Winning trophies is not the most important thing in football.
I know what your thinking. Yes it is, you mug! Of course it is! What are you on about!?
You might also think I have been driven so crazy from Arsenal’s recent travails, and that a trophy looks so far out of sight, that I am resigned to defeatism and acceptance.
If you are thinking that, then can I ask; if that’s right, that football is all about winning trophies, then why don’t 98% of all football clubs close up and quit? What’s the point for those who have never won a trophy? Why bother if you aren’t owned by a Billionaire, a hedge fund, floated on a stock exchange or owned by a nation state? Why bother if you have been the mainstay in your respective league and you will only stay mid-table or get relegated? Why would Scotland, for example, be so bothered about qualifying for the Euros in 2020(21) knowing they have no chance in winning it? Why would any non-Premier League club be so bothered about taking part in the FA Cup?
The reason, reader, is that winning a trophy is not important and not the be all and end all.
For some, it’s the only thing that matters. If that’s you, then may I suggest that the ill-fated European Super League was designed especially for you. A paying punter who turns up for the wins and trophies but is otherwise apathetic when your team loses or draws. Or even wins. Believe it or not, there are some club supporters who become apathetic to a continually successful team. Don’t believe me? I politely point you in the direction of the empty Manchester City stadium…….
Football is about romance, belief and faith. It’s not about money. It’s not about silverware. It’s not about shirt sales. It’s not about transfer fees.
I used to play various Football Manager PC games (slightly showing my age there…..) where, after a while, the temptation to hack the system and jack up my teams player stats or grant myself a bigger transfer budget (etc) became too great. Then I cleaned house. Winning the League(s), FA Cup and Champions League with Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Fun, but very quickly it got a bit boring. The instant success brought about by something I knew wasn’t due to my outstanding managerial skills felt a bit hollow. Unearned.
Clearly, taking a team to title-winning success by making the right decisions, spending within my means and with a little luck was harder, but ultimately more rewarding. It was fun, the journey was fun. The agony of getting to a final and losing was fun. The ecstasy of winning was greater – because of the trials and tribulations that preceded it. Giant killing. Finding a young player from the Northern Conference and turning him into a prolific striker in the Champions League was satisfying.
“Modern” football has lost its way. Modern football is now a manifestation of these games. The likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG, Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid (etc) have the cheat codes. They have the funds (well, some do, albeit, with the Spanish contingent, the chickens are very much coming home to roost), the share of TV money, the superstars and the trophies. Great for them. For them, it’s about the perpetual spending of money they don’t have in pursuit of financial success they haven’t earned from football success that is treated like a commodity.
I’m sure at some point you have been on Twitter and had some banter with a Chelsea fan (for example, I’m not specifically picking on them) who has called you “salty” or called Arsenal a “small club” and then referenced their recent trophy haul. Maybe they have accused you of crying (insert crying emoji) over their successes? Recent, as for many Chelsea fans their club has only existed since 2003. But, as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow, these same fans will know this success wouldn’t have been possible without the funding “gifted” to the club from Roman Abramovich. Chelsea weren’t a small club pre-Abramovich, to say so would be reductive and wrong. But equally, their success since he assumed ownership would never have manifested without his wealth.
For example; winning the Champions League will net the victor approx. £100m (www.sportingnews.com) from the start to lifting the cup. Chelsea won it in 2021 and that same season they committed £222.5m on new players and raised £52.9m from sales and loan activity (Transfermarkt). So a net position of £169.6m committed on paper – in the books this will be noted as such, as either cash outflows or “liabilities” (AKA debt) yet to be paid (in future years). That doesn’t include player salaries, so you can be sure more money was spent on player salaries in excess of the fees paid (even net of salaries taken off the books from departures) for incoming players, inflating the total commitment to squad additions.
