A once great manager is fast desecrating his own legacy. Arsene Wenger is the ageing conductor of an Arsenal train that is derailing spectacularly, and this time he won’t be able to rescue it, writes Richard Brown.
Wenger is a club legend who has brought unprecedented success to the Gunners, and revolutionised English football. Arguably, it is his successes and the standard that he set in his first decade at the helm which is coming back to bite him. Arsenal fans got used to winning, and winning prettily. They were a force in English football that drummed fear into the opposition. Now they seem afraid of their own shadows. From consistent title competitors to mid-table whimperers.
And it is going from dining on caviar, to shovelling baked beans that makes this all the more unpalatable for the Arsenal faithful. And faithful they are, to the club, but no longer to the manager who took them to the highest highs and returned them to the lowest lows. Fans and players alike seem to have lost faith in the old Frenchman, and his position has sadly become untenable.
Wenger has likely done more for Arsenal Football Club than anyone else, bar Herbert Chapman perhaps in the 1930s. Not only did he make them a dominant force in English football, but he revolutionised the way in which the club was run – including moving them to a state-of-the-art new stadium, fit for a club of great European pedigree.
Wenger poured himself into the work of moving Arsenal from Highbury to the Emirates, but he also took it upon himself to balance the books in such a way that the move neither bankrupted Arsenal, nor sunk the team into mediocrity. On a shoelace budget, he managed to keep Arsenal competitive and qualifying for European football year in and year out. And it was with the bulk of the stadium debt paid off, that Arsenal gingerly stepped from financial obscurity and started spending like their peers. They hadn’t tasted silverware in years, but it was agreed that Wenger had deserved the chance to spend the previously unavailable money on marquee signings and return Arsenal to their perch.
Marquee signings came and left, and to be fair, some success did come, but not quite what the Emirates crowd had envisioned. Three FA Cups in the last four years is a considerable return, and a wonderful accomplishment, but never actually competing for the Premier League title and not even qualifying for Champions League any longer, rendered the three trophies hollow and conciliatory.
What the FA Cup successes did provide were three opportunities for Wenger to step down gracefully and with his dignity intact. He could’ve left at the end of any of those three seasons as a legend with his head held high. But the old tactician can’t get enough of what is essentially his life’s work, and is likely afraid of the tedium and perceived worthlessness that retirement would bring. He’s addicted to the light that blinds him.
This is why Wenger is so unlikely to walk his own plank and, sadly, will need to be pushed. On Thursday night, when Manchester City dealt Arsenal their second three-nil thrashing in less than a week, it seemed that something had changed around the Emirates. Arsenal fans aren’t exactly unaccustomed to comprehensive drubbings at the hand of top six clubs, but this time the air around the Emirates seemed almost mournful. Arsenal have suffered heavy defeats – 8–2 at Old Trafford, 6–1 at Stamford Bridge, 4–0 at Anfield, an aggregate score of 10–2 against Bayern Munich come to mind – all of which were received with anger, disappointment, frustration. But a new sensation pervading the Emirates this season, and was felt particularly acutely after Thursday night’s loss (Arsenal’s seventh loss in 2018!), is one of apathy.
It might have been the biting cold London is currently experiencing, but I fear the alarming amount of empty seats in the Emirates at kick-off on Thursday has another explanation. After the sorry performance in the League Cup final on Sunday, there simply was never going to be another outcome on Thursday, and why would fans put themselves through that torture twice in a week?
On Thursday night, it looked as if Manchester City actually took their foot off the gas in the second half, either to conserve their energy for worthier opponents or on instruction from Pep Guardiola so as not to embarrass his frail and dejected opposite number. Wenger looked utterly devoid of purpose or answers, and didn’t even bother to make one substitution in the 90 minutes – something that I can’t remember ever seeing him doing.
Either way, the Arsenal board needs to step up and put a club legend out of his misery. The Premier League, in terms of securing a top four spot, is surely unsalvageable for Arsenal. And the way this team is performing, beating AC Milan in their next Europa League hurdle would be a veritable miracle. Wenger has lost the dressing room and the atmosphere among the fanbase is worse than toxic. Another manager would instantly breathe new life into the dead horse that Wenger has been flogging all season. There is so much potential in this side, and they could yet taste Europa League success, but it won’t be with Wenger at the helm.
The board has already taken steps to prepare for life after Arsene. They’ve hired a new head of recruitment and other backroom staff to take some work off Wenger’s hands, so that a transition won’t be so traumatic. But they now have to scrape together the courage and dethrone the long-serving boss, so that the club can start afresh and start rebuilding before the English summer.
In the long term, a new manager will need time to assess the squad, decide who he wants to keep and bring in new recruits all while the World Cup will take up most of the summer. So the sooner he starts, the better. In the short term, though, a new manager will surely get the Arsenal players performing much better than this. A bit of structure, a bit of renewed authority, a clear game plan and perhaps just a change of voice is sure to get more from Arsenal than what we’ve seen in an utterly disastrous start to 2018.
It’s always sad to see a genius lose their wits in old age, or an athlete lose their ability, and it’s equally sad seeing a footballing behemoth lose his stature. Wenger is a punch drunk old fighter and someone needs to throw in the towel.
