TRANSITION
I went to see David Blaine today. For various reasons, I’m totally financially screwed at the moment, and have been, to all intents and purposes, in self-imposed seclusion in my flat for a few weeks – since pretty much the day Blaine did the same thing in his little Perspex shell. Only difference is, he’s getting 30 million and I can eat, and at least I have work to do and a computer to keep me occupied. Otherwise: same ****. He was asleep, and I’m guessing he spends most of his days like that. Once the wonders of the cityscape of the Thames wears off, the teenage girls singing Atomic Kitten and the doubters launching paint bombs wouldn’t be much to keep him stimulated. So he seems to be treating his 44 days as a kind of hibernation, out of which he’s going to emerge a better man.
That’s the motivation behind all his endurance-based stunts. Anyone who remembers just how good a magician he was, the levitation tricks, the sheer shock of his victims as he pulled off stunts other magicians can only gasp at, find his motivation for standing on top of a pole, or encasing himself in a block of ice a little hard to deal with. And the London public’s piss-taking reactions to his box-life self-starvation are well known. But what he’s doing, in this hibernation period, is to try and make himself into something different from what he is. I think the stunt is just obscure, like Big Brother its relentless everyday boredom intensified into high drama. Except he’s getting paid, where the boredom of most peoples lives earns them nothing.
Anyway, sitting there watching him, I started thinking about last night again, and wondered if at some point the kind of performance we gave yesterday - which seems to have confused a lot of people as to whether it was a point well earned, an opportunity missed, or evidence of our terminal decline – wasn’t about the same thing Blaine’s after: enforcing change. I think Arsenal are in a kind of hibernation of their own at the moment, and it’s going to be interesting to see what comes out the other side.
So Toure played well, Keown played well, Edu and Henry did ok, Bobby and Wiltord did nothing. Blah blah blah. I don’t think it matters at the moment. Wenger’s refusal to bring on any substitutes seemed to me the only thing that counted. Yeah, we all want to see Aliadiere, or whoever. But it’s like there’s some kind of test going on inside the nucleus of the current team, a test of whether they can introduce a whole new style of play into the model Wenger’s spent 7 years refining and a lifetime dreaming up. We – or Ally at least – have called it Wengerball, that fluid, beautiful mechanism that’s taken Middlesborough, Leeds, Southampton, Roma, Juventus, PSV and numerous others apart since it first fully emerged during the double season. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen on a football pitch. But I think it’s coming to an end as the major way we approach football games. And Wenger seems to be recognising that and acting on it as fast as possible.
It’s been noticeable since we lost against Inter Milan that Wenger hasn’t once defended the style of Arsenal’s play up until that point. When we lost the league last year it was that style he turned to straight away as a defence. That he believed in playing football in a certain way, and that no matter what happened he would stick to it. Inter showed us, in the most clinical way possible that that style, that élan counts for nothing when you get thrashed by a team that simply out-thinks you on the pitch. And what we’ve done, even against Newcastle, is to turn ugly. Wengerball has become, drastically and quickly, an occasional option, not a first method. And I think it has to be that way if we are to progress. Because whilst we can thrash lesser teams who can’t defend, it’s obvious from our European failures and how we play when we lose form, that Wengerball itself cannot takeover the world. It’s just too goddamn idealistic to prosper when faced by opposition with a more realistic view of how things work.
I wondered if Wenger realised this, and thought back to the two examples that should mean most to him: Valencia, both last season, and in the quarter-finals of 2001, and the way that France won the World Cup in 98 and the European Championships in 2000. Think of Valencia and you might think of Aimar skipping around in that beautiful unpicking of Liverpool at Anfield last Autumn, or of a Kily Gonzalez burst burst. And think of France and it’s Zidane’s stepovers, Djorkaeff’s razor-sharp insurgency, or even Henry tearing up the wings. Great moments, great football. But in both cases it ignores the platform on which they could produce that style. And then you don’t think of any of those names. It’s Ayala and Carbone, Blanc, Desailly and Deschamps you have to think of. Top class players who existed for the ugliness of grinding the opposition out of winning. It’s Valencia at Highbury, deadening us. France getting through two rounds of the World Cup on goalless draws, penalty shoot-outs, the last-minute equaliser and golden goal that stole the European trophy away from Italy who deserved it more, for, unbelievably, playing the more stylish football.
