Accepting average at Arsenal is not an option

“Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” – Bruce Lee.

I read this quote daily. It sits in front of me at my work desk and at home in my home office. It challenges me. Don’t set low expectations or you will get low results. Set the bar high and even if you miss it, if you worked hard to achieve it, then you should find no fault.

The biggest issue I see at Arsenal which sets the tone for all the others is the low expectations the club has established. We don’t need to rehash the “4^th place is a trophy” comment. We all know it already. What we need to think about is how this approach sets a tone that is reflective of everything that is done by the club – on the pitch and off it.

Regardless of who sets the club expectations, the board, Wenger, ivan – the fact that winning isn’t important as long as we get that Champion’s League spot tells me that we’re not striving for the top and well, the players, the club executives and administrative teams don’t need to either.

Players on the pitch take a laxidasical approach to their games.  They constantly fall behind. Make stupid errors and do so without any thought of fear they’ll be replaced because well – being average is acceptable.

Marketing deals are being made that still leave Arsenal in a lower tier than its reported competitors. Tom Fox our CCO and his team are raking in big salaries and huge bonsuses but for little return. The new deals  they are orchestrating and aren’t contingent on current deals running out seem to be sub-standard when help up to a comparative lens. But that’s okay because being average is acceptable.

A manager employs tactics that aren’t working with any regularity and depends on players who by all means should’ve been jettisoned a long time ago and isn’t challenged to change any of this because the board that supposedly has the club’s best interests at heart is okay with this because . . . average is acceptable.

You see a common thread. If you don’t, let me spell it out for you. . . AVERAGE IS ACCEPTABLE. Somewhere along the line in the race to be financially self-sufficient and move away from our wonderful home Highbury we (Arsenal) have forgotten that sport is much a business as it is about GLORY. Fans applaud our financial model and have nothing wrong with it. But it has become the focal point of the club and the glory aspect of sport seems to have been completely removed.

Something has to change. But what?

Sure Wenger is the likely target. He’s as much a part of the problem as he is the solution. He is stubborn. He clearly feels that he still knows best and that he can get the best out of the players. His exasperation after the United loss clearly shows that he is feeling the effects of this run of performances.

But his stubbornness is getting in the way of his changing things. His feeling that his current approach is still viable hinders his ability to make substantial changes and possibly bring success out of a team of talented players. Layer that with the idea that so long as we get that coveted 4^th place spot then we’ll be fine. Again, average is acceptable.

But Arsene isn’t the only problem and a majority still very strongly that he should be given the time to fix it  – if he can. If he can’t then there are no more excuses things will have to change.

But changing the manager isn’t the only thing that has to change (if the manager WERE to change). The mentality and policies established by the board have to change as well. We accept the financial model of self-sustainability but accepting profit and fortune over GLORY can no longer be the way of it.

We want the board to drive to self-sustainable while driving the club towards its former glory. Make sure the current manager or future manager knows that winning is the only thing the manager should worry about and within the model the board have accepted you will be expected to do it. And trust me even in the day of the mega-clubs it can be done.

By setting that tone and those expectations then the manager will (hopefully) let his players know – if you don’t perform or aren’t ready to bust ass every game you will not get a chance to start or play at all. And it should be a process that doesn’t take 2 years of hope that a player eventually will come good. It has to be on a game to game, performance focused basis.

Accepting average is the Arsenal way NOW. It is not, nor should be accepted as the Arsenal way. Arsenal are a storied and historic club. The club have been at the fulcrum of influence and change in its long history and as such has set the tone that other clubs aspire to.

Clubs likely want to aspire to self-sustainability but they don’t want to it while achieving anything less than winning. The two aren’t polar opposites. They can work together and it’s been proven. Some will argue that the leagues that is has happened in doesn’t have the financial doping of England or are “lesser” than England.

Well, that may be true but clubs like Dortmund are also doing it on bigger stages in Europe. So it just doesn’t come down to the league. It can be done. Why Arsenal doesn’t see this is still a mystery. Why they wait on the fairy tale that is Financial Fair Play is frustrating at best. Financial Fair Play by all accounts won’t have the teeth Arsenal thinks it likely will have. Do you think UEFA will tell Barcelona, Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea or other big clubs they can’t participate in Europe? No. Why, because they don’t want a break-away super league.

Waiting for FFP only exacerbates an already tested and testy supporter base.

The club clearly have issues. They can be remedied. The first and most important way is to change the culture that average is okay. Once that is changed and glory is the only end result that matters, perspectives will change.

No supporter I know will argue with a team that goes out week in and week out and puts on stellar performances and occasionally winds up with a negative result. It is negative results through lackluster efforts that are painful and hard to accept.

No supporter I know will argue with a team that looks to bring in the right talent for the right price and pays them the right wage – even if you didn’t spend £25 million on them. But spending it on reclamation projects, sub-standard players, or allowing low performers to graft onto the club longer than they should is unacceptable.

And no supporter would begrudge a club that tells its fans, our first priority is to remain self-sufficient but within that model of self-sufficiency is to win and win with the resources we have.

Do that. Establish the right mindset. Remove acceptance of average from this great club and then as Bruce Lee says, “In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”

Stay Goonerish!!!

Ed note: The featured headline “As Arsenal thinks, so shall they become” is also based off of a Bruce Lee quote, “As you think, so shall you become. “