Jim White

Wenger's debt to pub bores

Fri Sep 25 10:15AM

There is something magnificently perverse about Arsene Wenger, a brilliant contrariness which gets more marked as he reaches an age where he will be gifted his free bus pass.

His latest revelation is that he would not be the man - or indeed the manager - he is today were it not for his upbringing in an Alsatian pub. He owes it all, he claimed in a speech to the League Managers' Association this week, to the fact his folks ran a boozer and as a kid he was subjected to the endless drunken rantings of the clientele.

In their cups they never stopped talking about football, he said, and he would listen in to their discussions on formations and who should play where in the local town team. Usually he would realise the best course of action was to do the exact opposite of what the drunks suggested, a methodology he has continued throughout his managerial career.

Those nocturnal observations of the drinking classes also gave him an invaluable insight into psychology: at six he was witness to the cruelty of adults to one another. And that experience was still relevant to him today. Drunken ramblings about formations, endless ill-informed waffling on selection, the viciousness of ill-thought-through barbs: sounds a bit like the action at the bar after the speeches have finished at a League Managers' Association meeting.

Still, at least now we can understand why he turned out to be a man passionately opposed to alcohol, a football manager who saw absolutely no benefit in an athlete touching the stuff. When, as a six year old, you are subject nightly to the drunken pontification of plastered regulars, the last thing you plan to do is grow up wanting to emulate them. He was like a vegetarian born in an abattoir, or an atheist being brought up by fundamentalists: from the start he saw the opposite path laid out for him.

It also helps explain why he is so passionately against the idea of retirement: there was to be no surrender to the welcoming embrace of lethargy for him. Like his great rival Alex Ferguson he has now decided that he is not going to give up on the game. He is going to keep going as long as his health allows. And, like Fergie, he has manoeuvred himself into such a position of strength at his place of work that no-one will dare try to move him out before he is ready to go. Even if his eyesight deteriorates to the point where he can no longer even see the offences committed against his own team he is there to stay.

Yet, bizarrely, there are still those pockets in the Arsenal support that would like to see him disappear off to the nearest bar at the earliest opportunity. They blame him for the lack of current success, the fact that the club has not won a trophy since 2005. They blame his parsimony in the transfer market for the weaknesses in the side, they blame his romantic attachment to passing play for the lack of a midfield enforcer in the team, they see his passionate embrace of the idea of bringing through home-grown talent rather than splashing someone else's cash on the finished article as a symptom of stubbornness.

They think his time has passed and the present and future belongs to someone more pragmatic, less determined to do things his way. Yes, I know, it is a kind of madness, the self-destructive urge of the deranged, but there is no denying there is a strain of Arsenal support out there that would prefer to see the club's most successful ever manager gone. Never mind that supporters of 90 per cent of the clubs in England would kill to have him at the helm of their team (I think at this stage we can assume Spurs followers are not among them) there are those at the Emirates who would like to see him depart.

Well now we know what they will have to do. Given that the man himself has no intention of stepping away, given that no-one at his club would dare shift him off to pastures new, their best course of action is to head to the nearest bar and start drinking. At least that way they know they won't encounter Wenger in a hurry.

