Arsène Wenger has revealed how the Hand of God proved decisive in his £16m signing of Danny Welbeck from Manchester United.
The Arsenal manager had panicked a section of his club’s supporters on transfer deadline day when he decided to fulfil a long-standing commitment to go to Rome and take part in the Match for Peace. The fans worried that the charitable showpiece, which was organised and attended by pope Francis and in which Wenger managed a team who included Diego Maradona, would deflect his focus on a day when they felt that they needed a new striker.
But Wenger has said that the Welbeck deal would not have happened if he had not got up early to take the flight to Rome. It allowed him to get up to date on United’s loan capture of Radamel Falcao from Monaco, which meant that Louis van Gaal was open to moving on one of his existing strikers.
Wenger said that Welbeck was initially “only available on loan” with an option to buy at the end of the season, which he seemed to suggest he would have preferred. But when United said that it had to be a permanent transfer, the Arsenal manager did not hesitate. “If I had not travelled that day, Welbeck would not be here,” Wenger said. “The advantage of that day was I had to get up at six o’clock in the morning and I was available the whole day. We are in 2014 and you can always be in touch with everybody, even when you travel.”
Wenger fulfilled several ambitions that day in Rome, and meeting the pope went rather more smoothly than managing Maradona. “It was very difficult. He comes late and he wants to play,” Wenger said, jokingly, of the former Argentina captain whose notorious handball goal helped sink England at the 1986 World Cup.
“Meeting the pope was an experience I did not want to miss. I am a Catholic and the invitation was something that I accepted a long time ago. On top of that, it was a game for peace and multi-religion understanding. I thought that today, where we are a bit in front of an international religious war – it was a very important game.
“The pope is a great person to meet because he shows humility and he has a word with everybody. He is a football fan. You cannot be born in Argentina and not be a football fan. He is a supporter of San Lorenzo in Argentina.”
It ought to come as no surprise that Welbeck’s story contains a spiritual dimension. After all, it seems to have had everything else, with the 23-year-old arguably being the most talked about player in Britain since the transfer.
Here is a Longsight boy and United supporter who has felt the need to leave his boyhood club and it has pricked the emotions. A string of United men, most notably Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Bryan Robson, have had their say, with the consensus being that it has been a bad thing for their club.
The issue of local identity has spiced the discussion, and it has been easy to forget that Welbeck is a striker who scored 29 times in 142 appearances for United. Would anybody play him up front in preference to Falcao? Or Robin van Persie or Wayne Rooney?
On the other hand, the statistics do not present the full picture. Welbeck was regularly used as a substitute and he was regularly played out wide rather than in his favoured central role. Moreover, it is clear that he has enviable qualities, chiefly his pace, power and tremendous work ethic.
Welbeck’s recent prominence has been accentuated by the void created by the lack of Premier League football and the international break when, wouldn’t you know it, he just had to score twice for England in the Euro 2016 qualifying win over Switzerland on Monday.
He was mocked up on Twitter in all manner of heroic poses, including one of him holding aloft the World Cup. On deadline day, when the Sky Sports reporter outside Emirates Stadium announced that Welbeck’s move from Old Trafford was off, there had been cheers from the fans in attendance.
Modern football seems to trade principally in extremes and intrigue and Welbeck’s Arsenal debut clearly had to be against Manchester City. The pressure on him at the Emirates on Saturday will be enormous.
In some respects, Welbeck is the classic Wenger signing – a rough diamond in need of a polish. He is determined to prove his worth, to seize the opportunity of a prolonged run in his best position; Wenger’s regular centre-forward, Olivier Giroud, is a long-term injury casualty.
But if it is a challenge for Welbeck then the same can be said of Wenger. Can he still improve young, attacking players with his coaching?
“Welbeck can make himself a better player because I can help him,” the Frenchman said. “He’s a young boy – he’s not 24 yet – and let’s not forget that some players who arrived here at 23 made huge careers.”
Wenger mentioned how he felt Welbeck could play “on the flanks” and he added that he would play him “where he was needed”. But, in what might have sounded like music to the forward’s ears, Wenger said that he thought the player would be most effective in the centre.
“He plays at Man United where you had many big stars and he is a player who is very versatile so he had to make room sometimes for players to play through the middle,” the manager said. “But if you analyse his qualities, he has the perfect style to play through the middle. He has been questioned about his finishing but his second goal for England [against Switzerland] gives you a good answer.”
Wenger joked about a “reciprocity” with United, in light of him selling Van Persie to them and he dodged a question about whether Sir Alex Ferguson would have sold a player to him were he still in charge at Old Trafford.
“I met him [Ferguson] by coincidence on Tuesday and Wednesday [at a Uefa coaches’ conference] and I would like to keep that conversation to myself,” Wenger said.
For Welbeck, the battle is afoot. “It is a possibility that he will start [against City],” Wenger said. “His is not a position where you need a lot of co-ordinated and tactical work [to integrate]. It’s a position where you can play free and go for it.”