Asser Ghozlan
So the dust has settled on another season, and yet another top-four finish, and with it, a place in the Champions League qualifying phase. And, of course, the small matter of yet another St Totteringham’s Day. Okay, so we were made to wait for it to the very nail-biting end, as last season, a sign of just how far the folk from across the road have come (and how far we have declined). But it came nevertheless, a case of better late than never, right?
And with the curtain on season 2012-2013, it was very much curtains for one Alexander Chapman Ferguson, sealing his retirement with yet another Premier League title for Manchester United. The eulogies have been flowing in from across the world of football, and rightly so. By far, the greatest manager of our time, and that’s coming from a most hardcore of Gooners and one-time hardcore Wengerite.
And this is where I want to take a slight pause.
We all witnessed the massive outpourings of relief and celebration on the St. James’ Park turf as Howard Webb called time on the season and Spurs’ Champions League challenge. A sign of passion from the players, perhaps; from Arsène Wenger, most definitely. But I couldn’t help but reminisce over the days when Arsène Wenger led celebrations over yet another tussled victory over his one-time great rival from Old Trafford. A tussle last choreographed and played out with Patrick Vieira’s FA Cup-winning spot kick in May 2005. A pleasure we could not be afforded just one more time before the Govan dinosaur decided to finally hang up his hairdryer. A betrayal of sorts.
There is no doubt that Ferguson is the ultimate master of the Premier League era. Managers have come and gone, and yet he remained. From Dalglish to Keegan, to Mourinho through to Benitez, he has seen them all off trailing in his wake. Only one ever really got close to unseating Ferguson from the top on a consistent basis. And that man is Arsène Wenger.
An entertaining slide-show of mind games and provocative quotes ensued throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s as Arsenal and United traded punches, with their two bosses very much centre-stage. Initially, Wenger often prevailed in the one-to-ones between the two clubs, and Arsenal were the perennial nemesis, often threatening to overtake United as the domineering landscape of English football.
A threat that never really materialised, for several reasons, discussed to death many times before.
But as Wenger reflects on the relative success of delivering another season of Champions League football, a trip down memory lane and a recollection of some of those tussles would not go amiss in helping plan for next season. The Scot may have gone, but the challenge very much remains, one that seems to have got lost on Wenger as the rebuilding and constant cycles of apparent transition began to unfold.
Let the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson serve as a reminder of past challenges and glories, and as a benchmark for future ambitions.
Wenger will have undoubtedly begun plotting the path for success next season. The question - what kind of success is he after? The success that so drove Ferguson and Wenger on in their quest for supremacy against one another, or yet another season of missed opportunities? Of accepting the bare minimum, and keeping the board and its coffers happy.
Sky Sports’ Gary Neville, one of the original Fergie Fledglings, has shockingly and repeatedly belied his status as a United legend, admirably, and very sensibly one must say, comparing Wenger’s recent achievements in the apparent circumstances to Ferguson’s glittering success. But he also delivered a stark warning: time to make up for all the lost time and really push or face a knock-out blow that we may not recover from.
The sort of recovery Ferguson himself masterminded. Following a trophyless three years, having watched Wenger’s Invincibles sweep all before them, and the Russian Revolution at Chelsea take control, Ferguson retreated, re-adapted, and re-emerged as the consistent number-one force.
No one has polarised opinion amongst football supporters in this country more than Arsène Wenger, amongst his club’s own faithful, no less. Many, yours truly included, will stand by the opinion that he has outstayed his welcome, and that his stubborn faith in failing policies are a lost cause. However, many others, Wenger himself, will believe he has earned the right to keep trying, to keep fighting, having kept us in relative security at the top that some argue Ferguson himself might have struggled to achieve.
The Wenger-Ferguson rivalry defined the very essence of the Premier League for years and years on end. A rivalry that reached a frenzied crescendo with the Invincibles followed by Pizzagate soon after, before fizzling out terribly into a tepid display of mellowness. A rivalry that Wenger himself surely misses and regrets not having been able to rekindle. And so we sit. And wait. And yearn for action, for change, for a tilt at the top. Only this time, one dinosaur remains in the mix amongst the gladiators.
Over to you Arsène Wenger…
