Despite kit from rubbish, the ‘stink’ at Arsenal lies elsewhere

Arsenal’s new away kit is a load of rubbish! Literally! The new purple kit for the team and pink for the keeper is made from recycled plastic bottles. Infact Nike used 13 plastic bottles to develop one kit. That is so cool. We are environmentally conscious and since the football on the pitch isn’t impressing me much, I need something like this to remind me that Arsenal is a beautiful club.

On a serious note: I am still upset at Robin Van Persie’s impending departure, not because of the player himself but because of the implications of losing yet another big superstar. I will slowly begin to dread the end of every season because it appears one big player or another will always be leaving. Several players we have let go of well before their time, include Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry, Robin Pires, Patrick Vieira, Matthie Flamini, Alexander Hleb, and the list goes on. Just think about all those players and what they could have done for the club over the past seven years. Out of the entire lot; only Vieira is in permanent retirement, marketing a club that did not make him the superstar that he became. And no I don’t blame him one little bit for being a Manchester City ambassador.

Manager Arsene Wenger says he will never let go of his policy of grooming the youth and not extending player contracts for more than a year once you hit thirty; and while this sounds fine on paper, it stinks in reality. It stinks because while we do groom the youth, we aren’t doing it for ourselves. We are grooming the youth for Manchester City, Barcelona and several other clubs in Europe with money and ambition.

What’s annoying is the fact that Arsenal does have money. Wenger himself, until this week when Roberto Mancini’s salary was raised, was the highest paid manager in the English Premier League. Yes! For some reason he earns more than Sir Alex Ferguson; a fact that should be the eighth wonder of the world. Shouldn’t remuneration depend on performance and results? So who are the misers now? Arsenal or Manchester United? Sorry, I just had to slip that in. The fact is that Arsenal can afford to pay a little more to buy players and a little more in salaries.

For the record, we aren’t even the worst salary payers in the league. But if we want to compete with the Manchester Clubs and Chelsea, we need to dig a little deeper into our pockets or settle for semi final positions in the domestic cups, quarter finals in Champions League tournaments and a top four position. Well that isn’t good enough for me but it is where we stand right now.

So I do get upset when Wenger says his policy won’t change. I can see where it would be a success, but that would involve actually keeping the players we find as babies and groom into men. Going by the list above, we certainly are grooming world class players, but they end up being of no use to us when they leave at the peak of their careers. And I don’t blame them. I blame Wenger and his bosses. Talk to me @CarolRadull on twitter or Carol Radull on facebook