In baseball in the United States, it was Bobby Cox, the former manager of the Atlanta Braves. In college gridiron, it was Bobby Bowden, the former coach of Florida State University. And now, apparently, in English football, it is Arsene Wenger.
Each one of these men built something lasting and something that was not there before. Yet each one is remembered equivocally because of such a sharp division in their tenures. The first half of each one's career was marked with transforming a sporting club, and when I say transforming I literally mean completely changing it from what it was to what it has become.
Each man inherited a club that needed to change in order to thrive. Each changed not just the fortunes on the playing field but the culture off it. Each was a figure larger than the institution itself. And so it now appears, each stayed too long in his position, far too long for some of the lustre not to fade from his legacy.
I am afraid, finally, that Arsene Wenger's turn at the helm of the good ship Arsenal FC has gone on too long. It is not a question of "Well, who is better?" because someone is. One simply cannot measure Wenger's effectiveness in his position by asking who may come along as his replacement. One has to ask, by as objective a set of standards as possible, has Arsene Wenger done the best possible job with this squad?
That question includes his role as both tactician and as what Yanks call "general manager," that person who selects the personnel that make up the squad. In the harsh light of the home draw to Swansea, I am leaning toward answering that question with a qualified "no."
This squad is unbalanced, and that is not acceptable. There is not sufficient cover at centre half nor at central striker, and for a club with championship ambitions, that is not acceptable. I'm not ploughing new ground by making this point, but I am using it to support my opinion. Wenger once could call upon Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord, and Kanu to lead the line. Now he has Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo. That's it. How can a man with Wenger's acumen allow this to happen? How many sides in the Premiership with less financial muscle than Arsenal have more options up front? This is a failure that is so blindingly obvious that it's almost not to be believed.
Wenger gives the appearance of a man who is not content unless there's some type of shibboleth beating him about the face. Prior to this incarnation of the Arsenal, the damnation was that he went too far in trusting young players and divested the squad of too much experience too quickly. He has corrected that, but now has lurched to having literally one experienced striker in the side for an entire season. Worse, that striker isn't what one would call lethal. He's essentially the Gallic Emile Heskey.
Trying to play 38 league matches plus cup competitions with only one senior forward is so ridiculous it's almost comical, yet the man who was once known as the architect of a truly beautiful brand of attacking football made the choice to to do so. Can anyone in charge of evaluating the job he has done sign off on that decision? The same case can be made for having only 3 central defenders for such a full slate of matches over the course of a season. Given the brittleness of Arsenal players and the queue at the physio's door, could you reasonably expect that nothing would happen to force you to need another experienced hand back there? Koscielny is injured and surely that must inhibit the play of the only two fit centre halves at the club now. Neither can afford to get hurt or suspended.
The other area where it's fair to spot failings in Wenger's management is in the tactics that have seen 18 of the total goals allowed in the league this season to come in just 4 games against other "big" clubs. Away defeats to Man United, Man City, Liverpool, and Chelsea showed what can only be called tactical naivete in matches where a good deal of pragmatism was required. Toss in the season-opening loss at the Grove to Aston Villa and you have 21 goals shipped in 5 games. Is that an acceptable number when evaluating Wenger as a tactician? If my maths are correct, Arsenal managed to score 5 in reply to those 21.
Each of those matches was a big occasion (assuming one includes the opening day of the season at home as a big occasion), and in each, Arsenal walked away with embarrassment as the only reward. Tactically each was a colossal implosion. Not being privy to inside information, I can only ask "Why?" as opposed to making assumptions. Why was a high line that left the defence horribly exposed employed in each of these matches? Why could a side that can over the course of two seasons travel to the home of the best club team in the world play 180 minutes and only surrender one goal contrive to play so poorly in these five matches?
Leading up to the Chelsea debacle, Arsenal had defeated Everton 4-1, drawn away to Bayern 1-1, and defeated S***s 1-0 in one of the most complete defensive efforts of the season. Why then should they come into Chelsea and play exactly the way they had on day one versus Villa, not to mention the away matches against Man City and and Liverpool? In the first few minutes of the match at Stamford Bridge I saw the blueprint for the ensuing failure when the centre backs were at the midfield line. What was the need for such a reckless attacking pose when there were 90 minutes plus to play? It boggles the mind to the point that one might go so far as to question the manager's mental health.
My evaluation of this season and Wenger's performance is that it is not good enough, and it did not need to be thus. Simple pragmatism could have avoided all of this. They were leading against Villa, and the counterattacking punishment they suffered in that match was completely unnecessary and completely self-inflicted. The opening goal against Swansea was the same. The last thing this side needs right now is to start off matches pushing the fullbacks up to the opposing corner flag.
The reason these tactics are failing is partly due to the long-term injury absences of Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere, and Ozil. Wenger is--or is presumed to be--intelligent enough to know that when his attack is hampered to such an extreme, the tactics have to change. Yet even up 2-1 to Swansea, Mertesacker and TV5 were inside the opposing halfway line. This is so astonishing that it appears either insane or suicidal.
Bobby Cox lost whatever magic he had with the Atlanta Braves and his tenure ended with even his defenders begging him to leave. Bobby Bowden went from the pinnacle of success to having newspaper columns written about him as a dottering old man. It is a shame that Arsene Wenger is now enduring a similar fate, but it is a fate of his own making.
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