Working out where Arsenal have gone so very wrong since their last league win back in 2004 leading them to back-to-back 8th placed finishes in 2020 and 2021. Fingers from the fan base often point straight towards the current ownership.
KSE have been involved with the club since 2007 and have seen more than £1 billion spent on players in that time, from the club itself it is important to point out, yet Arsenal have continued to fall.
The public inquiries as to Arsenal’s demise are frequent and varied. The latest to suggest where Arsenal should look to change things in order to succeed is former Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas.
Jenas, said that he liked the way Manchester United are handling Ole Gunner Solskjaer's tenure as manager at the club.
“What I quite like about what Manchester United are doing with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the sticking by him I quite like. And I like the fact that he’s Manchester United, he knows the club inside out, and if anything, the club’s developing Ole as they go along,” said Jenas.
He continued by questioning, in his view, why Arsenal had not mirrored the process Manchester United have begun to instill by including more legendary players.
“We’ve seen the addition of Darren Fletcher, you know, to the back-room staff now, as well – much more Manchester United people, kind of, being part of the process,” Jenas continued.
“It’s almost, kind of, when I remember like speaking to players like Rio [Ferdinand], it’s almost similar to kind of what happened at Arsenal, where you kind of go, why have you not held, like, harnessed what you had with [Patrick] Vieira and Sol Campbell, and [Thierry] Henry and Ashley Cole and all these players that were part of that unbelievable team? How did the club not harness that and just like, I don’t know, keep it?”
The difficulty as an Arsenal fan listening to Jenas’ suggestion about how Arsenal should have looked to manage the club’s executive and managerial departments is that, quite simply, it contradicts every action the club has taken towards the end and after Arsene Wenger’s tenure.
The current coach of the club is a former team captain, Mikel Arteta. The head of the Arsenal academy is another club captain in Per Mertesacker. Whilst these two players may lack the legendary status of the players Jenas mentioned they know the club and its expectations.
However, they are far from the only examples. The first of three Invincibles who have been involved with the club is the current technical director Edu. The Brazilian has divided the fan base with his work but has overseen a huge shift in transfer strategy, especially this summer just gone.
Freddie Ljungberg was the former under-23s coach before becoming the interim first-team coach after the club sacked Unai Emery. Ljungberg continued for a brief time after Arteta’s appointment but left the club in search of a first-team role.
Ironically, despite Jenas mentioning him as a missed opportunity, Thierry Henry was involved with the club’s setup post his playing career. Arsene Wenger welcomed Henry back to the club to work with the youth team in the mid-2010s.
Henry left due to a conflict of interests with his punditry work. The Frenchman has had ambition as a coach and therefore a position at Arsenal was always unlikely to be established and he has since returned to the Belgian national team as an assistant after unsuccessful spells with Monaco and Montreal.
Arsenal parted way this year with Steve Bould as under-23s coach having taken on the role in 2019 ending a 20-year non-playing association with the club.
Jenas mentioned Vieira, Campbell & Cole, both of whom have pursued coaching career with contrasting success. Campbell was last seen in the game in 2020 as coach of relegated Southend. Vieira meanwhile is the current head coach of Crystal Palace after spells with Nice and New York City FC.
Ashley Cole also moved into coaching with Frank Lampard at Derby and Chelsea, remaining with the latter in the academy after Lampard’s sacking, and has more recently been appointed assistant coach of the England under-21s.
It is very easy to list off the names of legendary players Arsenal have had. There is plenty of them representing the historic success the club has had. However, firstly, to suggest the club could do more to include them when there is significant evidence to the contrary just shows a lack of knowledge in the area.
Secondly, whilst the club has integrated plenty of former players into the running of Arsenal, the team has still regressed. Indicating that this is not a credible explanation behind why the north London side has found itself in this scenario.
Arsenal needs to find consistency and style in combination with strong leadership from its owners. All of these are currently lacking and throwing yet another legend of the club into an executive role is not going to arrest the slide. It certainly hasn’t so far.
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