Isolated Wenger left to carry can
In the days since hope was buried, Arsene has stopped short of delivering to himself the dreaded vote of confidence. It remains to be seen if he will give himself the sack.
That it is being left to Wenger to make those decisions probably says more about any sense of hopelessness and inertia at Arsenal than his own work.
But since there is nobody else doing any heavy lifting around the place, this is his can to carry.
Wenger had always been able to offer a persuasive view of the future. For a long time, it was grounded in reality. But even during the austerity years, he was able to sell his imaginative visions with great conviction. Even if it is amusing now to recall men such as Denilson, Bendtner and Djourou as great torch carriers for hope.
But now, even Wenger’s staunchest allies only dare hope for a dignified retreat.
On Wednesday, futility was written all over Wenger’s face long before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain danced the dance of the bewildered to usher in Bayern’s fifth. Maybe it was there from the moment he wrote Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain onto the teamsheet.
The prevailing hysteria since has offered Hobson’s choice. Tell us you’re going and be feted as a visionary in your lap of honour. Or brazen it out and run a gauntlet of recrimination.
But Wenger is never more resilient than in those dark days when the end closes in. He has been round this track a few times and the most remarkable thing in weeks like this is the lack of detail from within the camp. That a lost dressing room never finds its way onto the back pages.
When words like loyalty and kindness and patience are thrown at Wenger as criticisms, that is his payback.
He has generally been able to summon a link to Real Madrid or PSG or the French national team too, at those times when he feels underappreciated.
Yesterday, there was just a vow that he will “manage next season whether it is here or somewhere else”.
That might ring more like promise than threat to many these days, but it a reminder too that Wenger could have joined the carousel of project managers any time he chose.
That is likely to be where Arsenal turn to next for hope; whichever project manager tumbles off the conveyor for his next three-year cycle.
There will be a new philosophy. A brand. Probably talk of double training sessions. If he’s smart, the new man will leak word of his detailed dossiers on opponents. Perhaps announce a zero-tolerance clampdown on selfies.
And when that three-year project is over, chances are, everybody involved will be happy enough with a couple of FA Cups and Champions League qualification secured every season. At least unless the people who are leaving Wenger to decide his own future show concern for more than the bottom line.
Are Arsenal even geared for a project manager? They won’t find many willing to joust with Europe’s top clubs fielding a cut-price left side of Iwobi and Gibbs, or happy to concede missing jigsaw pieces like Kante to rival bidders.
Already we hear much-coveted project managers grumbling and not even delivering FA Cups. Klopp is targeting top four. Mourinho is hoping for top four. Pochettino is back-tracking. “We are a club fighting for the Premier League with different tools in a different project. The club is in a special situation, building the new stadium.”
With his stadium built, Wenger’s third project at Arsenal began in 2013, Ozil cutting the ceremonial tape. With the arrival of Sanchez a year later, things should have got serious.
Sanchez had starred in the World Cup, showcasing the high-tempo football the top top teams had begun to favour. He hared around the Emirates, knocking in ten in his first 16 games, at which point Theo Walcott had some advice for him.
“All the guys have told him he needs to chill out because, at Christmas when all the fixtures come along, it’s going to catch up with you.”
Sanchez has never chilled out, but the men around him haven’t changed much either.
Nor has Wenger.
“The worst enemy of human hope,” according to American writer Max Eastman, “is not brute facts, but men of brains who will not face them.”
The required tolerance of Wenger’s middle years certainly leaked into his third act. Chancers have been indulged. And he still couldn’t resist serving a side portion of hope for the future. So prospects like Iwobi were educated in the team rather than by watching the finished article.
Still, Wenger delivered a certain kind of competitiveness, but he couldn’t give the fans what will be the minimum requirement of the new man in: A different way to lose. A few years ago, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis confirmed Wenger answered to the fans, not the board. Now he must answer to the fan’s boredom.
He will go in the summer, not far short of having one of his more audacious visions realised. Told, early on, that a foreign manager would never win the Premier League, he countered: “You’re wrong. There’s a chance that one day all 20 English top-flight clubs will be coached by non-British people. So one of them is sure to end up winning the title.”
But no hope it will be him.
Gaffers to look for diversions
Already the new GAA season has thrown up a moment of enormous promise — a line from John Fogarty’s chat with Tipp manager Michael Ryan in this paper on Thursday.
“The page gets very long if you want to hear about all the things I’m not a fan of,” promised Michael, as though he’d just cottoned onto an ingenious way of ensuring he never again has to talk about the ‘back-to-back’ or the savageness of Tipp’s hunger.
This week, Michael railed against floodlights and spring hurling, but who knows what targets he has lined up if the Premier maintain winning form through the league.
And if we know anything about the GAA, it’s that the ways of a winning manager are quickly aped. Expect some juicy copy this year.
Audacity of 5-a-side hope
As bleak as things look for Wenger now, a couple of wins against Sutton and Liverpool and maybe some of the wavering faithful will be drawn back in again.
It is what football does; suck you back in, time after time.
I chatted this week to James Brown, music journo, radio and TV presenter, entrepreneur, magazine publisher, but in his heart a footballer.
James has just written ‘Above Head Height: A Five-A-Side Life’ which has been described as ‘the Fever Pitch of five-a-side’.
We shared a suspicion of men who won’t track back, as well as the kind of character who goes into goal and doesn’t try, to relieve himself of duty as soon as possible. And James revealed his goalkeeping strategy: go in around the 40-minute mark, so there won’t be time for a second stint.
He’s 51 now, and playing five-a-side as you push on can be dispiriting. As James put it “the older you get, the better you used to be”.
But just when hope is ebbing away, maybe a keeper strays off his line and you chip a beauty from range.
“A rare glimpse of what I believe is in there, what keeps me going.”
With football, it’s never entirely hopeless.
Listen to the chat on the podcast Monday.
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Heroes & villains
The goalscorers hogged headlines, but the masterclass from the Veratti, Rabiot, Matuidi axis was a delight.
The young lad picked up a cheap yellow card this week for running in the playground. Now walking a disciplinary tightrope.
Best of luck in the match, lads, but there can be no excuse for singing “shoulder to shoulder, we’ll answer Harty’s call”. The situation in Rugby Country is more grave than anyone thought.
