Kevin Whitcher
It could have been the perfect ending. Back in France in a major final to face Marseille of all teams. The club that foiled Wenger’s Monaco as Bernard Tapie used bribery to ensure points back in the early 1990s. And by beating the club that wronged him, Arsène Wenger could have finally landed a European trophy to end his tenure and leave Arsenal in better shape going forward, with the attendant guarantee of Champions League revenue next season.
As it was, a meaningless trip to Huddersfield was the finale to 22 years. There was a symmetry of sorts though, given the manager’s first game was a Premier League trip up north back in 1996. A 2-0 victory was registered at Blackburn Rovers that day, champions less than 18 months previously. The starting line up was: Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Vieira, Platt, Merson, Hartson, Wright. I imagine Dennis Bergkamp was injured. Yesterday the eleven that kicked off were Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Lacazette. In fairness, it was a mix and match side for an end of season kickabout, and it was good enough to bring an end to the horrible away run in the Premier League that had played a part in bringing the curtain down on Arsène Wenger’s tenure.
There were three planes in the sky, with banners reading ‘Merci Arsene – We’ll Miss You Too’, ‘One Arsene Wenger – Arsenal Legend’ and ‘Kroenke You’re Next’. The latter went down very well in the away section, probably because Arsène’s supporters don’t like Kroenke for calling time on him, and those that wanted change probably blame the American for extending the manager’s contract. It’s good that there’s something everybody can agree on.
On 22 minutes, Huddersfield fans gave a standing ovation to the Arsenal manager, who, before the game, had entered the pitch to a guard of honour and then went up to the away section to bow before the travelling fans.
Fortunately, the result went with the script, in spite of the home team doing their best to poop the party, having far more shots that the Gunners. The visitors though, were clinical when they needed to be, Aubameyang converting Aaron Ramsey’s zippy low cross after 38 minutes. In the second half, as David Wagner’s team pressed forward, opportunities came to catch them on the break, but Arsenal failed to exploit them. It didn’t matter, they kept a rare clean sheet and finished the season seven points behind fifth placed Chelsea, and seven points ahead of Burnley, meaning qualification for the group stage of the Europa League without the need for the two qualifying rounds Sean Dyche’s team will play.
There was a pitch invasion at the end by the home supporters, just happy to have retained their Premier League status. A few of the travelling support remained in the stands hoping for a final goodbye, and after completing his media obligations, Arsène went out to lap up the goodwill one last time. What a contrast it must have been after so many matches in which the same contingent of fans had been calling for his head.
It’s over now, a long time after it should have been, but at least the desperately required rebuild can begin in earnest. Hopefully it will be Allegri rather than Arteta, for the simple reason that Arsenal have already failed at imitating Barcelona, and it’s not a journey your writer wishes to live through again. Arteta, although liked by Ivan Gazidis, would be an underwhelming choice. The former club captain used club fines collected from the playing staff to buy Gazidis an expensive watch when he was still on the playing staff, much to the surprise of some of the players. One imagines he gives a good interview as well.
The danger of such an appointment is that he is tainted with being the club captain at a time when the team was struggling in the Premier League and bombing out of Europe with depressing regularity. He did not galvanise the players on the field, so how would he do it in the dressing room? Bould and Lehmann would be working under him, which somehow just feels a bit odd. And, unlike Wenger when he arrived in 1996, he has never been a first team coach. Wenger had won a title in France and reached a European final. It would be a huge risk, but at least one that would not set the club back much money. So on one level, he ticks a financial box, but the club need to progress, and Arteta would be a huge leap into the unknown. Arsenal need to think more about football than finance for a while.
Still, we’ve a few days of speculation before we will have confirmation. Hopefully no announcement until Monday next week when Allegri has fulfilled this season’s obligations in Turin and a deal can be made public, because any confirmation before would mean it definitely isn’t Allegri. And don’t forget Ancelotti if the former decides to remain at Juventus. The club certainly met him a couple of times before the turn of the year and he attended matches at the Emirates. Antonio Conte is an outside shot, but a possibility as surely he will not be at Chelsea after next weekend’s FA Cup Final.
So we await to see who is in charge of the first team next season, but one thing that is beyond doubt is that Arsène has left the building. He won trophies with teams playing some fantastic football, had the midas touch at getting the best from his players in the first half of his reign, and created such demand to watch Arsenal that the club felt compelled to move stadium to feed said demand and increase revenue, with the idea of trying to keep up with the ever expanding turnover of Manchester United. The Invincibles were disbanded with indecent haste, Chelsea gatecrashed the party and it all started to unravel. One can probably pinpoint the departure of David Dein from the board as the turning point, as much as the stadium move.
Arsenal enjoyed, and still do, a reputation for exciting, stylish football in far flung parts of the world, but also became a bit of a joke in the top European circles as the game passed their manager by more and more with every passing season. As a football club attempting to compete against the likes of Bayern Munich, the idea that one man was trying to do so much, all the time refusing to freshen up his support staff as the team continually failed to challenge for the major prizes, became laughable. The board though, or at least the majority owner, were happy as long as Wenger delivered Champions League football and the club made an operating profit.
In the end, the manager went because he stopped delivering on that front, no other reason. If Arsenal had finished fourth this season, Arsène would have still been in post, and about 25,000 people would have bothered turning up to the Burnley game three days after the semi-final exit in Madrid. But they were 12 points short of 4th place, losing 11 of their 19 away matches. Add the two at home and that is 13 defeats out of 38. Arsenal have sat in 6th place since before Christmas, and never moved. Their points total for the season was 63, the lowest total ever posted in the manager’s 22 seasons. There are no more arguments even the most loyal advocate of the man can make for his retention after that.
There are many who feel sad about this ending. My over-riding emotion is sheer relief. I cannot predict where the club goes from here. If there had been no change in the dugout though, I’d be pretty certain, and it wasn’t something that gave me a lot to look forward to. At least now there is hope.
Thanks for the good times M. Wenger… and goodbye.
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