Congratulations 'Arsene Who?' |
Looking like a professor with his round specs, speaking fluent English with a deep rounded French accent; 'Arsene Who' had signed as the new Arsenal manager on 30th September and seemed the happiest man in the world.
Professor 'Who' signed for Arsenal in September 1996 |
Skip forward a few years and Arsene had become the most sought after manager in the world of football. We had won the double convincingly and with style, something Arsenal had not seen since the 70's.
Exciting new foreign players like Vieira had arrived and ageing stalwarts Adams, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Seaman, Parlour had all gotten fitter, faster and more intelligent on the pitch despite their already legendary status, they had improved greatly.
Tony 'Mr Arsenal' Adams had his career extended and improved under Wenger -Thank-You! |
'Arsene Who' introduced unique training methods and dietary improvements to the club which have since been adopted throughout the football leagues in this country and Europe.
'Arsene Who' was now affectionately referred to as Arsene Wenger - Genius.
Over the next few years, Arsenal, under AW's tutorage, won further league titles, FA Cups including an unprecedented unbeaten league title season with a run of 49 games only cut short of 50+ by a cheating ManU performance. What a surprise that was!
Ah the glory days! |
We skip through to 2011 and Arsene Wenger is celebrating 15 years in charge at our beloved club.
Then and Now - fortunately Wenger discovered contact lenses! |
I suppose not winning a trophy since the 2005 FA cup Final against bitter rivals ManU will be a major contributing factor to that opinion.
It's not like we haven't come close. We have fallen short on many occasions for many reasons. Player fatigue, injury, poor refereeing decisions, bad luck, there are so many reasons/excuses for our lack of trophies, the most poignant reason being the influx of Oil money that has overtaken, and spoilt, in my opinion, the Premier League in the last 6 years.
I won;t bother going into that though, I've had y ay on that subject on previous blogs and it real serves no purpose.
We WILL see Jack and Vermaelen emulating this scene again soon, I know it! |
We have been consistent under Wenger's tenure, qualifying for the Champions League in every season since AW joined the club. No other team can claim that, not even money bags, cheating, ref buying ManU.
We have witnessed the most sublime, pure, sexy football anyone has ever seen in this country with some of the most skilful legendary players such as Henry, Bergkamp and that philosophy has seen us produce players with rare talent like Jack Wilshere who I am proud to say is Arsenal through and through and will lead us into a bright future thanks to Wenger.
Legends, simply Legends |
'The Grove' home to Arsenal FC |
We seem to always be looking to the future, with our young players, and a multitude of missed chances at winning titles it's often been "oh there's always next year"
We're all fed up of saying that, but despite our recent trophy woes I still think we ALL owe our beloved clubs' manager a warm message of congratulations for all he has done whilst wishing him our luck and support for what he intends to do to get us back to the days of glory we had prior to 2006.
Le Professeur |
Le Bouffon |
It is the honourable, classy thing to do.
Arsene Wenger and the squad will prosper more if they can ride the waves of our vociferous support both at The Grove, from our living rooms and everywhere around the world where Gooners of all shapes, creeds and race await impatiently for a new reason to celebrate.
That day will come and I trust Wenger to deliver it to us.
So, Congratulations Arsene and thank you for 15 years, may there be many more filled with glory and shiny metal.
Arsene to Herbert; "My bust's bigger than yours"! |
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