Morning all, it’s a slight *boilk* but nothing too bad.
Lots to get through and most of it, as usual on a Saturday, revolves around the AW’s press conference yesterday. Having been on the receiving end of some typically snide comments from Jose Mourinho (who also expressed his desire to ‘kill’ Chelsea), Arsene responded, saying:
Why should you always have to kill other people to exist yourself? If you do that, then somewhere, you feel you are not good enough. If you have to come out all the time to destroy people, what is life about? Winning and destroying people can never be everything.
And he’s right there. He also expressed the view that trophies aren’t everything to him, which might make some people ask questions. We talk about how nobody really remembers the ‘pretty’ football if you finish second but I can see where he’s coming from. You can’t possibly fault his ambition or his desire to win things. He’s done in the past, he’s trying to do it now, but he’s doing it in his own way. Not only does he want to win, he wants to entertain and play the kind of football that his teams have become renowned for. He could easily have gone out and splashed cash, the pressure was on him to do so, but he stuck to what he believed in and that’s brave in this day and age.
Of course it would be nice to have more silverware but nobody talks about Chelsea’s back to back titles and remembers that team for being a great footballing side. People do still talk about the Invincible side and if you asked any neutral whether they’d rather see a functional Mourinho side or an expressive Wenger side I know most would choose Wenger’s.
I’m sure there are fans who would happily swap flowing football for trophies and if we didn’t have a manager like Wenger then I’d say the same, I’m sure. But what we have is a unique individual who, despite frustrating us sometimes, always tries to do things what he considers the right way, and I’d take that over a charlatan and a liar like Mourinho any day.
He inspires loyalty from his players. The picture from the game against Milan where the team runs to embrace not only Fabregas, the goalscorer, but the manager speaks volumes about how they regard him. Emmanuel Adebayor says:
At Monaco, from June to December I scored only one goal in 19 games. How come Arsene Wenger came and looked for me? It is something special. He is the one who gave me a chance to become who I am today. I want to keep on enjoying myself and listening to him.
Personally I thought Mourinho’s remarks were petty, spiteful and bitter. But then what do you expect from Jose Mourinho? He was a cunt, is a cunt and always will be a cunt, cunt without end. I don’t think Arsene is a cunt. I think he’s cool. Speaking about tomorrow’s game against Wigan he said:
It’s easy to be up for a game in the San Siro. But are we up for a cold day in Wigan? We are.
We’d better be. It’s a great chance to go 4 points clear at the top of the league with those other cunts in FA Cup action this weekend. You have to think Robin van Persie will play at some stage, perhaps not from the start, and to get him back to his best is going to be vital in the race for the title and the Champions League.
Speaking of which the boss said he’d prefer a ‘European’ team in the next round of a Champions League. I would too, I have to say. Fenerbache or Schalke ideally. Given the odds though you have to think at least one of the quarters is going to be all English. And I want to save Barcelona for the final. Payback time.
Liam Brady was officially announced as Giovanni Trapattoni’s number2 in the Republic of Ireland set-up, a position made possible only by Arsene giving him the go ahead. He also talked about Eduardo’s recovery and drew parellels with that of Abou Diaby. The thing we’ve noticed since Diaby has returned is that he has become prone to lots of niggles, maybe that’s a consequence of his injury, maybe not. Fingers crossed for Eduardo.
Gilles Grimandi talks about Arsenal’s scouting methods while Steve Bruce reveals just how much help Arsene has given him. You wonder if Arsene might be a little unimpressed with Bruce’s remarks in the immediate aftermath of the Eduardo incident.
And that’s about that, have yourselves a good Saturday. More tomorrow.
