uchgunner

Football// Arsenal// Catholic// Igbo// Politics// History// Veterinarian//Academic

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@henryggmu1 I am looking forward to your crashing out video. Lol

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@Oye440 Lol. One would think Gyokeres never featured in that UCL final. He came on in the 65th minute and played the entire 30 mins of extra time and had almost Zero impact.

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

Arsenal don really traumatise these people. Lol

[PB @football_pb]

If anyone is looking for something to inject, here you go

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

I am happy for you. Thank you for all the memories.

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨🔵🔴 BREAKING: Barcelona agree deal to sign Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal, here we go!

Exclusive details: medical booked on Monday, #AFC to receive €10m package plus add-ons for permament deal.

Gabriel Jesus will travel for medical as authorized by Arsenal.

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨 Leo Messi: “Thanks to this team and these teammates, I can be at another World Cup today and I can keep competing”.

“I know they make an extra effort so that I can keep competing and they do it from the heart because they truly feel it”.

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@Buchi_Laba Na this kind talk na im igbos deh call okwu nkasiobi lol

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@UTDTrey Lol. This aged sweetly

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

Declan Rice ahead of Ramsey please

[now.arsenal @now_arsenaI]

Is this the best team of the Emirates era so far? Or what changes would you make? 👀

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

Messi is a blessing to humanity

[🇵🇸 @TotalLM10i]

Lionel Messi Vs Iceland

Ready for the World Cup.

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@simontuleh @udemeAkpan01 I just read this Isaac story in me devotional, few hours ago. You have a valid point.

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@ayodejiApache Interesting analysis as always

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

An interesting piece

[Ajoje⚽⚖️ @israel_ajoje]

Arsenal fans will like this one. How did you think Arsenal found Wenger? Through a cigarette lighter. I promise- I wish I was kidding.

Arsenal were not allowed to let women into their boardroom in 1989, and that sexist rule accidentally led to the greatest appointment in the club's entire history, because the women were kept in a separate cocktail lounge at half time.

And that was where Barbara Dein spotted a tall, suave continental man in a beige trenchcoat and rimless glasses standing quietly in the corner.

She and her friend Penny Grade had gone over simply to ask him for a cigarette lighter, but Barbara was so struck by this elegant, intellectual Frenchman that she immediately sent her husband David a message telling him there was someone in the lounge he needed to meet, the manager of Monaco.

David Dein came out of the boardroom, met Arsene Wenger, and invited him to dinner that same evening where they played charades, and Wenger's intellect impressed Dein so deeply that he wrote his name in his diary that night with a quiet conviction that this was someone Arsenal needed.

From that evening, Dein stayed in regular contact with Wenger, sending him VHS tapes of Arsenal matches every week for years, which is how Wenger came to know so much about the club long before he ever managed them.

That was 1989, and it took seven more years of Dein fighting the Arsenal board, who rejected his suggestion to appoint Wenger as early as 1995, before they finally agreed after Bruce Rioch's dismissal in 1996, and the British press responded to the appointment by asking "Arsene Who?" which remains one of the most embarrassing headlines in football journalism history.

Wenger spent the next 22 years making that question look very foolish, winning 3 Premier League titles including the completely unbeaten Invincibles season of 2003/04 where Arsenal went the entire league campaign without losing once, a record that still stands today, along with seven FA Cups which made him the most successful manager in the history of that competition, and two league and cup doubles, and a Champions League final appearance in 2006, all across 1,235 games in charge.

What most people outside Arsenal do not fully appreciate though is what Wenger did for the club financially, because his ability to find players like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Kolo Toure and Cesc Fabregas for fractions of their actual market value completely transformed how Arsenal operated.

A survey in 2007 found that Wenger was the only Premier League manager to have made a profit on transfers, averaging £4.4 million profit per season between 2004 and 2009, and that financial discipline directly contributed to the club's ability to finance the construction of the Emirates Stadium, a £390 million project that Arsenal funded largely through their own resources without the billionaire backing that most clubs depend on today.

He left in 2018 after 22 years and joined FIFA as Chief of Global Football Development in 2019, responsible for developing the game across 211 countries, and David Dein, who was dismissed by Arsenal on 18 April 2007 following a boardroom dispute over outside investment, went on to become an Ambassador for both the Premier League and the FA.

He also founded The Twinning Project, a charity connecting football clubs with local prisons to help rehabilitate offenders, which he described as the work that animates him most.

Dein has since said that Wenger's treatment on leaving Arsenal made him "so angry" and that the club should have made him chairman, which tells you everything about the bond that began with a cigarette lighter in a cocktail lounge in 1989.

One small moment started all of it.

Hope you learned something today.

My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@Arsenal Class!

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@mfc_mrpage Bros, rest na. Haba!

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@ArsenalNigeria_ Where Umuahia dey na?

[ASISAT O.O.N @AsisatOshoala]

Na OBI ONE podcast i dey go mount tomorrow 🤣🤣🤣 I dey like listen to Mikel take after their games 😂

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

Mad man!

[talkSPORT @talkSPORT]

❌ "I wouldn't recognise Arsenal as winners!"

😡 "For me, they've cheated their way to winning the Premier League!"

John Obi Mikel really, really doesn't like the way #AFC are using set pieces to win the Premier League... 👀

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@ultimate_kombo God bless you Kombo

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

@Omahh_11 Pep Guardiola of course

[uchgunner @Uch_chima]

Finally, someone said it. 😆 I share the same thoughts, too.

[Emzel @Emzyl_]

I can't lie, low-key, I'm almost tempted to throw away that Mansfield game. FA cup low-key is a distraction for us