17 years ago… in 1996 –
1) Ella Fitzgerald passed away.
2) Jerry McGuire was released.
3) The beaten CL semifinals were Panathinaikos and Nantes.
4) Germany won a major European football trophy.
Seems a ridiculously long time ago, doesn’t it? Not as long as Tottenham have been in Arsenal’s shadow… but I digress (not really).
Let’s go back to the start of our season against Aston Villa. The result had many folks from the Wenger Out Brigade out in numbers, Usmanov was surely rubbing his hands at the prospect of getting one of his minions to do another one of those press releases, and the media was having a field day. Whether the multiple refereeing decisions that didn’t go our way had anything to do with the overall result didn’t matter.
And now… we’re top of the table, we haven’t lost a game in a month, and we’ve signed Mesut Özil. It’s funny how things can turn around in a matter of weeks.
Stan “Silent Stan” Kroenke, a man who has been criticized by many for his ways as an owner and is accepted without any hullabaloo by others, recently made a statement (!) about how he wants Wenger to stay –
“There’s no one I feel more strongly about and he is doing a great job. We have been very supportive, we have never wavered, we are proud of him, proud of the club, the way the club is run and how it holds itself out to the world. Arsène knows how we feel, what our philosophy is, what we want to do and I feel like we are totally aligned. I think he wants to do it the exact same way as we do.”
And what does Arsène say in response?
“I’m very honoured to have the support of Stan Kroenke. That is something that is very positive for me. I love this club, I always said that you work like you are here forever and know that it can end every day. I’ve had consistent support from inside the club. I’m very grateful to this club because during my 17 years we have had ups and downs. They have always shown faith in me. We have a team now that can compete and that’s what we want to show. I’ve turned many offers down. I’ve always thought this club is special.”
He’s honored to have Kroenke’s support? Heck, considering what he’s done for the club in comparison to our American owner, Kroenke should be (and I’d like to believe he is) honored that he’s got the longest serving Arsenal manager to say that he wants to stay; if there’s one thing Arsène doesn’t do – he does not break his word.
But it’s the small things, as always, that sets Arsene apart from the best of the best in the world. Arsène speaks English, German, Spanish, Italian and a bit of Japanese as well, and this has undoubtedly helped him while signing players – Özil’s case comes to mind, but there must’ve been so many others as well. Put David Moyes in his position (like Piers Morgan wanted a while ago…), and chances are, Mesut would’ve stayed at Real Madrid.
Or take his sheer humility and gratitude as a manager. A lot of people assume that Wenger is incredibly stubborn about his way, and for all you know this could be true about certain aspects of his management – but he has the courtesy to accept that he can be wrong. He’s never claimed to be “special” or been attention seeking – instead, he’s been humble about his ability as a manager and that, to me, smacks of sophistication. Think of the best managers in the world, and I think it is safe to say that a majority of them are fairly egotistical.
And then there’s the sheer faith he has in some of his players. It comes off as strange to some, and incredibly frustrating at times to many, but you can’t help but think that with the benefit of hindsight it has almost always paid off.
Aaron Ramsey has been a revelation this season, Robin van Persie showed his true ability in the 2011-12 season – and these are just two examples. No one took a punt on Flamini, look how that turned out for us. It’s hard to argue that Wenger’s faith in players like Diaby is misplaced because his track record proves otherwise.
But if there’s one reason I want that Arsene Wenger needs to stay, it’s because our ability to compete financially after years of being limited in terms of our ability to spend, but nevertheless staying close to the top is in many ways, down to his work as our manager.
He deserves to spend that money he’s helped the club earn because there are few managers better than him that are out there willing to leave their own jobs to try to do one better than a man who is quite simply synonymous with the Arsenal Football Club. I’m not one to get into the argument about “Arsène FC”, but people have to understand, for a lot of us, it is hard to picture Arsenal without Arsène, the same way that it had been hard for many, many people to picture Manchester United without Sir Alex Ferguson.
For me however, even after talking about all of this it still seems a bit absurd to have to discuss why Arsène needs to stay – especially in the face of the fact that it has been 17 years since Arsène Wenger joined us at the Arsenal. It’s been a 17-year-long roller-coaster of which I have been lucky enough to be a part of as a fan for about 11 years, and I hope that Arsène doesn’t just stay on for as long as he can to eventually retire at the club, but I really hope he firmly cements his reputation and legacy as one of the best managers in the world. It’s the least he deserves.
