The Beginning
When I was growing up, I couldn't imagine Arsenal without George Graham. He was Mr Arsenal to me. The immaculate blazer. The slicked back hair. The back 4. The 1-0 to the Arsenal.
And then he was gone. There it was on the front of the papers - the bungs.
Then there was well-meaning Bruch Rioch. Bergkamp too. But Rioch was not Arsenal. He fell out with Ian Wright and the countdown began.
My Dad saw Patrick Vieira's debut. He came home and told me he'd seen a that had run the game. He could do it all. And this was a Wenger player.
Before Arsene took over, I'd never seen Arsenal win at Highbury. But '98 was different. We went to Old Trafford and Overmars scored and it was possible. Then I saw Dennis score against Sheffield Wednesday and we were closer.
Then I saw us put five goals past Wimbledon. Overmars again. Bergkamp. Petit. Wreh. Adams. Every goal took us closer. I walked out of Highbury with my family and people sang about how we were going to win the league. And we did.
If you've supported Arsenal since the 90s, you have a favourite moment that Arsene gave you. A gift. Maybe it was when we won the league at White Hart Lane. Maybe it was when you saw Pires or Henry play for the first time. Maybe it's when Sol came over. Maybe it's just that feeling in April and May, when the days start to stretch out, when Arsenal were always in the running, even if we sometimes fell short.
Maybe it was when we achieved perfection. When Arsene created a masterpiece. They celebrated a draw while we celebrated a title, unblemished. We were fed caviar by the spoonful. For ten years, Arsene created a haze of happiness. We didn't just win, we won playing the best football this country has ever seen.
In the beginning, Arsene was the greatest manager in our club's history and we got to see it all.
The Fall
My last game at Highbury - I was at the third row from the front in the West Lower. Lauren took a throw in front of me. He took a few steps back and I could have touched his back he was so close.
A year later, I was at the first game in the Emirates. It is a magnificent edifice. Beautiful sightlines. Comfortable seats. Pristine toilets. Just no soul. When we the moved, something changed. And so did Arsene.
I have read, by apparently sincere people, that Arsene's greatest achievement was keeping us in the champions league year after year, a competition we never came close to winning after our trip to Paris. Indeed, Sky flashed a graphic about Arsene's net spend when his departure was announced. And there you have it: the act of accounting, that dullest of professions, becoming something we should celebrate.
After nine years without a trophy, the drought ended. And yes, we saw - sometimes - patches of great football at the Emirates. But this wasn't the Arsene of old. This was a slow-motion decline from title challengers to a cup team. The big money signings finally came and plastered over the cracks, but the writing was on the wall when a mediocre United side battered us 8-2. That Wenger survived for seven more years after this moment of abject habilitation is a testament to his survival skills and the inertia that had overwhelmed the club.
What went wrong? A number of trends coalesced and Arsene was left behind.
1- Big Money. When Arsene took over, Arsenal were the Bank of England club. Bergkamp was a record fee for a UK transfer. We were behind United, but not by much. We were - and still are - filthy rich. But we weren't big money. We weren't an oligarch from Russia. We weren't a petro-country. We couldn't buy and dump 30m pound players in a season. But Arsene's answer was to retreat even further from a transfer market he clearly despised towards a vanity youth project. We'll likely never know how much we were financially constrained by the stadium move. But we definitely had more money and money that we had could have used better. We flew the white flag to Abu Dhabi and Abramovich as quick as we could. We stood still as we paid off the mortgage and filled Stan's coffers.
2 - Lost Allies. When Dein was forced out, Arsene lost his fixer. Post-Dein, we became a shambles in the transfer market. Players ran down their deals and held us over a barrel. It's hard to imagine that the summer of 2011 would've happened with Dein around. And with Dein gone, Arsene retreated further into himself and his ideas. Genius left unchallenged becomes eccentric. And when the parasite from Colorado arrived, Arsene was emboldened further. A symbiotic relationship was struck between Stan and Arsene - Arsene made Stan richer and Stan let Arsene do whatever the hell he wanted. Arsene let the club drift while chasing his various ideals and Stan had no inclination to correct him.
3- Silk without Steel. All three of Arsene's title winning teams were built upon the rock of Patrick Vieira. Behind him, were an elite defence, whether it was Adams and Bould or Campbell and Toure. After 2007, Wenger apparently gave up on the idea of steel. Instead we would pass. Pass, pass, pass. Then pass. Then pass again. The '98 and '02 run-ins, the unbeaten season, getting to the Champions League final: these were all built by Arsene on a solid defensive core. The lesson from 2006 should have been that steel means progress in Europe. Instead, we signed Alumnia, Squillaci, Silvestre...an endless parade of defensive mediocrities. We had a team of lightweights for a decade. For someone who talked so much about mental strength, we were feeble when the going got tough.
4- A Failure to Change. Arsene is the radical who became a reactionary. Everything he brought to Arsenal in 1996 was ahead of its time in England. He was so far ahead of the curve that it took 10 years for the opposition to catch up. Yet new ideas were not welcome. Ferguson found a formula for Wenger in 2005 and barely took an L from Arsenal in his last 8 years at United. It took ten years for Wenger to beat Mourinho. Sometimes things clicked into place and Wengerball got us a result. But we started to scrape into the top four as our years of dominance waned. Wenger stood still for ten years and the new breed overtook him.
The End
I still didn't think it would end now. I fully anticipated that Arsene would see out his contract. One more grim slog of a season. Two things did for him in the end.
1- We have been truly terrible this year in the league. Blowing the title to Leicester (Leicester!) in 2016 was the start of rapid decline in the club's fortunes, as our rivals regrouped and overtook us. Last year was bad. This year was terrible. Playing once a week - effectively - has not helped at all. The team can't win outside of Islington. We spent over a 100m on new attackers in the last 12 months and no-one thought to defend. Not building a new core to the team in 2015 was a monumental act of hubris that led directly to the detritus of the last year. Ultimately, even if we win the Europa League, our current trajectory is clear and the board finally accepted that Wenger would not correct it this time around. If one were being cynical, the football has finally got bad enough to threaten Stan's wallet, and he finally acted as a result.
2- The fans stopped caring. Arsene hasn't been hounded out. His reign has ended with a whimper, not a bang. The humiliating performance in the league cup final was the last straw for most. Why bother to turn up if the team wouldn't either? The empty seats spoke of a declining empire, a club in freefall. It couldn't go on like this and Arsene was finally put out of his misery. Apathy can sometimes be more deadly than hatred.
Epitaph
I was a child when Arsene took over. He's always been there as I grew up. I'm not ashamed to say I will miss him terribly as a constant in my life. He's someone who, on some weird level, I could always rely on. I have wanted him to leave for the last 7 years not because I hate or despise him, but because I want him to be remembered in the right way. He is one of the few individuals in the world I truly admire and I will never forget the happy memories he gave me at the peak of his powers.
Looking at the reaction to his departure, I would say my position is far from unique. Watching his decline has been an incredibly painful process. I'm glad it's finally over. I can let nostalgia wash over me and ignore the rest.
Because there will never be another Arsene Wenger. There will never be another Bould chipping over the top to Adams. Another Henry slaloming through the Bernabeu. Another Wiltooooord. Another Pires lobbing it over Schmeichel's head. Another Battle of Old Trafford. We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And it's all thanks to him.
When I think of Arsene, I'll think of the beginning. Merci et bonne chance mon ami.
Gb.
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