The Invicible

Why i choose Arsenal?
that always the question that be asking from my friends..
so tonight let me tell you the answer after seeing Arsenal crush sheffield United last night..6-0

Arsene Wenger(Arsenal manager) has supplied English football with some of its most memorable moments in the last 12 years.

They include the crowning of his 'Invincibles' of 2003-2004 who went through an entire league season undefeated, and the scintillating shows of a series of teams who consistently have played the most eye-pleasing football the nation has witnessed.But forget for a moment his three Premier League titles, his four FA Cups and Arsenal's one appearance in the Champions League final.

His greatest gift to English football perhaps came at the Emirates Stadium when an Arsenal youth team, by and large, humiliated Sheffield United in the Carling Cup third round.Not just because the teenagers drew a crowd of 56,632, but more because it was the night Wenger provided an alternative to the madness.The 6-0 scoreline struck a blow for common sense. It sent out a message to the whole of football that there is still a place for artistry and managerial ingenuity in a world which for most has become a measure of who has the biggest chequebook and the deepest pockets.There is, after all, another route to success other than throwing limitless cash at players, many of whom turn out to have limited talent.

Football is not all about the £30million and the rest gambled on such as Dimitar Berbatov and Robinho. It can be about the young stars picked up by a sophisticated scouting system and nurtured by an astute club.It can be about the art of management.True, you could say Wenger has been forced down the frugal route by Arsenal's reluctance to break wage structures and their refusal or inability to splash silly money in an inflated market place.But that would be to miss the essence of Wenger.

Many thought the Frenchman would be the next to leave Arsenal after his friend and closest ally David Dein was ousted from the club's board when he attempted to take the Gunners down the foreign ownership route.The main reason Wenger stayed was because of the kids. Because he could not envisage leaving to a successor the legacy he had built so painstakingly over the past decade.

And on Tuesday night that legacy was plain to see.In the brilliant hat-trick of Mexican Carlos Vela, the two goals of Nicklas Bendtner and, most crucially, the performance of the seven British players, Gavin Hoyte, Kieran Gibbs, Mark Randall, Aaron Ramsey, Jay Simpson, Henri Lansbury and 16-year-old goalscorer Jack Wilshere who played a part in the victory.One barb legitimately aimed at Wenger down the years, along with the fact that he suffers from selective myopia where his own players' disciplinary flaws are concerned, is that he has led the chase for foreign talent to the detriment of the home nations, particularly the England side.

Wenger has always defended that accusation by claiming he does not look at a passport when gauging the values and qualities of a footballer and that is why his latest crop of youngsters are also exciting from a national perspective.Make no mistake, in a football world increasingly filled with colliding billionaires, the Wenger route is a brave route. The task now is to ensure that the gifted ones take the extra step to Premier League stardom in the manner of Theo Walcott.

As Wenger said: "The biggest challenge is to keep them together and slowly integrate them into the first team."When you are under immense pressure to buy in every transfer window, you know that you have these players behind and it would be killing the work we have done."
Which is why Wenger should be applauded.And why he insists, whatever the pressure, he will stick with his youngsters all the way to the final of the Carling Cup.

Let's hope he does. And let's hope they and their commendable manager demonstrate to such as Roman Abramovich and Manchester City's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan that cash is not always king.And that, contrary to what one famed TV pundit once said, you can win something with kids.

Once be a gooner, you will always be. Always have, always be.All da best ARSENAL.

p/s: Selamat hari raya..maaf zahir batin