On Friday, Arsene Wenger said that it would be a disaster if his side finished outside of the top four this season. Earlier in the week, chairman Peter Hill-Wood said it wouldn’t be a disaster if the Gunners miss out on the Champions League.
At his pre-Man United press conference, Arsene Wenger was asked whether finishing out of the top four would be a disaster: “For me it would be [a disaster] because I want to play with the best. We want to be in there, in the top four, and to play in the Champions League. Anything else would not be good enough.” (Source: Arsenal.com)
Contrast those comments to what Hill-Wood told the Daily Star a couple of days ago: “From a financial point of view, not qualifying for the Champions League is quite a blow. We have been planning for not qualifying every year, so it is not a disaster, but it would be nice if we could.”
The manager seems to have much more ambition than the the chairman who represents the board of directors. With the lack of squad investment in recent years, it would be silly to believe that Arsenal’s entire self-sustaining financial model would come crumbling down just because of the extra cash generated by participation in the Champions League. If we do finish outside the top four, the football side of the club will feel much more of a negative impact than the financial side.
Robin van Persie could be the first to depart if we drop out of the top four. At 28, van Persie is in the prime of his career, so he may not have the patience to wait for Arsenal to rebuild themselves back into a Champions League side. However, the Dutchman may feel some loyalty to Arsene Wenger, who brought the striker to the club at a young age and named him captain at the beginning of this season. Though, based on recent history, these factors alone are not enough to keep a player in North London (see: Cesc).
Apart from van Persie, there are not many other players who would interest Champions League clubs. Some of the current players should count their lucky stars that they are playing for Arsenal because they are already punching above their weight. Surely, Sebastien Squillaci, Andrei Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh, Tomas Rosicky, Johan Djourou, Ju Young Park, and Manuel Almunia wouldn’t interest any top European clubs, especially considering their wages.
The real problem would be luring top-quality players to the Emirates. Liverpool and Spurs have been able to sign a few good footballers in recent year, but neither club insists on running a transfer surplus every season. If we do fall out of the Champions League, there will need to be dramatic changes to our transfer policy. Namely, we will need stop selling our best players without replacing them with similar quality players. In fact, we may even be forced to improve the squad in order to fight our way back into the Champions League positions.
In order to avoid the disaster or non-disaster, depending on your viewpoint, Arsenal will need to avoid a third consecutive league defeat on Sunday against Manchester United, or Wenger’s disaster may become inevitable.
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