Arsène Wenger — The Martyr of Islington
Arsène Wenger comes across as a very virtuous fellow, when he’s not putting his hands on officials that is. I’d like to imagine that Mr. Wenger’s private quarters, decorated with a pristine white décor. He seems a man well renowned in the fine arts. I also imagine that hanging above his desk is a portrait of Biggie Smalls wearing a crown that sits callously on the side of his head — you know the one that sat proudly in ‘Cottonmouth’s’ office (pictured below). Long live the Chief.
No king can stay in power forever. Either ‘Father Time’ crawls away at your age or his once loyal servants and followers grow weary and try to overthrow the throne. But still Wenger holds a strong grip on both forces like a two-headed snake.
Arsène Wenger, the King of Arsenal, hangs perilously under a boiling cauldron, but seeing his impeding doom hasn’t dishevelled him. No, not a bead of sweat appears on his wrinkled visage. In fact, this is the same pressure that has tried to angle in on the Frenchmen many a times in his historic long reign at the club. With each time managing to lithely evade the pressure with the demeanour of a ballerina.
In interviews after poor team performances, where you expect him to point his thumb downwards signalling a release of the lions — á la Julius Caesar — he instead exudes the tranquillity, the wisdom and the foresight through a fusion of French English, as he calmly explains his team’s mishaps without ever dragging his players through the mud. It’s his faith — his belief that there’s a code of rightness, a path that is away from that of success, showing us that there are other ways to win, without winning: a mantra that has grown weary on Arsenal fans.
His doubters, who go by a group named ‘Wenger Out’, growing in size and stature, stocking up on new members like army recruiters storm the campuses of universities– especially after losing the title the season previous to the incredible sports story of Leicester city.
“Join the cause”, “Let’s wage the war on the Emirates!” the ‘Wenger Outs’ would whisper salaciously into the ears of bystanders. Their propaganda further strengthened by a certain YouTube channel that shan’t be named.
Wenger has previously classed the decade of 2004–14 (the move from Highbury to the Emirates) as “the most sensitive and important of my career”. Despite the financial restraints on the club, he was able to lose the battle, but not the war to the financial powerhouses of the league — Chelsea and Man City — stopping the club from becoming one of those old European contenders that now live out their years in Europa League purgatory.
This was the same decade that birthed a damning script that the club would follow to its perilous depths. A now predictable script where their story climaxes at the final quarter of the season. The part of the season that stops the club at the door like a bouncer, making them empty out their pockets. Before Arsenal enter the month of the February, they are to be dangled upside down, emptying their dreams, aspirations and their place in the Champions League. This year being no different, as Arsenal are currently looking from outside in on the title race, and chase a (5–1) 1st leg deficit in the Champions League. The Chief at the top, Arsené Wenger has the arrows now pointing towards him and the house that he built.
Should he go? The man that first entered the barren wastelands of Arsenal back in 1996 and slowly built up a castle, a village, and engineered a prestigious way of living that reverberated around the world of football. However, The king has grown with old age, his hair thinning white, but still the fire within him burns fiercer.
“This is Arsenal FC, not Arsène FC” banners dress the house of Arsenal with emblazoned comptemt. “There’s only one Arsène Wenger!” chants fade away into inaudible murmurs.
The Frenchmen’s contract is supposedly ending at the end of the season. The Italian, Maximo Allegeri, is said to take over the throne, but Wenger has always said he’ll continue at the helm as long as the fire within him continues to burn. The players seem to have given up on him, turning in a string of dreadful performances, and with some of the superstars at the club causing a mutiny at the club. But still, Wenger stands out in front, arms out, ready to take the full force of the stones cast towards him and his team.
Despite the effigies burning outside the stadium, despite the calls for his sacking, despite all of this, he continues unabated. His love for the club so interwoven, that he wants it to live on soon after he passes. In the current era of football where managers flit from club to club as much as players do, Wenger hopes that Arsenal stays amongst the very top of the clubs in the world. He is a man of virtue that transcends the job of manager.
Wenger will go down with the ship. King Arsène Wenger, The martyr of Islington.
