The Emirates Stadium. An Arena that had yet to see the glories Arsene would have liked. For various reasons he had been unable to build the dynasty he always envisioned. In late 2007 there was talk of expanding the emirates stadium to 90,000 seats in the future. A bright future surely awaited a fast flowing team with a world class manager and players with huge potential. How long ago that seemed... The players shuffled into the dressing room. It was much quieter than usual. Robin and Alex's seats were left empty. The remaining players treated their abscence as if they had passed away. No words spoken, aside from a few hushed whispers. Thomas turned to see his former Captain's seat vacated and a single tear emerged from his eyes. Robin had left behind a photo of him and Thomas in his locker. It was of Thomas fighting with Tim Krul after he had scored the winner against Newcastle in March, and Robin's smile shone out against the Belgian and the goalkeeper at loggerheads. Thomas held back his tears. Wenger watched on. He had always been unsure in times like this. Things had changed since his finest hour. Dennis. Tony. Did players with such loyalty still exist? His past approaches had not worked. Arsene looked out of the dressing room window and saw the terraces of the stadium he had helped build. The banding around the sides showed some of his finest achievements as manager. The cup doubles of 1998 and 2002. A premier league trophy with a season unbeaten two years later. Then nothing. A gap where more glories should lay. He had tried to fill it in recent years but had been unable to. It was time for something different. The players turned to Arsene, as they usually did. They noticed his eyes seemed more strained than usual. He tried to speak but the words simply couldn't come out. Lukas looked at Per, perplexed. The defender simply replied, "He feels hurt." After a few minutes, Wenger composed himself and managed to speak. "So... here we are again." His voice heavily showed grief. "When I was 12 years old" he spoke, "I met a girl named Claire. She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen." The player's mood changed dramatically. They seemed confused as to where this was going. Nevertheless, Arsene continued. "We went to school together for many years. I was always with her. Always. Others thought of us as best friends but we both knew we were something more. We were extremely close for so many years. She felt shy at school, but I helped her gain confidence. I gave her guidance... "As my football career began, I knew that I wouldn't be able to give her as much attention as I had done before. But I still stayed true to her. As a talented footballer other girls pursued me as the year's flew by. However, I thought I could never leave Claire. After all we had been through together. My friends said I was foolish to stay with her when there were so many more attractive girls who could be there for me. I hated them for saying things like that. Claire would never leave me if she were in my position, I thought. "As we grew older we each had our problems to contend with. Her with her school exams, which I helped her with. I had to try and make a good impression with Strasbourg, my club. "On her eighteenth birthday she said that despite everything we had to fight against she wanted to do it with me. She said that night that she wanted to stay with me forever." Arsene stopped briefly and stared again outside the changing room at the turf of the Emirates. The players were intrigued by his story. Usually many of them would be tieing their boots or changing as he gave his morning talk. But not this time. "At the age of nineteen I had to travel to Holland for our annual pre season game against PSV Eindhoven. I kissed her goodbye and promised that I would be back soon. The following day I made my debut for the club as we beat the dutch team by 2 goals. For a team of our status to beat the european champions by 2 goals meant so much. The coaching staff said they were impressed by me and that I would be offered a professional contract by the club shortly. "Naturally I was thrilled and travelled home to tell Claire the news. On the way home I stopped at the Jewellers and bought the biggest ring I could afford. The night was perfect so far and I wanted it to be the night of our lives by asking her to be with me forever. Wenger turned to face the players. "But sometimes," he spoke softly, "Things just aren't meant to be." "I knocked on our house door to find it unlocked. This worried me as Claire always insisted on locking it. I heard loud noises coming from the room upstairs. Fearing the worst I ran to the room to find Claire not suffering, as I had first thought, but feeling quite the contrary. "The woman I had loved for so long, since I first lay eyes on her, had been with another man that night," The team looked on, horrified. Arsene paused thoughtfully. "I left the town shortly afterwards. As it sunk in to me that the girl I could never leave, the one I had shown so much loyalty to after all these years had