Klaus wrote:
I wonder if I'll ever care about football as deeply again as I did during that Wenger era.
I think Arsene was fundamentally correct when he said that love for a club comes from recognising a piece of yourself in it and its values. We stood for something that felt important both on and off the pitch. The issue has never been that Wenger eventually left Arsenal. The issue is that every passing year makes it more and more apparent that all the values I cared about seems to have left with him.
People used to talk about how he'd squander his legacy by overstaying his welcome, but I think we're the one who have squandered it in the years since he left; not by underperforming on the pitch but by forgetting all about the sporting and aesthetic principles that even on a bad day would distinguish us.
I don't know if other people really give a shit about stuff like this. They're allowed to not give a shit of course, it's not like they're obliged to just to support a football club, but for me it was always a large part of it, and it's just fucking sad to see Arteta's football philosophy on display every week when you know how we used to play.
I'm genuinely curious as to how we can clearly define these when the 2 parts of his tenure are so different on the pitch. About the only thing consistent with both was the 1-2 touch short passing, and the idea of passing the ball to someone in a better position even when inside the opposition area.
Alternatively as Jones alluded to, off the pitch is the ideology of wanting to play positive, attractive, attacking football that entertained/thrilled. We have AW's quote after that FA Cup Final v MU where he said he'd rather not win another game than play defensive/negative football. However there is another quote from another manager that 'entertaining football without success is pointless/aimless, and winning football without flavour/style is soulless', or words to that effect.
For mind AW was more of the former, and to me it appeared to him 'success' was the outcome of the style of football and philosophy, rather than being the objective of that same style and philosophy.
Just going back to the 2 styles during his tenure, I wonder if he actually preferred the aesthetics of the 2nd era over the success of the first, other than the achievement of The Invincible season.
