'Harte of the Matter' - Arsene survives the chop

I watched the Gunners beat Chelsea last weekend to save them from losing their  manager Arsene Wenger. But their troubles may be only beginning.

Last week I wrote that he should go because I felt  he has been in charge for too long. But the tragedy for Arsenal is that he has too much power. On Wednesday, he agreed a new two-year deal.

His European results this season reflected a team who were out of their depth, who were beaten at home and away by a talented Bayern Munich  team who basically embarrassed a lack lustre Arsenal side.

My own memories of Arsenal go back to their games against my favourite team Liverpool who had the great Steve Highway trotting down the line as a committed winger. I had a soft spot for Highway and he played in a team of great players in Liverpool.

Many stories of Irish footballers have been documented but the Gunners attracted some of the best.

Maybe when the history of Arsenal is written there will be many references to the Irish at the club - , Brady, Stapleton, Jennings, Rice, Devine.

To us they were all Irish and isn’t it ironic that during the most troubled period in Ireland we had players from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England playing on the same team with successes that haven’t been repeated since then.

Football can bring people together and it has in Arsenal’s case. The support for Arsenal was established longer before the seventies and Irish communities in Highbury, Camden and Holloway were as Irish as you could get. When they came back home to Ireland they brought that support for Arsenal with them.

On the Arsenal website there are 24 supporters clubs in the Republic and nine in the North of Ireland. Arsenal always had a proud Irish following and were the first team in England to harness the Irish support. The fans were a mixture of English and Irish immigrants.

Today Arsenal has no Irish players in the first team squad. Is it because the talent is not there or the globalisation of the club allows them to buy players from all over the world?

The old Arsenal with Brady, O’Leary and Stapleton was a formidable force in British soccer and were the reason why Arsenal were one of the top teams in European football. They were formidable players in the league and if they were around today they would be amongst the elite of British soccer. Sadly they came too early for success and even though they were successful players of their generation they arrived too early to hit the big time.

We see players of modest ability get to the top but those Irish players have a place in the hearts of Irish fans and will continue to be heroes long after their playing days.

In the seventies Arsenal also had an Irish manager. Terry Neill was a great coach and his ability to get Irish players to sign for Arsenal was a good investment at a time when Irish players were in demand. History will show that Terry Neill, the Belfast boy, brought a host of Irish players to Highbury, something that was beneficial to both Ireland and Arsenal.

If the hammering given to the Arsenal team during the Champions League happened in the seventies, the manager would have been shown the door. However, Arsene must have an influence that we don’t comprehend.