Arsenal: Saying it means absolutely nothing

Raul Sanllehi stated in an interview with Arsenal.com that the club must ‘outsmart the market’. It is all well and good saying it, but that means nothing when it comes to the product on the pitch. This is about action.

Arsenal are playing catch up. Having slipped out of the top four in the final two seasons of Arsene Wenger’s 22-year tenure, they moved to hire Unai Emery to try and right the ship, starting with qualification for the Champions League, which can be achieved in a little over a week’s time in the Europa League final.

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But even if Champions League qualification is completed, the Gunners will still have lots of ground to make up on almost all of their Premier League rivals. Manchester City are the best English team I have ever seen, Liverpool are not too far behind, while Spurs have an excellent core and Manchester United will surely spend again. That presents a fairly obvious problem, especially to a cash-limited Arsenal.

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In what is essentially a PR fluff piece, which I will touch on later, Head of Football Raul Sanllehi was asked how the club can reclaim this lost ground without spending the big bucks that their rivals will. This is what he said:

"“We need to outsmart the market. We need to make the right signings, do the right sales, the coaching staff needs to prepare the games properly like they do. It just means hard work and outsmarting the market. That’s the two, I would say, essences of success, if we want to be there.”"

He is not wrong. That is precisely what he, Vinai Venkatesham and Unai Emery need to know. They certainly will not be able to bully the market under their own control as City have and United can. Another method must be found, a more efficient one.

The problem, though, is that saying these things and acting upon them are very different processes. Ask any Tom, Dick and Harry and they will tell you that any football club must be efficient in the transfer window to assemble a good squad. What separates the successful teams from the less successful ones is that actual execution of that strategy.

And this has been the issue with Arsenal football club throughout the Stan Kroenke era. They have said one thing and done another. The most egregious example of this has been their continued insistence that they are wanting to challenge for titles, Champions League, and the reputation as the best team in the world without ever investing the necessary money to get there. Saying one thing; doing another.

It remains to be seen whether this will be another example of the PR campaigns biting off more than the club can actually chew. You never know, Sanllehi might just deliver on his rather ambitious claim that he and the club must ‘outsmart the market’. But given the history of this club and how those in the management positions have often made bold claims and rarely backed them up, I think it is fair to say that the jury is very much still out.

Perhaps it is time for Arsenal and their management to start delivering in action, and not words. Saying and doing it are two very different things indeed. Sadly, the Gunners only seem to be good at one of them, and it is not the right one.