As a frantic August draws to a close, we can briefly pause to catch breath before the transfer window deadline.  After seeing the two Manchester clubs and Real Madrid score nineteen goals between them in one day, the La Liga players going on strike and players asking not to be selected for their clubs, it is clear that something is amiss in the professional game.

Seventeen minutes into Swansea’s first Premiership game against Manchester City, Swansea were praised for “Sticking to their footballing principles”.  Although nobody is sure as to what this phrase means exactly, general perception is that it relates to team that play open, attacking football and keep the ball on the carpet.  Teams that are credited with these mystical principles are afforded the luxury of a bad run of results, as they approach the game in the right way.  Yet Tony Pulis, who has also stuck to a slightly different set of principles, will forever be unfairly derided.  Turning Stoke into an established Premiership side and reaching an FA Cup final are great achievements, but Pulis has already been judged.  I dare say we all know at least one person who writes off Stoke as a bunch of crude long ball merchants.  Stoke go against the grain – the sad fact is that Pulis would receive more plaudits if he turned Stoke into a tippy-tap team and got them relegated with 18 points than he would for five years of continued top flight football.

Similarly, Manchester City will never be given any credit.  In the eyes of many, they are merely buying success.  A league title or even a Champions League crown would be viewed as a commodity, paid for with cash, plonked on the mantle piece and treated as a toy.  Hollywood wages, blockbuster transfer fees and lavish spending will prevent City from joining the so-called elite European clubs.  City does not have the history of success of Real Madrid, Inter, Bayern Munich and Manchester United – and the cartel has no intention of letting them join in.  However, large spending is more acceptable for Liverpool and Manchester United.  They have “earned” their success and the perk of this success is a justifiable large transfer budget.  City finishing fourth is acceptable in the football universe.  Anything more than that comes too close to changing the status quo.  Why would we want to know about the skills and craft of Silva, Dzeko and Aguero?  Surely the cost of City’s subs bench, or their net spend is of more interest to football fans?

But by far the worst and most vile shift in public opinion has been saved for Arsene Wenger.  While nobody can defend an 8-2 defeat, some of the criticism that Wenger has received has been nothing short of disgusting.  Wenger has provided the perfect tonic for the big spending, boom-and-bust culture of European football: A manager with confidence in his conviction and the strength of character to guide Arsenal according to his vision.  This year represents the thirteenth year in a row in which Arsenal will enjoy Champion’s League football.  A fact easily overlooked by the “Wenger has not won a trophy in six years” brigade.  The solution to all of Wenger’s problems has already been prescribed by the media: spend large amounts and spend quickly.  This fool proof strategy will undoubtedly find players to match the quality of Fabregas and Nasri.  Or better still, Wenger should just recreate the 1998 title winning team and sign two towering central midfielders?

Wenger must tread carefully.  Inflating the wage bill is easily done and £80 million can be spent quickly, but not necessarily wisely.  Inter spent a King’s ransom in the 1990’s but failed to win a single Serie A title.  To complicate matters further, Wenger must now compete with the “new money” of PSG, Malaga and Anzhi in the transfer market.  These turbulent waters require a disciplined mind, not a gunslinger.  It begs the question of whether Wenger should one day leave Arsenal in a strong position to challenge for honours in the future, or go for broke now to end the trophy drought.  Either way, Wenger deserves more respect.  A lot more respect.

Moving onto Anzhi, it is reassuring to have a new target for which to aim abuse.  Samuel Eto’o has received scathing criticism for joining a team that many people (myself included) had never heard of until recently.  Anzhi’s only crime is ambition.  Presumably it will be quite difficult for a team based in a country with less than three million people to field a team full of domestic players if they realistically want to aim high in European football.  Offering player large (or in the case of Eto’o, astronomical) wages to join the club has been condemned as unsustainable and irresponsible in some quarters.  They are simply using the same strategy that Real Madrid has utilised under the Perez administration: simply substitute mercenaries for galacticos.  Real Madrid are a global brand and Anzhi are still an unknown quantity.  For what Aznhi lack in history and romance, they make up for with drive.  I wish them the best of luck.

In summary, I am advocating encouraging diversity in football.  Not every team wants to emulate Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United.  These teams have enjoyed great success and should be applauded.  But the game would lose so much if we lost characters such as Wenger and tried to suppress the rise of teams like Anzhi.  The Premier League is made up of twenty teams: teams at the bottom and in the middle are equally as important as those at the top.  God forbid that every team starts to play the same way, or that everyone blindly ploughs money into the transfer market.  It is all too tempting to castigate teams that try to be different, but we must always remember that football is both an art and a science.

 @_H_R_H_