That’s what came to my mind this week when it was suggested Arsene Wenger could be invited back to the club. It’s also reassuring that good things happen to good people.
It’s been so refreshing that I have read mostly positive feedback, that the section of our fan base trying to rewrite history and educated a younger generation wrongly, all for the sake of subscribers or views, these people don’t get to win.
I’ll never forget some grown men running to social media high fiving themselves for refusing to stay behind and applaud Mr Wenger in his final game.
Not that he is certain to say yes to any job offer.
Not just is he working with FIFA, but he’s a very intelligent man.
There’s a reason he hasn’t attended a home match since he left. He was genuninely hurt by how some fans treated him in his final years, warning them they were in danger of ruining the club’s values.
Being in the boardroom or behind the scenes would only leave him open to accusations of undermining his replacement by hanging around. The juice might not be worth the squeeze. What he’s done is keep his dignity and allowed the facts to speak for themselves.
The reality is the grass has not turned out greener, not even close. Where he was mocked for two seasons not being able to finish in the top 4, we are currently 7 points above relegation in February. We would now bite your hand off to ‘only qualify for the Champions League’, a stick he was beaten with.
If anything, the work of Emery clarified what I always said, only when he left would we realise how good a job he did, how hard it is to work with owners with zero ambition.
He’s smart enough to know that even his biggest critic 2 years later can’t keep blaming him for the mess we are in.
When Emery went on a 22-match unbeaten run I remember how he got applauded for all of these changes.
You can’t have it both ways, when Emery did well it was all him, when things went wrong, let’s go back to blaming the old regime.
Is it the Frenchman’s fault that we only loaned players in January, that Ramsey was allowed to leave, that Koscielny was replaced by Luiz, that Auba and Laca are being allowed to run down their contracts?
He left us in fifth place, not in a relegation scrap.
I even had to argue with readers on here for labelling him the greatest manager in our history. They thought it was a debate. It wasn’t, it was a factual statement. No man in our history has won more, simple as that. The football he played made us famous around the world. The credit Klopp is getting for potentially winning the Prem unbeaten is a barrier set by Arsene Wenger.
In our whole history we have won 13 FA Cups, one man contributing to 7 of them. In 22 years, he took us to 13 finals including the Champions League.
He brought some of the greatest talent to ever wear our shirt, usually on the cheap.
All of the above with limited money. If he failed to keep up those standards, it was only the standards he had set.
How we were before and how he left us were better in every way. How we play, the diet, training facilities, stadium, trophy cabinet, bank balance, etc.
In a game short of loyalty, he’s one of the few who means it when he says he loves the club. For that alone Arsenal will always be your home.
Like someone once said: “You always go back where you belong”….
Dan Smith