‘His performance levels consistently for 20 years have been unbelievable. And you’d have to say, I do go along the line of, “Be careful what you wish for”
It seems nigh on incredible to me
that the most outspoken, forthright defence of Arsene Wenger, has come from
possibly a man who played much of his football engaged in a bitter, rancorous
duel with Wenger's creation : modern-day Arsenal.
Gary Neville was frequently described, bluntly, as being a player rather short on talent in his formative years, a fact that he too recognized. His response to this was singleminded and determined : graft. Years of effort that dovetailed in a glittering career, trophy-laden at Old Trafford with his boyhood club Manchester United. As such, a decade after the Invincibles took away the collective breath of every fan fortunate enough to watch English football, these very characteristics espoused by Neville seem to be conspicuously absent from the ranks at Arsenal.
Much was made of Neville's remark labelling an Arsenal fan as an 'idiot' for bringing in an aggressive anti-Wenger banner and shouting for his dismissal to a stadium. The point of the debate lies not in whether or not his use of the phrase was correct, because as Arsenal Fan TV reiterate mind-numbingly often, it was not. What surprises me that most people, in particular Arsenal fans, fail to see what caused Gary to be so direct : the fact that even as a bystander, a rival , he cannot condone the treatment that has been meted out to Arsene. Treatment that has come from the very fans who would probably not flock to the stadium quite the same way without the magic of the Wenger years at their zenith.
Wenger arrived at Highbury in October 1996, from the relatively unknown territory of Nagoya Grampus in Japan. He was however no stranger to European football, having worked with AS Monaco in previous spell. People were quick to remark with disdain : "Arsene who?", scoffing in particular at his time in Japan. Interestingly though, his stint in the land of the rising sun cemented the roots of his belief that diet, health and other everyday aspects of a player's life were the first step to ensuring they achieve the maximum possible on the football pitch. Taking this deeply ingrained belief with him, he came to London. 'Boring, boring Arsenal' as they were fondly called by rival fans then, was to change sooner than anyone could have known at that time.
The club on his arrival, like many other that plied their trade in England, had a welldocumented drinking culture. It was to be the first of many forward-thinking changes that Wenger put in motion. Coincidentally, perhaps his truest rival, Sir Alex, had implemented the very same change in his first season a decade before at United. After bidding adieu to that affliction, came several changes, minute but indicative of the detail that Wenger paid attention to. Controlled diets, vitamin injections, little steps that were clearly fundamental to Wenger but revolutionary to the English game.
Arsene took the senior players at the club under his wing, knowing that their experience would be pivotal to any success the club were to achieve. Already the platform for success was being laid, in a series of small, precise moves, very much the Arsene way. Dipping into the reservoir of knowledge and understanding that he already possessed of the European football market, he brought in the likes of Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, with Kanu and Theirry Henry to follow the season after. A transfer policy that was remarkably different from the philosophy he adopted later down the line at Arsenal. After finishing third in his first season, Christmas 1997 saw Arsenal trudging in sixth place in the 96-97 title race, with some daylight between the Gunners and Fergie's devils. What came next was a turnaround of unthinkable proportions.
A change in system was the direct outcome of an ensuing team meeting that galvanized the season. As Arsenal kept chipping away at the gulf that lay ahead of them, thoughts of a title win were far at hand. Then came March 98 and a clash with the defending champions. 11 minutes from time at Old Trafford, Overmars scored past Schmeichel to put Arsenal six points off the top, with three games in hand. Fergie would famously go on to remark :
"If they win their games in hand they will go ahead of us, but
they will find out they start dropping points towards the end of the season,
there's no question about that"
Arsenal in 2017 would very likely fold meekly under that
threat, but the Arsenal of 98 were an entirely different proposition. The team
would follow up that landmark victory against United with nine consecutive,
sweeping victories, entrenching themselves in top spot at the end of the
season.
Incredibly,
the best was yet to come. More players came in to the club, including Sol
Campbell poached from Spurs in a Machiavellian move more worthy of the
conniving Jose Mourinho. Ashley Cole made the step up from a rapidly
progressing academy, while in came Gilberto Silva, Kolo Toure and Jens Lehmann
to reinforce the side's backbone. Replete with a rampaging Thierry Henry, who had struck up a telepathic understanding with
Denis Bergkamp, Arsenal stormed through an unbeaten league season in 2003-04, a
run that would further extend to 49 matches, well into the next season, until
another momentous clash against United.
In the middle of all this lies a fascinating tidbit of the transfer saga revolving around Nicolas Anelka. Anelka arrived as an unheralded 17 year old French wunderkind, for a sum of 500,000 pounds from the youth teams of Paris St. Germain, as typical a Wenger signing as could possibly be. Post the winter break in 96-97, with club legend Ian Wright's legs seizing up, Anelka played a vital role in the business end of the season popping up with quite a few goals. Next season, he propped up as the club's leading goal-getter, with 17 goals from 34 appearances, duly coronated with a PFA Young player of the year award. But the fans stayed on his back throughout, earning him the moniker 'Le Sulk', and with it came the apparent attitude problems. Wenger read the situation adroitly and shipped him off to Real Madrid, but not before extracting his pound of flesh : 22 million pounds sterling. Quite the appreciation in value. The money was put to good use, 11 million went toward Juventus to bring in a rather decent player who went by the name of Thierry Henry, and the spare change was used to set up Arsenal's state of the art training facility at Colney.
