When Arsene Wenger spoke recently about the growing use of video technology in football he reminded us all of a few big incidents that went against Arsenal and which he thinks would have made big differences to ours and the sports history if they had used replays back then, and clearly the biggest one of these was the sending off of our German international keeper Jens Lehmann in the 18th minute of the 2006 Champions League final.
Arsenal still took the lead against Barcelona and nearly held on for a famous win but it was not to be. The red card did not stop the eccentric shot stopper from being named as the goalie of that season’s tournament and it was a rare blip in a pretty stellar career for Lehmann.
He played every single Premier League game of our Invincible title winning season of 2003/04, for example, and was also the Man of the Match when Arsenal claimed the FA cup in 2005 which would be our last major trophy for a decade. Okay the current squad have now won three FA cups in the last four years but they have also been accused of lacking the winning mentality needed to claim the league title.
So with Sky Sports reporting that Lehmann is close to returning to the club as a coach, I wonder if Arsene Wenger is trying to get his former keeper’s mentality to rub off as much as his ability and experience.
The German was sometimes a loose cannon (see what I did there?) but you could never question his desire to win, so will this coaching appointment be a factor in the Gunners challenging for major honours from now on?
Bob.