Robert Exley
According to the late Harold Wilson, the last British PM to win a general election wearing red and genuinely meaning it, a week is a long time in politics. Similarly, six weeks in football is an eternity. Here’s me rather eloquently imploring Arsène Wenger to blow his professional brains out on this very website with not one word of dissent in the comments page. Nor should there have been, in all fairness; we were about to face Spurs ten points adrift, with a strong possibility of that being extended, as well as having been dumped out of all competitions bar one with a four-goal deficit. We were beginning to get that all-too-familiar feeling in recent seasons of the Spring feeling like the Autumn – in fact, the only Spring that was felt in the air on the day that article was published in late February was an ‘Emirates Spring’, similar to the one that set the Arab world alight twelve months earlier and saw a succession of long-term autocrats toppled. So, what of the picture now? Well, in words coined by Isaac Newton (and, were it not for Google, I’d probably still think they were coined by Bob Marley) for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction – and the Wenger question on these pages this season has literally swung like a pendulum.
Back in August, after the Old Trafford detritus, the Online Gooner was full of articles calling for Wenger’s head with an AKB opposition that, like Sonny Liston against Ali at the start of Round Seven, didn’t look like it wanted to come out for more punishment. By the time of the Battle of Stamford Bridge in late October, the pendulum had swung firmly back in the AKB camp’s direction, with the feeling that the threat of attack from the AMG brigade was seen off at least in the short to medium term, though with the New Year’s arrow-in-the-eye in the shape of the quadruple whammy of Fulham, Swansea, United and the San Siro débacle, it looked like the Wenger Question was finally conquered by the AMG crowd. Recent weeks, however, have given us all the unanimous feeling that Wenger’s ‘Ancien Régime’ may well be safe for a long while yet. However, although it feels like victory, we are exactly where we were twelve months earlier - in third place, albeit looking at those below while gloating with a sense of relief, rather than looking up with despair and a feeling of being cheated, as we were this time last season.
So, is what we’re witnessing in recent weeks the green shoots of recovery for Wengerism, or yet another false dawn? Well, of all of the acres of what’s been written on the subject on these pages over the last eight months, the most apt analogy was this one by Andy Franklin back in January. There were a few faux-liberal comments in response, stating that the analogy was distasteful, but let’s be honest: the rehabilitation of Wenger’s Arsenal is a lot like that of a recovering alcoholic. Like all addicts, Wenger himself is a person of great extremes – the most successful Arsenal manager of all time and yet overseeing the longest barren trophy spell of any Arsenal manager without getting the sack. This is also someone you once had great love for before they were struck down with the affliction in question - we would have kicked a Bruce Rioch to the kerb long ago for that 8-2 at Old Trafford, but then again, we never shared three titles, two doubles and an invincible season with him like we did with Wenger. That old person is still in there somewhere, and is often still fighting to get out – occasionally glimpses are still there (Chelsea, Tottenham, Milan at home and last Sunday against City being clear examples) to remind and taunt you of what it once was like before the rot set in. However, for someone who actually grew up above a village pub in Alsace Lorraine and prided himself on being a teetotaller after watching some of the antics of the clientele, Wenger seems to have miraculously acquired some of their afflictions without ever touching a drop – just think of last weekend’s falling off the wagon at Loftus Road! But also, neither is it deluded to believe the afflicted can overcome their problems – for every George Best and Paul Gascoigne, there’s a Jimmy Greaves or a Tony Adams, who seemingly did successfully turn the corner for good.
So, do I believe Wenger is finally rehabilitated? Let’s just say that, on the advice of the AA (no, not the fourth emergency service), I’m taking the recovery one day at a time. And. during this period in which we commemorate the Easter resurrection, I deem it appropriate to use a biblical quote (and, were it not for Google, I’d probably still think it was coined by Bob Marley) - ‘As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end’. I began this piece with a quote from Harold Wilson and here’s another of Wilson’s quotes to end it with: ‘I’m an optimist, but an optimist who carries a raincoat’. And, as the old saying goes, ‘Don’t cast a clout ‘til May is out!’
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