Arsene Wenger – half a season after

I got a kick in my stomach when the announcement was made on April 20, 2018 that Arsene was leaving the club he dearly loved and helped build to what it is today. 

Half a season after he left, my tummy still hurts. Not for Arsene as it looks as if this wonderful man who made life look so simple has moved on. He looks to be enjoying himself and appears ready to step back into the managerial fray in a few weeks time.

My tummy hurts because of the monster the club unleashed in tolerating the nonsense from disgruntled and demented fans for the last two seasons of Wenger’s time at Arsenal.

In my opinion, the Club should have done more in those trying times to stand firm against the agenda driven media whores and the ignorant fans who took their cue from the whoring media. If only the club had done that, I dare say some of the nonsense we are witnessing from a section of the fan base that in less than half a season of Unai Emery’s reign at Arsenal will be absent.

Because the club did not stand up to the mad hatters opposed to Arsene, it has made its own bed against the same mad hatters opposing Unai.

Sadly, the story of the demented section of any fan base has a familiar ending. The mad hatters take a battering ram to the confidence of the players and results follow in the same direction. I hope somehow, Unai and his team and the squad can deal with this issue and get the required results. Although for me, results are secondary to performance. Consistently good performance ultimately gets you the right results.

As I stated at the beginning of the season, I expect nothing of Unai and Arsenal this season although I have already experienced many wonderful moments. Unai is new to the Premier League and except for Antonio Conte; all new to the Premier League managers in the last ten plus years have struggled and achieved ZERO in their first season. Even Conte struggled until the end of September in his first season. It is not too late for Unai to pull off a Conte.

Even if Unai cannot do a Conte, he will be a miracle worker if he does a Guardiola (finished third behind a poxy Middlesex club, got kicked out of the FA Cup by Arsenal, blown away in the League Cup by a turgid Manchester United side and disgraced out of the Champions League by a Monaco side who are now being touchscreen guided into relegation by Thierry Henry) OR Jurgen Klopp (finished 8^thin Premier League behind West Ham and Southampton, lost two cup finals and forcibly removed from the FA Cup by West Ham!!!)

Like I already said, Unai deserves his full complement of the proverbial three transfer windows before he can be judged by any of the media whores and attention seeking fans who have given the same time and space to other managers.

Back to Arsene. Why Arsenal decided to agree to Arsene’s offer to step down and then agree to Ivan Gazidis request to leave is beyond me.  Surely Ivan aiming to “catalyst the change” he so desperately wanted and then ambling off a few months later defies logic. It is clear to me that the decision of the owners to plan for generational succession influenced the decision of Arsene to step down as his main relationship was with the father. The owners successfully used Ivan to achieve their aim and discarded him thereafter. I am looking forward to Ivan replicating his Arsenal success at AC Milan but I will ask you not to hold your breath except he can somehow persuade Arsene to bail him out a second time.

I fervently hope and pray that Arsene takes on a job with less drama than the Arsenal one. I am glad he hasn’t been persuaded to take the Real Madrid job, as the President there appears to be a fan of Looney Tunes. Neither do I want him to associate with those bigots in Bavaria. The great man himself has told us he will not be coming back to a club side in the EPL. You can take his word to the bank. Wherever Arsene steps out, I am convinced he will enjoy the goodwill of millions of Arsenal fans worldwide.

If Arsene was still around, Jack Wilshere might still be on Arsenal’s books. If you think Jack is underserving, I hope someone wishes you the same for something you have devoted all your life to.

If Arsene was still around, it is unlikely Aaron Ramsey’s intermediaries will be this gentle and restrained. The new Arsenal management appears to have caged them. While I have deep affection and respect for Ramsey, I have none for his entourage. They have messed about with Arsenal and I am pleased Arsenal are handling the matter the way they have handled it. The greatest ever legend of Arsenal in the person of Arsene Wenger left and the club is still standing.

If Arsene was still around, there is no way of definitively knowing if results will be better or worse.  Only the PGMOL can confirm if they will play fair or not but what was certain was Arsene retiring at the end of next season if he had remained at Arsenal.

In other to save us from two more season of the dross that resulted in one national cup final and one continental cup semi final in his worst season ever, Arsene and the Board decided that a parting of way was the right decision. Fine. If you wanted Wenger Out. Please lay on the bed you made and stop moaning.

No more Wenger comparisons. Arsene has gone. All those who wanted the gentleman gone, you deserve all the heartache, headache and tummy ache you are getting now.

Unai Emery is our new manager and he appears to be a very fine gentleman as well. He deserves every measure of unqualified support we can muster. He wears the Arsenal badge on his blazer and tracksuits and that is all he needs now for that support. It absolutely matters not if you think his tactics are not it: ARSENAL MANAGER = ARSENAL FANS UNQUESTIONABLE & UNDIVIDED SUPPORT. No ifs, buts or maybes.

Hopefully Unai will fix a few things if it aligns with his managerial style as we still allow opponents play their own game; and we are still too nice despite the steel of Sokratis & Lichtsteiner. Managers stay true to their style / philosophy except you are a Jose Mourinho looking to for a deliberate sacking in order to trouser the GDP of Ghana.

But there are things even Unai cannot fix. Cheating referees and a partial FA. Until then, be determined to go to the Emirates or your local pub and support your club or if you are watching from your front room, be positive. None of all those nonsense slagging off one player or the manager.

Enjoy the remainder of the season.

Baba Grumpy works in financial services in the United Kingdom. He blogs mostly about football at http://babagrumpy.blogspot.co.uk. His Twitter handle is @BabaGrumpy