Arsene Wenger’s autobiography is going to be released in a few days and ahead of the formal release date, parts are being serialized in the Times (London). As with most things of this nature my local library has a subscription and thus I have access. If your local public library doesn’t have the Times, check out your local state university or community college. They almost always have a subscription to these large papers (NY Times, Times of London) as they are considered papers of record. And public university libraries will almost always have some resources for the taxpaying public. Although, with COVID lockdowns they might be difficult to access.
I don’t have time or energy to do a thoughtful post on this topic today but I did want to share some notes I’m taking from the articles. Remember, these are all Wenger’s own words (or very close) and so count as a direct quote. I will just leave those quotes here without comment.
—
“At the time, it was a very traditional club. In fact, the wives and guests were kept in a different room from the directors. I smoked back then. At half-time, I was chatting to a friend of David Dein’s wife and she offered me a light.
“And so, thanks to that cigarette, to my reasonable English, and to that conversation, I found myself invited to David’s house that evening. He had said to me”We’ll talk about football.” I mainly recall a very sociable evening with a lot of laughter and games, a kind of charades. I seem to recall one of the subjects they asked me to enact was A Midsummer Night’s Dream – no easy task – and I got through it pretty well! The friendship, complicity and understanding between David and me date from that first dinner.”
—
“Tony was battered and physically damaged, and he didn’t like training. I never knew whether he was going to be able to play on the Saturday, like an actor who doesn’t rehearse his part, but on matchdays he was always there.
Dennis Bergkamp, a perfectionist whom I never saw make a careless technical move, had arrived a year before me, bought from Inter Milan. He had had a difficult first season but I knew he was a fantastic player, thathe needed to be given the ball and to control the game to show all he was capable of. Dennis saw things fast, moved fast, decided fast, and and executed with perfection and elegance.
Then there was Ian Wright, who those around him sometimes found hard to control, his opponents especially. He was an extrovert, hyperactive and had endured an extremely hard life. His playing style was instinctive and he had a killer instinct, a player like no other.”
—
“We bought Patrick Vieira from AC Milan just as he was about to sign for Ajax in Amsterdam. I managed to convince him and his agents that he should come to Arsenal.”
—
“I was supposedly made the players eat broccoli morning, noon, and night. It was not true, especially as I’m not all that keen on broccoli.
However, it is true that Yann helped to drastically change the players’ eating habits. For example, instead of the famous chocolate bars and fizzy drinks at half-time, we gave them caffeine drops on a sugar lump. Of course they were hungry at first but they soon got over that.”
—
“It all started with a radio presenter, a Spurs supporter, so I have been told. I had apparently been spotted in disreputable locations, in preposterous situations, and the newspapers had incriminating photos. Flabbergasted, I asked them to produce the photos.”
—
“As always in cases like these, there were some objective journalists, and there were others who do not deserve a mention. Some went so far as to question my family, former team members, players and clubs where I had been in the past. They even went to my partner Annie’s house in the south of France and waited for her to go out to question her son who was 12 years old aand ask him how I behaved around him, what kind of stepfather I was.
“It was intolerable. I wondered whether the world had gone mad, how such lies could be written without any evidence or truth, just to smear a man with no regard for the possible consequences.”
—
“At first [Henry] was perhaps a little clumsy in his finishing and he was unsure of himself. He didn’t think he could score. He needed to be taught to believe in himself, to find a way around his shyness, his nervousness his fears, while at the same time knowing that his doubts also helped him to progress and be stronger. He was very quick at analyzing everything and how he needed to react. This capacity to evaluate, understand and question oneself is the mark of great players.”
—
“When I called a press conference to announce the arrival of a new player, and Sol Campbell walked in to the room full of journalists, it was a bombshell. Joining us after so many years at Spurs was an outstanding act of courage. And what we feared, knowing the supporters, their passion, their fury, came to pass: he often had a difficult life in London, he had to deal with banners calling him a traitor, a Judas. For me, he was a man who had great qualities, an outstanding defender with phenomenal power. He had an enormous impact in his five seasons with us and the club would not have been the same without him.”
—
“It’s one of the great regrets of my life that I lost [Cole] to Chelsea, thanks to a misunderstanding in the negotiations with his agent.”
—
” We had all endeavored to develop a unique spirit specific to that particular team. A performance culture. Each player had to have a clear picture of areas that needed improving. This was the moment the team really integrated the values I felt were important: suddenly, my project became theirs and they ran with it for 49 matches. I remember that everything was important at that time, everything had to function to put us in a state of mind where all we thought about was the game and winning.
“During that time, I discovered something wonderful: we were no longer afraid of defeat. And with that fear removed, we could be better. We concentrated solely on what could make us win. And so I discovered another aspect of the job that I really loved and that made me even more passionate about it. Every day we had to become even more resolute about maintaining our shared expectations.
“We became Premier League champions five matches before the end of the season. But I did not want us to stop with that win. I thought we should maintain our effort, our expectations, and that this dream of a life without defeat should continue. I was congratulated them for the win but said it was not enough: that they could, we could, become immortal by continuing to win. They hung on until the 50th match, and they do know it now: they are immortal.”
Ah the dream of a life without defeat.
