Piers Morgan was the first ‘non-sporting guest’ on Simon Jordan’s Up-Front Podcast this week.
Normally I would offer you a top 10 list on what we learnt from our celebrity Gooner, but I’m not sure how interested readers are about who Mr Morgan will be voting for in the election or his highs and lows in journalism.
I will discuss his current views on Arsenal, him feeling that history has proved previous comments regarding Mr Wenger have been proven correct ….
I’m a big fan of Mr Morgan but on this occasion, he’s contradicted himself. Because history in fact shows the opposite.
The Frenchman remains the last man to lift the title in North London, since he left, we have already twice finished lower than he ever did and have finished outside the top 4 more times than he did in his entire 22 years in charge.
Go back to 2018 when the man was being mocked for ‘only’ finishing 4th and winning the odd FA Cup and telling yourself that 6 years later only 2 top 4 finishes would now be celebrated.
There is a reason why I said we would never win the Prem under Stan Kroenke’s regime, because I predicted that only when Mr Wenger left would we realise how hard it was to work for our owner and still qualify for the Champions League.
The two years in a row we have failed to get over the line should make us appreciate Mr Wenger more. It should make fans empathise with how difficult it is and make your marvel at the 74-year-olds body of work even more.
Defending accusations from the host that his point of view is ‘preposterous‘, this was Mr Morgan’s response: “First eight years, he was the best manager in world football. He won the league three times against Alex Ferguson, who many view as the greatest of all time… and we went Invincible. Best in the world in my estimation. For the last 14 years of his tenure, sadly, he was a shadow of the manager he’d been before, and that’s why we didn’t win the league.
“He became what I call a glorified architect. He was more obsessed with having a great stadium. I love Arsene Wenger for what he did for Arsenal, but he stayed at least 12, maybe 14, years too long.”
It’s wrong that the 59-year-old would attempt to rewrite history for fans not old enough to remember. It’s been two decades since we were last Champions. The longer that time increases, the more we should appreciate the Invincibles, not rewrite history to suit our own argument.
We didn’t stop winning the Prem in 2004 because our manager chose to build a new stadium. That was a choice made by his employers who made a business decision.
With an economics degree our boss may have agreed, but he also trusted those in power to follow FFP rules, believing long term the Gunners would be rewarded for being a self-sustained model.
He didn’t ask for Adebayor, Toure, Sagna, Nasri, Clichy and Van Persie all to move in their prime to Manchester. Same as he didn’t want Fabregas to return to Spain.
He wasn’t asking for a fraction of that money to be spent on replacement so it could be saved for the stadium.
He’s smart enough to know that in that era, Arsenal could no longer be considered title contenders. His job criteria was to make a profit to pay back loans while finding a way to maintain revenue from UEFA.
Mr Morgan is intelligent enough to know that this business model was not Mr Wenger’s choice. The suggestion he was happy to lose his best talent became he was obsessed with what he was building is fantasy.
Yes, a state-of-the-art training ground and stadium is part of his legacy because it safeguards the club’s future, but he’s said countless times ‘the Emirates…my greatest suffering’.
Not that what was designed shouldn’t be factored into the man’s legacy.
A lot is made of what Arteta inherited. Yet he’s not unique in starting a new job where things are not perfect. If nothing needed fixing there wouldn’t be a vacancy in the first place.
Mr Wenger had to deal with a drinking culture when he arrived in England, poor standards, a small stadium and the club not having access to their own training ground, so these things matter.
It seems harsh to judge a man on not winning the Prem when that was no longer realistic.
You can’t demand the most delicious cake if the chef hasn’t got the ingredients to work with.
That would be like judging Arteta for being a twice runners up when you know he has a young team. Imagine if the Spaniard then had to offload his most prized assets every summer?
Mr Wenger has said countless times that if he had known his work would purely be judged on how many trophies he won, he could have left a lot sooner to go where medals were more likely.
He believed that judgement wouldn’t come from within the fanbase because he naively assumed all supporters would afford him the same level of loyalty that he had given them.
Based purely on medals, Mr Wenger says he has proof that he could have gone to a Bayern Munich or PSG, offers made when Arsenal were at their lowest ebb. With Banks dictating repayment plans on if our gaffer would extend his deal, Mr Wenger felt overseeing the transition was the right thing to do, but also a greater challenge. On that day he essentially turned his back on ever being a Champion again.
He admits regretting that choice, moving to Paris or Germany would have been less stressful, but at time he trusted the fans like Morgan to not make up facts to make a good story.
The host and guest of this YouTube programme struggles to see the irony of how they judge the current generation, saying too many celebrate failure. They both laugh at the idea of being proud to pass your driving test on the 8th attempt.
Both’s parenting style is not to put an arm round the shoulders of their child if they lose.
Yet Mr Morgan feels two top 4 finishes 6 years has proven something?
Dan
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