Shane Callaghan
Ed’s note – This piece was submitted in early September, not used at the time, but with Arsenal flying high in the Premier League, it seems an apt time to run it.
The church of Arsene Wenger will have lost millions of followers at precisely 6pm last Tuesday evening. But no matter how tempted you are to blow the miniscule amount of dust off your robe when results inevitably improve over the coming weeks and months, do not do it because it is time to start remembering Wenger's transfer-window faults and adopt a long-term view.
Come December, we are going to be looking forward to the second half of the season rather than still dwelling on what happened at the start of it. Not that we are going to literally forget the shambolic transfer window, in which we were the only club in Europe's top five divisions not to add an outfield player, but fans will be far less angry about it. Why? Because we will come out the other side of this crisis swinging. This is what Wenger is brilliant at. As sure as Karim Benzema and Edinson Cavani score will 60 goals between them this season, Arsenal will bounce back from this. In the short term, at least.
Initially, the team will benefit from the faith afforded them by the manager. They will not hang him out to dry and, actually, do not be surprised to see us within striking distance of the Premier League leaders by, say, December. After all, we are the third-best team in England, and the FA Cup winners. Despite this, Wenger's reprehensible attitude in the transfer market most probably caused you to throw the baby out with the bathwater and predict nothing but dark days ahead this season. And then it is suddenly 1-0 Wenger when he and his players greatly defy these pessimistic expectations. Let the forgiveness commence. Not this time.
Here is the important bit: no matter how good things appear to be, do not forget what happened here this summer. Because regardless how good our results will be for the next few months, the second half of the season will be nowhere near as fruitful and that is because we will be forced to dig into the layer of mediocrity hiding beneath an already-suspect first XI.
Do not forget the fact that we didn't sign a striker. Do not forget the fact we extended Mikel Arteta's contract rather than replacing him. Do not forget the fact we had money and lots of it. And definitely do not forget the fact that Wenger knew Danny Welbeck wasn't going to be available until Christmas and still proceeded to keep the wallet closed.
Do not forget these things because those shameful acts will seem a lot more forgivable in the coming months. They will. That's what Wenger does - he makes us forget. He is an animate representation of the neutralizer from Men in Black. Karim who?
There are only two ways that Wenger can get away with what he did - or did not do - in the transfer market: if he a) wins the Premier League or b) wins the Champions League. They are the only two scenarios in which this man should be allowed to preside over another summer transfer window. Anything less and it is time to call it a day. Plenty of his followers will most definitely gravitate back to a pro-Wenger stance shortly, but we will never win another league until under him and do not forget why.
