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Reader question: Please explain “ahead of his time” in this headline (TheSun.co.uk, April 20, 2018): Arsene Wenger was ahead of his time and exactly what Arsenal and the Premier League needed. My comments: Arsene Wenger is a Frenchman who’s been manager at Arsenal, an English Premier League football club for 22 years, counting this season at the end of which he’ll leave. To say that he was “ahead of his time” is to say that he was much better than his contemporaries or other managers of his generation. In other words, it is a compliment. He did what others weren’t doing back in the day, such as, if I remember correctly, stopping players from drinking a lot of beer after games (a very British habit). He was meticulous to detail in training and in games. He asked the club to build a modern stadium, etc. and so forth. He did many things other people weren’t doing at the time but are doing nowadays, proof that the Frenchman was ahead of the curve all along. We often hear the saying “keep up with the times”, meaning we must follow trends and not be left behind. Keep up with the joneses, in other words. This implies the world around us is sort of moving or advancing faster than we are. Well, this is not the situation facing those who are ahead of their time. Quite the contrary, those who are ahead of their time are the ones who are setting the pace, running in front, and way ahead of their competitors. Sometimes, they’re so much better and more innovative that it may take years and years for later generations to emulate them. | 
