Hero of our times....5

I have been thinking about writing this for a long time. In fact this person was the real inspiration behind the ‘hero’ series. The reason behind my hesitation was the lack of complete knowledge in the game of soccer.

I started following the English Premier League matches this season. Thanks to my good friends Vattu and VR, I started watching closely Arsenal matches. I may be found lacking in knowledge in technical aspects. So I will dwell in the resource management skills and approach of the person I consider as one of the best football manager of our times- Arsene Wenger.

For the ones who haven’t heard of EPL, it’s the most competitive, professional and marketed sporting league in the world. The managers will be highly pressurized to achieve their objectives. The football manager in EPL holds the toughest job in the world. He has to keep the players, the management and the fans happy at the same time.

Every team cannot afford the single objective of winning the league. The top 4-5 teams will be aiming for the league, the next 5 teams will be aiming to break into the top 4 and the last 5-6 teams will be on the look out to stay clear of relegation. (I just gave an idea in general it’s much more than that). I would also request you not to compare it with Indian Premier League. Watch the EPL for once to understand the magnitude.

As the oil rich Arab sheikhs and Russian oligarchs started looking out for costly toys, they found the English teams the best choice. The managers, fans and the management were too happy to sell off the teams to these rich playboys. The new owners happily paid astronomical sum to ensure that world’s best played in their team. So the manager’s job was made easy. He got the players he wanted. Unmindful of the piling debts, players were brought for huge sum to warm the benches. In the process many youth academies became defunct and the authorities had to change the rules for the sake of English soccer.

Arsenal was never owned by a single entity. It could be the only one among the top 6 to be run by a family. So when rest of the title contenders spends close to billions for building a team, Arsenal couldn’t afford to do that. When Wenger took over charger he started buying the unproven players for cheap money and thus started the unforgettable era in English Premier League- ‘The Invincibles’. They dominated the league with the magical, beautiful football. It was unimaginable to play football in the beautiful way in EPL. But Wenger’s Arsenal was uncompromising in its way. That was the Arsenal way of winning.

There started a cup winning and record breaking spree. But the toughest challenge was yet to come for Wenger. Arsenal had to move in to a bigger stadium. Without a rich financier this would have been suicidal. Any sensible man would have abandoned the ship. But Wenger was already on his way to prepare the Arsenal to face a new future.

The team from ‘Invincibles’ were sold off one by one. He started a huge youth policy. Talents were scouted from all over the world and they were developed in the Arsenal Academy and later given a chance to play the big game. This brought in more savings and groomed up a bunch of youths who went on to write history.

Imagine the struggles of a man to undo his own legacy. But then is legacy just the number of times we win in the field?

The youth policy has taken a lot of time to flourish and bear fruits. Wenger has been drawing flak for continuous 5 dry years. But no great manager would dream of doing it. Take any manager from top 4-5 and check out their stats on how many young players have come out of their Academy to play in the league. The record would be dismal.

I was privileged to see the Arsenal team maturing into an entity independent of any stars. While the other teams found it difficult to go on when one of their stars fell ill, Arsenal fought on with more than half the team on injury list.

But never have we seen Wenger deploying the negative tactics to win. The victory always happened the Arsenal way. Even the top managers feared to fail and deployed some of the most infamous techniques to win. The game against Barcelona showed the valiance with which the young players fought should be written in history books. But then history books have only the name of victors in it.

No player in Arsenal has been thrown off the team just because he had a bad game. As long as there is fire in his belly Wenger gave the players chance to achieve his potential. Yes, it has been at the cost of winning. But isn’t that what ‘team’ is all about? ‘Team’ is not about the number of victories but ‘team‘ stands for sticking together when going gets tough.

Bottom Line: I could have written miles and miles. But I choose to shorten this as most of the Indians would be unaware of the technicalities of the game called ‘football’. But I work in a corporate environment. I have never seen a person stubbornly sticking to the principles he believes in. And there is absolutely no one who stands up for his team mates. Wenger taught the world of thinking for the good on long term. Wenger taught the world the meaning of FAITH and VICTORY.

Thanks to VR and Vattu for the valuable inputs! When I post this, I am certain I haven’t done justice to the legacy of Wenger.