That was just lovely. Big thanks for sharing and whetting my appetite for the book. Without the least bit of hagiography, he looms ever large in the imagination: every bit “the dream of a life without defeat”.
The Cashley one hits especially hard for me. Now that the Wenger era has passed I really think he deserved more than what he got from 2008-15, look at how th Liverpool fans react to Klopp’s class and wisdom. We had that for 20+ years.
He deserved more.
What an eloquent man.
Recently in an interview, Wenger said he may have over stayed as a manager. Other than that pretty much perfect! I think he was the No. 1 Arsenal supporter during his time with us.
The Ashley Cole episode was a pain point for Arsenal, the first of many to be suffered at the hands of a “financially doped”* Chelsea and Jose Mourinho, who tapped him up and got off lightly. To think there was serious talk in this community about Mourinho managing Arsenal. That was never going to happen. Cole was tagged as a future Arsenal captain, was the best player in his position in the EPL for the past 25 years, and was homegrown. That hurt.
Loved the Sol Campbell extract too, on Sol’s impact.
*A classic Wengerism.
Want to respond to Doc, from last post, on… Ozil. Yeah, I can hear you groaning, but bear with me. It does relate, somewhat, to Wenger, and his attitude to his players. Plus, Mesut is bigly in the news this morning.
__________________
Doc, respect your POV. But if you think that “Arteta is well within his rights to bury him on the depth chart”, then I’m afraid we have a fundamental difference in our perception of values. But that’s OK. But if this is the case, can we all please stop waxing lyrical about Wengerian values?
You fire the player, not “bury” him. That is the Arsenal way, for as long as I’ve supported this club over 25 years. As Tim has said many times, you cannot transfer a contracted player who does not want to be transferred. So you’ve got to make him an offer he cannot refuse… contract cancelled, last year fully paid up. The Kroenkes can afford it. They prefer, through their coaches and club’s executive management, to break the player into submission. Arteta has no choice but to go along with this.
If he’s not making the Carabao bench, you’re saying in effect that he’s not one of your 30 best players, which is balls. Im not making a case for his return — he’s done, and I’ll breathe a sigh of relief when he gone. I’m making a case for Arsenal to act like a club with class.
And speaking of Arsenal acting classlessly. First time I heard of the name of the man in the Gunnersaurus suit was in Ozil’s calculated tweet this morning to pay his wages to save his job, not in an official Arsenal statement. This is not an organisation that values its employees. That said, Ozil’s was not an act of philantrophy… it was an act of war. Oh Im sure he means it and would do it (he does a lot for the underprivileged in Islington), but it was undeniably cynical. The player and the club are openly at war. He can’t control what the coach and management does, and his only weapons are social media. Plague on both their houses here.
In a way, this makes it easier for Arteta to cut him under the “homegrown” quotas rule. He was probably going to do so anyway.
I see your point about class, I agree that the club acts in monstrous ways around all these redundancies, and of course Özil’s action is a hit in that direction.
What I don’t agree however, is this position: “contract cancelled, last year fully paid up.”
Why would the club do that? This is purely a favor to Özil, and a zero benefit for them. In both cases their expense will be the same, but if he stays, they can still use him some shirts sales and for off-field marketing.
I agree that agreement on paying out makes sense for both parties, but it cannot be 100% on club’s expense. Mesut should also make a wage compromise, if he is interested to play again this year. This way he can even earn more money (if, say, agreement is reached that the club pays him 70% of his wages, and then he finds another club, where he gets half his current salary, he will earn 120% of his current deal).
If he prefers not to, however, then the things stay as they are. But I just wouldn’t blame the club for the lack of class (solely on this matter).
I am sorry Bai but you are making excuses for the club acting classless and trying to do what many love to do, which is use Ozil to soften the criticism of the club’s stance.
Arsenal fans are Arsenal fans, not Arsenal and Ozil fans. this thing with Mesut is not a marriage and the club will still exist well after Mesut is gone. When he is finally gone, the club’s behavior towards him and the reputation attained from these actions will not leave with Mesut, in the same way that a reputation for being violent does not go away when your enemy isn’t around any longer.
The true commitment in what you believe in is usually tested when that belief is benefiting your those you hate/dislike. Steve Biko valued and defended freedom of speech in South Africa, by both the blacks and the whites, even when he was being oppressed by the whites, and he died for it. Nelson Mandela went to prison after declaring that he was prepared to go to prison, or even die fighting white on black oppression AND black on white oppression, even when the whites were oppressing him, he spent 27 years in prison and came back and fought against a racial cleansing against whites. Those where in far worse circumstances for them and they were putting themselves in a position to lose their lives, but they upheld their values. I know there are instances where fighting fire with fire is necessary, and being from Africa I have seen many horrible situations that have called for that. But I have also seen the hatred from one group to another, used to instigate actions that go against the values of both. Those people lose who they are to spite or cause hurt to those they hate. These might be extreme, but I learned to apply these cases to everyday life and try o be a principled person.
When I see what is happening with this Arsenal and Ozil situation, I believe that a lot of people’s hatred for Mesut is blinding people into allowing the club to behave badly just to punish him. If the club truly stood for the “Wengerian values”, they would have shown it the most all along with Mesut. The club does not have to play him, does not have to praise him, or big him up in any way. The club does not stand to lose anything in treating Ozil with class and behaving accordingly. There is zero downside to following the “Wengerian values”, outside of accepting that the contract was a mistake.
