Mikel Arteta has often admitted when taking on his first managerial job, he sensed a lot of things were wrong with the club he used to captain.
Thanks to his ‘non-negotiable’ principles he’s started to correct a few things at Arsenal.
There is now an atmosphere at the Emirates, with a connection between Gooners and Gunners.
There is a clear identity in how we play.
He’s sat down with Josh Kroenke, Edu and BFG and devised an action plan in terms of recruitment.
A former player in the red and white shirt, he’s qualified to know that Arsenal have long had a reputation for class.
Legend has it that Harbert Chapman paid out of his own pocket for the Highbury entrance to be painted marble red, because he wanted visitors first impressions to be that this was a club who did things the right way.
That’s why it’s important for the Spaniard that Arsene Wenger starts to get the respect not all of our fanbase gave him in his final years.
It began in January when the Frenchman returned to the Emirates for the first time since his last game as manager. He got a standing ovation from the majority inside the stadium.
It’s continued this week with the most successful boss in our history becoming the 5th man to have a statue unveiled around our ground.
Showing the dignity of the man, Mr Wenger never gave a reaction when he was essentially sacked.
In his last game as manager, he smiled, said goodbye, waved and walked away.
In reality he was hurt and disagreed with his treatment, having ‘left my heart’ at Arsenal.
He had said a year before that he would ‘never forgive’ the ‘disrespect by some supporters’ and was worried the club were losing the proud values he had helped nurture and support.
He said that on the eve of a Final with his job under pressure. That’s how offended he was.
That he’s worked with FIFA since without the need to point out the irony of our decline shows his decorum.
There’s certainly some on social media who deserve to witness our fall from grace. YouTubers built views on who could shout the loudest and say the most swear words.
They would often complain that it was unacceptable for Arsenal to only be finishing top 4 and winning the FA Cup.
The very same people then had the audacity to call 5th success last season.
I can find you readers on JustArsenal who praise Arteta for essentially doing what they criticised Mr Wenger for.
The 73-year-old could have highlighted our regression, pointed out how the grass wasn’t greener, how he never finished 8th, how he always ensured we had European Football.
He could argue that his worst years match the current regimes best.
How he did that by always having to sell his best players and not having the resources to compete.
Yet he had the self-assurance that the cream would rise to the top, that goodness prevails.
I always maintained that only when he left would we realise how difficult it was to qualify for the Champions League under the current ownership.
Every year under the struggles of Emery and Arteta it’s made some more appreciative of how hard it was to ‘only’ make top 4.
While he kept his dignity, the likes of AFTV had to kick off Wenger’s biggest critics for racism and breaking the law.
I think some of my peers have more understanding that while he calls ‘Highbury ….my soul, the Emirates my greatest suffering’, it’s at our current home where he maintains he did his best work.
Highbury is the era where you can discuss how he revolutionised the sport in England.
How he fulfilled an ambition to make a team not just win, but by playing beautiful football.
The Arsenal brand was many times bigger after he left then when he arrived, largely due to how we played.
He prolonged careers by dietary and training methods that the rest were not using.
He had an unbelievable ability to spot a gem and turn them into a world class player, even spotting a position a player could play that the player himself couldn’t imagine.
Some have tried to belittle his achievements, saying he didn’t know how to build his own defence.
A myth ……Lehmann, Ashly Cole, Lauren, Campbell and Touré all came after Wenger.
That was the back 5 that didn’t lose a League game in 2003/04 so they must have been good at defending?
Some say he left Arsenal a mess when he left.
Go back and see what he walked into in 1996!
At the Emirates, where he once sold players beyond the age of 30, it was now standard to lose them at their peak.
Banks would pull on his emotional heart strings.
They would only loan money to cover the debt of building a stadium if Mr Wenger stayed.
UEFA revenue was crucial to our finances.
The board would sell a Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie, etc and keep the majority of that money, and still Mr Wenger would find a way to meet his targets and ensure that revenue.
Not many could do that.
I shudder to think what our financial situation would have been without Mr Wenger.
I have had the honour of meeting him and he told me this was his proudest body of work.
That if he was simply being judged on trophies he could have gone to a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG, etc and had more medals.
Yet being loyal meant more.
His biggest mistake maybe?
Because the loyalty he shown wasn’t shown back by some fans.
I hope slowly people are recognising what a job he did.
12 months ago, our chief executive called 5th an achievement!
That never happened under Mr Wenger.
He finished outside the top 4 twice in 22 years.
Emery managed that on his first try while Arteta has done that 3 out of his 4 years as manager.
There will never be another like Arsene Wenger at our football club.
No one comes close.
His statue is cast in bronze, but he produced golden moments.
Dan
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