Learning Opportunity

How lucky Arsene Wenger is to have a man of the experience of Terry Venables to tell him that Thierry Henry is unique and irreplaceable. Just in case he hadn’t noticed.

According to Pundit Venables, all Arsenal have to do is break the bank to keep him – even if that means shattering the club’s wage structure, which our Terry hints may have been used as “a convenient excuse”. Simple innit?

Apparently, our Tel thinks that clubs just use the idea of a wage structure to avoid upsetting the players. Nothing to do with financial prudence then.

He also takes the opportunity to imply that Arsene Wenger hasn’t really contributed much to the club’s success because “the main features of Arsenal’s forward play seem to arise from the style of his players rather than his instruction”.

Tactics that arise from the strengths and weaknesses of the players rather than being dictated by whim or fashion. Now there’s a novel idea – though not, we suspect, one which would find much sympathy with Mr Venables.

In view of his substantial reputation as a coach, it’s strange that for some time now no-one seems to have offered Tel Boy the opportunity to work at the highest level.

Perhaps it’s because he sometimes gives the impression that it’s tactics, rather than players, which are the ‘be all and end all’ in football.

Such an attitude does more than devalue the game. It can also diminish a bloke’s career prospects.

Maybe a change of tactics would help Terry. He could, for instance, try talking to Arsene Wenger rather than about him. He might learn a lot.