I don’t think anyone would blame the club for trying to move past what everyone can see as a mistake (the new contract) because mistakes happen, that’s life. But it is shameful how a club, especially Arsenal, would treat a player in such a way over the length of his contract and have the fans blame the player for retaliating. The moment you say the club is not solely to blame, you agree that they are not behaving according to “Wengerian values”, but you also put Mesut on par with the club and justify the club’s behavior. We are supposed to be bigger than that, but the club keeps stooping to petty tactics against a player for the contract THEY gave him.
Its the equivalent of arguing with a fool, but with values, we are on the outside and far away, so now its hard to tell who is who. All It looks like, is that the club is at Ozil’s level, instead of being far bigger.
Arsene in all his years fought against his own emotions and sometimes failed, but we saw him try his best to live up to the values he stood for at the club. The club hasn’t shown anything to try and uphold those values when it comes to Ozil and even worse, are acting in the complete opposite way.
Like I said though, and Claude is 100% right. The club has to behave in a way that the fans can not only be proud of, but also feel represents them as people and upholds the history and values of this great club.
Ozil is only one man, who if treated well offers very little consequence to the club. Is he that much of a problem that the club has to forsake its values to deal with him? Is he worth Arsenal being seeing as a club that bullies its players to get out of contract? because I can assure you that the club will make similar mistakes, and have done so before Mesut. Walcott and Bendtner are recent examples, was how we dealt with their contracts so damaging that we had to behave in such a manner with Ozil?
Truthfully speaking, the club should know and do better. Their actions are embarrassing from my point of view.
Where is the club mistreating Ozil? The stuff about salary cuts and him refusing to take a salary cut? Or do you mean that to have class we need to play him?
The salary cut thing is a huge breach of trust for me. To have a player who already divides opinion to be be hung out to dry like that is too low for me. Protecting players by Arsene was one thing, but he never let Arsenal players be isolated and attacked in such a way, and he wouldn’t in a million years be the one to instigate such a thing. He had players that he loved leave the club, he never said anything negative about them.
That pay cut matter is a really big thing for me. It also “seems” like it was done to punish him for not only questioning their motives, but influencing the younger players (rightly so) to look into whatever it is that they were agreeing to, especially without their representation around.
The subsequent freezing out, for me was understandable from a tactical perspective, with the direction we are taking on the pitch. But from the Suarez deal in Emery’s first season, where we signed an injured player to play in his stead, to Emery’s assertion that it was a “club strategy” to freeze him out, to not even using him after the recent beak, or even just putting him on the bench for the remainder of the season where we had (no offence) Matt Smith there just took the cake for me.
What Arsenal are doing reminds me of what I heard about the Kaepernick situation, that yes he isn’t the greatest player to ever play football, but he isn’t good enough to even make our bench? All of a sudden, our most prolific creative player of all time isn’t good enough for this team? Its a strategy that is used a lot in Africa to destroy the careers of players.
I have actually spent time with a player who has had such a situation happen to him. his name is Rodney Ramagelela and he was a Polokwane City player. I was surprised when I met him at the gym once and I realised that he looked down. He was the team’s best ever goalscorer and was sent to train with the development team because he wouldn’t sign a new deal with the club. He told me how everyone would say that he is lucky to get paid to do nothing, but for footballers to get to the highest level, there is a drive that pushes them which hurts them when they don’t play. i worked out with him for the remaining 6 months of his deal because I was afraid that he would become suicidal.
So no matter who the player is, do not banish him to the u23 squad, do not make a player redundant, do not destroy a player’s career in the court of public opinion just because he isn’t what you need or doesn’t want to do what you prefer for him to do. How many such players do we have at Arsenal? How many of this squad do you see playing for Arsenal beyond the next two seasons? How is Sokratis being treated because we know he isn’t wanted? Mustafi?
If Ozil is causing issues to the collective in training sessions or on the pitch, then I can understand but there isn’t anything that Ozil has done on the pitch or in training to deserve this, and before anyone says we don’t know, do you think if they can reveal his name with the pay cut thing that they wouldn’t jump at the chance to call him a destabilizing presence if he did anything wrong?
like I said before, we don’t have to play him and we don’t owe him game time. But we handed out the contract and we have to treat him fairly until that contract is over. By fair, I mean that, whether you like him or hate him, Ozil can’t be outside of our best 30 players in the Arsenal squad with 8 central defenders, so why is he treated as such?
Treat him like what he is, a player for Arsenal football club. Not some sort of barrier to the team moving forward because of a contract we gave him.
interesting perspective. Um, but they have tried to move him so that he could play football. If he wanted to play football he’s had a huge number of chances because the club have actually worked extremely hard to get him deals with other clubs and even been willing to pay part of his salary. But Ozil has steadfastly refused to move. I knwo that players love to play and they are driven to play but this really sounds like a guy who doesn’t care about playing anymore.
I see what you mean about the club maybe not being so great but you have to admit that Ozil is also at least partly to blame here. He is the one who is sitting out and refusing to p;lay football.
No, Tim. Ozil is not “sitting out and refusing to play football.” I mean, even Arteta says otherwise. The player is “training well”, says the coach, who also says that he is merely one of several options that he has.
