HIGHBURY HOUSE

Bertie Mee was the manager of Arsenal when I graduated from the odd Reserve game alongside my Father, into the Arsenal nut that I still am today, so I have seen the demise of many an Arsenal manager, not least the afore mentioned Bertie Mee..

Bertie’s was a sad decline into mediocrity. A proud man with high standard’s of behaviour, who failed to adapt to the change’s in modern society.

Then after Bertie, we had Terry Neill…

Neill initially struggled but tempted Don Howe away from his coaching role at Leeds United and back ‘home’ to Highbury.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Don Howe’s coaching saved Terry Neill’s bacon and the club went onto a reasonably successful run…
League success was out of the question as Liverpool ruled the roost, but 4 cup final’s in 3 years was heady stuff for success starved Gunners’ fans.

Neill’s blarney and Don Howe’s coaching saw him survive until the Board allowed Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton to leave in successive season’s (1980, 1981). A lack of investment by the Board plus some awful signing’s saw Neill dismissed and replaced by Don Howe.

Don, an Arsenal man through and through, filled the Arsenal team with England Internationals, but they let him down, let the fans down and the club, so Don Howe was sacrificed amid rumours of approaches to Terry Venables…

Yes the Arsenal Board were very ‘classy’ even back then in the mid 1980’s…

What Don Howe had put in place though, would create a solid foundation for his successor. Don had brought through the likes of Rocky Rocastle, Niall Quinn, Martin Keown, Tony Adams and Martin Hayes. Players who were to play important roles for the new manager during his first few season’s in charge…

That man was George Graham, a man steeped in the tradition’s of the club, a man who had won the League Championship in 1971 and knew what that trophy meant to Arsenal and Arsenal fans. The first period of George’s stewardship brought us exhilarating, fast flowing, attacking football, but with a solid base to back it up, a resilience, that George championed.

Those early years from 1986 until 1991 were when George’s Arsenal were at their zenith. Then George signed Ian Wright and lost at home to Benfica in the European Cup. Thing’s were never quite the same after that.

An over-reliance on the long ball up to Wrighty or Smudger Smith who in turn would flick it on to Wright, made Arsenal a bit one-dimensional. It worked for a few season’s, The Cup Double of 1993 and The Cup Winner’s Cup of 1994, but then it turned sour amid newspaper revelations of ‘bungs’, and George was gone.

Stewart Houston and Bruce Rioch preceded the current incumbent Arsene Wenger…

Arsene arrived in 1996, so for many of today’s Arsenal fans, Arsene is all they have known as the manager and he’s not having a good time at present, something which is being well documented…

The Board in my view, have let him down, just as they’ve let down many of those past managers that I have seen in charge of my club.
The common theme being a lack of investment in the team, a mistake that those in charge make again and again and again!

Yes, Arsene is not without blame, but he has not been responsible for the stupidity and politics that have gone on in the Boardroom…
Those fools have put their personal differences and egos, before the good of the club, and we are now suffering the fall-out….

There was a sense of stagnation around the club in 1976 when Mee resigned, and it was kind of expected. Likewise in 1983 when Neill was sacked, even if the Chairman at the time handled it in a ham-fisted manner. In 1986 when Don Howe left it was a classic Boardroom ‘balls-up’, a tradition at Arsenal FC.

Graham’s fall from grace was a shock, but the feeling at the ground on the day he was sacked, was the worst I can recall. It was like being at a funeral.

Rioch was like a ‘Dead Man Walking’ and his departure was no great surprise to anyone…

Since experiencing my first Arsenal managerial change in 1976, I’ve seen them come, and I’ve seen them go, but none of those past managerial departures is similar to today.

I cannot see any resemblance to the present reign of Arsene Wenger.

There may be troubles ahead, but while there’s moonlight and music and etc, I cannot see Arsene leaving in the short term. So we may as well get used to it and get behind the team even if that might seem difficult.

I was at the Swansea game, I can appreciate the doubters among us and understand why they feel the way they do. We are all hurting, of that there is no doubt.

But I am not about to assist those perfidious scum-bags in the Press/Media and help serve our managers head up on a plate just to suit and serve their purposes…

Not when there are Board members and Majority Shareholders who should be held to account first. The malaise at our club, comes from the very top and our well-rewarded players need also to take a long hard look at themselves as well…

Arsene Wenger deserves our support or at least we should refuse to join in the clamour for his head, at least until the summer….

He has enough credit in the bank, to expect that from us supporters in my view.

He will get that support from me, despite whatever happens in January and for the rest of this most disappointing season…

Written by Allezkev