By Myles Palmer
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SUMMER should be a time of reflection for football fans.
A welcome holiday from an all-consuming game.
Last summer wasn’t for me, since I wrote 32 pieces here about Euro 2004.
Only a nutcase would write 32 pieces in 22 days about Wayne Rooney, Big Phil Scolari, Sven.
But this summer I’m chilling – reading fiction and reflecting on the season.
SO FAR I’ve reached two conclusions.
Arsenal is a one-off club.
And Arsene Wenger is a one-off manager.
No other football club could have borrowed £260 million to build the best new stadium in the world in the middle of a huge capital city, or in any city.
No other club has the stability to do that.
And no other manager could have kept his team first or second for eight years in a row.
Three titles, four FA Cups, including two doubles.
Achieved on a fraction of Manchester United’s budget.
You can only conclude that Arsenal FC is not like other football clubs.
Of course, the entire Ashburton Grove stadium concept depended on Arsene Wenger staying at AFC and keeping the club successful.
Without that, banks will not lend you £260 million.
Even with AW on board, it took four years to get six banks to lend that £260 million.
The legal/financial/administrative difficulties were colossal.
And it took the combined talents of Danny Fiszman, Ken Friar, Keith Edelman, and many others, to push through a hugely daunting project that became…the Emirates Stadium.
IN ANY FOOTBALL SEASON, there will be loads of things you love and loads of things you hate.
Personally, I hated knowing in October that Arsenal would not win the European Cup, and I hated knowing in January that Chelsea would win the Premiership, and I hated knowing after ten minutes in the FA Cup Final that Arsenal could not score.
But I loved how well Fabregas played all season, I loved DB10 playing out of his skin for the first six weeks, I loved Robbie Pires playing for a new contract and scoring 17 goals, and I particularly loved Senderos coming back from a broken foot to become the finest young defender Arsenal has had since Tony Adams.
And I loved being right when I said that Robin van Persie was a young boy who did a few silly things, as we all do when we are young, but would come through and be a good player.
He needed to improve quickly, and he did.
VAN PERSIE scored 10 goals.
For me, that’s a good start.
Van Persie had never taken a penalty in his professional career but when Edu said he didn’t want that penalty in the shoot-out in Cardiff, RVP said, “I’ll take it.”
And rocking Robin banged it in as efficiently as Shearer would have done.
He has bottle.
If memory serves, Ince and Anderton took their boots off and sat down in the centre circle when we had a shoot-out against Germany in Euro 96.
Van Persie is a sculptor’s son who has a bit more personality than your average player.
In the long term, I count that an advantage.
He had a wild streak as a teenager, but he got married and they’ve found a house now and he’s enjoying his football and enjoying his life.
He has said, “I have lived in heaven since I came to London. As a player I’m better and as a human being I’m better. I’m not the Van Persie from Feyenoord anymore. I come to the training ground every day with a smile on my face and a fantastic feeling. “I think to myself: ‘Here’s another day when I will improve as a footballer’.”
He likes Wenger, who can improve young footballers, whatever their personalities.
And, let’s face it, the personalities of young footballers vary a lot.
On Wenger, Van Persie said: “He is the best, most professional coach I have ever worked with. The way he talks is so impressive.
“He’s always saying to me that one year as a footballer is the same as eight years in the life of a normal person. And I agree with that. He’s a very wise person and I respect him very much.”
June 14th 2005