On Thursday night, I sat down to watch my favourite soap: ‘Arsenal F.C.: The 2017–18 season’.
After 21 consecutive seasons on television, the show’s long running director Arsene Wenger faces increasing pressure to keep his place on set, and even made the bold statement that only the heads of the studio had the power to write him out of a script that he’s had complete control of for over two decades.
The ratings dipped following last weekend’s live showing at Wembley, despite what the networks may say, while before Thursday’s episode there was a slim chance that the lead characters would rally and exact some sort of revenge after they had been left high and dry at the end of last weekend’s show.
That wishful and misguided idea lasted all of 15 minutes before it became abundantly clear that a once groundbreaking show was set for another week of misery.
Leroy Sane was this week’s villain and as he skipped past four Arsenal defenders en route to teeing up Bernardo Silva for a wonderful finish, it was clear that we were set for another catastrophe as far as our heroes were concerned, despite the recent additions of some new cast members.
By the time Sane turned in Manchester City’s third goal just after the half-hour mark, the director had seen enough but could not call it a day.
Watching him sit there on the bench in anguish, locked in a state of anger and despair, you could see a once great director being brought to his knees by an industry that had left him behind years ago.
But just as I sat there and watched a helpless Wenger begin to crumble in front of thousands of people, my phone started buzzing as the Whatsapp messages started flying through.
“20:18 – Jesus.
“20:19 – Sane is unreal. He’s lethal.
“20:20 – Put a fork in Wenger. He’s done.
“20:21 – I hope this is 6 or 7 for Arsenal Fan TV alone.”
And there it was. Just as there is AMC’s Talking Bad to Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad, or The Ringer’s Watch The Thrones to HBO’s megashow Game of Thrones, Arsenal Fan TV was the unofficial review show to Arsenal F.C.: The 2017–18 season.
Predictably, Arsenal Fan TV host Robbie Lyle quickly lit the fuse to serial fireworks Troopz and DT.
The pair sounded off in typical fashion as they launched into expletive riddled tirades about how Wenger needed to leave the club and that right-back Hector Bellerin lacked no confidence due to the fact that he wears slippers around London; the tell tale sign of any footballer brimming with self-belief.
For all the great writers and commentators that attended the game at the Emirates, of which there are many – Miguel Delaney, David Hynter, Martin Samuel etc. – Troopz and DT are among Wenger’s most notable critics as their views are broadcast to hundreds and thousands, and at times, millions of people around the world, an audience the aforementioned would love to boast.
But as ever, people will gravitate towards the loudest person in the room, and increasingly, Wenger and his players are having to field questions over the criticisms raised by their most outspoken critics.
Watching Wenger’s career being brought down in excruciating fashion in stadiums all over Europe is one thing, but to have it savaged on a weekly basis by a chorus of ‘blud’, ‘fam’ and ‘man’ is the added salt to an ever widening wound.
Analysis of the Frenchman’s demise is no longer limited to the Sky Sports Studios, newspaper columns and the airwaves, it’s mauled online, before it’s then thrown out into the public and mocked from Holloway all the way to Wrestlemania.
Wenger’s fall is a car crash that continues to slide its way across the motorway, threatening to flip at any second while a large section of society cheers it on towards the gasoline and the flames that lay ahead. As if somehow along the way he had become the dictator of this cult as opposed to an embattled human being clinging on to his job.
Others sit there and recoil in horror as a man that once brought so much joy, to so many, for so long, is now hounded out of his job in the most public and humiliating manner.
It’s a horrible situation but self inflicted and, if I’m honest, those (many)who adore him from afar care more about his legacy, good name and dignity than he does. Skin of rhino, fully aware of consequences of choice he’s taken https://t.co/DKKI0TSqBH
— Graham Hunter (@BumperGraham) March 1, 2018
It is time for Wenger to go. Like the end of Louis van Gaal’s tenure at Manchester United or Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea, the end is so blatantly near, yet, could potentially be nowhere near as dignified as it should be.
It’s this mix that makes Wenger’s demise so fascinating to watch as you are constantly waiting to see if the show’s protagonist can gain redemption, or if he is simply awaiting further humiliation on an ever-growing scale.
We want to see if the car corkscrews its way into the inferno or if the driver can regain control and drive off into the distance with his respect in tact after a wonderful career.
But as seen with Conor McGregor last year, as we saw with Mike Tyson towards the end of the 20th century and as we saw with Tiger Woods in 2009, there’s something gripping about a high profile star threatening to completely derail.
There is this longing in parts of society to see these people unmasked and exposed as they battle pressures that most of us will just simply never encounter, never mind live with on a daily basis.
Woods, in particular, transcended golf and scaled heights like no other before him.
He won 14 major tournaments in 11 years and looked destined to overtake Jack Nicklaus’ mark of 18 career majors.
He was Nike’s poster boy. He covered video games. He attracted, and still attracts, the average fan like no other golfer in history. And he crushed the competition. He absolutely fucking crushed the competition.
He was also a sex addict that had over 100 affairs during his five-year marriage to Swedish model Elin Nordegren.
He was dragged over the coals for his behaviour and the public and financial fallout was telling; as Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade, TAG Heuer and General Motors completely ended their sponsorship deals with him.
He entered a 45-day therapy program, divorced from his wife, and after winning 14 majors in the 11 years before the revelations came to light, he has failed to win a single major since.
Granted, Woods’ injuries have played a colossal part in his major-less run this decade, but it’s also those same injuries that have won him back so many fans.
Earlier this week, The Guardian’s Ewan Murray wrote about how fans had fallen in love with Tiger again as there was a longing to see him get back to the top of a mountain that very few had ever reached.
One particular extract from Murray’s piece stood out above the rest:
“The numbers – to the tune of thousands – who followed Woods on Sunday gave at least the perception of 90% of those in attendance watching one group at the PGA Tour event. The shouts don’t become any sharper – “Make Sundays great again, Tiger” was a particular low – but the sentiment is obvious; these spectators want Woods to win, to the point where golf is verging on tribal territory. At times, Woods almost looked bashful about it all.”
His DUI arrest last year evoked a level of sympathy among the public for a man that was seemingly still struggling with his life nearly a decade after it had been turned upside down, and as much as some people revel in, and indeed profit, from Wenger’s demise, there’s also a significant amount of people that pull for the comeback, especially with Woods.
It would have been a shame if Michael Jordan had retired after winning three straight NBA titles. It would have been a shame if Muhammad Ali had never boxed again after he was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to be drafted into the US Military for the Vietnam War. It would have been a shame if Roger Federer had never passed Pete Sampras on the all-time list of Grand Slam winners.
I don’t know if it will be a shame if Woods doesn’t catch Nicklaus as part of his downfall will be inextricably linked to deeds of his own doing, while the other part will most likely be down to injury, which has curtailed many great sporting careers.
But Woods has the average person interested in golf again.
It’s sad to see greatness wither away and for a man like Wenger to be made into an international laughing stock for his failure to leave something he loves, but by the same token, people will cheer on a man like Woods who betrayed the one person that he was supposed to love because he refuses to go away and has a chance of chasing down greatness on a level that we may never see again.
People like watching car crashes but they also love watching comebacks. They love watching great comebacks. Even if there’s just a hint of one.
