Arsenal America

“Member Daniel Nooter writes in response to my recent editorial:

Thanks for your most recent editorial. Although I agree with your major point (that we win primarily because we have a squad stacked with ungodly talent), I’m not convinced that this is the whole story. Indeed, the argument actually seems a little circular to me: why do we win? because we have players who possess ungodly talent. But what does that mean? how do we know which players are the ones with ungodly talent? Why, there’re the ones that WIN, of course.

To develop this further, I think it’s self-evident that every player on Arsenal was talented well before he joined the Gunners. Obviously, Henry had talent when he was with Juventus, or Wenger wouldn’t have paid 10M+ pounds for his services. But he certainly wasn’t the same caliber of striker that he has since become with the Arse, and this could really be said of almost everyone you’ve listed among Arsenal’s “”ungodly talent,”" with only a few exceptions (e.g., Bergkamp, maybe Campbell). Yes, we DO have ungodly talent, but I believe this is largely a function of the fact that we (by which I mean Wenger) develop and nurture that talent in ways that achieve its “”ungodly”" potential. And when we start using words like “”develop”" and “”nurture”" with respect to players who are already in their 20s and already possessed of their incredible physical abilities, I think that what we’re really talking about comes very close to certain other words…such as heart, desire, grit and determination.

Thus, I don’t think these “”intangibles”" are really so dichotomous with the idea of “”ungodly talent”"; rather, I believe they’re embedded in and frankly inextricable from that talent. Yes, a team without talent (probably) won’t win against a more talented team, despite having all the heart, desire, grit, etc. in the world. But the flip side to this is that winning players with talent (probably) wouldn’t ever achieve the full level of that talent without first possessing these same “”intangible”" qualities.

So, with respect to Arsenal’s most recent matches, the PSV victory can easily be attributed to our superior talent. Whereas the injury time goal we scored to beat Bolton could instead be credited to our grit and resilience. But both such attributions would miss the point, I think, because both talent AND “”heart”" were necessary in each case. And I think nothing epitomizes this marriage of talent and passion more than our captain on the field, Patrick Vieira…excepting, perhaps, the man whose hallowed boots he has inherited, the great TA6.

Just my two cents…

– Good stuff Daniel. I would qualify my previous remarks by saying, I’m not suggesting that Wenger isn’t a factor in developing the talent, but the end product (talent of players on the field) is what is winning the games for us.

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