Arsenal - This is a classic

This has come to light on twitter this morning, April 2008 in The Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle3717226.ece

Why Arsene Wenger should be proud rather than cowed

Matthew Syed: Commentary

It is a tragedy of apocalyptic dimensions, a human catastrophe comparable to the melting of the ice-caps and the devastation of the rainforests rolled into one. Arsenal have been knocked out of the Champions League and have all but run out of steam in the race for the Barclays Premier League title. Anyone not inclined to lament, mourn and bewail this fact is not in possession of a soul.

You may say that I am exaggerating, but this is about more than mere football. It is about music and poetry, aesthetics and artistry, hope and audacity. Arsène Wenger could have instructed his team to play with the dispiriting pragmatism so beloved of his rival managers, but the mercurial Frenchman was not prepared to betray his nobler ideals, even when it might have improved his club’s chances of success.

Arsenal’s relentless and unadulterated pursuit of beauty has itself been a thing of beauty: a daring, epic and ultimately doomed journey that has taken the English game, against all expectation, into the territory of the artistic. Wenger has done more for neutral supporters in one season — talking spiritually now, talking of our moral fabric — than an eternity of watching the spirit-sapping utilitarianism of men such as José Mourinho and Rafael Benítez.

Wenger’s posse of swashbuckling and tragic youngsters embraced the vision of their leader with the naive enthusiasm of foot soldiers and now they look around themselves at the ruins. But they should not despair. Liverpool, their conquerors on Tuesday night, may go on to lift the European Cup next month, yet what are trophies except meaningless baubles that moth and rust destroy? What Arsenal have achieved this season will endure far longer, if only in the hearts of those of us who have watched them.

Who has been inspired by Benítez’s Liverpool or Avram Grant’s Chelsea beyond the core constituencies of Merseyside and West London, who cheer out of filial loyalty and never from aesthetic appreciation? Who in their right mind could watch a Liverpool or Chelsea performance and find a wide and happy smile arriving on their surprised lips?

This is not an argument that is pro-Arsenal any more than it is anti-Liverpool: Arsenal under George Graham were as dull and draining as Liverpool under Bob Paisley were thrilling. No, it is about celebrating something in Wenger’s team that goes far beyond success and failure; it is about saluting a philosophy that owes as much to Sartre as it does to Rinus Michels. Wenger understands that, in this curious journey called life, there are things that matter beyond the merely functional.

The Frenchman and his players will be feeling something close to desolation. They woke yesterday with their hopes and dreams, which were within grasping distance a few weeks ago, in tatters. But rather than despair, they should celebrate that they have imbued football with an aesthetic meaning that it has not enjoyed since the retirement of Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Co. They are glorious, even though they have been vanquished. They are glorious, perhaps, because they have been vanquished.

There was a time when it looked as if the English game was doomed to be strangled by route-one football. It is visionaries such as Wenger and the evergreen Sir Alex Ferguson who have resisted this calamity. Manchester United’s attacking luminosity and Arsenal’s intricate creativity have offered an alternative vision of the sport that, it must be hoped, will be embraced by a new generation of managers and coaches.

Football is becoming the beautiful game again. And, for that, we must thank, above all, the incomparable Wenger.

That's going straight to Pseuds Corner.

see this is why i absolutely detest arsenal.

the club for middle-class know nowts who try to intellectualise a simple game.

£#%&! off.

Apparantly theres a piece in todays paper by the same guy along similar lines - can't find a link due to the paywall.

'beautiful and tragic'

its a joke surely?

Originally Posted by carlosartorial

Apparantly theres a piece in todays paper by the same guy along similar lines - can't find a link due to the paywall.

'beautiful and tragic'

Haven't read it yet...


If you ask me, one of the greatest nights of live sport so far this year took place at White Hart Lane last Wednesday. The magic started in the opening minute, the ball zipping around the pitch like a pinball, the crowd creating a wall of noise on both sides of the ground and the match igniting with a stunning goal by Theo Walcott even as we were taking our seats.

I was ensconced with diehard Tottenham Hotspur fans, men and women who have made the trip past Alexandra Palace to the ground for more than 40 years, and could immediately sense the electricity coursing through the stands. This was football from the heavens, the kind of demented, end-to-end stuff that makes the blood run fast and the heart sing, even among neutrals such as me.

Even as Arsenal roared into a 2-1 lead after 12 minutes, the atmosphere among Spurs supporters did not relent. All around me fans turned to each other and whispered “best match of the season”. And, as the forward play of Arsenal reached an apotheosis of intricacy, one supporter of 40 years, whose dislike for Arsenal acknowledges few boundaries, whispered: “Lord above, they play magnificent football!”

On the way home, we talked of little else. We were still ablaze with the intensity of it all, not least the breathtaking Spurs comeback. Plans for Michael’s next promotion, my next holiday and Brandon’s trip to New York did not seem pressing as we basked in the afterglow. We talked about Arsenal’s attacking audacity, Spurs’ unwillingness to surrender, the insane tempo from first to last. And we talked about a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Now, this may all seem a little OTT for a run-of-the-mill league match. It may sound altogether too giddy. But is this not what great sport is supposed to do to you? Is it not about entertainment and action and shouting oneself hoarse? And is this not what Arsenal provide so often across the arc of a season, even as they are falling apart so dramatically yet again?

We are often told Arsenal must win trophies to justify Arsène Wenger’s continuing tenure at the Emirates Stadium; that the manager’s stubbornness is the reason why Arsenal’s barren run is set to extend to six seasons; that sport is ultimately about winning and that for all the luminosity of Arsenal’s play, it is about time Wenger got a grip on the reins of pragmatism and altered his methods.

