Wenger engineered economic success
It is no secret that the members of the usual gathering are fairly evenly divided between Manchester United and Arsenal fans with a salty sprinkling of Liverpool and Chelsea backers, a fairly homogeneous blend somewhat spoilt by the Follically-challenged Fireman’s insistence that West Ham should be considered minor royalty.
By and large, it all seems to hang together quite successfully, even living with the Dave the Silent’s insistence that he follows Man United “because they tend to win things” – not that this is currently factually correct, but then the man is more of an expert in flagology than football.
“But,” as the Silent One hastily pointed out, “at least Man United have reached the FA Cup final, something I must add that has escaped Arsenal, Liverpool – or even for that matter, West Ham”.
The Fireman chuckled. He was used to the joshing which flowed around his life-long favourites, a case perhaps of expecting little and living vicariously off the scraps you are given.
But the jibe against the Gunners had the hair on the Arsenal section bristling. Right now was not the time to go into why longterm manager Arsene Wenger had finally decided to remove his severe features – and constant criticism of refereeing among many gripes which have followed him through a fabled 22-year career – from the touchlines of the English Premier League.
“My feeling,” said the Silent One, “is that, in an era where football managers have a limited and finite life, Wenger went on for far too long”.
This produced some rumbles of discontent from the Arsenal set, who, ironically, had been steadily growing in volume about taking the axe to Wenger’s head. Old loyalties, you felt, quickly understood, died hard.
The Silent One though had got into his stride. “You have to factor into the equation,” he said, “that Arsenal have not won the Premier League title for 14 years. That’s an awful long drought on the terraces”.
This, it must be added was received by the Gunners faithful by the lonely sound of one heard clapping.
But as he cleared his throat, it was abundantly clear that the Silent One had more to say. “Having said what I have about Wenger and Arsenal, I have to admit that while the po-faced Frenchman is not my favourite person, personally, I have a lot of respect for him and what he has achieved.
“He has both an engineering degree – my kind of person – and another in economics.
“And if you think hard about it, it is through Wenger that the Emirates Stadium is paid for. That in itself is a major milestone.”
It was not, in the analysis, a full apology for what had come earlier, but sufficient to slay the dragon he had unleashed and left the Gunners supporters with something substantial to chew on.