From Ezra : Souness says Arsenal are asleep
Hi Myles,
Graeme Souness the Sky Sports commentator is like Graeme Souness the Liverpool midfielder: direct, fierce, uncompromising, demanding.
Yet, he also makes some very cute observations.
After Arsenal’s pulsating win over Manchester United, Souness checked the rain of plaudits.
He looked around the rapidly-emptying Emirates and said:
“This is a sleeping giant. It’s a big club by most people’s standards, but its still behind Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. It should be up there.”
We all know that Arsenal now has the power and resources and structure to be in the clutch of the greatest football clubs.
But does it have the manager?
Specifically, I think what Souness means is this: Arsenal doesn’t have a European Cup – the one prize that elevates a club into the highest of echelons.
Think back to 1996. Could you imagine Arsenal being talked about in the same breath as Bayern or Barcelona?
Wenger transformed Arsenal into the one team in Europe that EVERYBODY wanted to watch.
But still the game’s greatest prize eludes Wenger.
He must replay Paris 2006 in his dreams. He must wake up sweating when Henry hit his shot straight at Valdes after 69 minutes, instead of to his left.
Will Wenger get another chance to lift Big Ears?
Is Souness right, Myles? Is Arsenal asleep?
And will Wenger wake up before his reign is over?
Myles says:
Graeme Souness is one of the best pundits despite being one of the worst managers.
As a player he did it all.
In 1983-84 Liverpool beat Odense, Athletic Bilbao, Benfica and Dinamo Bucharest.
Those 8 games took them to the final in Rome, where they met AS Roma.
Roma, who had Falcao , two phenomenal Brazilian midfielder, Graziani, a formidable centre forward, had eliminated Gothenburg, CSKA Sofia and Dynamo Berlin.
In the semi-final Roma beat a very good Dundee United team 3-2 on aggregate in games I remember quite well.
On that dramatic Wednesday night the Final went to extra time but the score remainded 1-1.
With Bruce Grobbelaar in goal, Liverpool won the shoot-out 4-2.
By then Kenny was getting old but it was still a big shock to see him substituted,Michael Robinson coming on.
Liverpool flew home next day and the crew opened the door of the plane and the Edinburgh-born hard man, the captain, stood there in a collarless shirt and lifted the Cup With Big Ears.
WHAT A MOMENT!
Souness was the Scottish skipper of an ambitious English club who had changed their style of football radically in order to pursue the Holy Grail, first achieved for Britain by Celtic’s Lisbon Lions in 1967.
Remarkably, Jock Stein was able to field a team of eleven men who were all born within a 25-mile radius of Parkhead.
At that time, before Berlusconi moved the goalposts , we used to see real champions beating champions for the chance to play other champions.
I believe certain football clubs have a distinctive and permanent DNA.
Manchester United, who took part in the European Cup against the wishes of the FA, have ambition in their DNA.
By contrast, Arsenal were run by Bob Wall and Ken Friar for decades, and never had the ambition of United.
Now, owned by Kroenke, they still don’t have the ambition.
I’d bet my house on Arsenal not winning the Champions League while the club is owned by Silent $tan.