Arsene Wenger has trapped Arsenal inside the modern football world he created – and only he can let them out

1/23
John Dillon14 April 2017

Now it’s Catch 22 for Arsenal. Arsene Wenger can't quit, because he simply cannot leave them in the state they are in at the moment. And the greatest long-term plan in English football was never meant to end like this.

Yet if he stays, it will anger the fans who think his time is up and that recovery is beyond him, who seem to be in the majority now after the abject defeat at Crystal Palace last Monday.

That torrid night at Selhurst Park has shifted the ground of this debate profoundly. Ironically for all those who want him out, it has also made it more difficult for him to walk away and leave behind such a mess and such a flawed, damaged legacy.

How did it ever come to this? How did the manager who was once football's ultimate planner, strategist, and visionary - they called him Le Professeur because he would have looked so natural with a white lab coat and clipboard - end up in a kind of check-mate situation where both options open to his club look so flawed?

Photo: AFP/Getty Images
AFP/Getty Images

However much Wenger has achieved for the Gunners in the past, it would cast a huge shadow over all his work if it all finished with the team so weak, hollow, rudderless and out-of-touch with the standards of the real elite.

That's because he was always about more than just creating beautiful teams and sending them out to play beautiful football, even if he did that so well in his first decade in north London.

He was also The Man with the Plan. The man who was building something that would last for decades afterwards.

The man who would pass on a magnificent, polished inheritance, fully-formed and full of promise, to his successor.

The man who revolutionised the methods of English football in terms of diet, medicine, health, training methods, science and facilities.

The man who completely altered his club's DNA as the team was transformed from the "1-0 to the Arsenal," specialists of the George Graham era, to the dashing cavaliers who won three league titles in Wenger's first eight years in charge.

The man who then delivered a fabulous new stadium and build an economic foundation to become one of the most dominant forces in the global game.

All of this was designed to leave behind a glittering bequest on the pitch and a fully-functioning, forward-looking modern football powerhouse off it - as well as to breed success in the moment.

It wasn't meant to disintegrate in the kind of Perfect Storm of failure, indecision, acrimony and lack of direction and control which has enveloped Arsenal in recent weeks.

It wasn't meant, either, to leave behind a mess for another manager to clear up and sort out.

So that's why Wenger is caught in Catch 22 at the moment. That's why all this is so strikingly at odds with the way things worked around him in his first decade at the club.

Arsenal's Premier League run-in

1/5

If he walks away from the current crisis at the end of the season, the legacy won't be in place. The long-term aim will have crumbled.

The side will be in disarray and will require a major overhaul by a new man (as it will if Wenger stays, too.) And that would be massively at odds with everything he has stood for in his 21 years in command of the club.

This, you guess, is why it still seems most likely that he will stay - because he has to put things right before stepping down.

He can neither leave behind the present problems without trying again to resolve them - nor hand them on to another coach to sort out, be it Massimiliano Allegri, Ronald Koeman or any of the other potential replacements suggested recently.

A few weeks back, by the way, Allegri looked a really good fit for the Emirates. But why, now, would he contemplate leaving Juventus after their 3-0 demolition of Barcelona proved what a sharp, purposeful, complete and powerful team they are?

That might even be something playing on the minds of the Arsenal hierarchy. If they actually want a new man, they would have to strike while the iron is hot to get the one they want. Top managers soon move out of reach.

More likely, it seems that they want Wenger to stay but with changes behind the scenes although the man power-player, Stan Kroenke remains fully supportive.

Change of any kind could be a stumbling block. Wenger is renowned for the stubbornness of his beliefs.

But he remains committed to his crusade to prove that the Arsenal model can trump the might of imported or leveraged wealth, which has made Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United so much more powerful in the current era.

What an irony. Wenger changed modern football profoundly. Now he is trapped by it. Catch 22. It's a tough one to untangle.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in