The difference between what is said and what is meant « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Walter Broeckx
Here we go again. What is the matter with some part of our fans? Do they have no brains? Or are they just like me from other parts of the world where English is not their mother language and so they misunderstand things?
But even I as a non-English speaker can grab what Wenger has said about Vermaelen or better said can understand what he meant to say. So let us go back in time and take a look at what has been said since January. Or let us start with earlier on, when the Belgium national team said that he could play with the pain on his Achilles and that it wouldn’t have any negative effect for the future. I think the doctor of the Belgium national team is a Manchester United fan. The nickname of the Belgium national team is… red devils. Let them rot in hell I would say.
So after months of misery with no one finding the real problem it was half January that a doctor finally came up with the answer. I wrote a little article about that on 16 January. And at that time the prognosis from the doctors was that Vermaelen would be back in training 4 weeks after the little medical procedure. So everyone expected Vermaelen to be fit at the start of March. The doctors, the physiotherapist, they all said it would be a matter of weeks before Vermaelen would be fit.
And so this was communicated to the world. So anyone with one working brain cell in his head knew that also Wenger at that time believed that Vermaelen would be back somewhere at the start of March. Wenger is not a doctor, just as I am not a doctor so when doctors tell you that a player is back in a few weeks who is Wenger to doubt those doctors? When I went to the doctor on Monday because I had twisted my ankle and he told me to rest for a week and told me to do no game this weekend and then I would be fine. Who am I to doubt these words? After all he has studied for those things and I haven’t.
So us, non doctors, believe the doctors when they tell us what will happen. So did and does Wenger.
When I spoke with the parents of Vermaelen just 14 days ago they still had hopes and they said that Thomas also was still hoping to be back at the end of this month. And they also said that his Achilles looked okay by now but that he had several other problems. Muscular problems and some small things that held him back and prevented him coming back.
But still there was hope that he would come back at the end of this month. This was just 14 days ago.
So I guess this hope has been put to bed this week. I think that the doctors and the physiotherapist have let Vermaelen and Wenger know that it would be impossible in the current situation to get back to full fitness this season.
When Wenger told this at the press conference he did what many foreigners do when they speak English. He said something in a way that people could misunderstood his words. Believe me it happens all the time to us non English native speakers. You use the wrong conjugation, you put things in the past/present/future and you end up with something different than you would have said it in your own mother language.
Because for weeks since January Wenger has expressed on a few occasions the hope that Vermaelen would be back soon. And now that this isn’t the case he has used the word “never”. Causing for the fans who are after Wenger his head anyway for a round of abuse.
But all those fans who love Arsenal that much (or proclaim they do anyway) must have been reading all the things Wenger has said in the last months? And in all those reports Wenger always said that they were hoping for Vermaelen to be fit soon.
So has Wenger been lying all that time to us? Was it just Wenger who was stubborn and didn’t want to spend the money on a new centre back? For those who want Wenger out, well they will take any stick out there to hit him.
But let us for a moment take this bullshit as the truth. Let us suppose that Wenger is that evil devil some paint him. Let us suppose that Wenger has lied to us all that time.
Then why would he have done this? To make sure we win nothing? Why would he do this? Just look at his face when we lose? Do you see any joy on his face? You can see a thousand emotions on his face but I have never seen him happy when we lose. NEVER! So we can skip this possibility I think.
And if Wenger lied then it would mean that other people also had to lie. Vermaelen would have to lie. The doctors would have to lie. Do you really think that all these persons are in the complot to cover up the fact that Arsenal knew from the start of September that Vermaelen would not play again this season? Do you really believe this? No one would have a slip of the tongue all these months? Come on let us be serious.
And most of all the reason why I really believe that no one knew this is that when we met the parents of Vermaelen when I came to the Emirates they really hoped he would be back real soon. If they would have known it all those months then they could have told us. But no, they had hopes that he would be back. We all had hopes he would be back soon. Thomas himself, his parents, Wenger, the doctors, the physiotherapists, the fans and I. Why would the parents of Vermaelen lie to me?
Only now we and Wenger know it isn’t going to be for Vermaelen. So it is a big blow for Arsenal that is for sure. But the way some of the supporters behave shows that they have another agenda and all they want is to get rid of Wenger and they will take anything to put him in bad daylight.
PS: If anything in this article is understood in a different way than I meant it to be just remember that my mother language is not English. Just as it is the case with Arsène Wenger.
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