Arsenal to unveil Wenger statue, completing the fans’ proposal of 13 years ago

 

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

 

On December 9, 2011 Arsenal Football Club honoured a trio of Club legends by unveiling three statues outside Emirates Stadium as part of the Club’s 125th anniversary celebrations.    What was not revealed on that day however was exactly why the club was putting up statues, nor that in the original plan there was also the suggestion that there should be an Arsene Wenger statue.   The story takes us back to early 2010…

This was the time when three members of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) had a meeting with Ivan Gazidis in his office at the Emirates Stadium, which had been opened four years before.

I was part of the delegation, as in 2009 I had launched the Arsenal History Society, as part of AISA, and what Mr Gazidis wanted to talk about was making the Emirates Stadium feel more as if it were part of Arsenal’s heritage: a continuation of the club that had started as Dial Square in 1886.

So not being one who is backward in coming forwards, I grabbed the opportunity to present an idea that I had been mulling over for some time.  An idea that was not just part of my work in trying to get Arsenal’s history more understood, but also to solve a very practical problem.

The idea I presented was for statues of famous people associated with Arsenal, at key points around the stadium area.  And I proposed these not just to celebrate Arsenal’s past, but also to solve a very practical problem.  Because if you were attending matches right from the early days at the Emirates you might recall that the congestion around the entrances was even worse than last season.

My suggestion was that statues to Arsenal’s great heroes would of course make the stadium feel more like the continuum of Arsenal through the ages, but it would also ease the crowding before games.  The argument being that people would say “I’ll meet you at Tony Adams,” which would encourage friends to meet at the statue, and not near the gate.  And I rather think that has worked.

The statues I suggested in that meeting were Dennis Bergkamp, Tony Adams, Herbert Chapman, Sir Henry Norris and as you might imagine, Arsene Wenger.  I saw Chapman to Wenger as a continuity of greatness within the club.

I knew Norris was going to be a long shot because by 2009 I had published enough research on Sir Henry Norris to show that the traditional histories of him were completely wrong and he was beyond any doubt the man who saved Arsenal from oblivion.  He was also a significant war hero in the first world war, which is far removed from the image of him as written up in a history published by a Tottenham fan which placed the blame for that club’s failures at the door of Norris and others at Arsenal.    

So I had set about re-writing Norris’ history, with an AISA colleague through a series of AISA Arsenal history booklets starting with “Dial Square to Woolwich Arsenal” and particularly including “The true story behind Arsenal’s election to the First Division in 1919”.  That was then followed up with a much more massive series published on-line as “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”  which is of course free to read.

Arsenal deemed that the world was not yet ready to re-habilitate Henry Norris no matter how much he had been falsely maligned – so no statue to him.  But a statue of Chapman, Adams and Bergkamp – yes those were welcomed.  Wenger, it was felt, was not right, as at that time he was still at the club.

Of course I played no part in the matter after that, although I was thanked publically at the unveiling, which was nice. And my suggestion for Chapman “looking up at the stadium as if to say, ‘I did that’,” did, I feel, come to pass.

But missing out on Wenger I thought was a shame.  So instead, working with AISA, and particularly Drew Grey, the chair of AISA, a secondary plan came to pass.  A banner for Wenger in the stadium.   We raised money through this site to pay for it, and it is the only banner in the ground from a supporters group which celebrates a manager, rather than simply announcing a supporters club’s name.

Our effort with the “Football should be an art” banner was also celebrated on Match of the Day.

And now it seems we are finally getting the next stage of what we wanted – a Wenger statue.  The Athletic has announced it is coming, and that’s good enough for me.

That leaves just one thing left – to do more work on establishing the true facts concerning Sir Henry Norris, and as part of that discussions are underway for some of us to work on restoring his gravestone so that those who really do know what Norris did can pay their respects properly.

I am really grateful to the support that Arsenal Independent Supporters Association have given to the Arsenal History Society and our ideas for commemorating Arsenal’s past, and I’m delighted that another of our concepts – the statue to Wenger seems now to be coming to pass.