(via tumblr)
Is Arsène Wenger overachieving or underachieving?
He says: “My job is to deliver a team with the resources we have, and I have never complained about that. I want a club to pay players from its own resources, there is no shame in that”.
Well, out of the top four in the Premier League, Arsenal are the only team that have not lost millions during the last decade and work well within their resources. Their “trophy” is to reach fourth place or more each season and in that sense, they doing very well. Yet, in Europe we witnessed team with similar or lesser resources – such as Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli , Montpellier HSC or Olympique Lyonnais - manage to win major honors and stay profitable.
So, does Wegner know more than anyone else or is he making too many tactical mistakes? Is Wenger a good manager but a bad coach? Is he strategic genius or tactically incompetent? Is he an idealist who lost the plot or a pragmatic visionary?
These are really interesting questions. Questions that cannot be answered when he competes against “monsters” that can spend what ever they like on players and their salaries.
The point is that only a level playing field could answer these questions. If everyone had £250m to spend on their team – then we could have judged coaches and clubs a lot better.
And I must say that it would have make Premier League even more interesting than today.
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