By @shotta_gooner
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
-John Lennon
Did you know that on June 19th, Arsene Wenger celebrated 35 years of being a coach at the top level. Missed it? Not surprising because I could only find two of the mainstream newspapers in England, the Mirror and Independent, with any reports in their online editions. Can you imagine any other coach in England whose achievements came even remotely close to Arsene’s being given such scant regard? Instead we are treated to the daily spectacle of journos and pundits pandering and stoking the ginormous ego of Mourinho whose main achievement has been to assemble the most expensive football squads possible in four countries and thereafter bore to death all but the most partisan supporters of these clubs with his brand of functional, win-at-all-cost football.
But I am not here to bury Mourinho. I am here to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that we take Arsene too much for granted. After all he could have easily slipped out of our hands. Not many fans are aware that Arsene was once rejected for the job in 1995, before Bruce Rioch took over. According to a story by Richard Clarke on the dot com:
“The Frenchman was interviewed to take over from Stewart Houston, who had been in caretaker-charge since the departure of George Graham the previous February. However the Board decided to give the position to Rioch, who had built-up a solid CV at Bolton Wanderers.”
Fortunately for the club and for all of us who believe in the beautiful game, the Scot only lasted a season and, after a spell in Japan at Grampus Eight, Wenger returned to take over the reins at Highbury on October 1, 1996.
But I had a nightmare. What if Arsene had decided to say bollocks to the board, throw his marbles out the pram and do a George Graham by hiking it over to our neighbors on the Seven Sisters Road? In 1995-96 the long-haired, faux-hippie Gerry Francis was presiding over another ordinary run at the title finishing 8th at 61 points but only 2 points off Arsenal who finished 5th. What if Lord Sugar had the wisdom he now has (based on his recent tweets lavishing praise at Wenger at every opportunity) and decided to make the bold decision to make the young Frenchman, known for his modern, progressive ideas both at Monaco and Grampus the manager of his bedraggled club.
Can you imagine the Spuds being reinforced by a young Patrick Vierra from Juventus, a Wenger signing to be sure, while waiting until October 1996 to move officially to Spurs. It is easy to see Vierra transforming that midfield of journeymen (Colin Calderwood) and perennial sicknotes (Darren Abderton) into tyros?
Or one year later, the king himself, Thierry Henry, joining Teddy Sheringham into a lethal strike force? Think this is fanciful. The same Sheringham in 1997 transferred to United to strike up a formidable duo with Andy Cole. Four years later he had won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, one UEFA Champions League. Hell’s bells. What if Wenger was his coach. He might even have become world class.
Imagine if Wenger’s first double in 1997-98 was at WHL instead of Highbury. God forbid. They can’t stop gabbing about their last double in 1960-61, 54 years 2 months and counting. To add insult to injury, with Wenger showing he could win titles unlike the neighbors, it could have been Tony Adams, not Sol Campbell, making the switch in 2001, on the eve of becoming an Invincible in 2003-04.
It is at this point the nightmare scenario became too much. Even for a non-Gooner, such success for the lily white cockerels is impossible to conceive. But Wenger has done the impossible at Arsenal; three league titles, 2 doubles, an Invincible season, 6 FA cup titles, and managing to keep us in the top four while sacrificing to pay for a stadium over 10 years. Is it inconceivable he could have had the same success at that perennial home of mediocrity? What if roles were reversed and the touchline at Arsenal FC was being graced by the likes of Juande Ramos, Harry Rednapp, Andre Villas Boas, Tim Sherwood et al. Simply different class.
In his newspaper interview celebrating his 35 years, Wenger modestly attributed his success to “luck.” If it was all down to good fortune then I urge the Spuds to keep turning the wheel of fortune in the hope they can land a Wenger Mark II. They have chewed up and spit out 17 managers since the boss signed up at Highbury House.
Of course there are some of us who think Arsene is an old washed-up dinousar, unable to lead us to future victories, even after his 6th FA cup victory last may. Maybe it is full-time we finally pack him off to Tottenham and let him try his luck. Who is willing to dare?
Positively Arsenal 
It is Santi but the close season is covering us like a wet blanket.
