According
to Arsene Wenger, the victory over Southampton on Wednesday night,
Arsenal’s third on the bounce, demonstrated that the feelgood factor was
back in residence at the Emirates. Which is one way of putting it. The
glass half full way of putting it. Others might have pointed to what
happened at the Hawthorns last Saturday and suggested a less generous
reading of current morale at the club.
In the immediate aftermath of Arsenal’s undistinguished victory over an unambitious and unthreatening West Bromwich Albion,
a bunch of supporters in the visitors’ section unveiled a banner. It
read: “Arsene, thanks for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye.”
There was not a camera in the place that failed to pick it up.
ARSENAL ARE GETTING WORSE UNDER ARSENE WENGER - IT'S TIME TO GO
Mind,
it was not the first time it had been unfurled. It has been flourished
periodically since 2012. And the decision to wave it after a victory was
significant: those doing the protesting wanted it known that minor
issues like the unconvincing accrual of three points was not going to
deter them from their making their protest. Wenger’s continued presence
in the Arsenal dug-out, they feel, remains a brake on the club’s
development. His time, they believe, is up.
Clearly
it is not an isolated feeling among the Arsenal support. No one
objected to the banner being waved. No one sought to tear it down in
dismay. No one claimed they were embarrassed to be associated with it.
It spoke for many. The feeling among Arsenal supporters is that, even if
you do not share the immediate sentiment expressed in the banner, you
can see the point it is trying to convey. For many, whatever his many
achievements, Wenger has passed his sell-by date. And the club would be
better off with someone new at the helm.
Even
his staunchest defenders would be hard pressed to suggest Wenger is by
any means perfect. His forays into the transfer market have been
imbalanced, his stubbornness is often counter-productive, his once much
vaunted embrace of sports science is beginning to look a little old hat
(the injury list alone suggesting his training and conditioning
methodology is no match for that of Jose Mourinho).
And
it is not sufficient for a club of Arsenal’s stature to be content with
continued qualification for the Champions League. Since the move to the
Emirates, the fans have put up with the highest ticket prices in the
Premier League and received very little in the way of silverware return.
Discontent is not always the product of ignorance.
Yet
those seeking Wenger’s defenestration – or at least his gentle
push-comes-to-shove upstairs – might be counselled to be careful what
they wish for. Recently there has been much talk of Thierry Henry coming back to manage the club. There are more than a few Arsenal fans who would relish such an appointment.
But
imagine Henry in the dug out. Sure, he might deliver an immediate
injection of oomph, glamour and va-va-voom into proceedings. But,
totally inexperienced as he is at any management level, never mind
Arsenal’s, it is hard to see how an ego as substantial as his would not
soon come into conflict with those under his charge. You only have to
recall Glenn Hoddle’s reign up the road at Tottenham to find evidence
for the way in which a playing hero can fail to translate his legend
into the dug out. Henry would be a highly strung accident waiting to
happen.
And if not Henry,
then which of the young technocrats currently employed in the Premier
League would Arsenal fans suspect might do a better job than Wenger.
Brendan Rodgers? Gary Monk? Alan Pardew? Steve Bruce? Or might the
Arsenal supporters prefer someone who has been a disciple of scientific
modernism throughout his career, like Sam Allardyce? You do not have to
look far to find comparison that immediately flatters the present
incumbent.
Indeed,
of the Premier League bosses, only Mourinho, Roberto Martinez and
Ronald Koeman might genuinely deliver a step up on what the Arsenal fans
already have. And even Koeman’s admission into the elite candidates
might be about to be revoked as his Southampton side begins to stutter.
As
for abroad, well there is Diego Simeone, or Carlo Ancelotti or Pep
Guardiola, all of whom would bring coherence and control. But currently
all are cheerfully ensconced in a job they might be reluctant to
abandon. And yes, there is Juergen Klopp, the man once so frequently
touted as the next Arsenal boss it appeared as if the succession was
already writ in stone.
But his
travails with Dortmund this season have demonstrated how fickle is the
management game. Would Arsenal fans really welcome the arrival of a man
currently presiding over a club in the Bundesliga relegation zone?
The
point is, when you take a look around, the list of appropriate and
available candidates is remarkably short. Even shorter when you match up
their credentials to those of the man in charge. After all, nobody
knows how to run Arsenal like Arsene Wenger. And nobody, moreover, knows
how to dig their heels in like him. No matter how many banners are
unfurled, this is a man who is going nowhere of his own volition.
Which
makes you hope that the protestors at the Hawthorns are affording their
protest standard all due care and attention. You suspect they will
still have cause to be waving it around in another two seasons' time.
- Jim White
Earlier this week, R&B singer Usher went down to Miami’s Art Basel
to peruse the exhibitions on display. And all in the name of art, Usher
did something that's got him in the news. While there, dude stumbled on
the following exhibit of a woman who was charging iPhones via a charger
plugged into her vagina. Not one to turn down an interactive art
experience, Usher plugged in! See more photos after the jump. - See more
at:
http://www.lailasblog.com/2014/12/usher-charges-iphone-in-womans-vagina.html#sthash.ncELtO0V.dpuf
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