He’s tossed his toys out of the pram.
That’s never a pretty sight.
I’m so glad I wasn’t around for that.
We’ve just come back from five nights in Barcelona. So I have been out of the game for a week.
Friends who thought I would be picking up emails have been sending me Arsenal stuff for six days.
On holiday, I’m incommunicado. I go abroad to get away from the computer and the phone.
At home, I’m beating my brains out all day long for 50 weeks a year. I’m always working, always writing or thinking about what I’m going to write.When I go away, I switch off completely. I don’t phone, I don’t send emails.
Leaving London last Thursday, I did plan to watch Manchester United v Arsenal in a Sky bar. My brother Paddy had given me the address of a bar that would be showing the game.
I haven’t seen any TV apart from the BBC World News, where huge events in sport get two lines and big news gets one line.
I’m a big picture guy, so I actually like BBC World News. It’s succinct.
On Friday night at 11pm they reported that Arsene Wenger had said that if Arsenal did not win a trophy in one or two years then his strategy had failed.
One line. That was all the BBC said and all I needed to know : Wenger wants more time to pursue a failed policy.
By Saturday, I’d changed my mind about watching the United game. I didn’t want to watch it because I was in a different mood and it would seem too much like work. I got Jan to text Michael, asking him to Sky+ the game, so I could see it when I came back.
Later on at 4pm (3pm UK time) I got her to text Michael again : DAD WANTS TO KNOW THE RESULT.
His quick reply was : ZERO ZERO
On Monday I bought The Guardian on La Rambla at 11 a.m. and, as we were wandering back to the hotel at 7pm, I read it on a bench in a lovely park next to the Arc de Triomf.
The Guardian backpage headline was: Wenger gives Arsenal jitters over Madrid move.
Sub-head : Working for Madrid would be ‘interesting’ says coach. Reports in France suggest meeting with Perez.
I laughed out loud when I saw those lines and said, “Bullshit ! He always makes it seem as if he’s doing us all a favour by staying.”
UNDERSTAND THIS : Wenger and Real Madrid is not a good fit.
Nothing Wenger has ever done suits the way Real Madrid operate.Their crowd would not give him time.
And nothing Perez has done suits Wenger’s way of thinking and working. Impatient Real Madrid buy stars and want success yesterday, patient Wenger makes stars and builds clubs and promises success next season, and he doesn’t do pre-season tours in Japan, China or the U$A to promote the brand.
For Wenger to admit he’s had lunch with Florentino Perez is like throwing his toys out of the pram. He is just repeating what he’s always said : Let me do it my way, or I’ll go.
So this is where I am this morning.
Myles is back and trying to catch up.Yesterday was a travelling day, today is a chill-out day, Friday will be a work day after I’ve caught up with my associates, then the weekend.
This is the week when everybody said Wenger was closer to leaving Arsenal than ever before. Yeah, right.