The article is titled “Arsene Wenger has worked miracles at Arsenal-to abuse him now is shameful and embarrassing” and it is written by John Cross, the chief football writer for The Daily Mirror, specifically covering football stories in North London, a part mainly dominated by two English Premier League giants-Arsenal and Tottenham. The article was published on the Daily Mirror website on April 19, 2016 in the opinion section. This article criticizes Arsenal fans who abused the club head manager for dwindling performance in the league after being knocked out of the European championship and both domestic cups. Cross argues that Mr. Arsene Wenger remains the best manager of the club and therefore deserves respect from all fans of the club and not the abuse. In this argument, John Cross uses ethos, pathos, and logos in constructing a compelling argument for respecting Arsene Wenger despite his recent dismal performances.
In the argument, Cross effectively employs the use of ethos in describing the success of Arsene Wenger as an Arsenal manager and the reasons why the club fans are obliged to support him. He paints the picture of Arsene Wenger as the royal manager of the club who has stood by the club for twenty years and therefore deserving the respect of the club fans. He questions the mentality of the club supporters who do not care what will happen in the aftermath of the manager’s departure as the performance of the club may dip even further and even miss the top four spots in the league that guarantees the European championship participation. He even further questions the perspective of Arsenal fans giving up on their season tickets, claiming that the current scenario in the performance of the team is hardly the worst that it can become.
In the article, John Cross employs the careful use of logos in structuring and also enticing the audience to continue reading. The article follows the basic structure of an essay, where there is an introduction, body of the paper and a conclusion. In the introduction, cross lays the basis for his argument by describing the situation of the manager and the fans. He also states that the manager knows that the fans are not happy but goes on to state his thesis statement, “there’s also a line of decency and respect that some fans crossed on Sunday”, referring to the abuses directed towards the manager after the club shared spoils in a one all draw with Crystal Palace. The body of the article is devoted to informing the reason for the fans to be angry with the manager and why the time for change has come. The paper also deeply examines the importance of respecting the “best manager in the history of the club” and let him fulfill his contractual obligation, with his contract lapsing in 2017. In the paper, Cross also uses rhetorical questions such as “Yes, he makes mistakes (don’t we all?)”, in a bid to justify his argument that the errors of the manager do not warrant the abuse of fans. In the conclusion, cross states his hope of Arsene Wenger signing good players, win a trophy and go out as a hero, also noting the negative impact on the manager’s legacy if he signs another contract with the club.
Cross uses facts, statistics and comparison to inform his argument that the fans should respect the manager. He evokes the fact that Arsene Wenger has led the club to finish at the Champions League place for twenty consecutive seasons and also that he is the only manager in the Premier League era to craft a team that played for a whole season without a single loss. He compares Arsenal with their bitter north London rivals, Tottenham Hotspurs, who are second in the league and fighting for the title by saying that for the last twenty years, Arsene Wenger has maintained the club on the position which their rivals are enjoying so much this season. Cross also commends Mr. Wenger for keeping the club in the top four with a small budget despite the ejection of money in other teams in the division such as Chelsea and Manchester City.
One of the weaknesses of this article is the lack of enough justification through facts that the manager can turn around the performance of the team, hence be allowed to run down his contract with the club. In the conclusion, the author fails to stamp his stand on the topic and he seems to have softened his stance of the manager being a hero to wishing the manager could spend big and go out in "a blaze of glory." This is despite the fact that the primary cause of the fan upload is the lack of spending by the manager despite the board of the club allocating approximately £200 million for strengthening the squad, of which the manager used only £10 million despite the glaring shortage of quality in the team.
In conclusion, John Cross has crafted an excellent argument on the reason why Arsenal fans have no justification for abusing their longest serving manager in history. He uses statistics, evokes emotions of what the manager has done for the club and uses a comparison to examine how successful the manager has made the club compared to their competitors. The cross also alludes to his understanding of the fans’ frustrations, but questions the way they express their frustrations. One of the negatives of the author is in the conclusion where instead of affirming his stance stated in the thesis statement, he shows a lack of belief in his argument when he says that the manager should spend more to win, despite his knowledge of notoriety of the manager in spending allocated funds.
Work Cited
Cross, John. "Why Arsenal Fans Abusing Arsene Wenger Should Be Ashamed". Mirror. N.p., 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsene-wenger-worked-miracles-arsenal-7785857
