A New Kind of Gunner

An evolution from the Arsenal Gunners' Invincible-era to the 2017-era, a sports-based essay. Part reflection, part generational recap, this is a scope piece.

Will Maddox, one of three co-captains for our high school Varsity soccer team, showed the guys highlight videos of the European soccer leagues' best, world-class level players scoring goals, saving goals and other trophy-winning season highlights. On top of that, he invited us over to his house on certain games during our senior season as pre-game "festivities" and a means to inspire and motivate us to play like our top-tiered heroes. 

Then, we would go play our game. Usually, we won. Some games, though, we lost. So it went.

I sat on the bench most of that time, never having played more than a few minutes of any game for any duration of time. Most of the lads were on the team for all of high school and Coach McCullough, he knew which guys would start for his squad. There were the starters, Will, Austin, Wes, Joe, Robert and the others. There were the bench-warmers, Josh, Omar, me, and Matt, among the others. 

It wasn't until I saw one particular video that I saw the "motivational, driving force" that would compel me to continue with my playing ways for the next eight or so years.

It was a "Top 100 Goals in the 2003 season" DVD recap that did the trick. Most of them were scored by either David Beckham, the Englishman of Machester United with global marketability utilizing his freakishly-dashing good looks and uncanny right-footed kicking ability; Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugese winger with ridiculously good-looking, model-like looks also for Manchester United whose balance of fierce speed and technique were showcased every single time he has given the ball; Zidane, arguably the greatest ball handling, technique-driven Frenchman and Real Madrid midfield maestro widely considered one of the Top 10 world-class players ever to grace the football pitch; Stephen Gerrard, David Beckham's fellow Englishman and Liverpool Captain who had a knack for controlling the ball in the midfield and the heart of a champion built for English soccer; or Thierry Henry. Thierry Henry was another Frenchman who played for the Arsenal Gunners in north London and was, after his first few games, a star striker...more commonly referred to as a Forward...who could score goals at an inhuman rate of 2-3 per game he played in.

Henry's highlighted goals were not only shown the most on that particular clip. They were mesmerizing. They were captivating. He found ways to score goals when there really wasn't a goal to be scored. He controlled the ball with such speed and creative movement, it was nearly impossible for defenders to mark against him and stop him from doing anything. 

He outplayed everybody. And, other than occasionally missing the goal itself, got to the point where people would expect him to score or help a fellow teammate score (assist) just about every single time he got the ball. He was THAT good a soccer player, or footballer as they referred to them in Europe. 

Thus, when I watched Henry do his thing for the Gunners, whatever it was in my mind that felt compelled, ideally compelled, to replicate his type of playing ability and skill, which were both world-class, was so driven to do so that it felt the need to make my limited and amateur-level athletic skills match his. In other words, I was naive enough to believe that by seeing his moves and scoring abilities on the screen, I could do the same. 

God, how I was mistaken. In fact, there is a saying: If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. Well, looking back now, friends, I think God laughed at me pretty thoroughly because that was clearly SO not in my "meant to be" career plan. 

But this isn't a piece about me, or my foolish thought to imitate a world-class level soccer player while barely being able to make it as a youth recreational-based kid soccer player. Hardly. 

This concerns a more particular issue talked about in the press and media folks around the globe. It's about a team that once was is long gone and the team that has taken its place now is, in this writer's opinion yearning to emulate the greatness they once had. 

When Thierry Henry was playing for Arsenal about a decade ago, he was, at the peak of his powers, one of the world's greatest players. As someone once put it, "the word 'great' is overused, but in Thierry's case, it is absolutely true." 

That was around the 2003-2005 time frame. He was part of a team that went an entire league season undefeated. They never lost once. Not. One. Time.

That was then.

Since then, something has happened. 

Naturally, the players from that time have all come and gone with age and ability. And newer, similar-aged generation of lads in coming through the ranks and Managers are doing what they've always done: buy the players they feel will fit the team best at that time for the foreseeable short-term future. 

Only, these players are different. 

They don't seem to have the same hunger-filled drive to compete and win elite-level trophies as that 'Invincible' squad did in 2003. 

They are a whole new crop of players, from all over the world, brought in to compete in the red and white of Arsenal. That's how it always goes, though, in the world of professional sports, specifically, when it comes to athletes. They are as valuable and considered for their services, as the next potential player being considered.

Thus, when that 'Invincible' squad "left" the team through the buying-and-selling transfer process, one by one it changed the entire landscape of the Gunners.

Patrick Vieria left to Juventus. Sol Campbell eventually moved on. Ashley Cole was sold to Chelsea. Thierry Henry went to Barcelona, then New York, then back to Arsenal, in a RARE turn of sporting events that even players seldom experience, if ever. The same went for Robert Pires, Jens Lehmann, Lauren, Freddie Ljunberg and the rest of the crew.

I firmly believe that there may never be another "Invincible" squad to grace the pitch for the Arsenal Gunners again--that is, one that will go an entire 38-game League campaign/season without losing a single match. The current 2016/2017 season First Team squad has already lost once, so there goes another chance for this year. Regardless, though, the 2017 era of world-class sport and entertainment, social media craze and the extreme influence of the global and digital marketing prowess within the contexts of sport and business has reached an unprecedented height unlike any really seen before. The evolution of the players from one generation, one era of a team to the next has been crafted, molded and adapted to the change of the times. Players are marketed in ways that didn't exist in years passed. Now, anyone with a phone can watch their favorite players' highlights from years ago over and over again because of services like YouTube and videos uploaded to Facebook, which didn't exist until about 10 years ago. 

Thus, people still reading this, the wave of immediacy has gripped cultural trends in our world. And, as it pertains to the world of professional sports seen through a global context, the landscape and extreme difficulty of fielding a team that has the potential to win 38 games has reached a margin for error of slim to none. And with current athletes reaching new levels of peak, physical fitness and performing in ways that equipment and sporting technological advances didn't allow in generations past, now those possibilities for "wonder plays" are becoming the reality every single week. And scores and statistical informational are made available and presented more often than tailgates are organized. The game has progressed at a rate unlike any seen in the modern era of professional sport. And with that, for the evolving north London-based Gunners club, it means changing with the conditions, like every team is having to do to remain at the level they set for themselves.

It can be done, however. And I hope it will be. Because I believe it is time for that 'Invincible' squad to be honored again with another replica squad willing to fight for one another to not only win the Premiership title, but to do so without losing a game.

"To win the title without losing a single game," Henry once said. "To go an entire season unbeaten and do it in the modern era is a hell of a task. And I hope someone, some Arsenal team, is up to it..."

This fellow tried to replicate something that was never blessed in his mind and veins--the skill necessary to play football (soccer) at a world-class elite level as Henry did. This fellow, instead, learned of that team, their feats, and wishes to see that level of inspirational greatness achieved once again.