So, all other factors being equal, taking into account prize money from the Champions League, Chelsea lost £69.6m lifting that trophy. Let that sink in. They lost money winning a trophy for that season/financial year. When I say they lost money, what I mean is the excess spending, over and above operational/day to day expenditure, on players less prize money (windfall income in excess of normal operational income). So when we say the have “bought” their success, this is what is meant by it.
Take Manchester City. They were taken over by Abu Dhabi United Group (for £210m) in Sepetember 2008. By the time they lifted the Premier League trophy in the 2012, a total of £521.6m had been committed in transfer fees with £115.9m raised from sales and loan activity (again, that’s not taking into account salaries). Take into account total income from league position finishes in the years in between and including the winning season, Manchester City generated £213.7m in prize money (courtesy of www.sportingintelligence.com) which includes League finish prize money and TV money at the time. So, all in all, winning their first Premier League trophy actuality cost the club in the region of £192m. They were in the red by £192m (based on what was committed in fees, less departures and prize money) by the time they lifted their first league championship – again, all other factors being equal.
With the above two examples, you could argue boosts to shirt sales and other commercial and sponsorship income would factor in. You would be right, however, this would be the case to a large extent whether or not these clubs won their respective trophies, simply by being part of the Big 6 of the biggest and most lucrative league in the world. Even if they broke even, this is still horrendous financial management on a par with gambling.
With the above examples, it’s about the additional funds the respective clubs have ploughed into the club (over and above operational, “normal” levels of income) to fund their respective successes. In other words, if it weren’t for the clubs being bought by their respective owners, they wouldn’t have been able to fund the investment which ultimately yielded these trophy wins. Both certainly would not be able to absorb such huge losses too or continue to.
Ploughing millions of funds into a club (which has not been earned by the club itself and has come from its owner’s personal wealth or institutional debt) is artificial and not sustainable. It’s like getting on a treadmill permanently set at a sprint and keeping that level of pace going by injecting steroids. Eventually, sooner or later, this will become unsustainable. Barcelona are now finding that out for themselves to their cost.
Here’s another smaller example. Neymar earns a £465,000-per-month ‘ethical bonus’ (whatever that is) due to a clause in his PSG contract, on top of other income and bonuses, and has reportedly cost in excess of £419m since his transfer from Barcelona in 2017. I will leave you to imagine if PSG have generated enough income (revenue and prize money) to cover these costs as well as the costs from the remaining playing squad.
If a club uses funding generated from an owner to fund its successes and rise to the top of the tree, once this funding dries up or slows down, the club’s success rate and league position will decline. Money, therefore, is like hot air in a balloon, the more that goes in, the higher you go for longer. The less you put in, the further you fall. However, in this analogy, the more hot air you use, the more debt you owe someone to pay for your flight.
Every dollar, pound and euro invested in a club that has come from an owner and not from the club itself is debt. Debt to a bank, debt to an institutional investor or debt to the owner. Various Financial Fair Play rules (laughably) preclude money being gifted to a club, as well as the tax issues and other accounting considerations owners would have to think about.
That’s why the likes of Barcelona are now feeling the pinch in a big way. They literally mortgaged their expected future success (AKA trophy wins) to fund investment now. To buy players to win trophies or to generate income from merchandising (shirt sales). Messi was their golden goose as the main merchandising draw. Now he’s gone, it will ultimately cost them far more in the longer term than the wages they would have otherwise paid in the short term.
So, what about Arsenal? Aren’t we owned by a Billionaire? Of course, we are; “Silent” Stan Kroenke, the “disinterested” owner. You will recall Stan once famously stated that one doesn’t buy a football club to win trophies, and he is spot on. The success rate is so small that funding these wins is like spinning the roulette wheel. You might win, and receive the riches that come with it, or more likely you will fall short and it will cost you – absorbing the losses and then needing to reinvest to go again.