The club is freezing out the player, to send him the clear message that he’s not wanted. Different people are going to react differently to that (I’d have left). Look we can either support the club’s stance, or not support it. But it is not because the player has refused to play.
Let me be clear. It’s not about playing him to show that we have class (I said several times that he’s done at Arsenal, and is better off gone). It’s how the club goes about ensuring the player’s departure, which I do not agree with. Pay him off, buy him out, tear up his contract. That’s what properly run businesses would do, regarding a contract that they want off their books. If the employee is in breach of the terms of his contract, you sack him. The club is goin about pressuring the player out by creating a hostile working environment. That is not what AFC should do.
I promise you that none of us would accept that means of being “managed out” of an organisation. It’s weird how folks attitude to proper treatment of employees changes because (1) football, and (2) he earns a trucktonne.
Ozil has never trained well. It’s weird that people keep mentioning that one quote by Arteta which I took to be more of an encouragement.
No a properly run business absolutely would not just hand the player $13m, tear up the contract and say “here, go make another $5m somewhere else!”
The club’s not pressuring him into anything. There’s zero movement on his end. They can’t force him out. And if they were, he would have a case for constructive dismissal – in other words, if he were being “forced out” or mistreated, he could sue the club and win the value of his contract and get to play somewhere else.
It’s telling that he’s not doing that.
He’s not being played, guys, because he’s not good enough.
Arteta says he is doing precisely that!!! Training well. No disrespect…I’m going with the coach on this.
Who wouldn’t put their all into striving for selection after not even being considered for a 25-a-side, mixed gender friendly kickabout?
FGS, let us put our BS detectors to work. When Arteta came, the player started almost every game. Now he can’t make an an 18 for the 4th tier competition, and it is clear reading between the lines from the chatter from both sides that it is a deliberate deep-sixing. Mikel gets asked about this at almost every news con, pre and post game.
Im glad you mentioned constructive dismissal. One of the ways you do that is to create an intolerable working environment. Like you know, engaging in a sort of professional humiliation of the player — senior pro, turning up for training, “training well” (according to his coach) but not even sniffing a squad of any kind since the restart. You do not have to be Bob Woodward to note the swerve, or to see that it goes beyond the football.
Arsenal are going about “managing out” the player in the cowardly way. Paying up on a contract you dont want is not “handing over” money to the employee. Jesus wept! None of us would like being chucked out of an organisation for which we had a fixed term contract for non-disciplinary reasons and not get our money! Why does 13m or whatever alter our thinking?
There’s something a bit disconnected about lauding Wenger the man, and supporting treating players in a way he would not.
Arteta said it once, after multiple times either demuring the question or outright criticizing the player.
Since you trust only Arteta:
“We are picking the players that we believe are the best for each game. You can see we keep training, it’s what we’re trying to do.
“You can see that the players we are changing, we are using, it’s very difficult every week not for Mesut but for some other players as well to make the squad. Every week we try to pick the right players.
“It’s difficult for others as well that aren’t involved in the Premier League and didn’t play tonight either. We have a squad of 26, 27 players at the moment and we can’t give playing time to all of them.
“Of course I understand and I respect your questions but I have to try to do my job as fair as possible. I try to select the players that are, in my opinion, in better condition.”
I guess Ozil is both not fit and also not the best player.
Honestly, I do not understand the analogies with racism and hate that you make.
I do not agree with club’s stance over many other issues, and I agree that they have acted classless so often recently.
But I just don’t think that it is a question of class to refuse to make gifts. Even when we talk about cancellation of a contract, this is a contracts negotiations, and they have to be beneficial for both parties. It is not club’s decision to keep Özil around, it was his, and sitting around doing nothing is exactly what it means “to decide yourself when to leave”, when you are not in clubs plans.
And I don’t know what would have Wenger done in this situation. Probably he would have not allowed to devolve that far, he would have convinced the player who he didn’t need to move much earlier. But I don’t think that he would have given him a year of salary just like that.
Cancel a contract and pay off the last year is a favour, Bai? Methinks, fellow gooner, that you need a crash course in employment law.
Can you please elaborate what am I missing?
Of course, I know that it is very often that some high executives are let go and paid up completely for the remaining of their contract. I believe this was the case even with Wenger (let go one year earlier) and Unai. But these are situations when the company can have only one person at that position and keeping the incumbent person around will be extremely counterproductive.
At the same time, in all the cases of resource actions for lower level employees that I have seen, there is some kind of compromise between the employer and the employee. It can be a sabbatical with no return (when the employee still gets a salary, but a reduced one, for an extended period of time), early retirement (where the employer covers the pension for the employee instead of ) or a simple severance payment. But in all cases the action has to bring some financial benefit to the employer.
In the case of a football player, I don’t see the necessity of paying out the remaining of his contract. There is no immediate benefit for the club of having the player off the books (a replacement can work on his position without obstruction), and financially the total amount due is the same.
Under almost identical circumstances, Aubameyang just signed a contract extension. What do you think he makes of the treatment of a player to whom he is close off the field? (He, Ozil and Kolasinac are gaming buddies). The players are watching the club humiliate a senior pro they think no longer serves their needs. How does that help the dressing room?
