Arsene Wenger - Photo Paul Blank CCA
The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has found himself in the back pages of a number of newspapers this morning. Apparently the problems began at a press conference, according to the Sun, in which he was asked about Theo Walcott and his prospects for the World Cup:
Wenger blasted: “For f***’s sake the World Cup is in June. Is he on holiday until June 11?”
“You cannot be serious. For me, the big season is with Arsenal, not at the World Cup.
“We do not pay players to go to the World Cup, we pay the players to do well for Arsenal.
“The first pride of a man is to do well for the guy who pays you in life, not to go to the World Cup.”
Perhaps it is the swearing that sets this particular rant apart - some papers such as the Guardian saw fit to include it as part of the quotes, some left it out. But what is interesting is that the Sun imply this is a cold warning to Walcott:
Arsene F Word Theo Rant
ARSENE WENGER last night launched an incredible F-word rant over Theo Walcott’s World Cup chances.
The normally cool Arsenal boss went wild after he was asked whether the winger should be part of Fabio Capello’s England plans next summer.
Of course, as you’ll notice above, Walcott isn’t expressly the target here, although his name is the trigger for Wenger’s coments. Evidently the point is that in Arsene’s mind it is club first, country second. For a club manager, that’s perhaps not much of a shock.
Forget the ‘rant’ and ‘blasted’ aspects of this, though, because the words are hardly anything more than frank. And what is really to disagree with in his assessment of things? The World Cup is more than 6 months away - and Walcott has started a single game of football for Arsenal this season. The press conference comes on the eve of a Champions League match in which Arsenal need a point to ensure they reach the last 16. In the meantime there is no international football on the calendar for the best part of three months. Set against that context, it’s hardly surprising that Wenger finds such a question so insipid and irrelevant.
Later the quotes turn to the theory that players who have a good season are likely to turn up better prepared for the World Cup. He cites his only two World Cup winners, Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira, as evidence of this - they won the double in 1998, then won the World Cup. It’s again fairly sound reasoning. An example even closer to home might have been Theo Walcott, who had yet to make any impression for Arsenal by the time Sven took him to the 2006 World Cup, where surprisingly he made no impression whatsoever.
Yes, it’s perhaps a bit predictable that the papers would feast on Wenger’s comments, but if there’s something controversial about a club manager talking about a player at his club needing to think of his club first before his club play an important club game, then we’ve missed it. It’s a fairly sensible set of priorities. Hard to imagine, then, how the Sun managed in an earlier recension of the quotes to headline it as follows:
Forget the World Cup
Don’t forget it - just play football and let the World Cup look after itself. He’s not saying his players can’t go. Still, it’s incredibly a fairer reflection of what is said than the Mirror’s headline manages:
Arsene Wenger: Fuck the World Cup, my players should only care about Arsenal
Terrific. Terrific.
[...] hardly what he said, but that’s hardly important. And at the bottom of [...]