When Arsene Wenger first arrived in the 1996/97 season, there was no financial constraint, no stadium debt, no liquidity issues. Arsenal had the financial might to compete with the best, to break the might of the mighty Manchester United and the once little known Arsene Wenger was tasked with doing just that. He did it the next season of 1997/98, his first full season in charge going on to claim the double after winning the FA cup.
What this did was to give credence to his credentials as coach with a savvy in technical know-how and ability to produce free flowing winning sides. For the next couple of years, he went on to give Sir Alex Ferguson sleepless nights as Manchester United and Arsenal went head to head. A rivalry was born and it showed no signs of abating. When Arsene Wenger went on to claim the 2003/4 Premier League title, and to do it unbeaten, he cemented his position as one of the great coaches in World Football.
He was coveted by the likes of Real Madrid, who made a play for him more than once and offered him lucrative offers that he turned down outright. That showed another facet to his character, loyalty! However, Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board realized something…that despite their prowess on the field, they would never be able to compete with the big boys financially in an ever changing financial landscape what with billionaires like Roman Abramovich coming into the picture. They knew that they needed a bigger stadium to compete. What the fans and players alike failed to realize was the toll it would take on the clubs ability to compete in the immediate future.
Once it became clearer that the club was unable to compete financially in the transfer market with over inflated figures on above average players at best, Arsenal players decided to leave in droves to win the league as they did not see it happening with the Arsenal crop around them. There are two ways to look at this scenario. One is to look at it from a purely professional point of view and admit that the players who were deserting us had a point and stood a better chance of winning trophies elsewhere or, from a for lack of a better word, a romantic point of view and see it as desertion when the team needed them the most.
I believe it is a little of both. We have to remember that in recent times, Arsene Wenger has gone to admit that the club could not stand in the way of players as it required the finances as well to pay back the stadium. As much as Nasri has become the vilified figure during this period, it is telling that Wenger has said he was professional to the very last while, one has to remember, no one kicked a fuss about Clichy leaving. Does that mean the players were right to leave? Of course not! Arsene Wenger discovered them and plucked them from obscurity. That at least counted for a bit of loyalty from players like Hleb, Song and even Mathieu Flamini. It was even more painful for me when it came to the case of Flamini because he was given his chance then left on a free transfer to AC Milan. It took me a long time to forgive him.
I will talk about loyalty later but now is about Wenger’s legacy. Let’s just do a recap. While during his Wenger’s trophy filled years, he showed a passion for winning while during the barren spell, he showed a sense of loyalty. Some aspects of his character have always been there; ensuring that anything he is working on succeeds, his sense of loyalty both to the club and his players, his ability to coax the talent out of his players and most tellingly, his patience.
As Arsenal’s fan base grew during the barren years, so did the frustration. The younger, recent fans could not understand why the club was keeping a coach who was seemingly getting them nowhere. They were watching other clubs buy themselves trophies so why not Arsenal? The coach had obviously lost his ability and passion to win right? Of course they were justified in their reasoning because they obviously wanted the best for their club, and they were not there when Wenger was winning trophies. That was then, this is now and history counts for nothing if they could not replicate their success.
It did not help matters much that a club like Chelsea had acquired Mourinho as a coach with unlimited finances at his disposal. Players like Christiano Ronaldo and Eden Hazard were snatched under Wenger’s nose because he could not raise the finances. Please note that during this barren spell, he was a couple of minutes away from winning the Champions League, got to the final of the league cup (was it twice), the FA cup, and led the league convincingly before Eduardo’s unfortunate incident. And he has managed to keep us in the Champions League, week in week out making sure the finances flow freely to complete the stadium debt. This was with supposedly inferior players that he had to mould and groom into extremely good players in an extremely competitive environment.
A couple of years back, Arsene Wenger said the stadium had now been paid off and he had money to spend. He promptly went out and got Mesut Oil to the disbelief of most (not everyone but most).He has followed it up with the signings of Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech. He has combined youth with experience and now Arsenal are back to their swashbuckling best to the dismay of the rest of the League.
His ability to win trophies had come up. Now that he was won back to back FA cup trophies, that has become irrelevant. In the now infamous words of Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta to POTUS Barack Obama face, ‘that is a non issue!’
However, in order to cement his legacy, he first has to break his duck against Mourinho starting with the Community Shield then go on to claim the Premier League. The Champions League would be the cherry on the top.
The Wenger Out Brigade (WOB), after two back to back FA cup trophies, are starting to believe what the Arsene Knows AKB’s have being saying all along. Simply, Wenger is a bloody good coach!
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