Arsène Wenger has dismissed the prospect of a “spectacular change of structure” on his watch at Arsenal, as he railed against what he perceives as empty rhetoric in the modern game.
Ivan Gazidis, the club’s chief executive, said at a fans’ forum on Sunday that a disappointing season had to serve as a “catalyst for change”. He wants members of staff to be open to new approaches; adapting in order to drive improvements – and that includes Wenger.
There was the implicit suggestion from Gazidis that structural tweaks could be implemented, with Dick Law, the club’s chief negotiator and long-time Wenger ally, facing an uncertain future.
Wenger has spoken in recent weeks about the notion of personal reinvention and the club seemed to be positioning to sell the announcement that he was ready to sign up for another cycle with them. But on Tuesday morning Wenger turned the focus inwards, blotting out the background noise and looking purely at Wednesday night’s visit of West Ham United.
“We need to focus on tomorrow and forget all the rest,” he said. “Football today is a lot of talks and talks and talks. But good players on the pitch are more important than anything else. At the moment you have a lot of money and you spend a lot on things that are superficial but not really important. English football has invested a lot in structures, it creates many jobs but you have to see what is really efficient is the quality of the players. The problem in our game today is that what is superficial is at the heart of the debate and the things that are important, nobody talks about.”
The issue of reinvention was raised once again and this time Wenger shrugged it off. “What is important is a good football team, who play good football – all the rest is literature and we can debate, speak and organise forums,” he said, in what felt like a reference to Gazidis’s meeting with fans. “My battle in my whole life is to improve and to be better. That is evolution, not change. Change is the heart of who you are. That’s difficult. Evolution? Yes.”
Wenger warmed to his theme when he argued that Arsenal had evolved structurally over his 20 years in charge. “You look at the club when I arrived and what it is today – you would say there is structural change,” he said. “We have managed to combine investments, structural change, without anybody putting one penny in – all only based on the quality of my work – and be consistent. If somebody in the next 20 years does much better – believe me, I am very happy. But at least he has fantastic conditions: a strong financial situation and good players. We have fantastic conditions to do better. A spectacular change of structure now would be very difficult.”
Wenger was asked the hypothetical question of whether he would be prepared to work with a sporting director. “I don’t know,” he replied. “We play tomorrow against West Ham and we speak about 2025. For me what is important is West Ham tomorrow.”
What was unimportant to Wenger were the four fans who staged a protest against him outside the training ground on Tuesday morning. “It is good that they can waste their day like that,” he said.
Wenger reported that Laurent Koscielny, who was forced off at half-time against Manchester City on Sunday with an achilles injury, was out of the West Ham game. Koscielny had captained the team and, bizarrely, Wenger could not say who had been the captain in the second half.
It appears that Arsenal played without one; no one wore the armband after the interval. Wenger has never placed too much importance on the identity of his captain but this was the first time that he had gone without one. “I don’t remember [who was the captain in the second half],” Wenger said. “Nobody asked me [during the interval] who is captain.”