At Least Don’t Blame His Bust
By Narendranath Pingle
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Gilberto intercepts and passes to Vieira;
Vieira to Bergkamp, who picks out a run
By Pires, adept, at will, to tear a
Most dogged defence apart, which being done
There, as always, is Henry, to sear a
Hole in the pitiable defence; all while having fun
And there sat, passive, untouched, Arsene,
By football England had never so far seen.
Yes, that magic has gone but the magician remains,
He who pulled off trick after trick,
That wizard still our custodian remains.
But the world has a history of detesting magic,
Of wizard and witches, only remain remains.
The Church of Allland, Fleet Street, also xenophobic,
Ridicules and derides him while poisoning minds,
Especially those misplaced ones, at the hinds.
“Revolt then!” “Enough now.” “This will suffice.
I and Arsenal both deserve better,
Down with Wenger and his philosophies.
The ruin of this great Club leaves me bitter,
I want success, at any bloody price
And stop being cowards in the market who dither…”
“Constructive criticism will be kind of you.”
“What else was that, fool? How very blind of you!”
“You see the youth academy, he has…”
“It produced Adams, would anyway produce Wilsheres.”
“He has helped build a world-class…”
“With no success at all for six years.”
“He has developed van Persie and Fabregas…”
“All sissies, disloyal, uncommitted chokers.”
How tragic that lies gain acceptance when repeated oft,
While truth, if repeated, seems to have its veracity lost.
“This Club is stagnating under Wenger,
Poor commercial deals have burdened the gates…”
“The Club is growing, while becoming younger
And how is he responsible for market dictates?”
“Is he paid to fatten the accounts by the banker…”
“So it is only fiction that your appetite sates!”
Secret, sensitive subjects when in public are tossed,
Emotions and prejudices arise, reason is lost.
“Yes, perhaps, Arsene is after all stupid,
In wanting to fulfil a pauper’s princely dream,
While tolerating this unwarranted hatred,
When he could manage the most expensive team,
Far better compensated and celebrated, in Madrid,
But his love for Arsenal obliterates all else for him;
Here, where no vice is too low and all have a price,
He alone is above personal glory and avarice.
I trust Arsene, we owe it to him for the past
And for the future, in which glory alone can I sense.
He shall restore both us and him to the topmost,
Though he might ask you for a little patience;
Further, I can even boldly forecast,
(A chance I shall never risk with anyone else)
That Arsene will leave the affairs in such a condition,
That his successor too shall succeed in succession.
I hope one day you too shall realize his value,
Though that gent might have long been gone;
Should you ever leave your armchair, (shall you?)
You would know what miracles have been done.
But should fanatic fools take over and before you knew,
The Arsenal Way was kicked aside for the Chelsea one,
And God forbid, the Club goes bust,
I hope at least you won’t blame his bust.”
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Superb Article!!!! 🙂
First of its kind again??
Anyways, keep it up!! !!
Excellent,says it all…well done untold again
“That Arsene will leave the affairs in such a condition, That his successor too shall succeed in succession.”. Great line, I believe arsene will do for arsenal what rijkaard somewhat did for barcelona. I have faith that wenger will win a few more titles before he retires (and i hope he wont retire for a while) but I think the real golden years of this new generation would be the legacy wenger leaves behind. What rijkaard did was leave the plans to a one day great team in the hands of guardiola who then ran with it..and well we’ve all seen what its turned into. Wenger will most likely hand choose who takes his place and I think all that person will be is a young wenger..full of energy, ambition, and vision. Honestly all these people complaining about wenger cant see passed their own nose and are missing the bigger picture
What a post Geoff! Arsenal all the way!
What a post. Arsenal all the way!
That even Dark Prince commends this post is a testimony to its brilliance!
Hi this is a little off topic but are you able to present the last 6 years the expenditure of the top 6-10 teams in the EPL? not net but just expenditure.
