Why Platini is Wrong

You'll have to forgive me for not commenting on today's game.  Unfortunately, I'm out of town and that means I was unable to catch the game.  Not that I missed much from all reports.  Losing sucks.  Losing at home sucks.  Losing at home TO Hull Freakin' City sucks big time.  But losing at home to Hull Freakin' City WITHOUT SCORING A SINGLE GOAL is...well, I got no description for it.

So rather than put myself through the aneurysm-inducing replay, I'll rather comment on the big story of this week:  Michel Platini picking a fight with Arsene Wenger.  

Short version, Platini does an interview with French press in which he blasts Arsene as a "businessman" (i.e. someone interested in the business end of football more than the sporting end) and implied that all Arsene cares about is the big clubs.  What made it kind of weird is that the interview wasn't about Wenger, but Platini found a way to bring it back to him.

By Friday, Platini had backed down and apologized for some of his vitriol; partly because his dad (a mentor to both men) sort of tore him a new hole.

I won't go into all of Platini's faults as they are many.  (After all, isn't it ironic that on the same week he proclaims he's a football man, that UEFA announces they're expanding the Euros field to 24 teams? Because clearly that will increase the chances San Marino, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands make it, right?)  But I'll just explain why he's wrong.

1. Arsenal have no Daddy Warbucks benefactor. 

In fact, Arsenal have rejected various opportunities to be taken over by billionairies with deep pockets.  Both Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov have found their advances and promises rejected by the club's board and the fans.  Yes, the club is among the richest in the world, but this is without a Roman Abramovich or Middle Eastern sheik to prop the books up. 

2. Arsenal aren't breaking the transfer fee records.

Unlike the mega-clubs from Spain or Italy (with whom Platini seems to have no issue), Arsenal don't blow 30 million euros on one player.  Just this offseason, Barcelona spent 24 million pounds on RB Daniel Alves and Inter Milan spent 17 million pounds on winger Ricardo Quaresma.  The most Arsene has spent on a player?  13 million pounds on Sylvain Wiltord.  The most expensive purchase starting in today's roster?  Theo Walcott, who could cost up to 12 million pounds once everything's said and done.  But he was bought as a 16-year old long-term project, albeit one that's developed strongly. Compare that to the 30 million pounds (a record at the time) Manchester United paid to purchase 17-year old Wayne Rooney.

And unlike those other clubs, Arsenal brings talent that is still growing and maximizes its abilities.  There's no buying of a finished product like Real or Milan or Chelsea do.  It's why so many of our players are targetted and tapped up by other clubs.  

3. Arsenal aren't the ones jacking the price for talent.

Players at Chelsea demand wages of over 100,000 pounds per week and no one bats an eyeball.  Players and agents looking to increase their wages simply have to sound the alarm that they're being followed by scouts from the biggest clubs around and can get it.  Well, except at Arsenal.  The club has a wage structure and it holds to it.  Ironically enough, that wage structure is seen as a detriment to the club's title aspirations as, conventional wisdom holds, players will eventually choose to leave for richer pastures.   

4. Arsene Wenger's track record.

Honestly, does Platini not know of what he speaks?  Wenger began his career at AS Nancy, moved to AS Monaco, where he had success.  He actually turned down moves to Bayern Munich and to take over the French national team out of loyalty to Monaco, only to be fired after a slow start.  How different might things have turned out if Wenger had done what Jose Mourinho did and bolt for the first big job he was offered?  And would a manager interested only in business be so willing to head to Japan to continue his career?  

The only major argument that critics can levy against Arsene and the way he does business is his purchasing of young players out of academies before they're old enough to sign a professional contract.  But even then, it's not as if Wenger and his coaches are using and disposing of youngsters and leaving them with nothing.  Just look around the top leagues and notice the number of players who began their careers in the Arsenal set-up only to move elsewhere to continue their careers.  Guys like Steve Sidwell, David Bentley, Fabrice Muamba, Arturo Lupoli, Justin Hoyte, Seb Larsson are all plying their trade elsewhere in football thanks to the training they received at the club.

Football has always been big business and it continues to be so now.  Platini, however, is talking out of his arse by targetting Arsenal as examples of the modern trend of money being the only thing that matters.