Arsene Wenger, the Joseph Stalin-style figure, is running Arsenal F.C. with ridiculous five year plans. He shuns players and loans them out, sometimes as punishment, as if Turin and Brazil were football gulags compared to the cultural center of Arsenal F.C. Is it surprising that West Ham chairman David Sullivan dresses like a USSR puppet? Of course not, considering the loan of Marouane Chamakh and the partial payment of his wages represents a satellite state.
Is Arsene Wenger and the rest of the board running Arsenal as if it’s the Soviet Union?
Yet this image disappears quickly when the end of he cold war comes to mind. Wenger has not been punished economically with Ronald Reagan-style spending occurring at other top clubs who need not be named. Just look at how the top capitalists team up for a nice drive together in an American Chevrolet. Again, Arsenal are not losing money like the former Soviet Union, but their latest run without a trophy does seem to hint that the idealistic approach may have run its course. Maybe not heavily investing in firepower, like other clubs such as Chelsea have done, has lead to a an atomic bombing of the Emirates. Weakness was shown and high-profile parts of The Arsenal were brokered for and chipped off like the statues of Marx and Lenin when they fell. Now Arsenal is left with a wealth of mediocre firearms not even desired on the black market.
It doesn’t feel like new signings are headed for London because Emirates Stadium feels isolated from the rest of the world, like East Germany in 1989. So there is hope after all, since the Wall was torn down that same year. Obviously Arsenal fans have faith in a top-4 finish but what has been the greatest frustration is not being first or second. Arsenal, no longer represented in the dichotomy, dropped to second world status by choice and design. The club, once supremely powerful, is now fading into oblivion. No longer can Arsenal compare to Russia or the United States, although majority owner Stan Kroenke and minority owner Alisher Usmanov would like to think their investment is that prestigious.
