I was drawn in by the subject, title, and author; Arsene Wenger, “All of us have competition. My toughest was myself”, Amy Lawrence. From the surface it promised to be an article about Arsene Wenger’s soul-searching 12-month journey out of football purgatory. I poured myself a steaming cup of coffee, wondered what I would talk about after 12 months away, gathered my cushions around me on the couch, plugged in the laptop, and opened the article.
Yes! Wenger dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange: speaking of how he can have lunch with someone now and not have to leave in the middle of the best part in order to make another commitment he says “I discovered that freedom of time in front of you. It is a good feeling.”
I know exactly what he means. Our attention is our only commodity. Having that freedom to give someone attention in person for even a few minutes is so valuable.
Think about all of the ways that you currently pay attention. You pay attention to me, right now reading this. You pay attention to Twitter. You pay attention to Facebook or Instagram, Slack, Trello, Whatsapp, Gmail, sometimes even the other humans around you, Arseblog, the official dot com site, and how many podcasts do you have lined up?
Our attention is a finite commodity. We don’t even know how much of it we have. We have all been taught to budget our money. I wonder how many of us budget our attention?
Me? I walk every morning with the dog. I often just stare up at the sky. One day it’s razor sharp blue. The next soft white and grey. And one morning there was even a thick fog – tiny little charged particles swept across my skin, raising the hairs, and I thought of the people who passed before me and how their “atoms never stop vibrating”.
I know what it feels like to have time for self. It’s indulgent.
And then I return from my moment of self-indulgence and the article on Arsene Wenger turned into an advertisement for some football analytics product.
My 7am alarm goes off.
I stop the article.
I’ve got to go pay attention to my daughter.
Thinking about the sports university that Wenger was talking about though. That would have been a product to raise Arsenal in status above other european sports teeams even though it may not have had any direct impact on improving our performance as a team.
Would have loved to have seen that happen at Arsenal.
Barcelona and Real Madrid both have something like this. But yes, the idea is very appealing. It’s a shame we’re not using Wenger’s knowledge and experience. I understand why, but I don’t understand why we’re also destroying his legacy at the same time.
How are we destroying his legacy?
Honest question.
Tom, the legacy is a culture. Arsenal are going out of their way to say this is no longer the same Arsenal. The decision to withdraw Ramsey’s contract offer was a message. The attempt to force Ozil out is a message. The non contract offer to Welbeck the same. Emery’s style of football. There is no way that is set up to extract the best out of the players at the club, and the reluctance to use the youth palpable.
Did you watch the two part interview with our co-directors? Apart from all the lip service, it was everything we’ve done is awesome, everything that is wrong is the previous regime’s fault (but we’ll take credit for their signings). I understand it is PR. This whole culture change at Arsenal is also PR. I don’t understand them throwing away their greatest strength (the values spiel) in favour of Raul’s ‘I am King’ projection. Because that’s all this is. A consolidation of power over a multi million dollar business (and see his eyes light up at talk of interacting with agents in the transfer market)
I firmly believe actions speak louder than words so no, I didn’t watch it.
But than again I stopped paying attention to what Arsenal brass say a while back , but I do see your point.
Hi Shard. Is Wenger’s legacy so weak that any attempt by the current regime to distant itself from the previous one will tarnish it? I think not. It would take some terrible piece of information on Wenger to take the shine off his legacy and even then I have my doubts. Its not unusual for an incoming regime to distant itself from the outgoing one given the well known malaise surrounding the club in the last couple of years. In the end its nothing more than words and the final judgement will be passed based on actions, as Tom said.
Btw, Shard, sorry about the election results in your country.
I missed the last post after Tim’s “ I’m so jaded I’m not gonna post for a while” head fake( good one).
Now you know how some of us were feeling after Trump won and the realization that some of our closest friends and family members voted for him.
Modi was already PM in 2014. I was never not sympathetic about Trump, but there are major differences in both their characters and the circumstances that led to them.
I don’t want to make it a competition about who is worse. Let’s just say both are really bad.
Your article reminded me of a man I worked for. I didn’t partially like him but he told me some things that I’ve never forgotten.
The first that he only expected people to work half a day and he didn’t care which 12 hours it was. He also taught me to be selfish with my time. The demands on your time are limitless and you have to learn to manage it. Wenger is basically saying he has shifted those demands from must do to want to do. And I hope he feels better in himself for being able to do that.
The final thing that my old boss introduced me to was quality of information which has a significant impact on how you are able to use your time. On his desk he had a quote from Lord Kelvin:
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind”
That could have been written for you Tim
That Kelvin quote does get at Tim’s stats-heavy pieces, but doesn’t line up with the many other kinds of articles he writes here which aim at the ineffable. Life isn’t always quantifiable, nor should it be.
I couldn’t agree more but that why the quote says “When you can measure what you are speaking about”
When you talk about those things that cannot or should not be quantified using numbers, then don’t
There’s a quote I love by the artist Camille Pisarro, “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” The way I see it, living in a very busy, very populous, very stressful city, it’s about being absolutely determined that you will not sway from one of your purposes – to notice that beauty all around you, in the most unexpected of places. I don’t succeed all the time, because, well, I’m fallible and I’m human, but I do more often than not. And it leads me to a multitude of little epiphanies, partly because I know that the attention paid has led to that moment. It makes me look odd, I’m sure, as I’m stood staring at a wall with just the right amount of accidental paint and scuff marks to constitute something which to me is gorgeous – but it doesn’t matter, because that’s more important than the strange looks I met get.
So yeah, I loved that too, that lunch quote. I wish I had that kind of time, but I nonetheless got it in my own way. I’ve found a way to keep my brain from meltdown and to triumph, occasionally. That’s sometimes enough. And, for all the joy – no, JOY – that Wenger gave me for a number of years, I would happily grant him that time for the remainder of his days.
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” – Camille Pisarro
“I see metaphor in everything.” – Tim
I am like you.
Actually, while I’m on the topic, this place is a bit like that. I left social media a while ago for a variety of reasons, but blogs and independent websites like this can be an equivalent to those moments of joy. When you find the right one it feels a bit like an exhalation. You can relax into it and simply soak things up. I’ve mostly done that here. That’s due to you, Tim, and to those who comment too. I like it here. That you’ve recently opened up about some of the personal issues in your life is pretty much testament to that too, I reckon. Anyway, I wish everyone well, and I wish you well Tim, which is by way of saying thank you.
Nicely said. I second all of this.
It’s the sounds of science! Hot damn, a Paul’s Boutique pull, it’s going to be a good Friday. Maybe, ha.
beautiful. existential piece, mate, finding and working that genius
hats off to you too fusbynumbles
Hi nyc.
That’s not what I meant by Wenger’s legacy. I’m not focused on what they are saying about Wenger. I’m concerned by what it means for Arsenal. We’re throwing away what we should have been building on. Through our actions.