He had lofty ambitions. And to his credit, he was striving hard to see those ambitions to fruition. But along came a few heavyweights, eager to prey on his progress. Cunning, greedy and ruthless. Powerless under their overpowering clutches, he fell, wings clipped.
Will he rise again?
Youth vs Currency…who will win?
Is this a prologue to a tale of renaissance of a common man? Maybe. I was actually using the pronoun to refer to clubs like Arsenal.
When Arsène Wenger took over the reins at Arsenal, he had no star in his team. A few home grown players like Tony Adams would be one of the first on the team sheet. One of his initial acquisitions was the Dutch legend, Dennis Bergkamp. As Wenger himself says, Bergkamp was “the first star to arrive at Arsenal”.
Wenger backed this up with the signings of a few more players-Robert Pires, Nicolas Anelka and a certain Thierry Henry, to name a few. All of us know where their paths led them.
King Henry, as he is still passionately called by the Gunner Faithful, cemented a deep, special niche in the richest of Premier League lore. A constant starter, he drove the team forward. A true leader. A fantastic player. Then Barcelona came calling. The lure of the Catalan giants, adorned abundantly with cash and the allure of trophies whisked away Henry. Away from Arsenal.
Alexander Hleb was a precocious youngster, who was a vital cog in the slick-passing Arsenal machine of the mid 2000s; until he too fell for the charms of Barcelona.
Arsène Wenger is a master tactician, and has an astute, unrivalled footballing intelligence. The knack of spotting players nascent and fresh, and breeding them into enviable players is hard to come by. The Frenchman is the chief connoisseur of that suave art. Players like Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy. Oh, and Cesc Fabregas. Fabregas’ flight to Spain is well documented; so chartering that course would be redundant here.
But what of the Arsenal contingent at Manchester City-Nasri and Clichy? Plucked young, nurtured carefully, and allowed to bloom with freedom. If only they had stayed at Arsenal…
Let us travel to Germany now, to the Westfalenstadion. In the recent past, Dortmund has emerged as a ferocious force at both domestic and European levels. But, the yellow wave seems to be receding timidly.
Why? Bayern Munich. Dortmund has become a feeder for Bayern, generously giving them Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski. What with the untimely climax to Ikay Gundogan’s career, the squad is seriously depleted. Can Dortmund scale new heights? Rather, can Dortmund hit old form?
Another shining example is Valencia. A tireless provider of brilliant enigmatic players- David Villa, David Silva, Juan Mata, Jordi Alba to name a few. But, the club has had to let go of all their stars. Their destinations? Clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester City. Another ripe example is the glittering case of Atletico Madrid, who haven’t been able to stop Sergio Agüero, Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao and Diego Forlán from migrating to rich clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City.
It must be noticed keenly that clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City keep propping up. I ask you this-what if these players had stayed put at their parent clubs? The eventualities seem endless!
The past decade has seen wealthy Sheiks and the like investing in football clubs, buying them out, and making them exorbitantly rich. The pioneer of this wave- Roman Abramovich and Chelsea.
These clubs, with seemingly unquantifiable resources, have taken to buying their way to success. And they have been preying on timid clubs and taking away their prized talents. Manchester City assembled an exorbitantly costly squad and won the Premier league a while back. PSG did the same in France last season, by similar means, and looks like the club is here to stay. The newest member of this list is Monaco.
This technique, centered around currency has gone viral, yes.
Clubs like Arsenal, Dortmund and Valencia and many others deserve to hold on to their talents and go for glory. Admittedly, the rich clubs have great all-round facilities. But buying their way to titles isn’t good for football in the long term. There are players whose careers have spiraled downwards after being snatched by big, rich clubs(Adam Johnson, Hleb, even Henry). A slow, methodical approach is what is required. The traditional practice of grooming youngsters to rambunctious, mature stallions is what will bode well for the game.
This was a guest piece by @kingdrakarthik
