Sordid tales of doom and gloom at Arsenal are a little premature

By Jim Holden, Special to SI.com, World Soccer

At Arsenal, prolific manager Arsène Wenger (left) still presides over the greatest collection of young talent in the world. AP

The banner headlines have left no doubt:
"Arsenal trouble"
"Arsenal crisis"
"Arsenal horror."

You have to take a moment to step back and reflect that the Gunners entered the hectic English holiday program just a couple of wins behind the Premier League leaders and have progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League, where a very winnable game against Roma awaits.

As the club's long-serving and hugely admired manager, Arsène Wenger reflects with his dry wit: "Every defeat is a crisis at Arsenal."

It would be foolish, of course, to suggest that the season has run as smoothly as Wenger would have liked. Five defeats in the Premier League -- some against lowly opposition such as Stoke City and Hull City -- have left them a little off the pace, and injuries to Theo Walcott and Cesc Fàbregas have done little to help an already stretched squad. The lack of a tall, commanding central defender and an international-class holding midfielder have been unusual errors of judgment by Wenger that may be rectified with the purchase of new players.

Skeptics also had a fine time of it when captain William Gallas revealed criticism of unnamed Arsenal teammates in his autobiography and a frank magazine interview, the latter of which the French defender later claimed was off the record. Wenger was disturbed enough to remove the captaincy from Gallas and hand it on to Fàbregas, a move that many felt he should have made the previous summer.

Perhaps for the first time the judgment of Wenger was being openly questioned by many Arsenal supporters, and on the puerile radio phone-ins there were even noisy calls for the club to do the unthinkable and sack the manager who has brought them a cascade of trophies and created the most stylish soccer in Europe.

It was at this precise moment that the mood about the team changed. Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-1 at home in a thrilling contest. A couple of weeks later, it won 2-1 at Chelsea. These results, and performances, proved that if the team is sailing in choppy waters, there is still the prospect of glory on the horizon, not least because the club has the best crop of youngsters anyone can remember.

There have only been glimpses so far of the prodigious talent of 17-year-old English midfielder Jack Wilshere, 18-year-old Welshman Aaron Ramsey, 18-year-old Spaniard Fran Mérida and the 19-year-old Mexican striker Carlos Vela, among others. But the aficionados of soccer are purring about these kids, and Wenger's ability to develop these and many more is why every major club in Europe would sign him up if Arsenal was stupid enough to dismiss him.

Of all the headlines, the one with the most resonance declared: "Real Madrid wants Wenger." At a time when all of soccer is beginning to suffer from the effects of global financial turbulence, the ability of Wenger to create brilliant players and a stylish team without spending vast sums will be ever more admired.

The contrast between the good housekeeping of Arsenal and the massive levels of debt that fund the operations of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United has been stark in the past few seasons. Chelsea would be extinct instantly if owner Roman Abramovich called in the $1 billion of "soft" loans that have paid for its players. Liverpool and United could both be in difficulty if the repayments on their debt burden became more onerous.

Curiously, the greatest threat to Arsenal's stability and future has prompted the fewest headlines. The most significant development at the club this season has been the departure from the board of directors of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, whose family has owned a stake in the club since before World War II. Apparently the victim of boardroom politics, Lady Bracewell-Smith felt she had been treated in "appalling and ruthless" fashion and was now willing to sell her 15.9 percent stake in the club.

With two rich investors eyeing up the club -- Alisher Usmanov from Uzbekistan and American Stan Kroenke -- the potential is there for Arsenal to go the risky way of its Premier League rivals. Kroenke was recently invited on to the board as a partner and claimed that was the limit of his ambition with the club effectively run by shareholder Danny Fiszman.

Another vital development was the appointment of Ivan Gazidis from Major League Soccer to become the club's chief executive. Whichever players Wenger signs in the transfer window to stabilize the team's defense, it will be his relationship with Gazidis and whoever controls the boardroom that will be most crucial to the club.

Wenger's greatest dream is to win the Champions League, the one trophy that has eluded him in his momentous career. He was close in reaching the semifinals with Monaco, and even closer when Arsenal went to the 2006 final and lost narrowly to Barcelona.

If the arrival of Gazidis brings some calm to the Gunners off the field, it will be a real possibility to claim the Champions League this season when so many big names will be knocked out in the second round. That Champions League draw -- Manchester United vs. Inter Milan, Chelsea vs. Juventus and Real Madrid vs. Liverpool -- will be a stirring test of the Premier League's bold claim to be the best in the world at the moment.

For all the hype that surrounds the English top flight, the truth is, so far, this has been a mediocre season in terms of quality. Liverpool has been dull, United well below its best and Chelsea beginning to become fractious, not least because Abramovich is refusing to spend more over-the-top money on new players. While there was bullish optimism in most of the English media about the Champions League draw, a more realistic assessment is surely that these three matches are all 50-50 encounters in which either side might win.

And watch out for banner headlines of gloom and doom if the Premier League giants were to be defeated.

This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of World Soccer magazine. To subscribe, click here.