It is remiss that since my fawning on Arsenal I have not written a dedicated epistle for Arsene Wenger. Would it be because Arsene has found it hard to reach again the invincible peak he has set in his Arsenal's career? Or I took for granted his accomplishment by setting a fixed bar of expectations instead of shift-able goal post? To a certain percentage, it’s a proportion of both. With a lot of dynamic factors that the global environment has wrought on foot balling, a manager needs to fulfill both ( Ranieri would tell you that the high achievement of today would be your expected pass-mark tomorrow ).
So, here I am, writing on the enigma known as Arsene wenger. Being his birthday some days ago, the social media would have been awash with his biography, achievements, records, successes etc. Dwelling much on that will be tantamount to wallowing in repetitive citation. Wikipedia gives a detailed and in-depth citation of Arsene Wenger even to his marital life. He is "the manager of Arsenal since Oct. 1996, the longest serving manager and most successful in terms of major trophies won. Football pundits give Wenger credit for his contribution to the revolutionising of football in England in the late 1990s through the introduction of changes in the training and diet of players.
He signed Liberian George Weah, who later became the first African to be named FIFA World Player of the Year. Weah, while receiving his award from FIFA president João Havelange and vice-president Lennart Johansson invited Wenger up to the stage, spontaneously giving his medal to the manager, as a token of his appreciation. Wenger worked with Roger Mendy, a Senegalese defender regarded in 1991 as one of the ten best African footballers by France Football,[304] and Wenger also fast-tracked young players such as Petit and Lilian Thuram, and handed debuts to Henry and David Trezeguet.[307]
His first purchase as Arsenal manager was Anelka from Paris Saint-Germain for £500,000, a deal which upset the French club as they received little remuneration.[308] The player's subsequent sale to Real Madrid just two years later for £23.5 million highlighted Wenger's shrewdness in the transfer market. He discovered future Arsenal players Touré and Emmanuel Eboué,[311] and successfully persuaded Fàbregas and Hector Bellerín, amongst other La Masia graduates, to leave Barcelona and join him." And a lot more on trophies, clubs, and statistics benchmark he has won, managed and reached respectively. Read more on that on wikipedia.
My focus is on how this man, a cross-Europe polyglot and an unusual ordinary French man, becomes a man larger than his own existence. In life, not only in sport, we chase achievements and records. When you have beat everyone, you start to chase yourself until your performance is optimized to its barest stretchable point. At that point, still, one will desire to go further. The drive is limitless. Thus, the topping greatness today is poised to be discounted tomorrow. Greatness is not an end but we can make it a means to several other greatness. An individual that does that is larger than the greatness we seek.
It is ability to cascade one's achievement to enabling others that moulds super-humanness out of an average human like Arsene Wenger. He would turn a club to home and an average to a superstar, with kindness , compassion, diligence, respect and patience. He’s not the best , he is just one of the best yet he gives hope to hopeless athletes like a Messiah of Sport.
I celebrate you, Wenger.
--toonday
On Toonday's Perspectives
25-10-2017
So, here I am, writing on the enigma known as Arsene wenger. Being his birthday some days ago, the social media would have been awash with his biography, achievements, records, successes etc. Dwelling much on that will be tantamount to wallowing in repetitive citation. Wikipedia gives a detailed and in-depth citation of Arsene Wenger even to his marital life. He is "the manager of Arsenal since Oct. 1996, the longest serving manager and most successful in terms of major trophies won. Football pundits give Wenger credit for his contribution to the revolutionising of football in England in the late 1990s through the introduction of changes in the training and diet of players.
He signed Liberian George Weah, who later became the first African to be named FIFA World Player of the Year. Weah, while receiving his award from FIFA president João Havelange and vice-president Lennart Johansson invited Wenger up to the stage, spontaneously giving his medal to the manager, as a token of his appreciation. Wenger worked with Roger Mendy, a Senegalese defender regarded in 1991 as one of the ten best African footballers by France Football,[304] and Wenger also fast-tracked young players such as Petit and Lilian Thuram, and handed debuts to Henry and David Trezeguet.[307]
His first purchase as Arsenal manager was Anelka from Paris Saint-Germain for £500,000, a deal which upset the French club as they received little remuneration.[308] The player's subsequent sale to Real Madrid just two years later for £23.5 million highlighted Wenger's shrewdness in the transfer market. He discovered future Arsenal players Touré and Emmanuel Eboué,[311] and successfully persuaded Fàbregas and Hector Bellerín, amongst other La Masia graduates, to leave Barcelona and join him." And a lot more on trophies, clubs, and statistics benchmark he has won, managed and reached respectively. Read more on that on wikipedia.
My focus is on how this man, a cross-Europe polyglot and an unusual ordinary French man, becomes a man larger than his own existence. In life, not only in sport, we chase achievements and records. When you have beat everyone, you start to chase yourself until your performance is optimized to its barest stretchable point. At that point, still, one will desire to go further. The drive is limitless. Thus, the topping greatness today is poised to be discounted tomorrow. Greatness is not an end but we can make it a means to several other greatness. An individual that does that is larger than the greatness we seek.
It is ability to cascade one's achievement to enabling others that moulds super-humanness out of an average human like Arsene Wenger. He would turn a club to home and an average to a superstar, with kindness , compassion, diligence, respect and patience. He’s not the best , he is just one of the best yet he gives hope to hopeless athletes like a Messiah of Sport.
I celebrate you, Wenger.
--toonday
On Toonday's Perspectives
25-10-2017
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