by Victor Oladapo-Ariyo

The first 10years of his managerial reign at Arsenal FC was laden with success and glory while the latter 7 years have been disappointing to the clubs supporters and fans in the world over, thereby attracting negative criticism to his style and questions regarding his ambitions for the club.             

Tuesday October 1 2013 marked Arsene Wenger’s 17 years in charge of Arsenal FC. The 63 year old frenchman has guided the club to 11 major trophies since taking over the reins after some stints with Nancy of France, AS Monaco of France and Nagoya Grampus Eight of Japan.

The first 10years of his managerial reign at Arsenal FC was laden with success and glory while the latter 7 years have been disappointing to the clubs supporters and fans in the world over, thereby attracting negative criticism to his style and questions regarding his ambitions for the club.

I had wanted to write this piece before Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League encounter with SSC Napoli of Italy on Day 1 of Matchday 2 of the competition but had to wait till after the match had been played before putting my own pen to paper to celebrate this great man who is credited by football pundits for his contribution to the revolutionising of football in England in the late 1990’s through the introduction of changes in the training and diet of players.

It is quite a coincidence that Arsenal’s match fell on this day and going into the match I was silently praying that it doesn’t turn out bad for ‘Le Professeur’ giving the quality and form of their opponents. As the referee blew his whistle for kick-off and the match progressed, it was obvious the gunners were going to have a wonderful night, their slick and exquisite passes, movement, wonderful touches, composure, individual skills coupled with their newly found team spirit and the home crowd support.

The players gave Arsene Wenger the deserved 17th year anniversary gift thanks to a wonderful first half goal by the magnificent Mesut Ozil through the combined efforts of Olivier Giroud and in-form Aaron Ramsey and another goal seven minutes later from the ever dominant Olivier Giroud with the assist coming from Ozil again.

It is also noteworthy to refer to Micheal Owen’s comments earlier this week that Arsenal is not a top-four club in England. Well, only God knows what he was thinking when he wrote those comments in his column. Anyways congratulations to the boss himself ‘Arsene Wenger’ on his 17th year anniversary at Arsenal Football Club of England. I hope and urge the team to keep up these top notch performances and win a trophy to compensate the ever patient and enduring gunners fans and supporters worldwide.

————————-

Victor Oladapo-Ariyo tweets from @Twomie

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.