Back at last: The Q & A :
Were you surprised when Matthew Syed compared Wenger to Tony Blair?
Yes because Tony Blair is the most hated man in the UK.
Is it helpful to compare a former PM to a football manager?
Maybe not. Because football fans can’t elect their manager every four years. And that’s a good thing, by the way
Is it true to say that Blair and Wenger both arrived with lots of new ideas, enjoyed early success, and were like messiahs.
Absolutely. Syed always writes thoughtful columns and this was a well-constructed op-ed piece in The Times.
Suggestions today that Vieira is Wenger’s favoured candidate to succeed him?
That comment suits the moment, suits the emergency that King Wenger is facing, I’m sure Wenger doesn’t really believe that. He is an agile spin-doctor and a very cunning politician, as Blair was.
Are Wenger and Blair both fanatical?
Yes. Syed is correct about that. Both think they’re always right. Blair still says: I will never apologise for getting rid of Saddam Hussein.
He says Wenger has been “seduced by his own core belief; namely, his own infallibility.”
Syed concluded: He cannot be challenged by staff, players or any data corroborating Arsenal’s decline. Conviction is a powerful thing, but it can become perilous when impervious to the evidence. Wenger has, in this sense, become antiscientific, dancing around the truth, but never quite seeing it.
As for Blair, he did many positive things as prime minister, but the Iraq intervention became quasi-ideological, an article of faith rather than reason.Even today, he sticks by the decision, even while finally conceding that Iraq didn’t have WMD. I doubt he will ever change his mind. As he put it: “I’ll always believe it was the right thing do to.”