Everything so far points to a very different Arsenal from the team we see today : allconquering, flexing their muscles in the transfer market, but most importantly, led by a very different Arsene Wenger. A Wenger who wasn't afraid to phase out senior players when he felt their time was up (like he did with Wright), a Wenger who bought players wherever he felt his system needed a few tweaks and was shrewd in his offloading of players as well. An Arsene Wenger who was blessed with foresight that enabled him not only to improve his squad, but Arsenal as a club, a footballing entity. And possibly the most glaring difference of all : a man and his work of art who were both never shy of taking the low route when called upon. For instance, his very first press conference at Arsenal :
"I tried to watch the Tottenham match on television in my hotel yesterday, but I fell asleep."
Another
gem of a riposte to good ol' Fergie's insinuation that his 3rd-placed United
side of 01-02 were superior to Arsenal's title-winning squad :
"Everyone thinks they have
the prettiest wife at home."
For many periods from his arrival till 2005, Arsene did
indeed have the prettiest wife at home.
The estrangement arrived in the
form of a move to a new stadium , to be named the Emirates, and messy it most
certainly was. The stadium capacity needed expanding, and Highbury being in a
residential area, this was not feasible.
The Emirates opened in 2006, with gross debt incurred due to it
topping 530 million in 2008. Whether or not this was indeed a case of cause and
effect, Arsenal's downward spiral in some aspects stemmed from this period.
There was a palpable shift in transfer policy, necessitating signings like
Laurent Koscielny, who had been plying his trade in Ligue 2 a few years ago (he
would go on to be a resounding success), as well as Park Chu Young (who?). Park
would go on to make a grand total of 7 apperances between 2011-2014, with a handsome
return of a solitary goal. Arsenal's competitive edge too seemed to dull, with
focus redirecting on qualifying for the lucrative Champions League every
season, for which fourth-place finishes came to suffice. Between 2006 and 2013,
Arsene delivered Champions League football while running up an actual profit of
40 million pounds on transfers.
In recent years, as the debt has reduced, marquee signings have begun to make their way to the Emirates. But for every Ozil and Sanchez that the club has signed, their has been a Van Persie, Sagna and Nasri squandered to eventual title winners. With the financial baggage has come an unwelcome malaise : an apparent lack of graft, grit, call it what you will, that indefinable quality that made Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira go at each other's throats, in the quest for glory.
Nothing has come to demonstrate this better than the annual abdications to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. 2013 saw a 5-1 thumping on aggregate, in the round of 16. 2014 was an improved affair, a 3-1 ouster by the same opponents at the very same stage. 2015-16 promised a new beginning, with a 2-0 victory in the group stage, at the Emirates. But any hopes were soon doused by a 5-1 drubbing in Munich.
And all of this ties us back to the present, to 2016-17, to the defining moment where all hell broke loose. Arsenal entered half-time on an even footing with Bayern, tied 1-1. The second half though, displayed the fragility that often surrounds the team, a Koscielny injury send-off prompting total collapse, as the Gunners limped out in a 5-1 defeat. The manner of the defeat, as well as the exact scoreline, seemed to hit a raw nerve : Arsene Out was the verdict. More dissent gave greater voice to Arsenal Fan TV and their likes, and thus came about Gary Neville's comment.
As a neutral, as a United fan, I
share much of Gary's perspective on this matter, or at the very least I
understand what it stems from. In all possibility, Gary may not disagree with
the blame that has been placed on Wenger, that he is culpable, to a great
extent, is of no doubt. It is only fair that when a manager is sent to the
pantheon of greats for his godly body of work in building a football club, he
also must be held accountable for the state of the club when it is seemingly in
disarray. Success or Failure, Arsenal as a football club is very much in the
image of Arsene Wenger, and therein lies the rub. It would not be going too far
to say that Arsene has built Arsenal to what it stands for today, brick by
brick, and as such, he deserves to be treated differently. He deserves to be
treated better. The Professor's time at
the club may well have come, but at the very least, he has earned the right to
leave on his own terms, with his head held high, retaining the very dignity he
has brought to his time in British football. His legacy is far too great to be
tarnished by the rumblings of discontent, correctly placed though they may be,
of fans hungry for a taste of the very success that he first delivered to their
doorsteps. If we as fans of football, of the beautiful game, tarnish his legacy
thus, it will be us and not him who will be remembered as specialists in
failure. His place in football history is assured.
"The biggest things in life have been achieved by people who, at
the start, we would have judged crazy. And yet if they had not had these crazy
ideas the world would have been more stupid - Arsene Wenger."
Author : Somdeep Dey
Follow me on Twitter - @Red_deyvil
(Send in your articles at - tbegame@gmail.com or follow us at @tbegame)
Author : Somdeep Dey
Follow me on Twitter - @Red_deyvil
(Send in your articles at - tbegame@gmail.com or follow us at @tbegame)
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