Remember him?

By Eduardo
September 27 2011

This is the final part of Eduardo's article debating Celine Dion's original article debunking ten myths about Wenger. If you have not read the first part, or Celines article it may not make a lot of sense. So links to both follow:

Read Parts 1-5 of In Defence of Wenger here

Celine Dion’s original article Debunking Ten Myths About Wenger  here:

  6. Wenger is a Football Visionary

I actually failed to see what points you raised in this section that are on the topic of football visionary. Maybe you can enlighten me and I will get back to you.

But of the points (off topic) raised, is it not good planning to have second and third choice targets you go for if a deal for your first choice can not be done, is this not meticulous planning – I know its something I have faulted Wenger for over the season, his insistence of wanting player x or no one at all, thankfully this summer he went for the backup options instead of no one.

Plus all the players you mention as stalwarts of their clubs, are youth products, it seems it’s not only Arsenal whose bought in players do not spend the best part of their careers with them.

 7. Developed Amazing Youth Policy

I’ll tell you Celine what makes Wenger’s youth policy an amazing one, no other English club in the past 15 years has developed as many players to go on and play pro football for a living, yes most at other clubs and in lower leagues etc, but overall the club is developing a large number of players who are having a pro career – that’s a success for an academy. 

Secondly Arsene Wenger has overseen the total overhaul of how our academy is run, it was at his insistence that the club went right around the world looking at the best academies elsewhere(Ajax, Milan, Barca to name but three) and developing ours with the best bits from them, Hale End was set up, the training regime changed, etc, Wilshere, Gibbs, Szczesny, Lansbury etc are the first group of players to come through since the overhaul of our academy and by the looks of them we are going along the right lines,

Again Celine I fail to see what Pires, Lehman etc have to do with the topic of youth academy but I will deal with the point you raise on them anyway.

Pires, Edu, Gallas and Flamini all left on free transfers, but it is totally inaccurate to say there was a “refusal to extend(their contracts) by the club, all four have admitted that they were offered new deals, and in fact in all but Flamini’s case, they have all said Arsenal offered them bigger wages than they got elsewhere.

Now of the others you names, Toure went for a massive fee/profit, as did Hleb and Clichy, so they really did not just walk away.

Myth 8 He is in conflict with the board?

Now as the author of the article you mention in this point, please where in it does it even suggest that there has been conflict for the last six years, you know it does not and so it’s totally disingenuous to suggest otherwise. Plus the article makes it clear that despite not wanting to sell Cesc or Nasri, Wenger agreed it had to be done.

The main point of conflict this summer is the maximum wage Arsenal can offer, and Wenger, as recently as Friday, has once again warned that this has to change or we very much risk losing the likes of RVP, TV5, Theo, Song and AA, and for me clearly backs the information I relayed in the said article.

And as to why Wenger has not walked, there are more than the two options you mention, what if he has been promised that in the coming seasons a lot more money will be available to him to sign the players he needs, or that FIFA/UEFA will implement the FFP rules and so we will not be at the disadvantage we are currently versus the sugar daddy clubs; or what about the possibility Wenger actually loves Arsenal, and wants to do all he can to help the club at this time. It may be that simply he is honourable and does not break contracts.

Myth 9 Wenger Teams Have Mental Strength

Now excuse me Celine, despite you raising some interesting points in this section, I can not for the life of me see anything on the actual topic of this section (Wenger teams have mental strength), so maybe you can point them out for me and I will respond accordingly.

Myth 10 Wenger the thinking fan’s manager

Again Celine I’m not clear where the points on topic of this section are,

As for the points you raise,

All I’ll ask is what top managers are good losers, Fergie, Mourinho, Kenny, twitchy, do me a favour,

Have Arsenal any greater turnover of players than other teams?

Most journos actually say Wenger answers way more questions than any counterpart

Now just how many or who are all these managers who dislike Wenger, - you will probably say Big Fat Sam, Hughes, Jol and Pulis, well look into these four and you will find that they have had major conflict with each other too, wasn’t it only in the last 12 months that Hughes had big rows with Jol and Pulis.

You say “For those in the public eye, you have to be either a hero or a zero in the modern era. You can’t be in grey, and in between”, but is this fair, and why can’t there be different shades if we so like.

As for your “The entire standpoint of those who can never countenance losing Wenger” is to borrow another one of your phrases “a different thing altogether”, as 99.9% of those reading your thread on Arsenal Times are not of that standpoint.

So what will Wenger’s legacy be?

Well again Celine I have to take you to task on the idea that when Wenger came to the club we had our best ever defence, yes they had been great, but their heyday had been several seasons before, in fact in GG’s last season this best ever defence had let in 49 league goals(6^th best in FAPL that season), finished 12^th in the league, Bruce Rioch had even gone to a five man defence to try and shore it up(Wenger used this for most of his first season too), and in BR’s season it was the 5^th best defence in the FAPL, it wasn’t till the introduction of PV4 and then Petit that the defence became great again, but hey lets ignore Wenger’s part in this. The last time before Wenger it was the FAPL best defence was 93-94 letting in 28, but we were 11^th best scoring team that season.

As for Henry being superhuman and doing what he liked, funny he did not do so at Monaco, Juve or for France, it was not till Wenger helped him that he became superhuman

Now you say “Wenger rallies against clubs spending absurd money in the modern age, but to most clubs, in those days, we were doing just that” and again I say piffle and nonsense, even in the early and trophy laden years of Wenger we had very little loss on transfer activity.

Plus Gazidis did not say that Wenger will never be sacked, he said it’s not on the agenda now and he does not see it being done anytime soon, so not the same thing is it really?