Wez Hunter
The Gooners used to be such a good set of fans. I remember standing on the Clock End when the North Bank was being rebuilt with a number of contributors to The Gooner – Matt and Charlie, the now legendary Amy Lawrence. Back then it was about Arsenal. It was about turning up in the cold, wet, hail, snow or sun and supporting your team. It was about camaraderie, and about being a fan.
It wasn’t about thinking you could run the club yourself. It wasn’t about thinking you could do better than the manager or the board.
I distinctly remember a fans’ protest when we sacked Don Howe. Don Howe, the man who hadn’t won anything for years. The protest was about stitching up an Arsenal legend, and a man everybody in football had absolute respect for. In came George Graham, and many people muttered that he hadn’t done much in the past, and what is an ex-Millwall manager going to do to change things? He was pretty laid back in his playing days. Do we need a manager like that to get the club moving?
How stupid that would seem now. GG was the man who came and toppled the Liverpool domination. He won the title for the first time in 18 years. Yes, 18 years. Makes complaining about six years a bit stupid doesn’t it. The football wasn’t pretty. But we won a few things. It was horribly dour on so many occasions. But we won a few things. Such a shame when he got the boot for the bung. Although in reality, we know that was just an excuse. We knew he had lost the plot slightly (Chris Kiwomya). We also knew that his way of grinding out results was not going to take us into the elite of the new Premier League.
Then in came Bruce Rioch. Yes. Bruce Rioch. He did alright. He got us into the UEFA Cup, just. He was only a stopgap while we waited for Monsieur Wenger. David Dein knew this. He knew we needed someone who could come in and do a job for a season while Wenger saw out his Grampus 8 contract.
Then came Wenger, anyone heard of him? Not at the time. I would suggest that 90% of Arsenal fans knew nothing about him. But have we looked back since? I remember it well. He came in as we lost to Borussia Monchengladbach. He could see we were lacking flair and ingenuity. He solved this by making several signings in his first pre-season. Petit and Grimandi amongst others. Anyone heard of them? I would suggest that 99% of Arsenal fans knew nothing about any of them. He changed the way we played and the way we were presented to the now global audience the Premier League attracted. He won the double. He turned a once sleeping giant into a European force. He changed the way all Premier League clubs trained, fed and treated their players. He won the double again. He built a team that went the whole season unbeaten in the league. A whole season unbeaten!!
He was mocked the season before ‘the Invincibles’ for saying we could go a season unbeaten. Remember that? The press was on his back, the mocking t-shirts, the general ribbing by other fans. AS IF Arsenal could go a season unbeaten. Then we did it. One of my favourite memories after the 03/04 season was Wenger holding said T-shirt (based on Comical Ali, the Iraqi press officer during the Iraq war) aloft with the biggest of grins on his face. He then won us a cup final we had no right to win. The biggest stitch up in FA Cup final history. Wenger knew that Wengerball wasn’t going to win that final, so he pulled a swift one by reverting to the GG style of play and Fergie had no answer on the day.
He then got us to the final of the Champions League. The FINAL! When had we even got close to the final of the Champions League before? Never, is the simple answer. Mad Jens did a nutty one and then we were left playing with 10 men for 70 minutes. We still almost won. Had Henry smashed it home when clean through at 1-0 up we would have. Can’t blame Titi, he was knackered like the rest of the team, having run his socks off for the last hour a man down.
He built a new stadium. He built a new stadium costing 400 million quid whilst keeping us in the upper echelons of European football.
He keeps finding players, some 10, 20 million pounds cheaper than the ManUres or the Chelskis and now Citeh will spend on a player of similar ability.
We have a treadmill of fantastic youngsters constantly coming through, holding their own. You think Jack Wilshire’s good? He’s the first. The first player to come through the ranks entirely under Wenger’s reign.
This is just the start people. Anyone calling for Wenger’s head has no idea about the real world of football. We have no right to win things. Just because some teams act like they do doesn’t make a difference to anything. When Fergie goes, Utd will not be the same force, no matter how much money they have. Chelski will never have any history, and in the same way they almost went bust when Harding fell out of the sky, the same will happen when Abramovich gets bored. You can only play Championship Manager for so long. Citeh will be a good team. They’ll never be a great team. Who wants to fight when you get 200k a week regardless of the outcome. Too often they fail purely based on effort. Take Tevez out of last season’s team and they are mediocre.
So it’s about time all you moaners took a lesson in the history of football. Maybe watch the centenary video (yes, video) as I would suggest this will give you an idea of what we really are. We are a team. We are Arsenal. We have always done things our way. We are the only team in English football to keep coming back. The only team in English football to sit at the top for such a sustained period of time. We are Arsenal. We are great. And we have Monsieur Wenger to thank for keeping us there when we could so easily have fallen by the wayside. We will be at the top again. He will make sure of that. We do not need Uzbeki billions to do that. We just need Wenger. I am blessed, because I have witnessed the Wenger era. And all I hope is that he stays at the helm for the rest of this contract, the next contract and the one after that.
The Gooners are still a good set of fans. But it’s the fans I’m talking about. Not those who continually tell us what we should change, who we should sign. You have no idea how to run a football club. You sit on the outside making sweeping claims that you can never back up. Leave it to the professionals and start supporting your club. Stop moaning about how much it costs. Everything cost these days. If you don’t like it then go elsewhere. Orient or Barnet is still pretty cheap. Just get behind your team, because a unified team is a winning team.
