It has often been said that putting a top manager in charge of Sunderland, or recruiting such players as Messi and Ronaldo (throw in a Pickford for good measure), would not change anything. They’d still succumb to the SAFC malaise.
When we look at players or bosses who arrived at the SoL with big reputations, the point is perhaps well made. But I have a feeling that Arsène Wenger would have been a great Sunderland manager. I just wish he’d been ours for 22 years, not Arsenal’s.
I care little about his reluctance to criticise his own team or even see incidents that reflect badly on his players. That’s not what he’s paid for.
What he is paid for, until the end of this season, is to use whatever skill and resourcefulness he possesses to ensure his club. Arsenal, win or get close to winning trophies.
Forget the whinging Gooners with their ludicrous delusions of grandeur: he has delivered exactly that for a club that has pots of money but not enough to compete with those with Middle Eastern or Russian gold.
And what should we make of Piers Morgan, an especially loud anti-Wenger voice, attempting now to heap praise on the departing manager? I felt nauseous when I read the following remarks :
I’ve led the Wenger Out campaign on social media but I don’t feel gleeful. I’m not gloating about it – I just wish he’d done it years ago. He lost me when he sold Robin van Persie to Man United. That did it for me.
Last year was Wenger worst ever year, this year is even worse [please call in the sub-editors – Ed]. It’s time to go, I’ve known that for the last eight years.
It’s a good day for Arsenal, but it’s also a sad day for Arsenal. I’ll be singing ‘one Arsène Wenger’ on Sunday – he’s done the right thing.
I would be very happy to call the Emirates Stadium the ‘Arsène Wenger Stadium’.
The oafish faction among Arsenal supporters, as exemplified above, sees Arsène Wenger as a failure.
If only Sunderland AFC could have suffered such affronts to their pride as this:
FA Premier League (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
FA Cup (7): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17
And a constant presence near the top of the Premier League and in Europe.
But every cloud … at least I can now look forward to hearing more of Wenger’s eloquent thoughts as a pundit during televised games on French TV.
Piers Morgan has lead his “Wenger Out” campaign from the studios of a mediocre television station on a mind-numbing breakfast show. His statement “Wenger is the only man I have loved but it’s time for him to go” is toe-curling. When it comes down to professionalism and dignity, Morgan can’t hold a candle to Arsene Wenger and he deserves much better than this. Wenger is a once in a lifetime manager or, in our case, never in a lifetime. He is so good I believe he could do something with us. That’s how good I think he is. Morgan has shown himself up with his disingenuousness.
Piers Morgan has achieved some degree of ‘success’ in life I suppose, despite seeming to be despised by most reasonably minded people and possessing the attributes routinely associated with mediocrity. Little wonder he is so confused.
As for Arsene Wenger’s ‘failure,’ we dare not even dream to flounder half as badly.
20+ years in the Champions League as well. OK , they didn’t win it, but plenty of great memories for them.
Correct, John. And belated thanks for your excellent piece from Reading… https://safc.blog/2018/04/sixers-substitutes-soapbox-marshalling-his-thoughts-from-the-reading-draw/
Spot on. Piers Morgan is one of the most nauseating human beings that our ridiculous culture of celebrity tends to produce. ” I’ve lead the Wenger out campaign ” he says. He couldn’t lead a horse out of a stable.
Wenger, by any yardstick, has been a fantastic manager, and Arsenal fans may well rue the day that people like Morgan put pressure on him to go.
All dynasties eventually end. Arsenal fans, and football fans generally, have been very lucky to experience the era in which this great man has been such a vital part. He joins Shankley, Paisley, Clough and Ferguson in the pantheon of the very top football managers in the past 50/60 years in British football.
Piers Morgan, meanwhile, will be remembered as a third rate ego-centric TV celebrity – if indeed he is remembered at all.