Arsene Wenger is finally listening to me… now let’s see if he can get Arsenal back to where they belong

Arsene Wenger is finally spending big on the right players
Paying Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 a week for years was a sackable offence
Wenger has been too cautious about giving contracts to players over 30
But Petr Cech signing shows a change in approach from Wenger

Published:
05:47 GMT, 23 June 2015

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Updated:
08:28 GMT, 23 June 2015

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It would be conceited of me to take any kind of credit for the changes in recent seasons that have brought trophies to Arsenal and potentially re-positioned them as future challengers for the big honours – Champions League and Premier League.

But it’s hard to ignore the fact that Wenger has U-turned and is now following the instructions I’ve been giving him for just under a decade.

It’s like Wenger has transformed himself – as if a footballing Gok Wan has given him a makeover to stop him looking so awkward and out of place in the modern game.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger celebrates his second successive FA Cup triumph last month

Wenger was stubborn and refused to change for so long that it caused fights among Arsenal fans. The club’s supporters seemed split – and probably still are divided – over whether Wenger should continue in the job or not.

For some time I felt a move upstairs was best all round. But now Wenger has relented, changed and adapted to the modern game.

He has gone back on his previous beliefs about how the club should be run and it all being about the stadium being paid for. It’s about the man understanding the fans, and realising that a top-four place cannot be presented to knowledgeable supporters dressed up as success. The Emirates faithful deserve better and there should be at least a polite ripple of applause for Wenger finally relenting.

So what exactly am I talking about? Up until 2013, Wenger watched all the other top clubs around Europe make huge signings on borrowed money and cried about them being guilty of what he called: ‘financial doping’. That is rich coming from a manager who stood by and watched Arsenal fans exploited and over-charged simply to watch football.

A club taking money from a rich owner is one thing, but a club fleecing fans is despicable. Wenger was at the centre of that Arsenal policy for far too long, and to make it worse he didn’t even spend the money. Instead the fans had to watch as their best players were sold – to rivals.

At any point during those years of moaning Wenger could have spent big. Arsenal have huge assets to borrow against, huge guaranteed incomes season after season, but all that seemed to matter was a top-four finish.

Finally in 2013, Wenger went big with the signing of Mesut Ozil for £42million. Of course he’s still trying to work out how to get the very best out of Ozil but the fans are easily pleased and seem happy to pretend Ozil is an Arsenal legend already so Wenger gets away with that.

The signing of Mesut Ozil (above) in 2013 represented a change in policy by Wenger and Arsenal

And then last summer he went big again with the arrival of Alexis Sanchez for £30m. He’s been terrific, although again Wenger hasn’t made it count. In the two competitions that truly matter to stellar clubs (I’m assuming Arsenal want to be one of those) in the modern game the Gunners have made virtually no impression despite their new expensive superstars.

Wenger has finally learned how to admit he has made a mistake. Drawing up a contract in 2009 that committed the club to paying Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 every week for five years was a sackable offence. Thankfully during that period, two clubs foolishly took over some of that salary by taking the Dane on loan.

Before the Bendtner blunder Wenger had shown way too much faith in the likes of Philippe Senderos and Denilson. This summer Abou Diaby – unlucky with so many injuries – has finally been shown the exit door at Arsenal. Check out some of the quotes from Wenger about these players down the years – they were inexplicable favourites of his that wasted Arsenal’s time and money because of the manager’s poor judgment.

Nicklas Bendtner left Arsenal for free when his contract finally expired in July 2014

Denilson (right) is now playing in Abu Dhabi after spending the last four years back in Brazil with Sao Paulo

Wenger on Denilson: ‘I’m surprised how little credit he gets from the media.’ Soon after that Denilson found his way back to Brazil.

Wenger on Senderos: ‘The best 10 years are now coming for him.’ After that quote in 2009, Senderos never played a Premier League game for Arsenal again.

Wenger on Bendtner: ‘I signed him twice to long contracts because I believe in his quality.’ Remarkably this quote was made by Wenger in December 2013.

Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry, Mathieu Flamini, and Jens Lehmann all came back to the club for no apparent reason and with little or no impact whatsoever. These were Wenger favourites who returned because he had run out of fresh ideas.

Thankfully that nonsense has now stopped. Honestly, when Henry came back and scored against Leeds in the FA Cup it was like the world had stopped for Gooners. How could standards have sunk so low at this great club for that to be such a special moment?

Thierry Henry celebrates scoring against Leeds in January 2012 after he had returned to Arsenal on loan

Here’s another thing, Wenger was never one for pragmatic football, and that’s a positive most of the time. One thing you can say about Wenger is his teams have consistently tried to play open, attractive football over the years.

But sometimes that policy got a little bit messy. Not only did Arsenal fans have to endure a lack of trophies for too long, they then had the embarrassment of being annihilated by Chelsea and even Liverpool in 2013-14.

Defensive disorganisation became a hallmark of Wenger’s coaching. We laughed at his blunders, and wondered if he would ever put them right. This season he did just that, and showed at Manchester City (not a vintage side by City’s recent standards admittedly) that Arsenal can grind a win at a big club. Wenger listened, learned and changed.

Now, could one last much-needed change of policy complete a return to glory for the Gunners?

For too long Wenger has been ridiculously cautious about giving decent contracts to players aged 30 and over. But now Petr Cech comes in on a three-year-deal worth at least £100,000 a week. It’s a bold statement from Wenger and finally bins an inexplicable policy that has been holding Arsenal back for far too long.

Petr Cech (above) is joining Arsenal from Premier League rivals Chelsea in an £11million deal

So in short, since I left the Stade de France after that Champions League final defeat in 2006, I have been saying Arsenal needed to do a number of things differently. After all this time – Wenger has finally listened and learned.

– I told Wenger to sharpen up his act and be more shrewd in his transfer and contract dealings, and he listened.

– I told Wenger to spend big instead of sell big and give the fans the stars they deserve to see – he listened.

– I told Wenger to admit his mistakes and stop wasting time on bang-average players who were taking too much money out of the club, and not putting enough back in – he listened.

The important thing is that you learn from your mistakes, so let’s see if the new, improved Durham-esque Wenger can finally put Arsenal back where they belong.