I was thinking about what Wenger has done whilst in the shower this morning. I was thinking of the first Arsenal side I knew, under Bertie Mee and Don Howe. Universally derided as boring because, well, they were. Once we'd scored a goal the opposition might as well have gone home, the game was going to finish 1-0 to The Arsenal.Originally Posted by Billy Goat Sverige
The first Arsenal team I watched was under Terry O'Neill and Don Howe. This side played as follows: Jennings rolled the ball out to Rice. He squared it to O'Leary. On it went to Young. He passed sideways to Nelson, who knocked it back to Jennings. After 5 or 6 minutes of this the crowd would become restless, so Jennings hoofed it up to Stapleton. At some point during the 90 minutes Stapleton would get his head on something and we'd score. Then usually win 1-0. It was incredibly dull.
Still, along came George Graham who treated us to some exciting, expansive football, until he had a Moscow-induced breakdown and turned us into a team of defensive thuggery. A lot of that time was spent watrching absolute mince.
Rioch wasn't any sort of radical but at least tried to play a little; then along came Arsene, to turn our game into a sort of art form.
We were known as Boring Arsenal for a good 50 years, and for good reason. I'm scared of what might happen when Arsene leaves. We might get a Mourinho-type dullard.
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