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Funny! Comical! No wonder no one has said anything.....yet....Am I actually 1st?
From amechiakabogu on Fri Sep 25 10:46AM
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Blah, blah, blah......
From amechiakabogu on Fri Sep 25 10:51AM
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wow... this side of eurosport used to be my favorite you know.
From honskaj on Fri Sep 25 11:02AM
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bad rubbish to good ridance....wenger is made to be great,he has drawn strength from the mouth of the suckling, hnmm...... i marvel at his ways, keep it up arsene, we ll get there soon. Jaypure71@yahoo.co.uk
From jaypure71 on Fri Sep 25 11:19AM
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?!?!?
From amechiakabogu on Fri Sep 25 11:27AM
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Lol!
From mailodeh on Fri Sep 25 11:33AM
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i agree with arsene! being brought up in a pub myself, i know exactly where he is coming from and i have always been labelled as being far more wiser than my years may suggest!
From joe_elwick on Fri Sep 25 11:38AM
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*Snore*
Wenger gets even more boring everyday!
He should pull a Mourinho, and call himself: "A Football MAnaging GOD!"
Ha Ha!
From horusthethirdeye on Fri Sep 25 11:38AM
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is everyone really that numb that they do not understand this?
From joe_elwick on Fri Sep 25 11:39AM
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"Usually he would realise the best course of action was to do the exact opposite of what the drunks suggested, a methodology he has continued throughout his managerial career."
Is that having a swipe at Alex Ferguson? If it is, I applaud!
From rwlwhite1 on Fri Sep 25 11:52AM
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Any 'pockets' of Arsenal support who believe Arsene Wenger should be put out to pasture are probably the kind that are reaching in there for a prawn sandwich. The REAL Arsenal support respect the man for what he has done for the club, what he means TO the club, and FOR it with almost 3 levels of academy players now brought up entirely in the Wenger style of play. If you listen closely THESE are the supporters you will hear in a packed stadium to see our KIDS progress to the next round of the League Cup singing "there's only one Arsene Wenger"... not the prawn sandwich brigade who were probably in hospitality or the glory hounds out on the concourse with their beer...!
From v1perdp on Fri Sep 25 11:54AM
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haters chiil
From novo2k on Fri Sep 25 12:03PM
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haters chill
From novo2k on Fri Sep 25 12:04PM
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not an embarassingly terrible article for once. couldnt go without mentioning Fergie though. ooooooooo Fergie suck suck yum.
From willjh_2003 on Fri Sep 25 12:06PM
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"they see his passionate embrace of the idea of bringing through home-grown talent rather than splashing someone else's cash on the finished article as a symptom of stubbornness."
Don't tell me your definition of homegrown is ages 16 and up too. Yes he loves to bring in young talent, but most aren't homegrown. Seriously, that's so stupid. There's barely any english players in the first team, never mind that actually start. And players like Fabregas weren't homegrown. He was one of Barca's best and brightest not under contract who at 16, and even though a midfielder, was the highest scoring player and voted best player at under 17 world cup. It's nice to poetic Jim, but please don't say those kind of things.
From juvenovic on Fri Sep 25 12:13PM
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This article gives too much credit to an almost invisible and certainly insignificant group of arsenal "fans" who probably wish that when they moved to London 10 years ago they'd support Chelsea instead of Arsenal.
From jamesgwild on Fri Sep 25 12:16PM
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juvenovic - i suggest you try catch the next carling cup game! And don't forget that Arsene has produced the worlds number 1 left back in the world, homegrown! Would be very surprised not to see Wilshere following in cole's footsteps as one of the worlds best! Who has Man Utd produced in the last 10 years who is english and homegrown? Wes Brown!!!
From jamesgwild on Fri Sep 25 12:25PM
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well im an arsenal fan....and i would never want wenger to leave it mite be 4 yeaqrs without a trophy but for me we are stikll the best FOOTBALL team in the world and trophies will come next season!!!
From simsjones1 on Fri Sep 25 12:35PM
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The few (so called)fans who wish wenger to retire can sod off and then we the true Arsenal fan still on the waiting list for a season ticket can perhaps get the offer of one!!
how long have liverpool been without the league trophy?
how long have Spuds been without anything but the carling cup and they had 9yrs between wins dont forget
From epc4umidlands on Fri Sep 25 12:36PM
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ju7venovic hasnt got a clue!!! adebayor was nothin at monaco till wenger got him....henry was a useless pacy left winger till wenger turned him into the most dangerous forward since ronaldo in his prime....his scouting and vision is the best in the world
From simsjones1 on Fri Sep 25 12:38PM
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i've been the manager of pubs for 8 years and it certainly forces you to aquire a strong mental attitude and a certainty to your convictions. You need to be quick in your decision making and it makes you a responsible person, to customers, to neighbours and to your employees. You see the terrible sides of people and communities and somehow keep yourself to yourself when you are constantly in the public domain. Arsenes point is much broader though, Stein, Ferguson, Shankly and Wenger all got the work ethic early aswell as an exposure to the rough-end of life and witnessed hardships. These things make strong people and if they become football managers, then hardened football managers.
From mgh0302 on Fri Sep 25 12:41PM
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hands up high for wenger he the man for the team. alec M.
From t3mafusire on Fri Sep 25 12:42PM
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Wenger is by far one of the greatest managers there has ever been. He has not only been successful on the pitch but off of it, too. There are a 100 managers who could buy a team and win a trophy. But to have the success he has had...with the resources he has had....very few could produce those results. He takes young talent and developes them into proper players. He has built something that will last far beyond the day he graces the managers seat for Arsenal. He has helped to reshape the whole of English football and is a MAJOR reason for it's popularity today. One does not need to be an Arsenal supporter to know that the game is MUCH better having had Wenger involved with it.
From joemeyers2001 on Fri Sep 25 12:48PM
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And who said your article isn`t boring.You are jus a critic,sometimes you get inspiration from a negative situation.Thats wat mould him to be a good coach.Gunners 4 life
From lmwakutuya on Fri Sep 25 12:53PM
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However great Arsen has been, no ofense! but he will never be better or even in the same legue as fergie. If u disagree let me know!! and give a valid reason not just rambling... use reason not passion! actually puting it mathematicaly: wenger = fergie/2 (Half of fergie is enoough to cover wenger's achievements)
From kabagambe.mathius on Fri Sep 25 01:18PM
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Wenger means everything to the GUNNERS no matter Jim's opinion. Jim, this article should have been off the cuff.
From Obetta
From remigiusobetta on Fri Sep 25 01:42PM
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I know u wrote something but it was soooooo boring I went blind
From ringoireland1 on Fri Sep 25 01:46PM
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I know u wrote something but it was soooooo boring I went blind
From ringoireland1 on Fri Sep 25 01:46PM
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wenger is a coward. refusing to take the Madrid job means he is scared of fresh challenges, so he sticks at emirates as one eyed man in the country of the blind.
From beejayone2002 on Fri Sep 25 01:52PM
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A brilliant article once again by Super Jim White
From avellabonello on Fri Sep 25 01:54PM
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