Arsene Wenger may only have been talking about the things that are happening in the Arsenal dressing room and discussing how important to our hopes of winning the Premier League title it is to keep the team spirit in the group as strong as possible.
However, with all the head scratching and debate going on in the English football media this season about the incredible loss of form of the reigning ELP champions Chelsea, and the possible reasons behind it, the words of the Arsenal boss seem to be significant to more than just our club.
And with the history between Wenger and Jose Mourinho over the years, would we really be surprised to learn that the Frenchman was revelling in the internal problems being felt at Stamford Bridge and the likelihood that Mourinho´s management style may be behind it all?
Wenger was talking to Arsenal Player about team spirit and how important it is to the success of any team, but he also spoke about how fragile it can be and the need to look after it properly in order not to lose it, like maybe not going around dropping you captain and best defender and abusing the medical staff that the players have a lot of respect for.
Wenger said, “Can you be successful without team spirit? If I asked you that question, straight away you would say no. That just shows you how important it is.
“It’s difficult to put a percentage on it, but you know without it you have no chance. Afterwards, what is interesting is to know how big the team spirit is. You can have different degrees of team spirit, because without it you have no football at all – everybody would just do what he wants.
“But how far can you go in cultivating and developing that team spirit? That’s our target. We know that to have a chance of being successful, we want to be more of a team than any other side in the Premier League. Therefore, I believe it’s a little bit like a flower.
“You have to take care of it and look after it every day, or else it will slowly die. But as well, you can make the flower bigger, better and prettier if you care for it. We believe that part of the responsibility of the players and the staff is to take care of team spirit.”
What do you think Gooners, am I reading too much into these words of wisdom from the prof or is he really having a little dig at Maureen?