Forgive me for disagreeing. Sport is only about winning? Tell that to both sets of fans last week, who departed into the warm night after a draw with hearts aglow. Tell that to neutrals after another fabulously entertaining match between Bolton Wanderers and Arsenal on Sunday, the North London club’s title challenge snuffed out by a late header even as they were striving to take all three points.

Tell that to those who have followed the doomed attempts of Wenger’s young guns over the course of the entire barren spell, the ebbing and flowing of their title hopes matched only by the rising and sinking in fans’ hearts.

Tell that to supporters of opposition clubs, teams that have sometimes won and sometimes lost, but who have always welcomed the presence of a club ideologically committed to beautiful football.

“Next season,” Wenger always says, “next season.” And it has to be conceded, even among his most ardent admirers, that there is an echo in the Frenchman’s implacable optimism of the insanity of the protagonist in Stephen Crane’s timeless poem.

“I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
‘It is futile,’ I said,
‘You can never —’
‘You lie,’ he cried,
And ran on.”

But is it not also possible to interpret Wenger’s manic (futile?) pursuit of the horizon as heroic rather than delusional? Can we not regard his messianic sense of destiny as admirable rather than merely risible? After all, who would stake their house on Arsenal falling short yet again next season?

We are often presented with two ways to think about the Frenchman. He is a visionary whose genius will be fully appreciated only after he has disappeared or he is Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, fighting imaginary battles, a visionary in search of a vision that will for ever be beyond the capacities of his band of naives.

But, for me, he is both. He is both visionary and fanatic. He is a pragmatist and a romantic fool. Like other ideologues, he exists in a realm on the outskirts of reason. He believes that football should be played in a certain way and that clubs should be run in a certain way. He does not merely preach his philosophy, he lives it, breathes it, perhaps more than is good for his sanity.

As he put it on Sunday, minutes after dropping to his haunches in agony, a picture that graced the front cover of Monday’s football supplement in these pages, and spoke eloquently of hope and faith and shattered dreams: “I turn up every day and work as well as I possibly can for every hour of the day. It is my life.”

I agree that Wenger should have made more forays into the transfer market. And I would love to see him buy big this summer. But I also recognise that Wenger, in his heart of hearts, believed his present team would win the title and discern his fears that big-name signings might imperil the delicate ecosystem at London Colney. And I also know that without faith in his principles, Wenger is nothing.

Arsenal fans are not wholly wrong to profess their frustration at the lack of trophies. But I cannot agree that football is only about trophies. Birmingham City won the Carling Cup in a match that triggered Arsenal’s downfall, but — with a nod to the gallant men at St Andrew’s — I cannot say that I prefer their football to Wenger’s. Not if they won ten trophies or a hundred. Not if Arsenal came up short from now till eternity.

The fundamental premise of sport is, of course, to win. Art for its own sake is not sport and never can be. But it is also true that art is often created in the attempt to win, even when a team or individual falls short. And sometimes, this is the greatest and most inspirational art of all.

Arsenal’s band of young warriors are not antiheroic for their failure. In some ways they are heroic because of their failure.

They play football in the way it should be played, the way it was meant to be played, and there is something both beautiful and tragic in everything they do.

That is surely being ironic.

And well said, JD.

Plans for Michael’s next promotion, my next holiday and Brandon’s trip to New York did not seem pressing as we basked in the afterglow

£#%&! off and die you £#%&!ing everything that is wrong with football @#%&!s.

The fundamental premise of sport is, of course, to win. Art for its own sake is not sport and never can be. But it is also true that art is often created in the attempt to win, even when a team or individual falls short. And sometimes, this is the greatest and most inspirational art of all.

Arsenal’s band of young warriors are not antiheroic for their failure. In some ways they are heroic because of their failure.

They play football in the way it should be played, the way it was meant to be played, and there is something both beautiful and tragic in everything they do.

I loved this bit...

Plans for Michael’s next promotion, my next holiday and Brandon’s trip to New York did not seem pressing as we basked in the afterglow.

Well if we're going to draw parallels with theatre, I'm quite partial to a hopeful story with a happy, skin of your teeth ending.

And tbf a lot of Arsenal matches do provide that.

They get gushing articles filled with saccharin similes, we get trophies and unrivalled hate and envy

Originally Posted by reem

Well if we're going to draw parallels with theatre, I'm quite partial to a hopeful story with a happy, skin of your teeth ending.

And tbf a lot of Arsenal matches do provide that.

Yeah, but for us, not them

Originally Posted by carlosartorial

Apparantly theres a piece in todays paper by the same guy along similar lines - can't find a link due to the paywall.

'beautiful and tragic'

There is indeed. Read it in the coffee shop this morning (free papers, wouldn't want to psy for that shit ).

Lord above!

their fans are sick of it

they have replaced 'just like brazil' to 'why are we so spineless when it matters most'

fabregas will go, nasri might well go too. there will be a big man city bid for wilshere

when is he going to realise you can't develop a team to maturuty when all the best players keep £#%&!ing off to bigger more successful clubs because they are shit bored of his mentality of not winning but looking pretty

god almighty what a load of pretentious garbage.

written by somebody who, 20 odd years ago, would have probably regarded walking into a football ground akin to walking into a sewer.

Show us your trophies Cesc.

that's a wind up.

must.

be.

Arsenal fans on twitter are lapping it up. Pathetic.

I remember this at the time. I'm pretty sure it was pasted on here. I emailed it to a few mates and they all slagged me off for being spoiled. Talk about missing the point.
No doubt they would all take the opposite view these days as the media have deemed it ok to slag Wenger and his merry band of impish genius's.