Markymark
It struck me that the recent Spurs slaying of Real Madrid could create one of those rips in the perceived dominance of the Super Clubs. From a general historic perspective these briefs rays of an alternative reality usually last a couple of seasons at most and more commonly are seen as a one season triumph.
Within our domestic game we can pick out Ipswich, Derby, Notts Forest and latterly Leicester. Across European competitions we can see examples again of Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Aberdeen, Ipswich and more recently Mourinho’s little fancied Porto.
There is now potential for a breakout this year with Spurs showing a capacity to take on big teams and win. The old order maybe going through a brief hiatus with Barcelona past its peak. The Italian clubs sometimes humbling other teams and alternatively being humbled themselves, and still question marks of Bayern and PSG who sometimes get caught out, perhaps due to their total dominance of domestic football creating an inability to fight a determined opposition.
Sadly for Arsenal it appears that no overture was made to Mauricio Pochettino, a man who actually appears to appreciate the British game and has as a by-product provided fantastic service to the England team.
So although this ship may have sailed, as Real look enviously on and plot an asset strip of our rivals, will the humiliation by a rampant Spurs have finally put paid to Arsene? I wonder if Arsenal can settle for being 3rd best team in London? Maybe a dominant Spurs is actually the very thing that is needed for our club to finally make the change that is needed.
If form takes its course and we are beaten by Spurs could this lead to a final reckoning for Wenger in May as a potential slide down a further rung creates a wave of unhappiness and a perceived need to act?
In an ironic turn perhaps Spurs losing to Real might have created them less long term damage. Maybe in turn a gut punch of defeat to Spurs might create the very catalyst for change required. The result in under two weeks could be one of the most significant in the second half of Wenger’s Reign.
