Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal legacy is unmatchable
fully grasp this concept because of how different the two sports are. In cricket, a player has time – between deliveries, between overs, at session breaks – to sit back and analyse the match. A captain can shuffle the batting order, change bowlers, tinker with the field. He turns to a coach for advice, not orders.
In football, the physical load on a player is too high to think about the bigger picture. A captain has too much work at his end of the field to worry about how his defenders or wingers are measuring up. You need someone sitting outside to read the game, to run the play. That’s what makes the manager so important, and tenures so short. Wenger is remarkable because the three Premier League titles and the seven FA Cups are not his greatest achievements. He stamped his philosophy on one of the few super clubs in the world.
He made them overachieve for nearly all of his 22 years in charge. He decided they would play a brand of football, become a certain kind of club in the face of immeasurable pressure from within and countless changes in the universe around him.
He had the time to build rela- tionships with his fans that managers no longer do – buddy, role model, father who just doesn’t listen – and bring into their lives Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
Wenger was first a moderniser credited with transforming British football and later a purist who fought against the temptations of consumerist team-building. In the end, he was seen as a relic of a bygone era.
He was stubborn, tough, sometimes in denial. But he was trustworthy, graceful, forever willing to pick up the pieces and carry on.
Wenger had to go someday. He led Arsenal out of the tunnel for the last time on Sunday evening. It wasn’t a glorious setting. Just the final game of what has been the team’s worst Premier League season in two decades. It was neither at Highbury nor at the Emirates. It wasn’t in Kiev, where Real Madrid and Liverpool will play the Champions League final. And it wasn’t where it could’ve been, in Lyon, where Atletico Madrid and Marseille will square off for the Europa League.
At the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire - something which will now go down in history as a quiz question - he looked older, sombre and somewhat relieved. Arsenal won 1-0. His last signing Pierre-emerick Aubameyang scored. There was no back-heel involved. But when the final whistle went off, the congregation sang – home fans and away fans in unison.
There was only one Arsene Wenger. There doesn’t come such another.
HE WAS STUBBORN, TOUGH, SOMETIMES IN DENIAL. BUT HE WAS TRUSTWORTHY, GRACEFUL, FOREVER WILLING TO PICK UP THE PIECES AND CARRY ON.