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Aha! It works of course!!
Hullo PA. Wetin dey happen!
Great post as usual and top comments all round as always.
Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Arsene and Arsenal are a match written in the stars and even if the spuds had got their filthy chicken claws on him, they would have cocked it up one way or another and Arsene would still end up with us. The only problem with that alternate reality is the time that would be lost to us and him.
I love AFC, but that is largely due to the effect of Arsene. The groaners really don’t know what we have on our hands and that is evident in the fact that there are fans on the net claiming that Arsenal should shadow the potential transfer targets of Koeman and some nameless Southampton scouts because if those lot think the targets are good, then they would be a good fit for us.
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Damn right Andrew, although in my case, I had trouble posting comments a while back and just have up on it for a time, times and half a time. (I couldn’t help not putting the biblical reference in). I had been busy with work and the addition of fatherhood to my CV but I still find time to read the posts and comments.
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havent cech completed his medical yet? what if he fails his medical? will that suddenly knock us out of the title race that everyone seems to see us as favourite now?
if we do sign him, and considering the hype that he will single handedly earn us or save us 15 points, i see danger on the horizon for martesacker. he will be blamed for every goal conceded by cech. just as giroud was being faulted for the drop in number of assist of ozil.
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and rightly so layksite, its not as if Cech has ever conceded 5 goals in a game like our lot, it had to be some other guy that let in the goals a couple of years ago in that Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal, and I’m certain Cech was not in goal when Chelsea lost to Bradford 2-4 last season, when he lets in some goals for AFC, the AAA will tell us Wenger has ruined him.
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Let’s hope he’s as good in reality as in some people’s memories, especially when he hasn’t got a 10 man defence in front of him. At AFC he’ll have to earn his money.
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Passenal, is a sceptic?
With the number of football managers playing with their puppets, on the computer; who can gainsay their “nostrums”?
There is a current interview with a Football Manager, on Arsenal.com. May I quote
“You always have to be on top of what’s coming out new. It has developed and today I think I’m completely up to date with every aspect of the game. But now it has become so vast that you have to have personnel around you who can master some aspects of the game better than you, like the physiological aspects, the biomechanics, how to correct the movement of the player. It’s so specialised now that you need to be surrounded by a team. It’s good that you know the basics of it yourself, then you get people around you who are specialised in certain aspects of the game.”
Please read the full interview, for your own background information.
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https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/
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The new Arsenal away kit will be launched July 14th in Singapore, while the team is there for couple of pre-season games
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Shotta
References to the unthinkable are in “Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Superclub Hardcover – 2008 by Alex Fynn ,Kevin Whitcher
p37 “when he was younger, as a special treat Mr and Mrs Bergkamp would take Dennis to White Hart Lane where he only had eyes for his favourite player, Glenn Hoddle. So when he was searching for an escape route out of Milan his first thought was to ask his agent, Rob Jansen, to contact Tottenham to see if there was any interest”
p40-41 ..”as with Dennis Bergkamp, Arsène Wenger could so easily have ended up on the other side of North London”
….”it is the cruellest of ironies for a Tottenham fan that the biggest one of all, Irving Scholar, the most cosmopolitan and outward-looking English chairman of his time, should have passed up the golden opportunity on his doorstep”…
…”unfortunately for Wenger Scholar preferred Terry Venables as Pleat’s replacement, a decision that came to back to haunt him when the club went into debt and Scholar was forced to sell his shares to the Alan Sugar/Terry Venables partnership”
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What a double save by Ospina. Take that haters.
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it seems sky sport has suddenly discovered that we have a world class goalkeeper in ospina. yet we are made to understand that we have no chance of fighting for the league title without petr in our goal. ospina is by far the best goalkeeper in the copa america but couldnt help his team all by himself. martinez, falcao and james rodriguez who are rated world class by the media were no where to be found.
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I’m not sure what its like on twitter but on the blogs people seem a bit hesitant on Cech coming. Its make me nervous when so many people are dubious about this transfer. I have no idea what the ‘real’ benefit from Cech in goal might be, but if Arsene wants him then I cannot complain as we live in different worlds in terms of football knowledge.
