Okay, not intending to rub it in or anything… well, maybe just a little, but I feel like branching off the beaten path and talk about something much less serious. Football. And not just any football but Manchester United’s very gratifying humbling of Arsenal on Sunday. Trust me, the continuous talk of it being a freak result due to Arsenal’s depleted line-up takes nothing away from the joy, especially when you think the majority of United’s starting eleven wouldn’t have been considered regular first-teamers at the start of the season. And yet here they were, with an average age younger than that of Arsenal, pounding turf and grabbing victory like seasoned pros.
There lies the plot of this blog. Suppose Ferdinand and Vidic and Fletcher and Carrick and Giggs etc., hadn’t started on Sunday, would United have had the replacement to step and deliver a job? I guess the answer is pretty clear. Because they didn’t start, and the 8-2 score line revealed there was more than enough in the United tank to step in and do a job. The likes of Welbeck and Cleverly and Jones and Smalling, young men as they are, but with the mentality of winners.
Much has been made of Arsenal’s young talent over the past couple of years, which is all well and good when you watch them play their brand of football. But I’ve never been a big fan of beauty without brain, or, on this occasion beauty without spunk. What Arsenal lack in a winning attitude, they make up for it with a lot of neat passes. Add to that a manager with a mind of his own, literally. A man who sees what every else can’t and is blind to all that is clearly visible.
But, hey, what do I know, right? Am a United fan. So what if Arsenal wallow in mediocrity, leaves us that much space to keep winning.
I say there’s two kinds of youth, the Manchester United kind of youth, and the Arsenal kind of youth. The ones who win, and the ones who keep thinking they will, someday.
I know which kind of youth I am.
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