John Evans
Arsene Wenger took over as Arsenal Manager in October 1996. In the decade prior to him taking over as manager Arsenal had managed to win a total of six major honours including two league titles and a European trophy in the form of the Cup Winners Cup. In the decade after Arsene took charge Arsenal managed to win a total of seven major honours all of which were domestic competitions.
This means in the glory years of Arsene’s reign we as a football club managed to win one more honour over that decade when compared to the decade prior to Arsene taking control. In my opinion that means that we kept up what we were achieving at the club before he came on board with us. Not really an awful lot more than that. One extra trophy over a period of a decade can hardly be described as taking us to a whole new level.
If you then look at the second decade of Arsene’s reign we have gone on to add a total of two major honours, both of which have been FA Cups. In the decade between 1977-1987 which is the decade before the one mentioned in the first paragraph Arsenal won a total of just one major honour, the 1979 FA Cup.
Twenty Years is a very long time indeed to base someone’s level of success over. It gives you a great barometer both in terms of the good times and the bad. Over a 20 year period Arsene has picked up a total of two more major honours for Arsenal FC than what they achieved in the 20 year period prior to him becoming our manager. This clearly indicates that he is an above average manager in the history of Arsenal FC - of this there can be no doubt. But anyone suggesting that a difference of two more major honours over a period of twenty years justifies the label Arsene FC must be considered misguided in my opinion.
Another key fact to take into account when looking at Arsene’s record is this. He is the only manager in English football history that managed to go toe to toe on a level financial playing field with Sir Alex Ferguson and win. Not only that but he did manage to win on more than one occasion proving in my opinion that it was no fluke. The only other teams to win the Premier League title in Alex Ferguson’s dominant years at Manchester United were Blackburn Rovers (Jack Walker’s Money), Chelsea (Roman Abramovich’s Money) and Manchester City (Sheikh Mansour’s Money). All three of those clubs managed to win the Premier League title mainly due to the amount of financial clout they had at that time. Arsene managed to gain a total of three Premier League titles going toe to toe with Sir Alex in his prime years with no extra financial clout to tilt the odds in his favour.
Make no mistake about it, Sir Alex is simply the best manager the game has ever seen. For Arsene to achieve that on a level playing field is a fantastic achievement. By far in a way the best achievement of Arsene’s managerial career to date and one that should never be underestimated by anyone that cares for Arsenal Football Club.
I personally feel that the Arsene we see in front of our eyes these days is not like the old Arsene we came to know and love. It is one that has been let down over a number of years by the board of directors of the football club. I am not talking about being let down by them in the financial sense here. The opposite in fact. Arsene has been paid an absolute fortune in anyone’s money to manage our club over the last decade or so. Anyone complaining about the money in the modern day game who is on a reported £8m a year is deluded to the extreme. But deluded sadly is what Arsene has been allowed to become by the current board.
They have backed away for such a long period of time and allowed Arsene to literally take complete 100% control of the Football Club. This has allowed Arsene to slowly but surely lose touch with reality. If you are allowed that level of control over such an extended period of time you lose any sense of what other people think. You go along unchallenged and it distorts your own sense of truth more and more the longer you are in that position of total authority.
Is that Arsene’s fault? In one sense yes as he has himself allowed and clearly supported that level of importance that he has at the club. But come on, if you were an employee at a business and the people above you believed for whatever reason in your ability enough to allow you complete control over the goings on at the company, would you turn it down? Sign a piece of paper and earn £8m a year having complete control over every major decision to be made with no-one questioning your decision making? I think most if not all of us would sign on the line for that if we are being honest.
Arsene is human after all, he is no different deep down to you or I. He took over as Manager back in 1996 and over time earned a reputation of knowing what he was doing. It is the board that should be held accountable therefore for the current state of affairs which has been allowed to happen over a long period of time.
Make no mistake about it Arsene answers to nobody at Arsenal FC. Nobody. Can anyone be surprised when he sounds a little out of touch with reality in after match interviews or press conferences? Any of us would do too if we had been allowed to dominate a company for that length of time. You detach totally from reality and end up believing your own BS. I have worked for people in the past that have built up a kind of guru status in their business lives. If all you hear is people licking your backside 24/7 over a period of years it doesn’t matter if that praise is well founded or totally flawed. It is what you get used to in your day to day life that you end up believing in 100%.
The truth is Arsene was never as skilled as the board believed. In reality he got a little bit lucky with some elements of the squad he inherited back in 1996. He also got a little but lucky with just how far behind the English culture was as far as sports health awareness was concerned back in 1996. Arsene looked like a sports nutritional guru back in 1996. Why? Because the English culture back then was to go out on the town the night of a game and see who can down the most pints. Don’t drink alcohol to any real extent if you’re a sports professional. Eat healthy food and keep yourself hydrated with vitamin based drinks. Not exactly rocket science is it? But the key is that to Neil Ruddock or Paul Merson, it would have been back in 1996. Timing.
The board believed in him to the point of offering him messiah like status within the club. It then no longer matters what the real truth is. If you are treated like a messiah for 20 years you are a messiah in your own head. It is that simple. Arsene now believes himself when he thinks he can still make Arsenal great again. He probably believes that if he gets another shot at it for a couple of more years he will somehow pull off a Premier League title or Champions League trophy. The key isn’t that he does believe it or even if it might be true or not. The key is asking WHY does he believe that? Or more importantly WHY has he been allowed to believe it?
You hold on to a belief and you put that message out and some people will believe whatever you have to say, as you are their messiah. I have personally known people who have become millionaires from that fact. They market a message in the right kind of way. People think they are the real deal and something of a guru in their chosen field and then they exploit that element of trust with that person to their own financial gain. In a weird kind of way what has happened at Arsenal FC is pretty similar. The board thought Arsene was a messiah, he went along with it and believed his own hype as all of us would have done in the same position and over the years has lost touch with not only the fan base but reality in general.
Should we fear Arsene leaving us as a football club? 100% no. Will Arsenal FC struggle to feel some kind of managerial void that he leaves behind? In my opinion, no. Do we need the current board to wake the hell up and learn from past mistakes over the last 15 years or so? Hell yeah! Otherwise whoever takes over the hot seat whenever Arsene does decide to leave (probably not this summer by the way!) will not have much of a chance of real success anyway. In that scenario the pain that we true Arsenal fans have had to endure throughout this current saga would have been for nothing.
Learn from your mistakes Arsenal FC and when you do get the chance to move on do so safe in the knowledge that we must NEVER allow our club to be run in this way EVER again.
