Or perhaps you thought his notion of maintaining a team with a few veterans and a core of youngsters was the folly of someone who was mailing it in--already certain he was following Thierry Henry to greener pastures.
Wenger has spent the past few years racked with criticism over personnel and transfer decisions. But through it all, he was, in fact, standing with unwavering faith that his frugal but prudent purchases and his carefully nurtured starlets would meld into a side that could compete for domestic honors.
As Chelsea's all-star team gobbled up trophies and Manchester United surged back to prominence, soccer observers forgot the vision of the man who plucked Viera and Henry from frustrated obscurity and placed them amongst the world's best in their positions.
If anyone had forgotten Wenger's brilliance, they are remembering now.
An Arsenal fan could be forgiven for worrying where the team would get goals after Henry's departure, but the youngsters have stepped up to the challenge--continuing to play the flowing, beautiful football that we've come to expect, but rather that being dependent on the talismanic Frenchman to seal the deal, they're sharing the ball and players like Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie, and even the previously misfiring Cesc Fabregas are slotting away the goals.
As Wenger explained in a recent Soccernet article on the Henry transfer:
"it is natural when a player of the calibre of Thierry, they look for him first to do something, and when he is not there somebody else, it is a bit more shared."Both Henry's injury-plagued last season and Wenger's leadership have hastened this transition, and the result is a real gift to both Gooners and fans of the beautiful game.