Stan has continued with Arsenals tradition of being self-funded. In my opinion, he has only directly sanctioned additional funding when it comes to the longer-term investment in the playing squad. The funding of the Thomas Partey transfer and the most recent transfer window (apparently the biggest one by a club in years/ever) where we committed approx.
£149m in fees alone as two examples. We don’t go to Uncle Stan or Wall Street at every transfer window to sign one huge marquee player (in thinking the likes of Lukaku or Ronaldo, not Partey – which is much smaller by comparison) or a number of smaller additions. And with good reason, it’s a gamble and a waste of money. Stan has been prudent with the purse strings for a reason, to maintain the financial viability of the club.
Here is where the interests of Stan and the fans align. He wants a financially viable asset and we want a financially viable club.
Yes, you might think that this runs contrary to being able to challenge for titles. But you would be wrong. Every superstar starts somewhere. Every Kante, Aubameyang, Aguero, Ronaldo, Neymar, Jesus, whoever, starts their career or establishes their career somewhere and, if you’re prudent and observant, you can find and acquire these players for a fraction of their market value today before they become superstars tomorrow.
Bukayo Saka is a great example. How much has he cost Arsenal to date? Well if we consider him a £100m value player (and why not?) I would say it has cost up to 2% to fund his development and inclusion in the first team. Data analytics is the key and a different kind of scouting network. Arsenal have made inroads into this as of late, and this will be our main route to growing our own superstars (as Wenger championed) along with our work at Hale End.
However, I have digressed. Football is not about winning trophies. If you ever talk about The Invincibles (and so you should, daily) what is usually the first thing you say? 99% of the time it is some variation on; “we went the entire league season unbeaten”. Yes, we won the Premier League, but that is nearly always a secondary point. What made The Invincibles legendary was the sporting achievement of being undefeated, something only a couple other teams have achieved, decades before in a wholly different football world. It was the culmination of world-class talent, “Wenger Ball” and team spirit. It will never be bettered. The fact we won a trophy is a footnote. The cherry on top. Its not the substance of the achievement in and of itself.
Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson were then Fathers and Architects of the Premier League. Most innovations, sport science advancements, tactical approaches, player development techniques, man-management styles that are around today are as a result, directly, of their own pioneering careers of managing Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. They gave back to the game more than they took out. While they did win titles, they gave us entertaining football, legendary players and also raised the bar for other Premier League clubs (established and new) who used their innovations and improved themselves to compete. They made the Premier League more entertaining to watch, more exciting and interesting and more popular.
That’s why managers like Jose Mourinho aren’t “special”. Self praise is no recommendation. Mourinho’s only true achievement was winning the Champions League with FC Porto. Mourinho learned from the great Sir Bobby Robson (while acting as his interpreter) and used his tactical approaches at FC Porto to achieve this truly brilliant win.
After that he embodied the very essence of the “Cheque Book Manager”, all his success is due to being backed by an owner or club with the vast financial resource. I’m not saying he’s a bad manager, but you try and convince me he would have had the same career if he went to Tottenham way back when, or West Ham, Southampton, Newcastle, Aston Villa or, dare I say it, Arsenal. Yes, Chelsea finished second in the Premier League the year before he came to Chelsea (we were the Champions), but by that stage, Abramovich was already throwing money at the club, so Mourinho was literally handed the cheat codes before he started playing the game.
What has Jose Mourinho given back to the game since? Playing style? No. Innovative tactical approaches? No. Youth development? No, he definitely doesn’t do that. Sports science innovations? No. All Mourinho has done is take, take, take and spent other peoples money in the process. He once called Wenger a “Specialist in Failure”. We can all say with certainty that “The Special One” has earned more money from being sacked than winning anything. Mourinho’s biggest chip on his shoulder (of many) is that he will never be respected by anyone other than a Chelsea fan (at best). He will never be held in as high regard as Wenger or Ferguson. Ever. And he knows it.
