Why has Arsene Wenger not walked away from the helm of Arsenal Football Club; books balanced, war-chest ready, world class stars accompanied with a youthful British core, a stunning modern stadium paid for and a revolutionary training ground. The fans cry out for a young manager to fit the jigsaw. So they ask why Arsene hasn’t walked away.
The answer is simple: Arsene Wenger isn’t willing to let his dream –managing Arsenal – die, because he knows if it does, part of him will die with it.
Arsene can’t sit in his countryside retreat on a Sunny Sunday morning reading the Independent just yet. He’s still addicted to chasing his dream, pursuing his passion, the one ever-so allusive prize, to combine his theoretical project with the reward.
Giving up on a dream isn’t easy. It’s especially difficult to give up one that you’ve dreamt of since being a kid, sitting in a small, charming restaurant in Duttlenheim watching Real Madrid take apart Partizan in the 1966 European Cup final, with Fernando Serena and Ramón Grosso make this beautiful game look ever so alluring, or when at 16 you put it upon yourself to coach the village team due to no-one else stepping up to take training, or when you’re on the cusp of glory, but see it fall in tatters due to others dishonesty and greed.
It’s the reason Brett Favre couldn’t stay away from American football. Battered and beaten, he came out of retirement and played three more years with Minnesota and New York. Seeing him take vicious hits and wear helmets without the green ‘G’ for Packers on the side didn’t seem right.
It’s the reason Michael Jordan retired – twice – with the Chicago Bulls, only to return with the Washington Wizards. Aside from the 85-86 and 94-95 seasons where he only played 17 and 18 games respectively, his Wizards tenure were the worst in his career. People asked ‘Why Michael, just why?’
I think I know why.
It’s the reason I get up at 5AM to get buses to the vilest pitches, changing rooms and officials you’ll see in your life. It’s the same reason why I’m willing to take kicks, risk injury and receive abuse. It’s why I sit around waiting and warming up for 5 hours, only for a 40 minute 5-aside game. It’s the thing that makes me happy to walk miles in the freezing cold at 12PM on a mid-week night, catching a bus that takes an hour and all under the understanding that I have to get up at 7AM the next morning.
I wake up in the morning, head banging, mind screaming in rebellion, knee pulverised and often in disappointment at my performance from the game previous. “Why did I play?” is the question I often ask myself, as Iimp to the bus stop, even though I know the answer. Playing football is my passion – it’s who I am- and I can’t let it go.
Whatever the profession, hobby or pastime, when you spend years pursuing it, living it, breathing it in, it becomes you. When your passion is taken from you, so is your sense of yourself – and that is frightening.
Sure, you could find another pastime or profession, but nothing can compare to your passion. You’re fortunate if you find a second passion in life. Nobody ever asks you “What’s the second thing you want to be?” when you’re a kid.
Arsene Wenger can’t walk away from chasing his passion and being Arsenal manger.
He doesn’t want to be manger elsewhere, asking him to be a manager at another club. Asking him would be like asking Tiger Woods to play Crazy Golf for a living.
He doesn’t want to be a ‘transition manager’ either. That’s like telling Derrick Rose he can only pass, or Jacques Kallis he can’t hit over a single.
Arsene Wenger’s distinctive passion hasn’t left him, and he’s determined to carry on being what he was destined to be; manager of Arsenal Football Club. He won’t settle for anything less.
I imagine in the pre-season that he loves the smell of the fresh-cut grass at London Colney. That his internal clock counts down from the final whistle of the last game to the kick-off of next season. I’d bet that seeing banners such as ‘Thanks for the memories’ and having unacceptable abuse at the Stoke train station – being so close to losing his passion – was tortuous.
I hope this new formed Arsenal allows Arsene Wenger to showcase his abilities once again. I hope he gets to relive his dream of lifting silverware and carry on his passion a little while longer, because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. A quote in the Great Gatsby says it best: “All the bright precious things fade so fast and they never come back.”
Arsene Wenger isn’t willing to let his dream die, because if he does, he knows that part of him dies too.
