Friday, September 07, 2007

Arsene Wenger's magic, he wears a magic hat...

....and when he saw the new three-year deal offered to him by Peter Hill-Wood (*deep intake of breath*), he said I'm signing that.

It's been obvious for a few days now that this has been on the cards; one can only presume that any delay caused was due to Arsene inserting a number of his own specific clauses:

Section a. 1) I will not be made to buy any player over the age of 21 years of age. Ever. In fact, make that 18. No, 17.

Section c.3) I will get a large tub of Haagen-Daz, cookies and cream flavour, after every home match. With chocolate sauce.

Section d.2) The club anthem will be changed from 'The Wonder of You' to 'The Wonder of Arsene', or 'Hey Arsene you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Arsene! hey Arsene!'.


In all seriousness, it's great news. Arsene is a visionary manager, who's brought the longest sustained period of success to the club since the 1930s golden-age. More than that, he's ensured we have a club to be proud of, both on and off the field. For all the anguish some of us sometimes feel about him not always buying established talent, there's something noble about buying young and developing, rather than gratuitously spending unsavoury amounts of money, and in turn fuelling the hideous bling-culture of (post)modern football.

When we win Arsene's way, it seems right. I would prefer fewer trophies using Arsene's way of management, than many with a shady Russian oligarch fuelling our success, whether that be Abramovich or Usmanov.

The signing also brings some much needed stability to the club, at a time when greedy businessmen - that's you Usmanov, Kroenke and Dein - are trying to exploit our club for all its worth. It's good to know that the core people running the club, Wenger, Fiszman, Friar, Edleman, Peter Hill-Wood et al., are decent, honourable people, who care about the values and traditions of the club, not just its money-making potential.

Arsene had this to say about why he stayed:

"Arsenal is the club of my life. I have been entrusted with complete freedom to implement and execute my plans on what will make the team successful and that means I have a responsibility to the fans to deliver silverware and also a responsibility to the players to help turn our potential into prizes. This Club has deep-seated roots and a tremendous heritage and it is my aim to uphold these important values and help create new history for future generations to recount."

Well, Arsenal is the club of my life too; it's good to know the manager shares my opinion in this area. It's also wonderful to see that he recognises the club's values and traditions which he has, and hopefully will continue, to uphold.

Arsene says he has 'complete freedom' in his job. I still think appointing a director of football would be a good idea, as people who try to micromanage every activity in their jobs often get bogged down in detail and seriously tired after a while. But if that's the way Arsene wants to work, so be it. It's worked pretty well so far, after all.

This may not be Arsene's last contract at the club; indeed I'm pretty sure he'll stay until we forcibly eject him as an octogenarian. But this is still great news. Here's to three more years of Arsene, and, hopefully, more years of silverware.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Usmanov, Kroenke and Dein - are trying to exploit our club for all its worth. It's good to know that the core people running the club, Wenger, Fiszman, Friar, Edleman, Peter Hill-Wood et al., are decent, honourable people, who care about the values and traditions of the club, not just its money-making potential."

Then how come Fiszman sold £3.4m shares to Kroenke. And how come Arsenal stuck up a multi-million sports sponsorship deal with Kroenke. And how come Arsenal have been taking Usmanov's cash for an executive box for years??

Either you know fuck all about the club, in which case you shouldn't be writing a blog on Arsenal, or you're completely naive. So which is it?

Anonymous said...

Re: Comment above...

Fiszman sold the shares to Kronke under Dein's advice, hence the boadroom split. Kronke now owns part of the club, does it not make sense to work with the guy instead of against him? And are Arsenal now supposed to vet all their spectators? "Sorry, you can't have a box at our club because we're not sure of your political history..." Who's naive?

Twat...

Anonymous said...

And the answer is ......David Dein!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Pathetic comment about vetting box holders, the other issues can be traced back to Agent Orange.
Apart from that shit Wengerball is here to stay.

Anonymous said...

If you think Fiszman is that easily persuaded to sell £3.4m shares then there you're off your rocker. Vet their spectators? Usmanov isn't paying £30 a ticket, more like £100k a year. Sweep it under the carpet then you fucking arsehole. The fact is big business has already infiltrated the club and they don't seem to mind taking money from extremely rich people with one hand then slagging them off the next minute - it's pure hypocrisy. Fiszman is a diamond merchant who lives in Switzerland for fuck sake - he doesn't even attend matches.

Anonymous said...

(I'm a different person from the guy you're arguing with)

I'm not entirely aware of where Usmanov got his cash from but I am all in favour of vetting people from the executive boxes if you think they have a dubious political history. I'm not accusing Usmanov of anything, but if he is responsible for any major shit then I would expect the club to deny him the opportunity to have an executive box out of protest.

Anonymous said...

My post wasn't aimed at you, as it's obvious you have a brain.

Eddy said...

Who cares about who the club allows to get boxes? I don't care where our income comes from - and in fact I don't care about our income at all - as long as we are able to play well on the pitch. Arsene Wenger's coaching encourages Arsenal's players to play with style, grace, and integrity; so as far as I'm concerned, the morality of the board is unimportant.

-Lazyasian Lazy-Arse: An Arsenal Fanblog