It is somewhat convenient to assert that he’s not good enough anymore. No question he isn’t the player he used to be, but let us analyse the situation in totality. I can agree with his axing as a big game player. But there’s not good enough to start or be in an 18 man EPL matchday squad, and there’s not good enough to make a Community Shield or Carabao Cup squad. Does anyone believe that, ability wise, he has gone from big game starter to not even being considered one of the best 30 players at the club since the pandemic break? Now he’s not even good enough for a 4th tier squad? Really You believe that? It is as clear a deep-sixing as you’ll ever see.
The club shouldn’t put the players through this. Bite the bullet; do a clean break with the player. The player is under no obligation to be forced out of a contract his club willingly and properly entered into with him.
btw, he’s been axed from the Europa squad too.
Great question!
The players all seem to be in excellent mood, they are working hard for each other on the pitch, laughing, fighting for each other. I think this is the best mood this squad has had in three years. I mean, Auba is playing wide left in a position which doesn’t really suit him and doing so with relish as the captain. Plus, it looks like the players love that we are growing the young players and there is every indication that everyone fully supports Arteta and his vision.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that happens when notoriously disruptive and lazy trainers, players who didn’t want to follow the plans, and who have outsized egos have been dropped from the rotation.
An interesting article today on Arseblog, which reminded me of a light hearted interview with Aaron Ramsey, a few year’s back.
Interviewer: Who is Arsene Wenger”s teacher’s pet?
Ramsey: Probably Mesut. He gets a few extra days off than the rest of us. He’s always in the boss’s room asking for something … and he seems to get it.
Straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
The thing is footballers are by no means stupid. They quickly work out when one player gets preferential treatment.
Mikel Arteta said quite categorically that the whole squad start off from an equal footing. To back down from that position one iota would be managerial suicide. It seemed to me that Emery never handled the situation properly. In short, he backed down. He certainly did at PSG, where the senior players walked allover him.
It is perfectly possible that Mesut might have expected some form of preferential treatment. Who knows? He was the marquee signing after all. Remember the fuss he made about having the number 10 shirt?
Basically from there, the relationship could only go one way. Downhill.
What we are seeing now is the endgame.
I just watched his farewell speech last night. The whole crowd and their reactions to him leaving was something I had never seen before. Ferguson left after winning the title and Wenger left after his worst season ever, but the emotions of those saying goodbye were very different. With Ferguson, it was like people just celebrating and saying goodbye, but the emotions were not there. I guessed that is what you get when you prioritised success, in any form and over everything. With Arsene, it was like people were saying goodbye to a father, a leader, a focal point of the way they viewed football and by extension, life itself.
I spent so much time navigating through the hardships of life, but Arsene’s Arsenal have always been a huge influence on how I carry myself. The way he carried himself, his words and what he believed was right, is how I still try to live. How Arsenal have been down and out but somehow kept our heads up, is how I try to be in my life.
I even took Arsene’s quotes and created a book, which I read at least once a month. It might be wierd, but after I failed my third year in varsity and lost my bursary, it was that his words that kept me going and how the man himself continued even after the 8-2 drubbing, he always tried to stay strong.
It’s wierd to say, but I wouldn’t be who I am without Arsene, and this book is gonna be a prized possession for me.
Oh, and Partey is a good player. But he doesn’t do anything that Elneny doesn’t do. I wish him well though.
Not gonna let you get away with that one Devlin! lol Partey is a way more accomplished, skilled and faster player than Mo. We’ll see in a few months, but I expect him to make an impact for us that’s considerable.
umm.. in the immortal words of Donald Trump “wrong.” Partey is a massive, nay leviathan, upgrade on Elneny and I look forward to you saying “wow, I was wrong about that”.
Hahaha…… Just have the stats ready Tim.
He is no defensive midfielder and we would have been better off getting Marc Roca, who went to Bayern for 16 million. Partey is the Elneny type of player, maybe slightly better (I doubt), but not worth the 100 million investment in him.
I am standing tall on this one guys, don’t underestimate the value and quality of Elneny. He might not be a big money signing, but he is not that far off quality wise. And if Partey is better, he is damn sure not 40 million euros better, not even 10.
I will however write a long and humble “wow, i was wrong about that” post here to you Tim and LAGUNNER. Because in the long run, I want to see Arsenal get beck to what we are and if partey does that, I get my Arsenal back.
and Oh, I will not judge him on this season if he doesn’t do well.he has to come to a new team, country, league and culture. It would be unfair if he doesn’t do well, but if he does just fine, I will regard him as a worth the money and admit I was wrong.
The first rock album I bought with my own (paper route!) money was a Van Halen one. Had no idea Eddie Van Halen had cancer, so the news today came as a shock. RIP.
Sorry for off topic, but there are a few musicians among us, I believe!
I am happy to say that Son-of-1-Nil has some talent at piano and is currently receiving classical conservatory training perhaps with a mind to teach one day as a side gig, who knows?
At a music industry function a few years I was sharing a video recording of his recitation of Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, perhaps one of Mozart’s most famous pieces and recognizable melodies.
Behind me, I hear, “Whoa, whoa, what the f&$k is that?” and it’s none other than Eddie van Halen. We had a great chat about Son-of-1-Nil’s playing and mostly Mozart, who we both adore. You may know he named his son Wolf, after him.
