Earlier in the season I wrote a long e-mail to you about what in my opinion is wrong at the club.
I wasn’t happy with what I had written, the subject was so wide it could easily have been expanded to a whole book, so I never sent it.
But when you mentioned that many readers mail you about who should leave the club, I got inspired to write to you about one of the thoughts I’ve had for some time.
Different people learn in different ways.
In football, a young player has mainly 5 channels to learn from.
Two of the channels comes from his manager/coach (spoken and shown), two from other players, mainly more experienced (also what they say and what he see them do) and one is learning-by-doing.
The current team is young and has nearly no experience of winning.
While Ryan Giggs just signed a new contract many from our Invincibles team are still playing, just not at our club.
When someone says Bendtner is not good enough, Denilson is not good enough or Clichy and Vela are not good enough, I say how do you know?
A huge part from the learning process is missing in the system, some players will be more affected by it than others.
Why did it take so long for this team to believe and understand that they can beat Chelsea and Barcelona?
Probably because there wasn’t any player there who had ever done it, no-one who could tell them exactly how focused they need to be.
Why did they lose against Birmingham? Probably same reason.
From what I’ve read that winning mentality is not something you’re born with, it’s something you develop. Can it be developed without the guidance of more experienced players? Probably, but it will most certainly take more time.
________________________________________
Myles replies:
Thanks for writing, Rasmus.
And thanks for selling me the future.
Although I’m a very impatient man, I’ve never denied the importance of the future, since we’ll all be spending the rest of our lives in the future
Always remember that Arsene Wenger is an unusually cerebral character.
When Arsenal played Newcastle in the 1998 FA Cup Final they won 2-0 to complete the Double and the squad did a lap of honour. As the ecstatic players jumped for joy, took turns kissing the FA Cup and holding it up for the hordes of supporters who loved them, Wenger was walking round the Wembley pitch looking at the delirium in the stands and thinking, “How can I keep all these people happy?”
He knew the fans wanted more. They didn’t see a football season in 1997-98, they saw history.
Having seen history, the fans wanted to see more. Football is good but history is better – and easier to remember.
So The Professor gave them more history.