
By John Richardson
ARSENE Wenger will be back at his Arsenal desk this week following a busman’s holiday at Euro 2008 with doubts over which route the club are going down.
The Frenchman hasn’t won a trophy for three seasons despite bursts of scintillating football and faces losing more influential players in the lead-up to a critical new campaign.
Already gone is impressive midfielder Mathieu Flamini while Barcelona are on the trail of Aleksandr Hleb. And doubts persist over Emmanuel Adebayor, who is wanted by Barcelona and AC Milan.
While moving around the European Championship finals, Wenger has been working on possible replacements in an effort to launch a realistic challenge to Manchester United’s Premier League title.
The talk within the Emirates is that Wenger doesn’t have an extensive budget in which to wheel and deal. There are also other important issues to address if the Gunners are going to remain one of the so-called Big Four.
With the feisty Jens Lehmann having joined Stuttgart, Manuel Almunia is now the official No1 keeper despite doubts over the Spaniard’s credentials at the highest level.
Many Gunners observers believe that Wenger has been wrong to continue backing the temperamentally-suspect William Gallas as captain while Swiss defender Philippe Senderos’s confidence appears to be shattered.
Tomas Rosicky will miss the start of the season as he still has to recover from his knee injury. Striker Eduardo will also be sidelined after his sickening injury.
On the positive side, Cesc Fabregas refuses to be swayed by interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona and will stay loyal to Arsenal despite rave reviews in helping Spain reach tonight’s European Championship final against Germany.
Add the off-field intrigue involving Arsenal’s wealthy shareholders and it promises to be an interesting build-up to the new season at the Emirates.
American Stan Kroenke, who chairman Peter Hill-Wood once insisted wasn’t the sort to be welcomed at the club, is now being indulged with the promise of a seat on the board to try and ward off the increasing threat of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Suddenly a club which has prospered on its continuity and stable foundations is starting to rock. All eyes are on Wenger, who has been at the managerial helm since September 1996, to see how he reacts to a period of turbulence.
In his trademark phlegmatic style, he refuses to push the panic button. Instead he has been slowly but surely moving in on his transfer targets. Marseille’s Sami Nasri is close to a conclusion while 17-year-old Cardiff midfielder Aaron Ramsey is in the bag.
A replacement for the injured Eduardo to assist Adebayor – or even replace him – and Robin van Persie seems to be the priority, with Wenger interested in Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz, Russia’s Roman Pavlyuchenko and Liverpool’s Peter Crouch.
There is also interest in a couple of talented midfielders, Valencia’s Spanish international David Silva and Sporting Lisbon’s Miguel Veloso.
Wenger is ready for one of the biggest challenges of his Arsenal era. He said: “I know a lot has been written about us but I am very calm. My biggest challenge is to make sure I have a competitive team next season, no matter who is in it.
“I have worked very hard to build the present team and my priority is to keep these players together.”
But the Frenchman remains disappointed with the attitude of some of his players, like Flamini and Hleb, who feel their futures lie elsewhere.
He admitted: “We were close last season but we did not win. What you expect from my team is that if you are not a winner, you say ‘let’s come back next season and win’. If players just want to walk out for bigger contracts, that is the biggest disappointment.”
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