Wenger proves no match for Ferguson
Compared to the Scot, the Arsenal manager has been found wanting in final analysis
It is doubtful there has been quite so compelling a rivalry in the Premier League era as that between Arsenal and Manchester United and their managers, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, in the late Nineties. Wenger has often been characterised as the closest thing the modern English game has seen to Ferguson, but what the Frenchman’s trials and tribulations in the 14 years since Arsenal last won the championship have done, aside from severely damaging what once promised to be a rich legacy, is reaffirm what a singly unique individual Ferguson was.
Wenger’s complaints about the financial largesse of clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea have been used, in part, to try to deflect attention from, or perhaps even help to explain, Arsenal’s dwindling involvement in one title race after another.
But it says everything about Ferguson’s ability to stay ahead of the curve that his greatest period of success at Old Trafford actually came at a time when the club’s purse strings were at their tightest and the challenge presented by the likes of Chelsea and City could have consumed him and his side in the way it has Wenger and Arsenal.
The onerous interest and debt repayments brought about by the Glazer family’s takeover of United in May 2005 severely impacted Ferguson’s ability to compete in the transfer market and yet, between then and his retirement eight years later, he delivered five league titles, a Champions League, three League Cups and one Club World Cup.
Arsenal’s move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 had a similarly debilitating effect on the club’s manoeuvrings in the transfer market.
But whereas Ferguson was able to consistently reinvent sides, despite the financial constraints he encountered and, at the same time, ensure his voice and methods never grew stale, Wenger has been resolutely unable to do the same. It is no great disgrace. Ferguson,
It is hard to rationalise the irrational and so, three days after Crewe Alexandra released a statement shamefully reneging on their promise to conduct an internal review into the Barry Bennell child abuse scandal, quite what the club’s hopelessly misguided directors expect to achieve by adopting such a position is anyone’s guess.
It is certainly doubtful they have given proper thought to how Friday’s statement could be perceived not only by parents whose children are currently going through Crewe’s youth system, but those wondering where to place the next generation of footballers.
A thorough investigation might not only throw up some important revelations and give Bennell’s victims answers they crave and deserve but demonstrate to the outside world just how seriously Crewe are about ensuring they
never again fail so badly the youngsters whose welfare they are supposed to protect. It is to be hoped safeguarding practices are so robust these days there can and will not be a repeat of such crimes.
This observer resides about 30 miles from the town and has four young children. If any end up in a position where academy football becomes a realistic option, rest assured they will not be going to Crewe.