Arsene Wenger has had plenty of little disagreements with managers of other clubs during his 18 years in charge of Arsenal Football Club. Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and Tony Pulis are just five names on a long list, but the Frenchman does not normally carry on the rows for long and he always has plenty of respect and support for the people in the same job as himself.
So maybe I should not be all that surprised to see an ESPN report that reveals Wenger has come out with words of support for Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager that Wenger will be trying to outwit in our Premier League clash at Anfield tomorrow.
Rodgers is under huge pressure at the minute, something Wenger knows all about. Just as Liverpool fell at the last hurdle in their quest to become champions of England last season, Rodgers narrowly missed out on being named the manager of the year, but now all the talk seems to be about whether he will keep his job or not.
The Arsenal boss said, “Our job is to survive a crisis, part of the job, not all of the job,” stated Wenger. “When you want to make a long career, you cannot always win, unfortunately.
“I have sympathy for every single manager in the Premier League and everybody goes through periods where it goes a bit little less well. I have sympathy with Rodgers for sure and the same for every manager.
“It’s difficult for me to assess our direct opponent two or three days before a match, but I expect a good Liverpool team. They have a heavy schedule, Champions League games and Premier League games and it’s very demanding.”
This is a classy move from Wenger, as you would expect, but I am not sure that I agree. Where was Rodgers’ support of Wenger when Arsenal were ravaged by injury problems which caused our own push for the title to falter? What I remember from last season is the arrogance and taunting that came from Liverpool when Wenger had the cheek to bid for Luis Suarez. And Rodgers even had the nerve to question Arsenal’s class at the time.
Let’s just hope that we provide plenty of pain for Rodgers on the pitch tomorrow.