By Neil Fry
October 25 2012

What follows is a management audit of the Arsene Wenger years from 2004 to 2012.It will appear in 6 parts so is aimed at the serious reader looking for season by season assessment of the clubs progress under Wenger. This first part includes a summary of the whole audit, indicating what will be dealt with in future instalments.As today's AGM demonstrated there is much controversy about the direction of the club. Hopefuly this audit will contribute to enabling fans to judge the merits, and failures,  of the Wenger years.

A MANAGEMENT AUDIT OF ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB:

2004 - 5 TO 2011 - 12 SEASONS

[Part 1]

Contents 

Executive Summary

Introduction

Planning:  Director Leadership  [Part 2]

• Relocation / Self-sustainability model
• Ownership /Board
• Player recruitment policy – transfer spend
• Player recruitment policy – wage spend

Planning:  Competence [Part 3]

• Monsieur Wenger
• Coaching staff
• Offensive play
• Defensive play
• Player leadership
• Players’ Contracts
• Medical staff

Delivery:  Players [Part 4]

• 2011 – 2012 season
• Second player recruitment policy – young signings case study 
• Second player recruitment policy – second period of Monsieur Wenger’s reign

Delivery:  Results  [Part 5]

• 2011 – 2012 season
• Second period of Monsieur Wenger’s reign

Quality Control

• Monitoring and acting
• Benchmark / target setting

Conclusion:  Second period of Monsieur Wenger’s reign  [Part 6]

Matters of evident concern

• Player recruitment policy – transfer spend
• Player recruitment policy – wage spend
• Monitoring and acting
• Risk management
• Financial matters
• Benchmark / Target setting
• Composition of Board

Executive Summary

Arsenal’s decision to relocate the Club to the new-build Emirates Stadium did not, as was intended by the then Board, serve to help keep the Club at the top of the football ladder.  If anything, the debt repayments appear to have become something of a footballing albatross during a second discernible period of Monsieur Wenger’s long reign as manager:  the 2004 - 5 to 2011 - 12 seasons.  Nevertheless, it would appear that the Club’s long-term future has been well served by the Board’s very significant foresight.  Subsequently, under his new ownership, Mr Kroenke has demonstrated his faith in the Club’s strategies and policies.  His particularly faith in Monsieur Wenger appears, largely, well placed and Mr Kroenke would appear to be a suitable custodian of the club.  Following some recent promising developments, Arsenal have, at the time of writing, made a relatively solid start to the new season – albeit they appear, at the very least, one player short of what may be necessary to return to the trophy winning success, and subsequent winning mentality, of Monsieur Wenger’s first period (above all, the recently departed Captain Mr Van Persie).

A number of matters of evident concern stem from the strategies and policies of the second period of Monsieur Wenger’s reign.  The first two were the two key policies that underpinned the self-sustainability model – the player recruitment policies on transfer and wage spends.  It is welcome these appear to have been recently abandoned.  Third, and related to those longstanding issues, and others, is the inability to remedy obvious problems in a timely manner.  Fourth, are the significant and on-going failings in proportionate risk management.  Fifth, is that the extent of the Club’s financial prudence continues to be over-stated.  Sixth, are a lack of transparency and clarity over responsibility and accountability together with poor benchmark setting.  Finally, there appears to be a significant complacency at the Club and a general reluctance to refresh both the footballing operation and the composition of the Board – when there are clear indications this would be beneficial.

Introduction

During the first period of Arsene Wenger’s sixteen year long reign as manager of Arsenal, he revolutionised the club on and off the pitch.  Arsenal won 3 Premier League titles and 4 FA Cups between 1998 and 2005 including the Premier League and FA Cup Double in Monsieur Wenger’s first full season (1997 - 1998).  The apogee, however, was the 2003 - 2004 season and ‘The Invincibles’ unprecedented triumph in winning the Premier League unbeaten. 

The subsequent, second, period of Monsieur Wenger’s tenure has been very much less successful on the pitch and, following a (somewhat fortuitous) FA Cup win in May 2005 there has been a seven year trophy drought.  For, two discrete periods of Monsieur Wenger’s reign can be identified (and which happen to traverse similar periods of time).  They are demarcated by a drastic change from the very successful first player recruitment policy of the 1996 - 1997 to 2003 - 2004 seasons; to a second very different policy from the 2004 - 5 to 2011 - 2012 seasons.  As we will see, the different policies appear to be distinguished by a specific off-pitch development in 2004 in respect of the proposed stadium relocation. 

My management audit, which has not been sanctioned by the Club and is independent of any organisation, examines the second period of Monsieur Wenger’s reign and the business model and policies employed by the Club therein.  Two sections review the 2011 – 2012 season (players and results), it includes transfer activities up to the 31 August 2012 summer transfer deadline, and there are necessarily brief references to the start of the 2012 – 2013 season at the time of writing.  The analytical framework is an adapted version of current guidance regarding successful organisational management systems and performance.  This involves managing skilled workforces who have confidence in their leaders – leaders who need to plan, deliver, check quality and take stock to see where to improve.[1]

[1]  http://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/index.htm  Other general references include:  http://www. arsenal.com, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football & http://en.wikipedia. org

The audit continues in Part 2 See the link at bottom of this page