Great conversation with what seemed a genuinely nice man. I’ll be honest, I never got into Van Halen but you’d be daft not to acknowledge what a prodigy Eddie was. Anyway, that’s my van Halen story and I’m sticking to it!
What a great story! Sounds like music really runs in your family. You must be proud!
Yeah, my Van Halen fandom was short and sweet — didn’t last beyond 5051 — but I always had massive respect for EVH, and I have fond memories of my junior high jazz band teacher being obsessed with him. I kept thinking…how am I going to do THAT with a trumpet??? He insisted there was a way and told me I was too focused on the externals.
I also grew up classically trained Royal Conservatory (piano and French horn)…helped immeasurably when I finally switched to my beloved guitar at the age of 16, which I learned by ear. Still can’t really sight read with guitar!
Also, I swear I could just mention any musician, and you’d have a story, and I’d love it!
I’m impressed Bunburyist – really. You’ve got music in your veins. A good thing from my completely unbiased perspective.
Thank you for those extracts. A tantalising taster of the great man’s pearls of wisdom. I look forward to reading the book itself. I believe that we have now found a worthy successor who is rebuilding a team to match the best that Arsene built.
Very cool!
Thanks for sharing.
I knew that Wenger had lost his edge towards the end as the EPL moved from intelligence to power. Probably Chelsea under Mourinho were the first but now it’s the only game in town. Sadly.
I went to my first game at Highbury in 1966 and saw some pretty awful games. But I can only say that now having seen how Wenger changed the team. Before that we had some decent teams. The 1991 was one of the best and save a lost to Chelsea, would have gone unbeaten. Wenger changed almost every facet of the club with only strange traditions like all the shirts have to be either short or long sleeves on match day. Trivial but important all the same.
I admired how he sought to protect his players from criticism and can only remember one instance where he singled out an individual player: Nelson Vivas when he allowed Leeds to score at Elland Road and deny us consecutive championships. How that must have hurt. Looking after players such as Diaby and Cazorla when injury impacted their careers. I know it wasn’t his money but name me another manager that would have done what he did.
So with all that, Wenger could have stayed as Arsenal manager for as long as he wanted as far as I was concerned. He earned that respect time and time again.
There would have just be one caveat. Don’t do a Brian Clough and get us relegated.
I like Arteta and in hindsight I’m glad he left for Manchester City even though it was quite the surprise at the time. Everyone needs many teachers and Pep Guardiola is one of the best. But Arteta was a thinking player. And he’s become a thinking manager. Much in the mould of both Wenger and Guardiola
“It was intolerable. I wondered whether the world had gone mad, how such lies could be written without any evidence or truth, just to smear a man with no regard for the possible consequences.”
It’s called an “Exclusive” these days
Yes, that 1960’s side were pretty average. Billy Wright as manager? Not a great idea. In fairness though, he did start to put together the youth policy, which bore fruit with the 1971 double winning side. I suppose the worst thing about that time, was that Spurs had the ascendency, although I do remember Arsenal winning at White Hart Lane, around that time.
A lot of credit has to go to Wenger, for keeping Arsenal’s head above water financially, during the stadium move. He basically balanced the books.
Prior to this, Leeds United had spent a whole lot of money they didn’t have, on players, gambling on the fact that they would get into Europe. When they didn’t, the whole thing collapsed like a pack of cards. Relegation, bankruptcy, a whole load of owners who were basically disreputable. It has taken them literally decades to get back on their feet. A salutary lesson to other clubs, at the time. We could have easily gone the same way.
Leeds did get into the Champions League, semi-finalists in the early 2000s as I recall. I guess that was not enough to balance the books, and collapse followed as you have recounted.
The 1991 team, on the other hand, was a wonderful side. I don’t think George Graham got nearly enough credit for that. As you correctly point out, they were an inch away from going the season unbeaten. Around that time, we were starting to see the emergence of black players. Rocastle, Davis and Thomas in midfield. “The Three Degrees” as they were affectionately known. Such casual racism! Wouldn’t be acceptable now, obviously.
Nice quotes Tim, lovely read.
Thank you.
like many, i’m looking forward to reading this book. so many times, we’ve seen arsene be brilliant off the cuff so when he has time to sit down and carefully express himself, that should be a treat, indeed. at some point, everyone wishes arsene wenger managed the team they support. we had this man’s brilliance at the helm for two decades.
i know tim is sick of discussing mesut but it’s not going away. without going too deep in the weeds, i’ll say this; the only way to get mesut back in the side is a move away from the back three. as long as arsenal plays a back 3, mesut simply doesn’t fit. it doesn’t matter how good he is. it makes sense that he hasn’t played since arsenal have come back from the shutdown; arteta’s changed the set up. maybe the thomas signing will grant arsenal that luxury, although i believe the back three with a double-pivot is extremely conservative. we’ll see how arteta uses the ghanaian.
as for thomas, i’m interested to see how well he adjusts to the league and the team. arteta has said all the right things about him. i agree with devlin that we don’t know how much better thomas is than elneny. i think it’s that everyone is either expecting too much from thomas or has set the bar so low for elneny. i believe somewhere in between is where the truth lies. what’s bad about the current build of the team is that arsenal are heavy with african players again. during the afcon, arsenal will lose thomas and elneny as well as aubameyang and pepé. that will be unpleasant.