Why do I mention Mourinho? Because his success as Chelsea manager was vacuous, empty. It was bought with money from a Russian Billionaire and not earned. That’s why Chelsea fans, by and large, are so ferocious with their support and criticism of us and other clubs; they know it’s true too.
Manchester City and Pepe Guardiola are the same. I wonder what trajectory of a career he would have had if he managed Real Betis, Stuttgart and Aston Villa (rather than Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City). Hence the empty seats are recently seen at the Etihad. This may be an anomaly, a short term thing. More likely, it’s because Manchester City fans are a bit bored. Or their fanbase is made up of “plastic” fans, who are around to bathe in the reflective glory of the club, but not the seasonal grind in between, which veteran fans are all about.
Another similar example is England’s loss in the final of the Euro 2020(21) tournament. What was up for grabs was a trophy, the first win for any England side since 1966. The stakes were incredibly high. England’s route to the final was a roller-coaster but ultimately (as before, during the World Cup) the nation (well, 98% of it) came together and backed the team to the hilt. Once in the final, the entire nation was gripped and, ultimately, commiserated with the glorious defeated.
While the final resulted in a loss, no trophy, the outpouring of support, love, praise and positivity (albeit also as the result of disgusting racist abuse) completely overshadowed Italy’s triumph. In fact, I would go as far to say that only those in Italy celebrated the win, the rest of the world united behind England in support of our boys. All the goodwill and celebration that would have come from a win instead manifested as goodwill and celebration of England’s efforts, their role model displays, the team spirit, the teamwork, morals and combative spirit they demonstrated. Would have this been the same if we had won? I am not so sure. Losing the Euro 2020(21) final had a bigger impact, on the nation and further afield. In the aftermath, the fact we didn’t win a trophy was unimportant.
I could go on, but I think by now you get my point. Winning a trophy is not important. Football is no longer a meritocracy of footballing excellence. It is who has the biggest and deepest wallet. Any mediocre manager can buy hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent and string them together into a semblance of a team and win a trophy. Spending/wasting money doesn’t demonstrate talent or ambition.
So what about Arsenal? What if Uncle Stan suddenly abandoned his principles and began throwing money at the club to chase titles and cups? What if we sold to a rich Emirati or Russian Billionaire with promises of heavy investment? If that ever happens, the very soul of the club would be extinguished. We would then become the vacuous play thing of the Super Rich. No longer about the principles and the traditions of The Arsenal, just about chasing unearned success, money and attention. I would rather walk away from football in all seriousness than try to reconcile such a horrible fate to the club I love. I don’t care if you don’t believe me, reader, it’s my position from which I will never move. The hill I chose to die on.
At the end of the day, pointing to the rich owners of our rivals and reminding rival supporters that they have bought their success is our trump card. It’s our ace in the sleeve. This is one situation where if we can’t beat them, we should never join them.
Ultimately, for Arsenal, what we supporters want is a more competitive squad. What we want is to see the players fight to win or go down fighting to a loss. We want to see sensible and sustainable investment in a quality playing squad. We want to see the growth of academy players. We want to compete for trophies (emphasis on the word “compete”). We want to return to playing European Football. We want to beat Tottenham. All these things. All these things are achievable with sensible financial management and clear planning. Winning silverware is the by-product, not the sole aim. Not the sole objective. If it were, we would just be another vacuous Billionaire plaything. Another club chasing the mirage of silverware and betting the family silver on obtaining it. It’s not how Arsenal became a giant of English football and shouldn’t be how we continue to be.
In an effort to compete financially with their more affluent rivals, many football clubs are now on the march to financial oblivion. Wage bills in excess of revenues. Over-reliance on player sales in a covid impacted market. Dependency on TV revenues to balance the books. The Government are worried about so-called “zombie companies” in the aftermath of the economic shock of covid (companies that will eventually fail sooner or later), right now there are many football clubs in the same predicament in the pursuit of success at any cost.
Ultimately, the cost itself might be the clubs very survival.
Cover photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated.