From Arsene Who to Arsene Wenger: The story of a legend
By Duncan Kwok
Arsene Wenger arrived in England with little fanfare, but he has done well to leave his mark on the club he professes to love, Arsenal.
Indeed, the day he was appointed as Arsenal manager, the Evening Standard had a headline that summed up how much England knew about the man that would soon become known as ” Le Professeur”. The headline in big, bold, black letters read “Arsene Who”. Indeed, after revolutionising English football and the culture, Arsene Who soon became Arsene Wenger.
Arsene Wenger in the past few years has had his name dragged through the mud, seen his once adoring fans turn their back on him, yet throughout all this time, he has never changed or compromised his playing style. Arsenal still keeps the ball on the deck, probing and waiting for that opening.
This stubbornness is perhaps Wenger’s greatest strength, and also weakness, his reluctance to change has made his teams weak. The greatest managers know about the need to adapt, Sir Alex Ferguson changed things up when needed and Jose Mourinho knows when to just go long.
Perhaps it’s because just like Pep Guardiola, Wenger is a football intellect, a man that gets great pleasure in seeing beautiful football, whereas Mourinho is only focused on getting the result.
Keeping the ball on the deck in English still gets great results as seen by Manchester City but the quality of Arsenal’s players means the system doesn’t work. Where Arsenal have Xhaka, City have Fernandinho, where Arsenal have Mustafi, City has Otamendi.
However, this stubbornness is also his greatest strength, his persistence in his methods has seen him nurture Thierry Henry from a left winger to one of the greatest forwards of all time. His bull-headed ways allowed him to give Dennis Bergkamp the time to settle and flourish in England and most importantly, changed footballing culture in England.
In recent times, there have been banners at the Emirates Stadium saying “Arsenal F.C. not Arsene F.C.” That statement isn’t completely true, Wenger firmly entrenched Arsenal on the map, George Graham might have put Arsenal on the map but Wenger made Arsenal a force to be reckoned with.
His Invincibles team pirouetted, sliced and dissected teams to win the Premier League title without losing a single match before their run ended after an astounding 49 matches unbeaten. He took Arsenal to its first and only Champions League final leading for 76 minutes before agonisingly losing, should he take Arsenal to the Europa League Final and win the final itself, Arsenal F.C. and Arsene F.C. will become more aligned than ever.
Arsene Wenger has contributed a great deal to the Premier League. He will go down in history as an Arsenal legend and leaves an everlasting legacy from Pizza-gate to his legendary duels with Sir Alex and later Jose Mourinho, he will be sorely missed by all football lovers.
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Au revoir, Arsene Wenger.