Saturday Vision, March 26, 2011

10 Your Letters The Letters Editor,

sports@newvision.co.ug
The New Vision,
P.O. Box 9815, Kampala

Is Chelsea back Wenger is more sinned against Believe me AW

in the Premier By MOSES
will not be fired

H
EKUNU Editor, After Arsenal

League title race? is admirers call

Your sms responses
rYes Chelsea will take the Pre-
mier League title.
Hajji Yasin Sulaiman, Arua
rThere is no doubt that the intro-
duction of both the Brazilian de-
fender and midfielder, David Luiz
and Raul Ramirez respectively, to
play alongside each other, has re-
juvenated the otherwise declining
fighting and mental strength of
the holding EPL champions. The
input of Luiz in defeating Man
City and Man Utd, both bitter
title rivals, which enabled Chelsea
to leapfrog the former into third
position, is undisputable. Should
Chelsea remain focussed to win
the remaining nine matches,
hoping that both Arsenal and M.
Utd drop some points, then the
title defence project is a viable
possibility, Chelsea’s earlier woes,
notwithstanding.
NOWA
rChelsea back.
Monica
rI am sure Chelsea will take the
Premier League.
Yassin Omar , Arua town
rChelsea winning the Premier-
ship is one of the biggest dreams.
That is utopia.
Martin
rChelsea supporters should get
ready for disappointment. They
stand a better chance of winning
the Champions League than the
Premier League.
Hellen
him the profes-
sor; his owners
know him as a
shrewd business-
man; historians
remember him
for spearheading the unbeaten Pre-
miership run.
Arsenal fans may not remember
him for trophies but his role in
the construction of the Emirates
Stadium speaks volumes and does
he have critics? Yes; they call him
an economist, rigid and anti-
experienced players! Arseneal’s
manager Arsene Charles
Ernest Wenger is the person
I am talking about here. As a
tactician of flair, free flowing
samba soccer; Wenger has
won Arsenal capacity crowds
in the stadia consequently
increasing the revenue for the
club!
His style of football
has however come
with costs as his players
have had lengthy spells in the
treatment room due to horrific
and career threatening injuries
like Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey.
This is in addition to many
other short term injuries which
have dented the club’s quest for
silverware. For a greater part of his
stay at Arsenal; this 61 year-old
has come under heavy criticism for
his over reliance on kids. To many,
a big team like Arsenal cannot
compete for silverware with clubs
like Chelsea, ManU, Barcelona and
Real Madrid among others whose
buying prowess is insurmountable!
Jose Mourinho at one time
assured Wenger that ‘the youth
are youth-less (useless) in the
title hunt’! An insight into how
much of a devil Wenger is in this
scenario, actually reveals that this
Frenchman is being demonised
for doing what is expected of
every manager/coach. Granted,
his sin is not buying expensive
seasoned players but we all know
that the future lies in the younger
generation and what more can we
do apart from giving them hope?
Jens Lehmann (left) may start ahead of Almunia in Arsenal’s next game
This has of course come with costs
for example Arsenal have not won
a trophy since the departure of
Patrick Vieira in 2005!
Worse still for Wenger, these
same kids have betrayed him. A
case in point is Fabregas who
has pressurised the board to buy
big name players as one of the
conditions for him to stay. Mathieu
Flamini, Aleksader Hleb etc earlier
left on the same grounds in what I
would call ‘biting the fingers which
fed you’ or ‘stepping in the plate
where you fed from’! Wenger has
also proved to be a true French
patriot as this is manifested in the
fact that over half of his first team
consists of Frenchmen from time
memorial. In the long run, these
same Frenchmen have deserted
him when he needed them most.
Patrick Vieira, Sylvain Wiltord,
Thierry Henry and even Robert
Pires (he turned down a one year
contract extension and was instead
demanding for two).
Henry was worse because just
when Arsenal had reached the final
of the Champions League with a
majority of the kids constituting
the starting 11, the belief had
come to the team that they could
do it and Wenger himself told
the team they just needed to go a
step further the following season
to lift it; instead Henry moves
to Barcelona. Talking about the
Champions League, one can
rightfully conclude that luck has
been the biggest undoing of for the
Frenchman.
Wenger has just been unlucky
because in particular against Barca,
when it mattered most he loses
his goalkeepers either to injury
or red card and on two occasions
completed the game with a man
less.
Clearly Wenger has been a
man more sinned against than
sinning and I am sure if William
Shakespeare was still alive, he
would see a ‘King Lear’ in Wenger!
was kicked out of three
competitions in a space of
two weeks, the way it was last
season, many club supporters
and fans across the world
have started saying this is the
time for Arsene Wenger to
be shown the exit. After all
for the last five seasons, the
Gunners have failed to get
silverware since 2005 when
they beat Manchester United
on penalties and lifted the FA
Cup at Wembly. Since then,
the club has only afforded to
reach Champions League final
of 2006 and two Carling Cup
finals.
For Wenger and the players,
this was the season that many
people thought the trophy
drought was to end but to
our surprise, the Gunners
have now remained with one
trophy to chase, that is the
Premiership, which has now
become even harder to win
because they have failed to
cover the point gap when
leaders Manchester United
lost points on some occasions.
Despite all this I think we
are all dreaming when we
think Wenger will be sacked
after more than 10 years in
charge at the club.
The Arsenal management
thinks Wenger’s success at
the club does not call for his
sacking. First of all, he has
made sure that the Gunners
have remained in a strong
financial position despite the
debts the club accumulated
when they borrowed money to
build the current 60,000 seater
Emirates Stadium.
The stadium was built to
make sure that the Gunners
get more revenue through gate
collections, which they have
achieved. It also believed that
Wenger is part of Arsenal’s
future and after retirement,
the club would give the
French tactician another
position at the club.
Alfred Byenkya
Kampala

Quote of the Week What a dramatic change of fortune

Editor, In September
Bangladesh can every one expected
Chelsea and Manchester
still qualify...if India United to rival each other
for the league trophy this

makes 781 in 50 overs season. But at this time

the story has changed,

and dismiss West

even Manchester City
once stood ahead of
Chelsea, but the question
Indies for 10 runs. is what went wrong. Last
season, Chelsea, with the
same coach and playing
Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar staff they scored over 100
works out the maths Cricket World Cup co- league goals and won a
double.
hosts Bangladesh had any way of reaching
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti
the last eight. Moses Mugisha
Kampala David Luiz is one of the new additions to Chelsea