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For those of us that detest the bottomless pit of excrement that is @LeGrove, his wilful pernicious program of disinformation about Arséne Wenger’s outdated training techniques and lack use of cutting edge science, read this:
“Development never stops”- the boss on how coaching has changed during his managerial career http://t.co/8UlElCcDKK http://t.co/ziTRL0oc7Y
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Arsene-All @arsenalbarclays 7h7 hours ago
Christophe lollichon said that he isn’t going to join Arsenal. NO contact have been made by Arsenal to sign the GK coach (lequipe)
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GP
This is from the same chap who was extolling his rabble about how much he despaired at the direction this once great club was heading in, not just 5 months ago??
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11703280/Arsenal-to-announce-Petr-Cech-signing-on-Monday.html
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O-s-p-i-n-a-a-a-a! MOTM vs Argentina.
For those of us who refused to fall for the trashy, tabloid media and fickle idiot fans that Dave became a bad-keeper overnight:
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Swansea’s defensive midfielder Ki Sung Yueng rumored to be an Arsenal target
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Extraordinary save from Ospina wasn’t it Shotts – bloody awful to lose on penalties at the end
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Cech should have to fight for his place.
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Eddy
Rumours of Ki from Swansea as an Arsenal DM?
Come on, that’s utterly ludicrous nonsense, the silly season has truly arrived.
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Park Chu-Yung is his agent
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Not really DC if its an understudy for Coq.
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Anicoll @ 4:15pm – And that wasn’t the only world class save. See the entire repertoire in this clip. Magnifico!
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We should call him Super Dave but O-s-p-i-n-a-a-a-a is already set among his fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
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for a change DC, i do like to see great players linked to us. even if there is no chance of us signing them. gone are the days when most of our best players are linked to clubs both in england and outside. but i dont know this ki from swansea. how good is he Edu? is there any reason to be excited? even if we dont get him like so many others.
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We really do have some idiot Arsenal bloggers out there, this little gem from highburyclock.com is staggering and sums up the AAA, when I first saw the quote I assumed the author was being ironic, but having read the article it seems the author is just a tool.
“The naïve culture of running the club like it is a business and sustaining the long term health of the club has damaged the recent history of the club.”
http://highburyclock.com/2015/06/27/three-reasons-why-arsenal-will-not-win-the-title/
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Eduardo @ 7:02 pm. I don’t even think they deserve a click on their web site. I sail pass them on NewsNow. #Idiots.
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it still amazes me that these guys can still suggest we should have endangered the long term future of the club for the “possibility” of short term gain. I do wonder how they actually cope with real life issues
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I am not happy about this cech thing… is he all that better than our present crop? why are we sacrificing Ospina for him after he has settled into the team?
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Eduardo,
David Ospina joins the Arsenal injury list which also includes..Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, Yaya Sanogo, Mikel Arteta and Laurent Koscielny, while Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Serge Gnabry and Jack Wilshere, are all still struggling for fitness.
Quite a list of injuries?
Ignored by Samuel Goh.
It looks like egg, all over Boris Mellor’s visage?.
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Declan Lynch, was very much a backroom figure. He did not appear in the official staff list!
Ben Knapper, on the other hand, does appear in the official staff list, on Arsenal.com.
The budget at Everton, is £200,000 per annum for 4 analysts. The guy in charge at Everton, would prefer 5 bodies. It would seem to me, that £40-£50,000 in Liverpool, would equate to £50-£60,000 p.a. in Islington?
How many do The Arsenal employ in that field? Compared to the data company, that was purchased.
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Team spirit I’m with you on that as well. It just doesn’t sit well with me that a Chelsea keeper who lost his place is now mooted to be the saving grace for Arsenal……..and the fact that everyone and their step wife has already sold off Ospina, just after he’s bedded into the team & squad.
Question is, do I want an international first choice keeper on the rise or one that’s on the wane? The answer for me is pretty simple and as bad as it may sound, a part of me is praying that the deal goes the way of Higuain. At any rate, Monsieur Wenger calls the shots around here so if Petr ends up with us, then Arsene knows!!
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