The Age of Miracles

Arsenal Vice-Chairman David Dein has referred many times to the occasion when he was obliged to register manager Arsene Wenger at a hotel and under ‘Occupation’ wrote ‘miracle worker’.

He was right of course. On and off the field of play, the Frenchman has transformed the club. Season after season, almost without exception the trophies have been won. There was a time when achieving the double was regarded as a rare and remarkable feat. In eight seasons Arsene has done it twice and found time for one other title and two further F.A. Cup wins.

But the problem with being a miracle worker is that it raises expectations. Three Premiership titles in eight years and never lower than 2nd. A record run of unbeaten games that is unlikely ever to be broken. F.A. Cup winners four times and runners up once. Apparently, all that simply isn’t enough. You are expected to deliver back to back titles. You are also expected to break your duck in Europe by winning the Champions League. And there’s more. You are expected, as a matter of course, to go on delivering. Year in, year out. While you build a new team, overcome unprecedented injury problems, move into a new stadium, match your star player’s ‘sporting ambitions’.

No-one has ever done all that, year after year – but if you are Arsene Wenger, that is what is expected of you. Otherwise you may lose your star players or be told that your club is in crisis.

How we relish, in this country, the possible downfall of sporting heroes. It makes good copy, good radio, good television – so they say. But if Arsene Wenger gets his way, ‘they’ will be disappointed. Because both he, and his star players, are already laying the foundations for further miracles.