thrown it all away I sank into a part of my life which I hope to never return to. I can honestly say I didn't feel like living anymore, at that point. I gave up on training. I almost gave up on football. Until one day, the coach called me into his office for a meeting. "He spoke to me as if I were his son. I thought this to be very kind. He said, "Arsene, loyalty is a mysterious thing. You may think that people have it one minute, but the next, they have stabbed you in the back. Some people in life just do not have it. Others, however, do. Others remain loyal to those who give them so much, and these people, these people end up happier."" Wenger's voice grew louder and felt triumphant. "And I made sure I repaid that man. I gave him one hundred percent every game for the rest of my career. Despite offers from other clubs I stayed with Strasbourg for the rest of my playing days, truly appreciating all they had done for me. "And I became a better man because of it. For you see, I soon met a woman who I am still with to this day. She is still with me. I thought that Claire was irreplaceable. But I was wrong. No-one no matter how great they may be," he turned to Robin and Alex's vacated seats, "...is irreplaceable." A few players were visibly moved by Arsene's words. "Loyalty is still here," he said, "Sometimes it is hard to find, but I know it is here. And I want to make sure it is here in abundance. For too long I have tried to find players purely based on ability. But it is now clear to me that character is a far better quality to have. And every man standing in this room today has that. "Together, we will achieve victory once more. In this world of hatred, anger and deciet, I know we can rise above our challengers. For we are strong in our minds. We are a unit. We are a team. And we are a family." Once more, the frenchman gazed upon his players and saw their faces, formerly filled with grief and despair, now passionate and willing. They were ready. Arsene spoke once more. "I know we can do it, guys. As a team. As a family. As GUNNERS." The players triumphantly yelled out and ran out of the changing room onto the pitch. Steve Bould looked at Arsene, stunned. The frenchman smiled wryly. "We have work to do, Steve. We have greatness to achieve."
The Emirates cannot be expanded to hold 90,000 and subsequently there have never been or will there be any plans to do so
You know what really hacks me off? When people say "oh, it's only a job for footballers, moving to another team is no different than any other employee at any business moving for a better paid job or a better company." Rubbish. For starters, players like Van Persie already earn more in a week than I earn in a year as a teacher. So the money excuse is crap: It's not a question of financial security, it's a question of greed. Secondly, football clubs are not, nor should they ever have been viewed as, businesses. From Burton Albion to Barcelona, people care about them deeply. The players should realise that in playing for a club it behoves them to show respect to the fans. Van Persie has not only piddled all over the club and his legacy, but he's piddled on us, too. Shame on him. All so he can go to a club where the majority of the fans can't even locate Manchester on a map. Congratulations, Robin. You might win a shiny trophy ( and perhaps you might shoulder some of the blame for not winning one here?) but you've lost your integrity. There's a special place in hell reserved for traitors. I really shouldn't drink after 10 pm.
I think it could have been expanded, but was more the fact that the public infrastructure in place could not cope with the demands of an extra 30,000 fans
It was never designed to be expanded but i do agree with you that the public transport infrastructure etc could possibly have stopped us building a bigger stadium
Pretty sure that it was built to be expanded to 80k seats, but cannot be done due to planning permissions because of the transport infrastructure.
I did the legends tour with Charlie George a couple of years ago and he was adamant that it was built to hold 60,000 and there were never any plans to increase capacity
That's what I remeber too. (also the planning permission for the site was for a stadium which holds 'up to 80k') The borough of islington want another station built and paid for by AFC if we plan to expand.
I was really hoping to find out what happened next. Does he going in there an let the fists fly? Does he make some big dramatic speech about her breaking his heart? Or does he light the house on fire on his way out? Better yet, how does Claire react when he comes in the door and hers her skank ass in bed? Guess I'll never know.
Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of whether or not the Emirates was planned to hold an extra 20-30k seats
Yet every single one of you rejoiced the day Campbell left us to join our fiercest rivals after promising us he would not do that. And he has left for the trophies....just like you said Campbell did...just to rub it in. Hypocrisy of the highest order