It’s sheer ugliness that allows the creative heartbeats up front to operate. And operate only when it counts, not all the time, but in bursts. I really get the impression that’s what Wenger’s trying to make of Arsenal. And it may take some time. Some severe adjustments that the fans might not like, that the press might see as failures, but which is the only, the only, way we are going to take the step up in achievement we patently need. Because Wengerball always risks too much it’s being toothless when the ball just won’t go in the net. It cannot settle for a 0-0 draw because there can be no guarantee of not conceding 2 goals at the other end. In an ideal world, like that world where Brazil won the 1970 world cup, or Real Madrid beat Manchester United last year, you don’t care, you just score more. Well Brazil tried it again in 1974 and crashed and Madrid fell apart against Juventus in the following round. Why? Because ideal situations are unsustainable. Dreams end, and when they do it’s painful, but changes have to be made.
If we can emerge from this period relatively unscathed, if Wenger sticks by his guns on this issue as solidly as he did with Wengerball, then that will be to the massive benefit of Arsenal Football Club. We have to be a team that drowns others in defensiveness and then unleashes the incisive counter-attacking football we’re capable of. It is the only way. When we go to the San Siro, that will be the big test. It would be revenge. To play precisely the same game Inter played against us, 85 minutes of watertight defence, 5 minutes of brilliance. It’s all you need. Nothing more.
Last night, as against United, we did half the job. Sucked Lokomotiv in, but couldn’t emerge to counter-punch correctly. I think Bobby, Thierry and, particularly Wiltord are in a kind of shock about how little time they’ve got to orchestrate, how few opportunities they’ll get to be effective. Bobby and Theirry will learn. They’re good enough to adapt. Wiltord, Freddie too, I’m not so sure about. I don’t know if they’re good enough only to attack sparingly, rather than knocking relentlessly on the door waiting for it to open. We’ll see. But I don’t think we can expect too much of Arsenal until that vital change is made, until the hibernation and learning period is over. It’s a shift that has to happen. New players may have to be drafted in. Like I said, we’ll see.
But I’m convinced Wenger knows it, and has finally given in to the ugliness that brings repeated success. There will be problems on the way, no doubt, but ****, for Arsenal to emerge a better entity, all they have to do is play football. David Blaine may be getting thirty million, but hell, his organs will start eating themselves next week. We’ve just got a trip to Anfield.
Meanwhile, my bank account remains empty. Life goes on.
I went to see David Blaine today. For various reasons, I’m totally financially screwed at the moment, and have been, to all intents and purposes, in self-imposed seclusion in my flat for a few weeks – since pretty much the day Blaine did the same thing in his little Perspex shell. Only difference is, he’s getting 30 million and I can eat, and at least I have work to do and a computer to keep me occupied. Otherwise: same ****. He was asleep, and I’m guessing he spends most of his days like that. Once the wonders of the cityscape of the Thames wears off, the teenage girls singing Atomic Kitten and the doubters launching paint bombs wouldn’t be much to keep him stimulated. So he seems to be treating his 44 days as a kind of hibernation, out of which he’s going to emerge a better man.
That’s the motivation behind all his endurance-based stunts. Anyone who remembers just how good a magician he was, the levitation tricks, the sheer shock of his victims as he pulled off stunts other magicians can only gasp at, find his motivation for standing on top of a pole, or encasing himself in a block of ice a little hard to deal with. And the London public’s piss-taking reactions to his box-life self-starvation are well known. But what he’s doing, in this hibernation period, is to try and make himself into something different from what he is. I think the stunt is just obscure, like Big Brother its relentless everyday boredom intensified into high drama. Except he’s getting paid, where the boredom of most peoples lives earns them nothing.
Anyway, sitting there watching him, I started thinking about last night again, and wondered if at some point the kind of performance we gave yesterday - which seems to have confused a lot of people as to whether it was a point well earned, an opportunity missed, or evidence of our terminal decline – wasn’t about the same thing Blaine’s after: enforcing change. I think Arsenal are in a kind of hibernation of their own at the moment, and it’s going to be interesting to see what comes out the other side.
So Toure played well, Keown played well, Edu and Henry did ok, Bobby and Wiltord did nothing. Blah blah blah. I don’t think it matters at the moment. Wenger’s refusal to bring on any substitutes seemed to me the only thing that counted. Yeah, we all want to see Aliadiere, or whoever. But it’s like there’s some kind of test going on inside the nucleus of the current team, a test of whether they can introduce a whole new style of play into the model Wenger’s spent 7 years refining and a lifetime dreaming up. We – or Ally at least – have called it Wengerball, that fluid, beautiful mechanism that’s taken Middlesborough, Leeds, Southampton, Roma, Juventus, PSV and numerous others apart since it first fully emerged during the double season. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen on a football pitch. But I think it’s coming to an end as the major way we approach football games. And Wenger seems to be recognising that and acting on it as fast as possible.
