Mind your own business, Arsène

Arsène Wenger clearly feels that he`s the sage of English football. That`s the self-appointed pontificate who, far too often, has an opinion on matters quite frankly outside his responsibility. He tends to do this from his favourite vantage point: standing legs akimbo as he straddles the centrespot of the moral highground.

Another way of describing this kind of behaviour is that Wenger is a frightful busybody. Take his comments on Wolvesgate. “It’s sad but what can I do?” Wenger said, probably not even in reply to a journalists question on the matter. “It’s not up to me. We will compete with Manchester United over 37 games instead of 38 this season.”

That last statement came as something of a surprise to most observers, who considered that Arsenal had stopped competing with Manchester United after 12 games. But Arsène went on “This is a problem for the international credibility of the Premier League”, a subject very close to Arsène`s heart, before concluding with a withering accusation that Wolves` boss Mick McCarthy was not “acting in good faith to other clubs”.

On a roll, Arsène also criticised the Premier League fixture compilers for scheduling League games in a Europa League week. His point was that on Saturday Arsenal are at home to a Hull City side who did not play in midweek due to the fact that their fixture against Everton was moved because of the Merseyside club’s involvement in the Europa League.

“I think the Premier League has a basic promise to organise the fixtures in a normal way,” Wenger said. “The guy who organised the fixtures this season must have come out of a special school, because he is more intelligent than I am. For sure, he has never played football, organising midweek games in a week when you have a Europa League. We have some teams who do not play at all. We play Sunday and Wednesday away and at home on Saturday against Hull, who have not played all week. It is also damaging for Burnley.”

That would be the same Burnley who clawed a useful point against Arsenal last night, and therefore didn`t seem too damaged.

In that insufferable French way, Wenger is confusing general issues with issues that are particular for Arsenal, and trying to fob off the latter as the former. Arsenal were knocked out of the Carling Cup, which means that they won`t be playing in midweek matches for the Carling Cup quarter final. Can we look forward to Arsène saying that it is an unfair advantage to Arsenal`s adversaries the subsequent weekend because Arsenal have been rested?

Earlier this month, Arsenal fielded a hopelessly weakened side in their final dead rubber Champions League match against Olympiakos. Arsenal had already qualified for the next round, and therefore rested virtually their entire first team. They lost that match, but went on to win the weekend fixture at Anfield. Liverpool, who (bless them) also had a midweek Champions League match tried to win theirs, for the honour. Liverpool could have felt miffed that Arsenal`s first XI was pretty much fresh for their visit to Anfield. Did Rafa Benítez (who never misses an opportunity to divert attention from his own inadequacies) complain about it? No he didn`t. But he would have been just as entitled to be upset at Arsène playing fast and loose with the ‘international credibility` of the Premier League.

And yet Arsène feels entitled to whinge about a matter that has nothing directly to do with Arsenal, and is unlikely ever to have any indirect consequences to him. It could, however, have repercussions for Wolves. Few people (and fewer Wolves supporters) are suggesting that had they fielded their best XI, they could have snatched something from their visit to Old Trafford.

There`s the thing: Mick McCarthy`s responsibility is principally to Wolverhampton Wonderers, to trying to keep the side in the Premier League. The Premier League might ask questions of him whether he ‘undermined` the competitive nature of the League by fielding a weaker side, and Wolves` next opponents Burnley might also feel slightly upset about it. But McCarthy has no responsibility for trying to boost Arsenal`s chances in the League. That is principally Wenger`s responsibility, one he seems to have abdicated if recent results are anything to go on.

Just last week, Wenger launched another action against Chelsea. The essence of his whinge concerned Michael Essien, who was deemed unfit to play for Ghana, but nevertheless ‘recovered` in time to play for Chelsea when they beat Wolves 4-0. Arsène considers that a player who is unfit to play for his national side shouldn`t be able to line up for his club a few days later.

But this particular affair has absolutely nothing to do with Arsenal. It is the responsibility of Ghana to decide to apply FIFA norms on the matter, whereby they can decide to suspend a player from his club duties if he can`t line up for his national side. The measure in question was destined to prevent Ryan Giggs` disease, whereby players mysteriously develop a condition that impedes their involvement in the national side, and then just as mysteriously recover for the club. Since Ghana`s match for which Essien didn`t play was a friendly, Ghana didn`t mind not lining up Essien. They didn`t consider that the midfielder was faking it, and chose not to apply the FIFA rules that allow a national side to suspend a player for 4 days. Please tell us, Arsène, why the hell you should feel the need to intervene to apply this retroactively, in the vain hope that FIFA will dock Chelsea points? Surely that`s up to Ghana to decide?

As we cannot stress enough, the match that Essien didn`t play was a friendly, so it is pedantic and petty and none of his business for Arsène to become involved in the matter. Over the Christmas holidays, in Spain, the Liga halts. But a number of regions then organise their friendly matches. One such region is Cataluña, who called up Cesc Fabregas. Needless to say, Arsène Wenger declined this request, arguing that the ‘friendly` in question involved an entity that was not a member of FIFA. As we can see, Arsène is very pedantic with the application of rules as regards players put on a national shirt … but only when that application is in his favour.

José Mourinho famously labelled Arsène a voyeur. “I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur”, José said. “He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.” Like a lot of what José said, the precise words were a tad undiplomatic. In substance, however, he is spot on. Arsène Wenger is always taking about matters that, frankly, are none of his business. He mistakenly believes that everyone is interested in his opinion on matters that pertain not at all to Arsenal, by virtue of having been around a fair few years. Of course, it doesn`t help that Arsène considers himself a lot more intelligent than he actually is.

What he actually is, is a self-righteous, hypocritical, pontificating twergus.