Arsene’s favourite word…. by DN
If I had a pound for every time time Arsene Wenger or any of the Arsenal players said ‘cohesion’ since the end of last season I would be a very rich man, but what does it actually mean? It is definitely Arsene Wenger’s favourite word at the moment and it seems to be spreading through to the players as well.
Listen to what Mikel Arteta said today on the official Arsenal website: “This is the best group of players in terms of numbers and quality that we have had for many, many years,”
“The unity we have is really good as a group. The cohesion we have around the club and with the fans is probably the closest it has been because we had periods when we had difficult times and things weren’t breaking down between anyone.
“When you go through difficult moments together, that really helps to get where you want to get to afterwards.
“We haven’t broken in difficult moments and that is very important. I am really confident in this group – if we maintain it and start adding little things in the next few years then we have a very strong team and club.”
So it means a bit of unity around the club? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as: The action or fact of forming a united whole. And they give an example sentence as: They lacked cohesion and, for the most part, played as 11 individuals rather than a single unit.
Now you can see why Wenger is attracted to the word, but when Wenger uses it (which he has done since the beginning of the transfer window) it would appear to mean: We won’t bring in any new players in case they change the unity of the squad. Or in other words – We don’t need to spend any money!
In Arteta’s quote above he doesn’t seem totally convinced, and specifies if we maintain it and start adding little things in the next few years then we have a very strong team and club.. In the next few years? I thought we had the cohesion now according to Wenger….
Le Prof spent the summer telling us we would be challenging for the title if we maintained the cohesion, but the fact is it all fell apart in the first game of the season. Perhaps if we had maintained Ospina as our first-choice keeper. Perhaps if we had kept Walcott as our first choice right winger. Perhaps if we had kept our policy of buying a superstar every summer? Perhaps if we had kept our normal policy of selling our older players (like Arteta!) and Rosicky and Flamini, and replacing them with rising young stars, maybe we wouldn’t have so many players on the treatment table.
Perhaps cohesion isn’t such a good word after all…..
Darren