|
Look carefully at the front cover and you will notice a very subtle but telling grave accent over the è in Arsènal, which in essence says everything you need to know about why Arsenal Football Club is as it is today. But clearly there is far more to the story than the one man who just happens to be the most profound influence in Arsenal's illustrious history since Herbert Chapman and this book provides the answers to a background saga that has taken Arsenal from being a famous club to, as the title suggests, a modern superclub.
This in essence is the story of the transition, trials and tribulations of a Club whose turnover in 1996 when Wenger took over was some £21 million compared to where it stood in 2007 with a turnover of £200 million. The book is not just about the football played or the trophies won under Wenger, but also provides the background to the Boardroom ups, downs and battles that have all to obviously curtailed Le Boss's spending on the squad. As the Club built a new stadium and undertook some massive gambles in the property game it could all so easily have all gone tits upward. At one point building stopped on Ashburton Grove due to the money drying up and we might gone the same route as at other Clubs where relegation accompanied new stadiums, But we didn't and throughout the upheaval Wenger still managed to produce some truly classic football. How this all happened is explained here.
That Arsenal didn't go bust is down to some astute financial management which was anything but plain sailing and cost us dear in other respects. That Wenger was able to maintain a place in the Champions League while other Clubs went bust or got themselves relegated whilst building a new stadium is miraculous. That they should do so with a background of Boardroom upheaval, key directors being booted out and turning renegade, plus the serious threat of a hostile take-over makes a weird and wonderful story. That anyone could consider, while all this was going on, dismantling a team as fabulous as the Invincibles and rebuilding a young squad on a shoestring almost defies belief.
Between them what Alex and Kevin don't know about Arsenal is probably not worth knowing and reading between the lines of this impressive volume there may still be more to come from this saga. What's for sure though is that this title covers a lot of background information not touched elsewhere. It ranges from Dein's rise and fall together with both his deals and his clandestine dealings, kit and naming rights that are costing us dear, property speculation, superfluous stars, Wenger's ruthlessness, the rise and fall of Edelman, the scouting system, financial problems, transfer budgets, boardroom sackings, lock-downs, the advent of foreign investors, work stopping on the new stadium and much more all set against a background of Le Boss building three quite separate teams. One of the very few questions it leaves unanswered is exactly why Dein and Fiszman fell out, but then even our Chairman Peter Hill-Wood says he doesn't know the answer to that one.
I got to read some of the manuscript prior to publication and knew then that this would be pretty good book. Having read the whole thing I now think 'compelling read' is an altogether more accurate description. Any Arsenal fan with an interest beyond just the football will enjoy it and many a Club Chairman and Director will find it seriously enlightening. It won't help them match Arsenal's rise though, because unlike us they won't have the miraculous Arsene Wenger.
ARSÈNAL - The Making of a Modern Superclub
Alex Fynn & Kevin Whitcher
Hardback - Price £16.99
Published by VSP (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd)
Published on 11th August 2008
ISBN 978 190532 620 4
This book is available in all the usual places but Arsenal World readers can obtain this title direct from the publishers using the link below and get an added 10% discount to their special offer price of £12.99 - all you have to do is submit the codeword 'world' in the promotion code box (and then click on the 'go' box next to it to get the reduced price) when ordering - so that's just £10.91 - bargain price or what?
http://www.visionsp.co.uk/viewitem.asp?id=111&navcatid=2&catid=15