The Chicago Cubs, Arsenal, and the obstructionist opacity of conflicted principle
The European soccer press (an institution with the collective scruples of your average National Enquirer reporter) has written its usual cynical and shallow narrative of the summer. If they are to be believed, the summer transfer window has been overseen by a group of people motivated by greed, bitterness, lust, panic and arrogance. A group for whom exorcising (or in the case of Arsene Wenger wallowing in) personal demons is as motivating a factor as winning on field. If you ever need to do a movie about a $500 billion business in the vein of King Lear, this lot should be your screenwriters of choice.
There is an unprecedented level of have/have-not emerging in European soccer, fueled by TV money and global merchandising (and also by oil, aluminum, unsustainable levels of debt and god knows what else). In American baseball, you see a similar dynamic with big market teams able to vastly outspend small market teams. While baseball has implemented some ways of leveling out the playing field via amateur player drafts, etc., by and large, small market teams that have been successful (and many have) have relied on developing and adhering to very specific strategies that rely on player scouting and development.
Which brings us to our point. The Chicago Cubs have witnessed a championship drought that makes Arsenal's look like a sunny week. It has been over 100 years and counting. Countless owners and rebuilds later, the Cubs are two years into yet another "project". What is interesting about this time around has been the fervor with which its fan base and the media has bought into the strategy. Cubs fans may be used to finishing near the bottom, but the collective fervor with which they are willing to do so this time around is unprecedented.
There are three reasons for this. First, the new ownership spared no expense in bringing in a management team that has had unparalleled success. When they talk, they talk from experience. And you can't help but believe them. Second, management has been as transparent as it can be about what the strategy is. They have gone on record discussing where they are investing, how that investment will pay off and when they plan on turning on the money spigot. Third, they have set a timeline. "If we aren't regularly competing with the best by 2015, we've done something wrong" is the overt party line.
Stan, Ivan, Arsene and Arsenal have much to learn from this. In the gossip driven, media fueled cauldron that is European soccer, many see keeping your mouth shut as a character trait above all others. But at some point, a principled desire to stay above the fray simply looks like unreasonable opacity...or worse, incompetence. And while Arsene may have the self confidence to withstand daily media mischaracterization, he must surely also realize that the Arsenal fan base is a much more important constituency that needs to be better kept in on the loop.
There are multiple reasons why Arsene may be playing the transfer market the way he is. Perhaps he thinks his squad is strong enough quality wise. Perhaps he thinks the squad is not nearly as thin as we think it is because of what he knows about injuries, etc. Or perhaps there is a larger strategy at work: perhaps he is purposefully staying out of the summer transfer market because he sees more value in the winter market. Or maybe as an organization, we have a lot of faith in our youngsters who could be given first team shirts.
Whatever the reason, what is clear is that Arsene is treating Arsenal fans with the same contempt with which he treats the press. Because we are just as much in the dark about what is real. Arsenal as an organization should illuminate its fanbase about its rationale. Whether the fans agree is their problem. Ensuring they know is Arsenal's. If the fans don't get information from the horse's mouth, they will be forced to continue to get their information from the gossip mongers. And at some point, that becomes obstructionist to all of Arsenal-dom.
"We will only sign top top top players"; "We will sign quality"; "There will be players coming in"; "We are strong enough". Fuck you Arsene. Enough is enough. We are grown ups. We can handle the truth. We may even still love you enough to trust what you say. The real question is, when will you trust us?
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