In the modern day and age, one can only be called a successful manager if he has won a lot of trophies. While it is true that trophies are a benchmark for any manager looking to prove himself, the simple truth is that there are only a handful of trophies any club can win in a season. And given the disparity between the revenues of various clubs, there are very few clubs who have the means to get their hands on them.
As a result, the yard stick that is used to measure the success of a manager at different clubs are different. For a club like Leicester City, who have just come up to the Premier League, not being relegated can be termed as a successful season. While at the same time, given the money that has been spent, only a top four finish will be deemed as a success for Manchester United.
When Arsene Wenger first came to England, many thought that he would struggle and that Arsenal who hadn’t won a Premier League title until he arrived, may not do so. But in his first full Premier League season, the Frenchman did the League and Cup double and was seen as a revolutionary, who kick started the arrival of the foreign managers to the British shores.
Not only did he revolutionize the way that the players trained and what they ate before and after the game, the influx of foreigners in his team was a feature of his early days. In fact the amount of French players was starting to increase at such a level that there was an outcry from the other managers that it wasn’t in England’s best interest.
While Wenger refuted these claims by saying that, “When you represent a club, it’s about values and qualities, not about passports”. The simple truth was that the amount of French-speaking players at the club was on the rise. While it brought them success early on, Wenger understood that it wasn’t a viable long-term solution.
The Frenchman’s preference for his compatriots was very evident in his transfer dealings at the start of the new millennium, but it didn’t take him long to rectify that. Over the past few years, the club have been committed towards nurturing young English talents. While the club have always given a preference for the younger players under Wenger, it is only in the last few years that a lot of British players have stepped up to the plate.
Over the past few years, the likes of Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey have been bought and are slowly starting to stake their claim for a first-team position. Club academy products such as Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs too are slowly but surely making their way into the first-team.
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Even this summer, while the signing of Alexis Sanchez made all the headlines, Wenger continued to buy young English talent. The arrival of Calum Chambers and Danny Welbeck is a sign that Wenger has realized that to be a stable and financially viable club, you need home-grown player. With the implementation of Financial Fair Play rules and the Premier League’s home-grown players quota, now more than ever, it has become important to have home-grown players in not just the squad, but the first-team as well.
From fielding a 16-man squad against Crystal Palace in 2005 with no British players for the first time in the club’s history, it is not inconceivable that the Gunners go onto name a completely British lineup sometime in near future. The likes of Wilshere, Walcott, Ramsey, Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain are already first-team regulars and addition of Chambers and Welbeck means that the club now have spine of British players, something that not many would have predicted a few years ago.
While the presence of so many English players in the first XI is no doubt a good thing as far as the national team is concerned, the real question is whether this group of British players can prove Wenger right and win some trophies. Given the competitive nature of modern football, it is highly unlikely that the club will be too pleased about another nine-year trophy drought.
Although Ramsey, Gibbs and Walcott have already established themselves in the first-team, injuries have meant that the others haven’t been able to. But the potential is there for all to see and a midfield consisting of Ramsey, Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain will not only be dynamic, but also filled with players who are interchangeable and flexible. And when Walcott returns, a trio of Walcott, Sanchez and Welbeck will not only have plenty of pace, but also the sort of finishing that the club have seldom had.
So the onus is on the current crop of promising English players to perform and prove Wenger right. Given the quality of not just the British players, but the players around them as well, it is difficult to see them having another trophy drought like the one they just ended. As Ramsey has already proved, given time, all of them can come good and Wenger will be counting on that as he bids to create another batch of exciting talents, only this time with a Anglo-centric look to it.
All things considered, it is fair to say that even with the modern definition of success that Wenger has been hugely successful, not just in terms of winning trophies but also in terms of leaving a legacy behind when he finally decides to call it a day. And that is the true hall mark of a successful manager.