…and tierney is in a 14-day quarantine. the good news just doesn’t stop.
question: who do you guys think arteta is gonna drop from the non-homegrown list? he’s gotta drop two. arsenal still has players we all thought would leave like sokratis, mustafi, and kolasinac. will he really drop mesut? i’m interested.
Ozil and Sokratis have been already dropped from the EL list so I would guess them.
Lovely quotes. I don’t read many football books but I will have to pick this one up.
I hugely respect Devlin’s football chops but wow, a couple of clangers up there from my perspective.
Think about what you’re saying… you’re saying that the club that has had Mo for years and the same club that has scouted Thomas for years somehow can’t see that the two players are of the same level? If they truly were of the same level then that implies either a) Mo is WAY better than we thought or b) Thomas is WAY worse than he seems. If A is true, why hasn’t anyone else caught on? And if B is true, how does he keep starting for a top club like Ateltico, let alone the stuff about how virtually everyone at Arsenal liking him to the point that the club just plonked 50 million in one go for his services?
I am sorry Dr, I think I might have failed to express my thoughts well enough about the two players. What I meant to say was that they are the same type of player , but Partey is of a higher level.
They share the same attributes in that they are both very sharp passers, do not play too many long balls, very alert defensively and cover well, play central midfield and defensive midfield, good at beating the initial man of the press, shoot very well and are tireless runners. I just think the scouting of the past 4 years has been very flawed and led by too many different people to have a clear picture of the players they have and those they want.
Partey is obviously taller and stronger of the two, but in game they do the same things. Partey is just slightly better. I however think that Elneny is far better than he is given credit for, and if we reward players with game time on performances, he will surprise a lot of people. he just isn’t a big enough name.
From what I have seen of him, I think Partey isn’t as good as most think he is (I hope he is amazing), isn’t what they think he is and that he isn’t that far better than Elneny. He starts because he was the right player for Atletico. To play for Simeone, you have to have certain attributes and fit into a particular structure. Many players left because they were not the right player, but were better than the starters individually.
Partey is good for a particular type of team and Arsenal kinda looks like the one which he suits right now, which is also why Elneny is all of a sudden such a prominent part of the team.
I hope Partey is as good as many expect, but from his previous games, I do not see him bringing our level higher than it currently is. I hope I am wrong and will gladly say so if I am.
Might it be, that within the squad setting, we actually need both?
Appreciate the clarification. I don’t have a nuanced viewpoint on Thomas, not really, other than all the journalism I’ve consumed on the player in recent days. I do know Mo’s game though. I think the loan has been great for his confidence, as is the trust of his new manager. We signed him in the first place for a reason, and he is showing some of those qualities now. It’s reasonable to say let’s wait and see how much better Thomas really is, but damn, it would be a huge miss if he wasn’t a substantial upgrade on Mo, bless him.
Ozil’s situation didn’t start out as a footballing thing. The club decided to destroy everything that Wenger had built. Ramsey was attacked and defamed, Kos the same. They left.
Ozil had made two commitments when he signed. To us, and to his new family. He decided to brazen it out. He’s quiet but stubborn that way . This is a battle that never should have happened. You can say it shows he doesn’t care but I think it shows he cares a lot.
I don’t think he’s going to play again for us and that’s fine. And I get the cynicism of his actions too. But he understands Wengerian values, the same thing that built this club up, more than the people running Arsenal.
If the club is going to be just another soulless corporation , what even is the point?
I hear there’s an audiobook version with up to 10 hours of Wenger narrating. If that’s true I’m buying that! I could listen to him speak forever. What a man!
Guys, I don’t know the employment law well enough, but I just remembered that Hatem Ben Arfa was in a similar situation with PSG and he sued the club for “discrimination and workplace harassment”, to the tune of 8 million.
I am waiting to see how his case turns out and if it comes out well for him, does anyone think Mesut and his team might do the same?
Yes. If the club are actually benching him for no reason, preventing him from training, isolating him, sending him to the reserves (or other punishments), and also preventing him from leaving to play football Ozil will be able to sue Arsenal under both UK law and FIFA rules. Then a court would decide how much Arsenal had to pay him. It’s actually pretty simple and straightforward. Though, how much he would win in such a suit wouldn’t be as I assume since it’s contract law there would be some kind of split of “guilt”.
This is why “let him rot in the reserves” is not actually a viable answer.
However, if he’s just not actually the right guy for the job that Arteta wants to do, well, then it’s up to the club to try to move him on. Which the club have tried to do a number of times. And I’m also not sure whether the club have to play a player or whether they can simply choose not to select a player. As long as they are not making him train with children or whatever then do they actually have to pick the player? Is it discrimination not to pick him? Can Ozil prove that Arteta is being forced to not pick him because the club want to force him out or is Arteta not picking him because Ozil isn’t as good as we need or isn’t the right player for our system? I doubt that the club have said that and I don’t think Arteta is refusing to pick Ozil to force him out of the club.
What if Arteta just doesn’t want to use Ozil? What if they don’t want to use Ozil because it would stand in the way of using Saka? Or, Pepe? And don’t give me this stuff about how many goals and assists Ozil used to score or whatever. He’s been WAAAY off that mark for four years or so. Massive decline in his quality.
