With only one unheralded new recruit to help end an eight-year trophy drought, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger enters the final year of his contract amid a growing swell of fan frustration that leaves a renewal not guaranteed.
Despite being strongly linked with strikers Gonzalo Higuain, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez, Wenger has only added French youth international forward Yaya Sanogo from Ligue 2 club Auxerre on a free ahead of Saturday’s opener at home to Aston Villa.
But as City and Chelsea’s new coaches splurged in an attempt to wrestle the title back from United, Wenger has failed with a 40 million and one pound bid for Liverpool striker Suarez, while Higuain opted for Napoli despite Arsenal seemingly in pole position to sign him.
With the board’s much discussed spending plans yet to come to fruition, many fear Arsenal’s challenge for a 14th English league title is over before it has begun.
“At the moment with the squad they have got it might be tough,” former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour, who played under Wenger, told Reuters in an interview in Singapore.
“If they could bring Suarez in, a midfielder and maybe a defender they would have a decent squad because they have got some very good players like (Santi) Cazorla, (Jack) Wilshere, (Theo) Walcott.
“Arsene Wenger now really needs to buy players that are going to make the team better, not just individuals who are good for the squad like the Denilsons, Bendtners and Chamakhs and people like that.”
REMOVING DEADWOOD
Wenger’s close season has been busy removing the deadwood in the squad that Parlour talked of, with Brazilian midfielder Denilson and Morocco striker Marouane Chamakh two of 27 players released, sold or allowed to leave on loan.
Arrivals, though, are what is required to improve a side that claimed fourth on the final day of the campaign but never challenged for the title and suffered a humbling League Cup defeat by fourth tier Bradford City in December.
That cup result brought waves of criticism for Wenger, especially after he defended his players, while the 63-year-old Frenchman’s assertion that finishing in the top four in the league is akin to winning silverware does not sit well with all.
Without a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup and having gone nine seasons without a Premier League title, Wenger fails to enjoy the universal backing from the terraces that he once did with the team often booed.
But despite the growing problems, discussions about a contract renewal are likely to begin before the end of the year with Parlour, who made 466 appearance for Arsenal in a 16-year career with the club that ended in 2004, arguing there isn’t a better alternative.
“Who can improve on Arsene Wenger?,” Parlour said. “Over the last seven years he has done a brilliant job to get them in the top four with the money he has spent compared to other clubs.
“I hope Wenger, if he has 100 million, goes and spends 100 million and has a right go because he is a fantastic manager, there is no doubt. I played under him for eight years and I know what he can bring to the team but he just needs those couple of players.”
A League Cup or FA Cup are his most likely chances to end the trophy drought and appease some of the disgruntled fans who crave a Premier League or first Champions League crown.
“It is still a trophy,” Parlour said of the two domestic cups.
“The problem is some of these players have never won a trophy, once they win one they will want more of it. Manchester United have a great habit of winning trophies and they get used to it.”
Will that be enough to keep Wenger, who has won three league titles and four FA Cups since joining in 1996, at the Emirates past the upcoming campaign?
“I think he will stay, but they need a good season,” Parlour said. “If they have a disastrous season and don’t sign any players then the fans will start getting really upset about the situation and it will be a decision the board have to make.”
Reuters