Arsene Wenger--The Unauthorised Biography of Le Professeur by Tom Oldfield

Author:Tom Oldfield [Tom Oldfield]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784182533
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2014-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

THE REBUILDING PROCESS

There was plenty of excitement prior to the start of another mouth-watering Premiership season. The Gunners had been disappointed to surrender the title to Chelsea and were desperate for revenge. The joy of the unbeaten league campaign of 2003/04 had been replaced by a sense of despair at losing out to the Blues. Certainly, Wenger and his players were not lacking in motivation.

The summer of 2005 saw Vieira finally give in to the lure of a move abroad. But surprisingly he did not join Real Madrid, who had forever been linked with the midfielder, preferring a switch to Italian giants Juventus. He had been a terrific player for Arsenal – one of the best of the Wenger era – and he would be sorely missed. Yet the feeling remained that the fee of £13.75 million that the Gunners received from Juventus made it a good deal considering that Vieira’s best days were behind him.

Wenger gave Vieira a fitting send-off: ‘I share the sadness with our supporters that Patrick has left us. But on the other hand I would say to them “trust us and support us”. Patrick was a great player for us, one of the greatest in the club’s history.’ Arsène used the money from the sale of Vieira to strengthen his squad, signing Belarusian Alexander Hleb from Stuttgart to bolster the competition for places in midfield.

The Gunners boss then announced that Henry would be the new club captain. The striker was more of a focal point now than ever and would be relied upon to carry the goalscoring burden again. He had the respect of all the players and seemed the obvious option to take over from Vieira.

There were plenty of people who questioned the logic of selling Vieira, especially with the other top sides in the Premiership improving their squads. Chelsea’s summer shopping included the transfer of powerful Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien from Lyon while United turned to Dutchman Edwin van der Sar as the answer to their on-going goalkeeping crisis and picked up South Korean Ji-Sung Park from PSV. How would Arsenal respond?

The Gunners’ campaign began with a 2-0 win over Newcastle. Jermaine Jenas was sent off for the visitors in the first half but it took the team until the eighty-first minute before they exploited the man advantage. Henry found the net from the penalty spot after Ljungberg had been brought down and van Persie grabbed a second. A week later, though, Arsenal fell to their first defeat of the campaign as champions Chelsea earned a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge through a second-half strike from Didier Drogba. Mourinho had enjoyed the edge over Wenger again.

This mixed start continued with a 4-1 win over Fulham and then a 2-1 loss away to Middlesbrough. Henry and centre-back Pascal Cygan scored a brace each against the Cottagers but Arsenal showed none of this clinical finishing on Teesside, much to the frustration of Wenger. The Frenchman fumed when speaking to the press: ‘We should never have lost.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.