CanadaGooner
In my years of going to watch the Arsenal; from those years when I wasn’t even sure what it was all about, at a tender age of three, to when I began to see some good displays at Highbury, to the boring, boring days and on to the doubt-filled days of Wenger turning up in 1996, to his intensity-filled early displays and the simply impossible-to-describe Invincible season and as I said, even prior to that 2003/04 season, the Gunners had had a lot to cheer for, with some really spirited displays and proper trophy battles with our rivals
I spent a large part of our recent trophyless years passionately defending Wenger, and I still think even in his recent madness and his inability to win the league or Champions League, it is still indecent to call him certain names. Come what may, I will always be grateful to him, for what he has done to the North London rivalry; totally destroying it and conscripting Tottenham into really vague, faint history. They are now like a faint memory of an unsatisfactory meal! I don’t think any other club in recent footballing history have dominated and turned their derby rivals into nonentities as Wenger has done with Tottenham. My neighbour’s son turns 21 next year and he is still waiting to see a season where Tottenham finish ahead of Arsenal in the league.
Watching Arsene shake the hand of Theo Walcott when he came off in the Man Utd game last weekend spoke volumes, as you could see how much the players still worship Wenger and the interviews after the game show how much of a gentleman Wenger is. Unfortunately, he came to England in an era where repeat winners simply cannot be gentlemen! Fergie spent most of his 26 years making referees shudder and there were very few who would dare give a penalty against Man Utd at Old Trafford, without fearing for their careers! With the advent of technology and various camera angles, the press are piling more pressure on referees these days, which would make it a little bit more difficult in today’s matches, for Fergie to be able to scare referees into adding the 12th man at every Old Trafford game.
That leads me to the main purpose of this article: Jose Mourinho – what a joke! The man the press and glossy magazines decided to make their king, because he always gives them so much to write about. The man who has never lasted more than 2 full seasons at any single club. (Ed’s note – Chelsea 2004/05 to 2006/07? Real Madrid 2010/11 to 2012/13? Where did this popular misconception come from?) I’m sure any of the elite managers: Wenger, Ancelotti, Ranieri and others, could and most did achieve a fair bit, if they move to the best clubs in each league in Europe, every two years and spend hundreds of millions each time. Yes, he is a good manager, there is no doubt about that; but part of being a good manager, is being able to do it for more than just two seasons. His only major feat was winning the Champions League with Porto, even though, there was a heavy touch of fortune that year as the best teams cancelled each other out. But even Villas-Boas managed to win the Portuguese league once or twice, with the team Mourinho left behind at Porto, so, it was like winning the SPL with either Rangers or Celtic (or with Celtic, given Rangers’ recent demise). He trots along from one big club to the next, spends piles of money, upsets everyone, and then moves on. Fortunately for him, he landed at a club with some of the most ungentlemanly fans in the history of English football (Chelski). They are not the most violent or unruly, but they are right up there with classless fans in the history of football.
What life in England does to foreigners (and I’ve seen it happen over the years to one of my neighbours who is German, who has been here for almost 40 years now, and another who is French whose parents moved here when he was four) is that the educated or wealthy ones begin to think they are English royalty. They suddenly take on this fake air of sophistication and begin to tend towards being statesmanlike and that is something that has happened to Wenger. He wanted to replace Fergie as the Godfather of British football, while he tried to remain a gentleman, when he could and should have swapped that for the ruthless streak that won Fergie all those trophies, and a similar (albeit less classy) ruthlessness, which has made Mourinho quite successful. But telling his players to dive when they have to, patting Costa on the back, would have made Wenger cringe, to see one of his players adopt such roguish tactics in the ‘beautiful game’.
In the 20th year of his Lordship, the gentlemanly royalty-wannabe Wenger, we continue to play some good football, lack any real ambition or desire to win big or win rampantly (even when we had Man Utd by their nuts and should have embarrassed them like they did us a few seasons back in the 8–2 drubbing, Lord Wenger decided to spare their blushes and we let them off with a 3–0 win), and I think we all know how this season will end. Looks like we will have to hold on for a while longer, for any real change at the Emirates.
Some will say, and I don’t think I would disagree; that better the gentleman plus a few trophies and some really good football, than a rogue like Mourinho. But definitely, a slightly less stubborn Wenger and a bit more grit would have catapulted Arsenal to the very top of English football.
