The spoilt child

Arsène Wenger has a history of making surprising statements, but during the last few weeks he has surpassed himself. On Christmas Day the Arsenal website published a quote about Stoke City’s Rory Delap which ran as follows:

“For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball. It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot.”

This would be the same as saying that passing should be outlawed because Xavi passes the ball with a far superior accuracy, or that shooting should be against the rules because Torres is lethal in front of goal. Of course, that isn’t the problem. As one popular BBC journalist put it, “Is it me or is he basing this on the fact that the Gunners haven’t got a player who can lob it into the penalty area?”

When a number of matches were postponed because of the extreme weather conditions last week Mr Wenger was back on his high horse. One part of his complaint ran like this:

“The question you can ask is, for the fairness of the Premier League, if there are two or three games postponed, should the whole day be re-scheduled? Because if you play one team now who fights not to go down, and you play them again in May when they are already safe or already down, it is not the same game.”

As any fan knows, the essential characteristic of a league is that it is a marathon not a sprint, so one game should not make that much difference – unless you are in the habit of dropping points to clubs in the bottom three that your main title rivals thrash. The difference in matches played may be important in countries where there is a strict schedule and every team has always played the same number of games (for example France and Spain), but in England there can be as many as three games in hand for some clubs over some others (right now, for Bolton over Manchester United and Birmingham) and nobody has complained up until now. It all sorts itself out in the end. And quite how cancelling even more matches benefits the game is quite beyond logic.

However, without doubt the worst part of the Arsenal Manager’s complaint was the following:

“Personally I know only the inside of the stadiums - I don't know the surroundings well enough, but I must say it is the price we pay for living in a society where everybody wants 100 per cent security. Nobody accepts any risk any more and everybody is always guided by fear. If one of 60,000 people has an accident, you feel very guilty and nobody accepts any more that the slightest insecurity could exist in our society and that is why the games are postponed when there is no real need for it.”

These were the worst weather conditions in England for many decades and the authorities were urging people to stay at home and only make trips that were absolutely necessary – football is not necessary. It is an irrelevant bagatelle when placed opposite the loss of life or serious injury. Mr Wenger lives in a privileged ivory tower, far removed from the realities of the person in the (icy) street and has the arrogance to assume that we should be obliged to leave our houses just to watch his prancing ponies.

There is no reason to wonder why most of his players behave like petulant children – their manager is a spoilt brat and is fast losing any credibility he once had.