I just to see the correlation of clubs spending and their league position. I am very sure Arsenal will come out to be least spent with highest finished league position. So if say REDNOSE would be able to win the league if he had that amount of budget spent on players durin the last 6 years.
Thanks
Dark Prince,
Sarcasm is almost undetectable these days, at least in print…but if you did mean it, thank you.
First of its kind? Perhaps the first in ottava rima…
arsene-al,
Rijkaard maybe just laid the foundation for the present team but Arsene has gone further…he has given us a philosophy, a foundation that will last for decades rather than years. Much like Michels at Ajax Amsterdam and Cruijff at FC Barcelona.
Rog B,
I hope I too can share the credit!
9jagunnerdoc,
Well played – giving the official club site as yours; was thinking of doing it one of these days but you beat me to it!
2thumbs up.
gr8 read…
naren, oh ya definetly. my comment may have been a little over simplified..I agree with you completely. Wenger has done so much more than rijkaard could have done for barcelona, theres really no comparison. That line just stood out to me because I couldnt agree with it more, whoever takes wengers place is inheriting something great. The golden years are coming back soon, and I genuinely believe theyll be here for a long time
Amazing, and quite insightful too –
“How tragic that lies gain acceptance when repeated oft,
While truth, if repeated, seems to have its veracity lost.”
How true, how true!!
I can only hope there’s some article like this in Bahasa Indonesia since most of my gooner friends are starting to doubt AW. Well, of course, I can translate it but it won’t be as delightful as this original article.
Agree with all words in it
Naren, Very insightful. Thank you.
arsene-al,
Paisley is a more successful manager than Shankley if silverware alone is to be considered. I would not be surprised if something similar happened at Arsenal.
ak47, critic, Mahesh and LRV
Much appreciated, guys. Thanks.
Naren- hahaha….no sarcasm meant in what i said….i genuinely loved the article!! 🙂
And when i said that it was first of its kind, its not jus about ottawa rima, its also about the way you told a story through almost each of those lines. I long to read such beautiful articles!! So again i say, keep it up!! 🙂
Naren,
Your passion and skills are as refreshing as is UA’s gift/surprise of posting your/a poem! All to drive home the league-winning goal! Kudos!
Well done .. and a great read. And since we’re on poems.. let me share a few famous lines (which I read very very recently in some other context) …
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
Reminds me of AW.. what about you? 🙂
Here’s the original link – http://public.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/frost_road.html
While we’re at it! My favorite line, from my favorite French poet, for my favorite manager (who happens to be French):
“There is another world, and it is in this one.”
Paul Eluard
Dark Prince,
I’m glad that you appreciate the depth in it. Thanks.
bob,
Cheers!
great pre-season, “Carl Jenkinson” the other side son.
@Naren
Sorry mate most of the credit to you ofcourse well worth a mention in despatches. Anymore like that and medals will follow, well done and credit to Untold for letting it be posted.
Rog B, i’m Arsenal through and through!
Just coming home from Cologne and after a great day out, this is the ultimate and perfect end to a great day! Thanks Naren, really loved it and appreciated it!
Arvind,
You know most of the tragi-heroic poetry reminds me of AW…poor man, has to fight the whole world to do some good.
Rog B,
I was just kidding! Thanks a lot.
Walter,
Thanks, it is very kind of you.
Will you be posting any photos here or on facebook/photobucket?
Henry G and Mahgfur,
Your comments must have been held back in moderation…saw it just now. Cheers!
Naren, my son will be doing this. I hope. But I will post a link to it.
Still feeling great this morning. Okay, I admit, when I come over and us winning gives me a boost of a couple of days. Even in a friendly game. 😉
Thanks to everyone for the positive comments, and I would add my own here – a terrific piece of work.
As an editor of Untold I am always excited when a reader sends in something that is genuinely “untold” – ie different – and this was it.
Untold is here to take the literature about Arsenal to new places, but as editors we can only do this with quality contributions, and I am delighted at what we have achieved here. Thank you Naren for writing, and thank you for choosing Untold as the place for your work to be published. We would be delighted to receive more.