Every year seems to be a repeat of the last for both the
Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA and Arsenal in the Premier League. As the
Thunder stare down the barrel of another playoff defeat, it makes one wonder
whether they will ever get a better chance to win the NBA championship. Having
made the NBA Finals in 2012 with a bunch of young stars, many believed that
they would build a dynasty over the next decade. Yet, four years on and there
has been nothing aside from frustration and disappointment. Arsenal are in a
similar situation, having not won the Premier League since 2004, despite finishing
in the top four in every season since. For the fans of both sides, the
frustration lies in the fact that so little progress has been made, and at
times the heart-breaking defeats mirror those from previous seasons.
In the 2003-04 Premier League season, Arsenal went all 38
games undefeated, the first time that had ever happened in the top tier of
English football since the 19th century. An FA cup victory and
Champions League final followed in the next two seasons, before the building of
a new stadium meant funds were short and consolidation was needed. Long-time
manager Arsene Wenger did well to keep his team of kids in the top four during
this period, especially considering the financial struggles of other some large
clubs like Portsmouth and Leeds. But in 2013 a signal of intent was made with
the signing of one of Europe’s best playmakers in Mesut Ozil, for £42.5
million, proving that the tough times were behind them. The signing of winger
Alexis Sanchez the following year saw most supporters start to believe that the
glory days were returning once more. However, even with these great players,
nothing has changed, and year after year Arsenal continue to throw away the
title through a combination of bad form and injuries. Fans are frustrated at
the similarly stagnated progression of the club.
So in what ways are these sides similar? They are two very
different teams playing two very different sports, yet they are eerily comparable.
Let’s break it down.
Two star players
Both teams have two players that stand out from the rest. Sanchez
and Ozil are easily the best in the Arsenal squad, as are Kevin Durant and
Russell Westbrook for the Thunder. All four determine the performance of their
side week in week out. If they do not perform, the chances of losing greatly
increase. Disappointment and failure has seen all of them become frustrated and
disillusioned at their respective franchises as well. Durant has seen his
contract run down in order to enter free agency this offseason, while Westbrook
is likely to do the same next year. Whether either will stay is still up in the
air, as Durant has not committed to anything just yet, but chances are that
both will be gone by the start of the 2017-18 season if things do not improve.
Sanchez has shown in recent weeks that he is growing
increasingly frustrated at the poor performances and lack of ambition shown by
his club. In a game against Norwich a couple of weeks ago, he became vividly upset
at being substituted and walked straight down the tunnel and out of the
stadium. For Ozil, a lack of a genuinely world-class striker playing in front
of him has often left his brilliant passing go to waste. Both players have been
linked to moves away from the club, and neither player has committed to a
contract extension at this point.
Expectation and subsequent failure
Obviously having such talented individuals means that both
teams are always going to be expected to, at the very least, challenge for the
title. Pundits usually consider them to be one of the favourites going in to
every season, yet neither side has delivered on the promise it has shown. Both
have struggled with injuries – the Thunder have lost both Durant and Westbrook
in the last two playoff runs, while Sanchez missed a large chunk of the season
around Christmas time. Besides that, the two sides have gone through periods of
poor form. The Thunder lost an incredible thirteen games that they led going
into the fourth quarter, worse than even the woeful Philadelphia 76ers. As they
battle it out in the playoffs, most are wondering when, not if, they disappoint
and get knocked out.
Arsenal are no strangers to throwing it away, having led the
league at the turn of the year, before going through a poor run of form,
dropping out of the title race, and gifting it to Leicester. It was another
typical Arsenal season, bottling it just when people started to actually
believe they could finally win. A joke has emerged over the last decade
regarding Arsenal’s consistent, yet underwhelming performances every year, with
the belief that the London side are trying to win the battle for fourth-place
rather than actually challenging for the title.
For both sides there has been too much of the same old
mistakes and not enough consistency to push over the line and win the
championship they have been craving.
“One piece away”
It seems that every year we see people talk about how both
teams are missing that one player that would take them to the top. Since the
Thunder traded James Harden in 2012, they have struggled to replace him with a
reliable third-scoring option. Many shooting guards have come and gone, none of
whom have succeeded in nailing down the role that Harden made his own. Watching
Harden score over 25 points per game every season must make the Thunder
hierarchy regret their decision to let him go for peanuts. Just to rub it in,
the man they chose over Harden, Serge Ibaka, has been on a downward spiral ever
since. Now fans can only imagine what could have been had Harden stayed.
Arsenal, until the last three seasons, were regarded by many
as a feeder club for their rivals, as they consistently sold their best players
to the best sides in England and Europe. Now financially stable, they are one
step away from the top, something everyone can see it seems, except Wenger. The
aging manager has stuck by the “lamppost” Olivier Giroud, who until last
weekend, had not scored in fifteen Premier League games. For the third summer
running fans will be pleading for Wenger to go and buy a world-class striker to
finish the chances that the likes of Ozil and Sanchez create on an everyday
basis. Whether it will happen is a totally different story.
A lack of ambition
When the Thunder traded James Harden to Houston in 2012,
many believed that they had made a grave mistake. They were right. Oklahoma
only traded Harden in order to stay under the salary cap and avoid paying the
large sums of luxury tax that were inevitable. However, by making a decision
based on economics, the franchise also threw away its hopes of winning a title.
The team has never been able to fill the void since, and one could question how
much the franchise really want to win, given their mediocre attempts in both
free agency and the trading block. Obviously, with the salary cap in place,
there will always be difficulty in improving the squad for a limited price. But
with both Durant and Westbrook in their primes, one would have expected a more
concerted effort to surround them with quality pieces.
Arsenal do not have any excuses surrounding salary caps and
finances. They are a rich club that have the most expensive tickets in Europe,
but refuse to spend any of their profits on buying world-class players. When
the transfer window closed at the beginning of September last year, Arsenal
were the only club on the continent to not buy an outfield player, a
preposterous decision for a team supposedly one step away from a long-awaited
title. But the club has grown stale, and a top four finish has become the only
interest from the owner down to the manager. It is a team very much stuck in
the glory of 2004, forgetting that time has progressed, as too has the way the
game is played both on and off the field. In the past two or three seasons fans
have called for the sacking of manager Arsene Wenger, a once revolutionary
figure, now consigned to having as much tactical nous as a first time FIFA
player. But as long as he delivers Champions League football, which secures an
influx of revenue, then the board will keep him there as long as possible.
Those at the top are scared of change, and do not want to risk losing that top
four spot by trying to chase the title.
To conclude, both these sides have an abundance of potential
and should be winning titles with relative ease. Yet, whether it be a lack of
ambition, or an ability to crumble under pressure, both have failed to even
come close. Despite playing completely different sports, the two franchises are
surprisingly similar in the way they are run both on and off the field. If
anything, it shows how powerful a winning culture and mentality is in the world
of sport, and how talented teams that don’t have the drive and heart to be the
best, usually won’t. It really is a shame to see these sides not fulfil their
potential, but there is still time to turn things around. Hopefully for our
sake it will happen sooner rather than later.
No comments:
Post a Comment