Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Wenger’s delusional if he can’t see why any players want to leave him behind
THE fees may go up in line with the moral outrage but the dynamic of a transfer has stayed pretty much the same.
Player wants a move or is told to move, is offered a deal that keeps him happy, takes it then dons a Robbie Keane mask and says it has always been his ambition to play for his new club because their badge was emblazoned on the duvet he slept under as a kid.
That’s why the funniest line during the Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan swap deal wasn’t the pair of them playing the boyhood dream card but a hurt Arsene Wenger claiming: “I cannot understand anybody wanting to leave Arsenal”. Which no doubt led to a spike in
North London A&E admissions from people banging their heads against a wall and screaming to be freed from another brain-crushing outbreak of deja vu.
How can you not see why a player would want to leave ANY club when Neymar dumped Barcelona and Ronaldo says he wants out of Real Madrid, the two destinations we are assured every romantic dreamer/ hard-nosed mercenary wants to end their days. But it is easy to see why Wenger would not contemplate leaving Arsenal.
They pay him £9million a year without expecting the kind of results commensurate with the world’s sixth highest income-generating club and the highest ticket prices on Earth. But to not get why world-class players, offered mind-boggling wages, might want to go to a club that challenges for titles when you haven’t won the League for 14 years is delusional.
Why wouldn’t Sanchez want to play elsewhere? The former Barcelona man scored 80 goals and provided 41 assists in 165 games at Arsenal, yet never finished within 10 points of the title winners and never made it past the last
16 of the Champions League. At Old Trafford, Sanchez won’t just triple his wages, he will have a shot at winning the Champions League this year and the Premier League next season. Robin van Persie claims Wenger is the best coach in the world for developing young talent, but that didn’t stop him leaving for United after saying he disagreed on “many aspects” with Arsenal about the way forward.
And it didn’t do him any harm as he joined a list of top talent who left against Wenger’s will before filling their boots with title winners’ medals: Ashley Cole, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas and Van Persie between them won 17 League titles and two Champions Leagues after fleeing the Gunners.
Even now Mezut Ozil is refusing a new deal and Alex Oxlade-chamberlain turned one down to join Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool for less money. Klopp is under similar pressure to Wenger for selling Philippe Coutinho to Barca, but made no empty claim about Liverpool being a final destination for everyone who joins. He understands his club’s place in the food chain and accepts players wanting to leave “is part of the business. We have to create a situation where they want to stay”.
A lot of players look at Arsenal under Wenger and see a fabulous package: A rich, historic club with a grand stadium which is packed every week and hosts teams that play beautiful football in the most cosmopolitan city in Europe.
But when they discover the recent reality, that all they are competing for most years is a glorious run in the domestic cups, it doesn’t satisfy the very best.
Wenger not understanding why any player might want to leave simply defines himself as part of the reason why so many do.
Or why Sanchez was banging out Money, Money, Money on the Old Trafford piano while he was humming the same old tune.