Following the arrival of Arsene Wenger in 1997, Arsenal began to change their whole footballing philosophy under his stewardship, they became one of the most boring to arguably one of the most exciting clubs overnight. Wenger applied his knowledge of French football to bring in some of their best players along the names of Viera, Henry, Petit and Pires, who all helped France lift their first World Cup in 1998. Arsene quickly adapted the way his players approached training, nutrition and football philosophy, he turned big burly and sometimes single-minded centre-halves such as Tony Adams, into more adept players on the ball who started to play out from the back rather than hack the ball long. Arsenal quickly won the FA Cup and league double in Wenger’s first full season at the club. The club then added silverware every year from 2002 to 2005 and were responsible for one of the best teams in Premier League history when they went unbeaten for 49 league games between May 2003 and October 2004, dubbed the “Invincibles”.

Arsenal’s Holy Grail, the Champions League was almost achieved in 2006 as they were cruelly beaten by Barcelona 2-1, following the dismissal of goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, in the 18th minute. Despite going a man down, the Gunners managed to take the lead from a Sol Campbell header, but Barcelona made advantage of the extra man as they clawed back to win the match. Ten days before the final, Arsenal played their final game at their home of 93-years known as Highbury. The team relocated north of the Thames to the 60,000 capacity, Emirates Stadium which has been their home ground since 2006.

The defeat to Barcelona in 2006 signalled the end of the “Invincibles” and the start of their re-build for the future. The club sold most of their top players following their loss including a controversial sale of Ashley Cole, Arsenal soon became a selling club who sold high calibre players to the highest bidders, including Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Arsenal were in a tough situation where the debts of building their new state of the art stadium prevented them from matching the spending of teams, who had recently brought in wealthy foreign owners and were hyper-inflating the market. A short while before, £30m was seen to be a large transfer budget but new owners such as Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich were happily spending £100m per year to develop their teams. However, Arsenal’s financial situation meant they had to rely on their youth and signings of undeveloped players. Despite their tough competition, the Gunners managed to maintain a top four finish every year since Wenger’s arrival and managed to do so while keeping their finances under control.

Arsenal now see themselves in a much stronger financial position, their stadium is two years away from being paid off (roughly £60m away) and new endorsements from TV rights and new kit sponsors Puma along with others have greatly increased revenue. Arsenal also improved their points tally from the season before, despite finishing in the same position and are no longer in the position to force big players out for financial gain. The club also won its first piece of silverware with an FA Cup win last season and started spending increasing amounts of money following last summer’s signing of Mesut Ozil. The new window is open and plenty of spending has been done which suggests Arsenal as a club feel in a much better position to challenge for silverware in the following season.

Currently Arsenal’s only notable loss of the summer has been of long standing right-back, Bacary Sagna, however, the addition of Debuchy means the squad hasn’t stepped down in ability, following his departure.  The club have also completed signings of versatile Chilean forward, Alexis Sanchez and goalkeeper David Ospina. The club are now negative £45m in transfer revenue and as this is the start of financial stability, the club are expected to add further to their signings with a holding midfielder being a high priority.

New addition Ospina, arguably one of the French league’s best keepers last season, who was brought in as an almost identical replacement to Lloris at Nice has seen his stock rise greatly after the World Cup and will provide fierce competition to Szczesney. The signing of Sanchez provides much versatility as a player who likes to run beyond defenders and can take defenders on, the kind of player Arsenal have lacked especially in Walcott’s absence, however, Sanchez is a more capable player than Walcott and similarly can play on the wing or down the middle if needed. Debuchy has been strongly overlooked as one of the league’s best right-backs last season as part of a Newcastle team which completely fell apart, late into the season. Debuchy, also of French nationality similarly to Sagna, was also picked ahead of the former Arsenal full-back by French team coach, Didier Deschamps.

The signings so far are all very useful additions and as hinted at before, Arsenal have given up nothing in terms of ability to sign them. The squad as a whole are only stronger than the season before, not to mention a clean bill of health alone would be enough to improve the squad from the season prior. With financial fair play (FFP) now a lot stricter in its punishments, teams will now have to spend only what their own means allow. The development of Arsenal’s new stadium mean that other, rival clubs, will now be punished for spending more than Arsenal in the form of fines and decreased squad size for European competition. The new stadium being almost paid off signals the start of Arsenal’s next chapter which will see the club challenge for higher profile players in the transfer market as their stadium will not require many further payments.

Arsene Wenger has been a talisman for Arsenal, but has also received large amounts of criticism in recent years. It is often overlooked how the squad has been developed in many ways under his stewardship such as philosophy, playing style, a new stadium, reputation and most importantly success, despite a long dry spell. Wenger has developed many home-grown players for the first team which has been forced upon him in recent years due to finances as one of few managers who doesnt delegate coaching to others. Wenger is also the type of manager who can produce success with the necessary means, unlike managers like Mourinho, who dubbed Wenger a specialist in failure who himself seems to struggle with a superior squad, due to the way he sets them out. Wenger likes to play possession football and promotes an attacking mentality, Mourinho; however, likes to keep a solid defence and keep a clean sheet, but as the superior team the opponents are not willing to attack enough to leave space for a Mourinho counter.

Wenger has shown that with a superior squad he can push his team onto success and with the new additions, along with impending others, Arsenal should be optimistic that silverware will come as they look to be turning full circle.

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