"Out here we have had the chance to travel, meet different people, see the reaction from the fans, and see a different culture. For players, that's really good." Anderi Arshain on the Asia Arsenal preseason trip
The monkey on Arsenal Football club's back is well known. In spite of attempts at ignoring the elephant in the room with talk of the fine furniture, the finesse of the hand woven carpet and artistry of murals on the walls, the void exemplified by the rusty lock of the trophy cabinet at the Emirates, like a heartbreak is one hard to ignore.
My Ugandan friends tell me the hangover of their Waragi is better tolerated when the banana drink is imbibed in celebration. My Scottish readers add that Scotch too is toasted in happy times. The feeling across the Arsenal family is that likewise, beautiful soccer can intoxicate one only so much. A message that we across the Equator in Swahili land, as we look on in envy, hope the legions of fans in Asia in their understandable excitement of having the gunners visit them, will subtly pass on.
Austria, in Salszburg , more famed as the home to Formula 1 's current dominating force, Redbull, has been Wenger's preferred preseason destination. Probably matters of 'behind closed doors' preparation, thanks to the Austria's famed secluded serenity, have taken precedence in making the European state hitherto unknown for prowess in any sporting discipline, Arsenal's destined preseason home.
Or maybe, the thinking was more Capello like, as when he took the disappointing South Africa 2010 England team there for high altitude preparation. In this trip to Asia, not the first time in his exemplary managerial career, but the first as an Arsenal manger, Arsene Wenger looks to the East.
A change is as good as a rest. Sometimes moving forward entails a break from the norm. A shot at the different if just to shake things up a little bit. Now, to the brigade of Arsene Wenger critics whose numbers swell with every season that Arsenal turns up from a season without laying claim to one mug or the other- silverware, more worryingly the legions of disenfranchised fans of the North London club who in a manner reminiscent of souls trapped in marriages other than fulfilling, lend their voices to the “Wenger is mad, Wenger is disillusioned, Arsene must go chorus”; the Arsenal Asia preseason trip to Malaysia and China represents nothing much more than another bite of little red ridding hood by the greedy conniving fox. that is the Arsenal management.
Look around they argue, to whose benefit is to when names that challenge the Arabic alphabet in use in modern English like Szcensy, Koscienly , Chamakh and Varmaelen are printed in Mandarin on the back of the glossy looking 125yr commemoration Arsenal kits? Especially when yet again as has been the trend, good grain, the likes of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas look set to be exchanged for chuff at best?
Worse still, the early promise of “a busy summer” from none other than chief executive Ivan Gazidis,with the summer transfer season entering the second half, in what has come to be typical Arsenal turning cold as unfulfilled promise disintegrates into hot air. Hype only comparable to the perennially almost, now boring, talk of a Manny Piquao- Haye boxing bout.
Ignoring the numbers of Arsenal merchandise that will be snapped up by Chinese and Malaysian burgeoning middle class, the numbers that Gazidis and Kreonke's accountant are crunching on the calculator, my take is this Asia preseason tour serves that edge that will see fortunes change for Arsenal way beyond the commercial gains into some of the much craved for success on the pitch.
It is something to do with the sense of duty that comes with the coming into face with realization that so many are affected by what you do for a living. More to do with the experiences that we all carry along as memories that constitute the elixir that makes us better individuals. Probably something to do with the reinvigorating relief of being appreciated as opposed to criticism which serves only the vile seeds of self doubt in tandem with the saying “a prophet is appreciated away from home”.
As many a fans know too well, the failure on the pitch more a question of the above than of talent or ability. Sometimes it's the doubt that creeps in when the opposing team pulls one back that cripples the defense letting in the nauseating silly goals. I maintain, with Barcelona in mind, that Arsenal's incompetence in defending and attacking set pieces cannot be simplistically explained by the lack of height in the team nor the assumed poor defensive formation. Probably more of exceptions borne out of criticisms highlighting the expected
As the gunners conclude their Asia preseason trip, Arsenal fans can only hope that as it so often come to pass in many matters this 21st Century, that redemption in its various guises-quite characteristic of solutions from the orient- comes.
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