Brian Dawes
(Ed’s note. I am delighted to run this piece for one simple fact. It proves the Gooner and the onlinegooner provide a platform for all views, and that there is no editorial line in selection of the submissions we publish. Even if I might not agree with the sentiments of them, it is always a pleasure to read a feelgood article, not least because I genuinely hope I am wrong in my own views about the club’s future under Arsene Wenger)
Bear with me a bit; this piece needs some sort of preamble. I'm guessing the majority of Gooners don't do poetry, although some may recall limericks by Marc Ollington back in the good old days of The Gooner fanzine. I'm definitely poetically-challenged myself, but recent events have put me in mind of Rudyard Kipling's 'If'. It's quite famous, as it would have to be for me to be able to quote it. I won't bore you with the Full Monty but it starts:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
Put you in mind of anyone? It does me - the man who, this season, has inadvertently factionalised the Gooner Nation, the chap who has been given more stick this season than at any time in his 15-year reign. To the horror of many, the man who has had massive chunks of vitriol spat in his direction from many a disgruntled 'fan'. He's the one so many have blamed for absolutely everything, from Diaby's injuries right through to our current bank balance. The man who's had to keep our massive international corporation on course with changing CEOs, changing ownership, economic upheaval and a massive stadium-move. He's built up what have become megastars, and then seen the ungrateful feckers bugger off for bigger pay-packets and a season or two of bench-warming. He's been denied stability from above for years, but has still stuck to the task of building for the future as well as for the short term. He's taken all the flack and he's been the target for massive abuse, much of which has been totally uncalled-for, in my opinion. Wenger has taken it all and, at long last, it must feel like he's turned a very important corner on the pitch. It looks to me like we're coming out of a very dark tunnel and back into the blinding light of a team capable of a serious challenge next season. The injuries have temporarily abated, and most things in the garden are once again rosy.
This is not intended as a two-finger-waving exercise at those who continue to diss Le Boss's efforts. But whether you love him or hate him, you have surely got to admit he has some balls to stand by his convictions. Especially so when so many Gooners seemingly decided that he'd lost the plot. How on earth, for example, could he continue to back Walcott, a player with no footballing brain, who failed to deliver the promise to match the hype. Or Song, a kid almost destroyed by fans and who was, apparently, the worst player ever to don the shirt (according to some). Koscielny, yet another lightweight Frenchman not up to the Premiership. Szczesny, a kid who so obviously needed an older keeper to teach him his trade. Van Persie, a perpetually injured forward who should have been cashed-in on so as we could purchase someone who didn't live in the treatment room. Jenkinson, a ridiculous, cheap signing of a total nobody who couldn't even make it in the Charlton first team. The Ox, a massively overpriced teenager on whom we'd wasted money when we clearly needed an instant megastar. Rosicky, yet another liability remaining on the wage bill who, through sheer bad luck, would never play decent football ever again. Gibbs, just another liability to give some company to the rest of the injured wasters. And so it goes on. Le Boss disagreed, and I make him right to do so. So maybe he'll be right about Mertesacker, Park, Djourou and Diaby. Who knows?
It's not my intention to drive yet another wedge between certain factions within the Gooner family now that we're all, seemingly, rooting for the good guys again. But now is certainly the time for those of us who kept the faith to take off our tin hats and return to the venom-spitting forums previously overrun with Anti-Wengerites. Maybe, this time, we won't be told to 'f*** off, you AKB c***s'. We shouldn't crow, and we shouldn't get over-excited following what is still only a short, but very impressive, run of results. But that said, I'm so absolutely glad I kept the faith. I'm so utterly delighted I didn't join the baying herd and didn't slag off the man who has given us so much and who, despite all the tons of negativity directed at him this season, continues to provide top-notch football. I don't care what others think - this team’s prospects look decidedly good to me.
I'm also very much aware that, in what has now become a very exciting run-in for Gooners across the globe, we're not actually chasing down a title. We're not in contention for the big prize and we're out of all the cups. However, after all the s**t that has been shovelled in our direction this season, it certainly feels like we're in contention for a big prize, and it'll feel just a bit less likely for all the Totts who've been giving it large. It's not quite what we'd hoped for, but there is still shed-loads at stake. Should we maintain our current fine form and blag third place, it won't be a trophy. We all know that, but it will certainly feel like one.
Get in there Arsène, here's to you. Champions League footie in 2012-13 was never in doubt (coughs).
Twitter@Gooner48