I really think this is just down to Ozil not being at the level Arteta wants.
I am reliably informed that Ben Arfa’s claim for £8m in damages was laughed out of court.
What Tim said. Despite my desire that he be asked to wear the Gunnersaurus outfit on match days for the rest of his contract that would be the very thing that would precipitate a lawsuit for constructive dismissal.
I actually think he does not fit into what we are trying to do on the pitch, even though I do think he would bring something if played. Arteta not playing him is easily explainable tactically. Unless there is something that we do not know about, it does seem pretty simple and straightforward.
I was slightly worried for a while, but I guess from the sounds of it we are safe on that front.
That, and the fact of his deliberate, cynical deep-sixing can both be true. I mean, if we employ some basic skepticism, we would see that the coach’s words and actions over time have been completely contradictory. This is simple arithmetic. Neither the coach nor the logic of his position supports the notion that it’s because he is a lazy trainer that he isn’t being picked. Not even for a 25 a side friendly, it’d seem. Certainly Arsenal’s attitude to playing him — FOR ANYTHING — changed after he refused to take a pay cut and they leaked his name alone.
Per Shard: I guess we all ultimately become like Chelsea supporters, whereby the end justifies the means. I expect better from Arsenal in this situation, but hey, that might be a minority view.
On a potential test case lawsuit, I wouldn’t want it come to that, but it would be interesting. Either a Bosman or a bust, more likely the latter. Certainly, the club is in “restraint of trade” territory, and is destroying the player’s value — something in which he’s not blameless.
One last thing… I was about to raise the “let him rot in the reserves” thing of old, but Tim did first.
Does anyone who’s been following all this since football resumed — hand on heart, eye wide open — think that Mesut will even get picked for reserves games? This is a TOTAL blanking, fam. Total. It’s the football, and it’s not the football.
Finito. Work to do. I don’t make nearly as much our Number 10. And unfortunately, no one’s going pay me to do nothing.
Footballing factors. He’s declined. He doesn’t train well enough. Doesn’t fit the system. Maybe. All possibly true to an extent. But I’m with you. That doesn’t explain him being behind Matt Smith on the depth chart. No way, no how.
Non footballing reasons. It could be the pay cut issue especially because Mikel was the face of that move for the players. It could be China and the new TV deal with Tencent. Could even be to save money and not pay him any appearance or performance bonuses. Likely a combination of all.
Tim,
Under British employment law, what he would probably claim is “constructive dismissal”.
“Constructive dismissal is when you’re forced to leave your job against your will because of your employer’s conduct. The reasons you leave your job must be serious, for example, they: do not pay you or suddenly demote you for no reason.”
That might cover it. There are plenty of legal precedents to support his claim. Arsenal might not have a leg to stand on.
I spoke to a few folks about this who work in the field and as long as Ozil’s being paid and not being abused (such as being made to train with children) he doesn’t have a case. The club don’t have to pick him to play in games or even name him to matchday squads. The FIFA Laws are similar.
Now, there may be a small case if they don’t name him to the 25-man squad but he’d have to sue and what’s interesting here is that he might not get the judgment he wants. Ranting to the press and the Gunnersaurus PR stunt could both adversely effect his case.
I think the Ozil apologists are not understanding what the real problem is. As Tim says – he doesn’t fit into the system. We are now a pressing side. We demand all players be responsible for their particular opponent and track back to prevent
them getting time in the ball. We insist that our attackers/midfielders track back immediately after losing the ball.
Mesut does none of these things. It appears to me he considers the new Arteta way of working hard for the team to be below him. Maybe that’s a little too harsh….
not his skill set or why he was hired in the first place – ( to create chances.)
Well the team has changed; and he will not. So ‘you play the way that suits my skill set, or I’ll keep collecting my outrageous salary that you gave me – I don’t care – and
tough toodles’
That’s the way I see it.
Oh! …and Tim; many thanks for the Arsene snips – I’ll be buying a copy. AW is a class act with a wicked sense of humour. An invincible human.
devlin, i got what you were saying about thomas and elneny the first time. for crying out loud, people are calling thomas “the new vieira”. nuts! there’s only one vieira and only essien has ever come close. thomas is no where near vieira.
regarding elneny, i’ll remind folks that the reason he went on loan was to play regularly in an endeavor to rediscover his best form to come back to arsenal and prove himself. when have you ever heard an international say that? i’ve always respected that humility. some players need to play regularly to be at their best; you can’t sit them for a month and expect these types to come into the side and play well. johann djourou was the same way.
bottom line, i agree that partey might not be as good as people expect and elneny is better than people think, making the difference between the players marginal (hopefully, not redundant). we’ll see.
likewise, i agree with the ozil situation that he simply doesn’t fit the current system. arsenal don’t currently play with an attacking midfielder. it’s that simple. arteta played with mesut and elneny…he knows what those men are capable of.
Wait, seriously?
The player Arsenal have been trying to give away for two years with no club interested and willing to permanently match his paltry 50kpw salary is only marginally of a lesser quality than the one we just signed for 50m and put on 250kpw ?
I hadn’t realised Nicklas Bendtner has brought out a book as well. Should make interesting reading.