It’s been noticeable since we lost against Inter Milan that Wenger hasn’t once defended the style of Arsenal’s play up until that point. When we lost the league last year it was that style he turned to straight away as a defence. That he believed in playing football in a certain way, and that no matter what happened he would stick to it. Inter showed us, in the most clinical way possible that that style, that élan counts for nothing when you get thrashed by a team that simply out-thinks you on the pitch. And what we’ve done, even against Newcastle, is to turn ugly. Wengerball has become, drastically and quickly, an occasional option, not a first method. And I think it has to be that way if we are to progress. Because whilst we can thrash lesser teams who can’t defend, it’s obvious from our European failures and how we play when we lose form, that Wengerball itself cannot takeover the world. It’s just too goddamn idealistic to prosper when faced by opposition with a more realistic view of how things work.
I wondered if Wenger realised this, and thought back to the two examples that should mean most to him: Valencia, both last season, and in the quarter-finals of 2001, and the way that France won the World Cup in 98 and the European Championships in 2000. Think of Valencia and you might think of Aimar skipping around in that beautiful unpicking of Liverpool at Anfield last Autumn, or of a Kily Gonzalez burst burst. And think of France and it’s Zidane’s stepovers, Djorkaeff’s razor-sharp insurgency, or even Henry tearing up the wings. Great moments, great football. But in both cases it ignores the platform on which they could produce that style. And then you don’t think of any of those names. It’s Ayala and Carbone, Blanc, Desailly and Deschamps you have to think of. Top class players who existed for the ugliness of grinding the opposition out of winning. It’s Valencia at Highbury, deadening us. France getting through two rounds of the World Cup on goalless draws, penalty shoot-outs, the last-minute equaliser and golden goal that stole the European trophy away from Italy who deserved it more, for, unbelievably, playing the more stylish football.
It’s sheer ugliness that allows the creative heartbeats up front to operate. And operate only when it counts, not all the time, but in bursts. I really get the impression that’s what Wenger’s trying to make of Arsenal. And it may take some time. Some severe adjustments that the fans might not like, that the press might see as failures, but which is the only, the only, way we are going to take the step up in achievement we patently need. Because Wengerball always risks too much it’s being toothless when the ball just won’t go in the net. It cannot settle for a 0-0 draw because there can be no guarantee of not conceding 2 goals at the other end. In an ideal world, like that world where Brazil won the 1970 world cup, or Real Madrid beat Manchester United last year, you don’t care, you just score more. Well Brazil tried it again in 1974 and crashed and Madrid fell apart against Juventus in the following round. Why? Because ideal situations are unsustainable. Dreams end, and when they do it’s painful, but changes have to be made.
If we can emerge from this period relatively unscathed, if Wenger sticks by his guns on this issue as solidly as he did with Wengerball, then that will be to the massive benefit of Arsenal Football Club. We have to be a team that drowns others in defensiveness and then unleashes the incisive counter-attacking football we’re capable of. It is the only way. When we go to the San Siro, that will be the big test. It would be revenge. To play precisely the same game Inter played against us, 85 minutes of watertight defence, 5 minutes of brilliance. It’s all you need. Nothing more.
Last night, as against United, we did half the job. Sucked Lokomotiv in, but couldn’t emerge to counter-punch correctly. I think Bobby, Thierry and, particularly Wiltord are in a kind of shock about how little time they’ve got to orchestrate, how few opportunities they’ll get to be effective. Bobby and Theirry will learn. They’re good enough to adapt. Wiltord, Freddie too, I’m not so sure about. I don’t know if they’re good enough only to attack sparingly, rather than knocking relentlessly on the door waiting for it to open. We’ll see. But I don’t think we can expect too much of Arsenal until that vital change is made, until the hibernation and learning period is over. It’s a shift that has to happen. New players may have to be drafted in. Like I said, we’ll see.
But I’m convinced Wenger knows it, and has finally given in to the ugliness that brings repeated success. There will be problems on the way, no doubt, but ****, for Arsenal to emerge a better entity, all they have to do is play football. David Blaine may be getting thirty million, but hell, his organs will start eating themselves next week. We’ve just got a trip to Anfield.
Meanwhile, my bank account remains empty. Life goes on.
