From David Margolis :
Hi Myles,
Hadn’t listened to Sarah McLachlan in a while, but played what I had last week.
Surprised I didn’t have Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (an apropos title to describe AW’s last few years).
No team has lost seven games and won the title in a thirty-eight game season.
After another Swansea-at-home debacle the death of title hopes released me firmly into the Leicester camp. At best I thought we could do them a favour by taking points off Spurs. The team played well, finding that elusive intensity.
If there’s to be redemption for Arsenal this season, they have to win the FA Cup by beating (thumping) Man U and Chelsea. Watford will have something to say though. They were Arsenal’s bogey team in the 80’s. I’m sure there are ANR readers who remember the FA Cup QF at Highbury in ’87.
A quick recap: Arsenal lost. In a one-sided display (esp. the 2nd half) they couldn’t do the business. Sound familiar?
The problem with aging is I remember all this crap, but forget what I was going to pick up at the supermarket. Hopefully young fans are more curious about the world beyond the EPL circus, because in thirty years no one’s going to give a sh*t about this weekend’s game. However, if you’re a Leicester fan…
Interested in learning more about the five eras of Arsenal indoctrination. In my book Don Howe was the forefather of modern Arsenal.
It’s often said AW built on George Graham’s defence, but George built on what Don left. I was too young to appreciate what Don did until his last couple of months when he had finally turned the team around.
Arsenal’s modern continuity is unique.
It was this season thirty years ago. Keown, Rocky, Quinn — all significant debutants. Mickey T. and Merson weren’t far behind. We’ll never know what Don could’ve done, but we know what George did — or not, if you work at the Emirates — and it was remarkable with a threadbare squad, and just as thrilling as Wenger’s turnaround of a group of players who looked like they had been finished for a couple of seasons.
It’s why your George Graham interview is striking. He knew exactly what was wrong (like every fan), but he couldn’t fix it and turn Arsenal into EPL contenders, even if they finished fourth and won the Cup Winners Cup the following season — and from which the one-nil to the Arsenal chant was born (at least in the modern cultural context).
George’s teams were quite capable of scoring goals up to ‘92.
His defence though was jelly wobbly during the ’89 run-in. At one point he played five at the back as a fix. They were still good, but didn’t reach legend status until ‘91. It took a few years, then history was rewritten and the jitters wiped from memory. All we hear about is the legendary back four.
As for the club today, after ten years has the move to the Emirates failed? Could Arsenal have achieved greater success on the pitch if they had remained at Highbury?
A more successful team would have milked extra income over the last ten years from higher place finishes and longer CL runs. Chelsea’s kit deals have followed Arsenal’s and have always blown them away.
It took seven years before Arsenal splashed out on Ozil. Could Arsenal have afforded him if they had remained at Highbury and been successful? The club trumpet the “no” line a little loud.
Should Arsenal have waited? Spurs still have to pay off their stadium, but it’s darn sight easier now.
Wenger’s already noted there’s more competition in the EPL because non-traditional title challengers are able to buy technically gifted players.
What he’s saying is that Arsenal have effectively lost a good deal of their advantage from the Emirates move.
AW tied his hands for six years trying to develop far too many substandard players when he could have tweaked his squad with players who were primed for success. He’s been playing catch-up since 2012.
We can moan at Chelsea and City for changing the playing field with their billionaire benefactors, but Arsenal were in position to challenge for the title in 08, 10, 11, and 14.
In each of those seasons the same opinion resounded; the team were a couple of players short. Those were four titles that could have been in the bag with a stronger squad at Highbury.
The club like to play up their financial might, but how much have Arsenal lost?
Jeremy Wilson’s “guilty or not guilty” article misses the fundamental question. Has the move to the Emirates failed Wenger?
Wenger and Arsenal fans have been like Woody Allen in Stardust Memories for the last decade. We all got on the wrong train.
I’m not saying Arsenal don’t have an advantage now, and it would need an accountant to dig through various scenarios, but it does seem overplayed.
As for the Yank-bashing, blame the FA and the clubs. They wanted this big shiny EPL bauble to dominate the global landscape. They cultivated a cash rich environment. Of course billionaires and corporations were going come to in and suck it dry, except they had the smarts and saw it was an endless well.
Myles says:
Thanks,. David.
Wish I could have posted your essay sooner.
We were only in Bruges for 3 nights but it’s taken two days to re-orientate myself to being back home.
Our hotel receptionist told us, “After the Bataclan, nobody came.”
First afternoon we strolled around and Jan kept saying,”Oh, Myles – it’s so lovely.”
When Jan pointed at a window, the man next to us turned out to be Dutch.
Handsome and 40something, stylishly dressed with beautifully groomed grey hair, he said,”Bruges is beautiful but the rest of Belgium is ugly. I’m an architect, they forgot what they did 500 years ago.”
He pointed down the road and said, “If you go there and turn right you’ll come into a religious courtyard with a lawn of daffodils. It’s worth seeing.”
The place is a convent community built for nuns and single women who wanted to live a useful life. On the path which goes round the houses on three sides a dark-haired girl was speaking in French to a nun in a first floor window and I thought they knew each other. But the girl was just asking the nun if it was OK to take a photo of her with an iPad, which she did.
As we wandered out I noticed a sign on the wall: VISITORS sincerely welcome. We kindly ask you to help us preserve the peaceful character of this close by keeping a worthy and reflected attitude.Thank you.