Why Wenger tells us ‘porkies’

There are plenty of people out there on the blog-o-sphere who repeatedly accuse Arsene Wenger of lying to them. The latest point in hand is his defence of the indefensible defence of Arsenal FC.

Supporters shout and scream at Wenger because they see him as being disloyal to them by not revealing every single detail. It made me think, why does Wenger often say the opposite to what he means?

I personally think there are two reasons why Wenger tells us porkies.

The first and most obvious is to protect the team. His now legendary ‘I did not see it’ comment is, by his own admission, a device that he employs to protect his players from criticism. When he says this now infamous line, he is doing so because he doesn’t want to condemn a studs-up tackle by Jack Wilshere or a blatant dive by Emmanuel Eboue.

When Wenger says that Arsenal’s defence isn’t the weakest link, when it clearly is, it is because he doesn’t want to destroy the confidence of his players. He knows the shortcomings of his team; he knows we suck at clearing corners and long-throws, but what’s the point in confirming this to the players out in public – surely better for team morale just to devote more time to rectifying the problems in training.

The second reason why Wenger tells lies is to protect the financial future of the club. Unlike some managers, for example Mancini (who today declared to the world his intent on signing a player under contract at another club – Samir Nasri), Wenger is nearly always quiet in the media when approaching other teams about their players. He hardly ever speculates on transfer specifics and when he does, it tends to be the transfer market in general and not on individual players.

What we fans often forget are the vast sums of money that football clubs exchange when swapping their players contracts. It is now a billion pound industry. I doubt there are any other walks of life where responsible businessmen (and women) talk about potential multi-million pound deals before they happen just to satisfy the rumour mill.

Talking up these footballing deals, it often leads to increased prices, or even the collapse of the whole deal. How many times have we seen Arsenal ‘reportedly’ interested in a player only for the Spuds or Chelski to move in on them? By remaining quiet on deals, Wenger is protecting the clubs finances and the hard work undertaken by our scouting network.

There are fans out there who forget the duality of English football. Yes it is a sport, but the incredible amount of money changing hands makes it just as much a business. Perhaps some fans need to bear this in mind before attacking Wenger for being less than transparent when it comes to disclosing transfer related information. He’s not doing it to annoy you (although that is an unfortunate side-effect), but rather to protect the club and its long-term interests.

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