Hi Myles,
I’m loving your reader replies at the moment, I think it’s bringing out the best in you.
Compliments aside, your ‘Wenger won’t manage Englishmen’ argument is spiteful bollocks. Put that Daily Mail sensationalism back in the drawer, Myles.
Wenger won’t manage yobbos and mavericks. Wenger won’t sign Adrian Mutu or Mario Balotelli, and he wouldn’t take Franck Ribery now he’s off soliciting minors. Nicklas Bendtner’s pants-on-show is the biggest incident Arsenal have had in 10 years. Wenger signed Walcott because he comes from Sussex, not Peckham. Wenger doesn’t want his player’s raving in Brixton with knives, gangs and guns. Jermain Defoe’s brother was beaten to death a year a go by a gang.
You live in Islington, Myles, and I’m sure you frequent a nice little organic shop just off Upper St and throw a great dinner party when you’re not visiting a new Italian place you heard about in Stoke Newington. How many times to you visit The Screen on the Green? Arsenal’s young English players come from near you too, but they live in that dodgy estate you sometimes walk by – where the kids ride bikes and give you evils. They eat at Chicken Cottage and hang around the N1 centre when they’re not getting moved along by community support officers.
Wenger runs a Football club, not a youth club where he must teach them not to go out spit roasting groupies and playing with guns and drugs. He’ll never be able to shout them into shape like Ferguson, but by the same token he’ll never shout them out of form like SAF did to Veron and Berbatov.
It’s OK if you take guys like Diaby and Nasri from their slums in Paris and Marseille, because the hangers on won’t follow them to London and drag them down. They won’t get in punch-ups in bars like Steven Gerrard and his mates. And yes, because he is a French legend they won’t play silly games with him like Bentley and his boots.
A few months ago, Jay Emmanuel Thomas got caught riding around in a Mercedes with no license and then tried to evade the police, like he’s probably done with his mates when he was younger, they had to smash the windows in and pull him out of the car! JET won’t make it if he does things like that.
Wilshere comes from a nice family in Stevenage, he’s probably a bit lippy but I doubt he was snorting coke off some Essex girl’s thighs this summer.
It’s nothing to do with nationality, Myles, it’s background. As you’ve said before, Wenger wants a team of nice guys. If Milner was A: good and B: cheap, Wenger would love him.
But maybe it just sounds better if Wenger’s a French megalomaniac who despises the country that he’s made his name in.
Would love to hear your response,
Jon
Myles replies :
You know a helleva lot, Jon.
You don’t need to read any websites.
I agree that uneducated footballers from the British underclass often cannot handle big money and fame. Sadly, Murdoch’s media glorified the superyob culture. If Gazza, Chris Evans and Danny Baker got drunk and had a kebab in Soho, we had to see photos and read about it. Ours is culture of hate and envy.We like to build ’em up and knock ’em down. People, even footballers, deserve more privacy.
But not every foreign player is a saint. Wiltord went clubbing in Moscow the night before a game. He played against Spartak and Arsenal lost 4-1. That escapade was all hushed up and we didn’t hear about it till some time later.
Wenger wants to grow a team and win things. He thinks that will be more satisfying.
He will never buy more than three players each summer because he believes in his babies. If you believe in them too, you’ll be as happy as he is. However, all of his Arsenal trophies were won by experienced players
By the way, I don’t live in Islington, I live in Brent. And my life is far more humble and dull than you imagine.
The last time I was in Upper Street was about five years ago. I was in a pub with Ian Grant talking with two web designers about an ANR revamp.
The last time I was in Stoke Newington was in 1977 and I was with my co-manager Danny Wright at the Rochester Castle, a pub which may no longer exist.
The Wasps, one of the groups we managed, played there. Around that time we played the Music Machine in Camden, supporting the Police, and blew them off. But you will not read about that in Broken Music, Sting’s autiobiog. This was when their guitarist was Henry, not Andy.
Police manager Miles Copeland was impressed and offered us a one-off single on our own label. He said, “It worked for Squeeze, it worked for the Cortinas, it’ll work for you.”
Kim Turner produced three excellent tracks at Pathway.
John Peel used to start his show with Teenage Treats but by then the group had run off with a cowboy manager. That was a shock but we got over it in 48 hours.
Miles was appalled by their behaviour and offered to help us get them back. I said, “I don’t want them back ! Nobody gets a chance to do this to me twice!”
Our little label was called 4-Play – Sounds for engaged couples.