Well, I’m trying to keep track of all the books I’m reading because I’ll do anything to escape the incessant emails from Goodreads (which I have somehow managed to sign up to twice, despite not really understanding what it’s for or how it works) and it helps me to write things in a blog post because it’s such a disposible format. That said, I found myself wanting to self-censor a little bit because this isn’t literary or experimental. But I read it cover to cover, pretty quickly as it turns out.
I am an Arsenal fan, but a pretty weak-sauce one. As a child, my allegiences switched around depending on which shirts I liked. My best friends were Spurs fans and I sort of vaguely followed their lead. Almost everyone in my secondary school was an Arsenal fan and my university years coincided with the arrival of Wenger and I was quite happy to chase that glory, particularly as I was in Manchester at the time and defensive of my Londoner status. Watching Arsenal games was also a way to bond with my youngest sister, who was a bigger fan than me by some stretch. I still don’t know much about the game, but I had eyes and I knew that when Arsenal were on form, they were aesthetically pleasurable to watch.
Truth be told, my favourite way to follow football was by reading about it in the Guardian, both the newspaper and their daily email newsletter The Fiver. The running battles between Arsenal and Man United were an ongoing saga that spanned many years, with untold twists and turns.
The undoubted high was the Invincibles season, when the team went through the league without being beaten. This book looks at how that was done, talking to players and coaches involved in this unprecedented feat of modern football. It doesn’t go game by game or player by player, but instead tries to unlock the philosophy of how it was done. Arsene Wenger became something of a divisive figure at the club in his latter years because he stayed at Arsenal too long, but this was a good reminder of what made him remarkable. Reading about his coaching methods and attitude to player development gave me perspective on what it is to undertake a task, whether that’s winning a trophy or writing a book. Rather than being a harsh taskmaster, Wenger preferred to nourish the whole human, not just the bit that kicked the ball around. It’s tempting to think that it’s all about knucking down and not accepting failure and that’s sort of true, but that comes about through positive reinforcement, repetition of your craft and trust in those around you. Not by locking yourself in a cellar and punching the walls until your knuckles bleed.
There’s also the idea that it’s about calm, which is a stark contrast the Ferguson hairdryer school of management. I don’t know. Maybe winning the Treble and the league all those times is better than going undefeated one season. Logically it probably is. But there’s something classier about the Invincibles that appeals to me more. I guess that’s why I’m an Arsenal fan.
