The Professor

The thoughtful fellow above is one Arsene Wenger born this day 1949 in Strasbourg, France (it had reverted back to being French before Arsene was born). Raised, in his own words, a pub, Arsene is currently the gaffer at my club, Arsenal. He recently celebrated his 13th year in charge at Arsenal, and has led my team to glory on numerous occasions. Don't let the fact that he is a football manager fool you, M. Wenger holds in Electric Engineering, and a master's degree in Economics, and is fluent in four languages. He needs to be fluent in several languages because his squad is full of players from abroad. Many years ago, when I first became interested in the beautiful game, and had decided that I needed to "pick" a team, it was Arsenal's and M. Wegner's approach to the game that attracted me. That, and a couple of outstanding players that were at the club at the time. To the neutral Arsenal can be lovely to watch, sometimes their dedication to playing a beautiful game can be maddening, but it is mostly a joy to watch. Of course, he has his detractors, who complain about his style of play, his teams lack of English footballers in the squad, and his commitment to building a team rather than buying players in a "win now at all costs" attempt at glory. I want my team to fill the trophy cabinet as much as the next guy, but I can greatly appreciate Wenger's approach to the game, and admire his determination to stick to his ideals. I am all on board with his plan, just so long as one day it works, and it has worked before, so he is afforded the benefit of the doubt in my book. So, for changing the culture at my club, and for creating, coaching the Invincibles, Arsene Wenger (October 22nd, 1949-present), you are my hero of the day.


P.S. I have not done this before but I feel that today I need to. There were a couple of "honourable mentions" that I would like to "give a shout out to."

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Curly Howard (1903-1952)