Arsenal have lost four games on the trot for the first time since 2002. We were reigning league champions back then; a team of perma-smirking World Cup winners duelling it out at the top of the table, but there are some parallels with 2018 if you strain your eyes hard enough.
Our veteran keeper, one of the most dependable in Premier League history, was leaking easy goals every week under a hail of criticism. Snail-paced centre back/Skeletor impersonator Pascal Cygan wasn’t lending him any help, and the squad found itself bereft of confidence. What’s more, Arsene Wenger’s future at the club was hanging in the balance.
But there was no axe above his head. No #WengerOut skywriting or calls to resign. Instead, the Frenchman was being doggedly courted by Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez, who wanted his “dream” manager to preside over a newly-assembled team of ‘Galacticos’.
“He is the only man in the world who refused to manage the Real Madrid with Roberto Carlos, Figo, Zidane and Beckham,“ said former football agent Marc Roger, who was involved in the negotiation. “And he took a lot of time to refuse the offer.”
But refuse it he did, as Arséne reminds us at every opportunity. "I am here for 21 years,” he told reporters last week, on the subject of resigning. “And I turned down the whole world to respect my contract."
He made the right decision. Arsenal won an F.A Cup in that 2002 season, and followed it up with the legendary ‘Invincibles’ campaign. Then came another cup triumph, this time over Manchester United and, more importantly, Alex Ferguson. Meanwhile, Real Madrid sacked seven managers and signed Jonathan Woodgate.
Later that year, he spearheaded a move into a new 60,000-seater stadium, tailored to his own specifications. Statues of his greatest players stood outside like guards to his unimpeachable legacy, and as you walk into the glassy directors’ entrance: a bust of the man himself.
And then eight years without a trophy. Eight years in which the man became a meme. The globe-crossing #WengerOut campaign grew in size and vitriol as the underwhelming seasons trundled by. Still, most Arsenal fans wanted him to leave on his own terms – and he finally got that chance with the 2013 FA Cup Final.
At the time, I thought Arsène – and the club by extension – was driven by a need for vindication and a (perhaps misguided) sense of integrity. A bullheaded belief that smart investment and unfaltering faith in youth would eventually best the spending power of Sheiks and oligarchs. With the FA Cup in his hands, Wenger could finally bow out with dignity.
He stayed, obviously, and has won two more FA Cups since then, but the #WengerOut movement has only become more vociferous and cruel.
That Arsenal supporters are unreasonably entitled is obvious. Most football fans would cling to the memory of a cup final for decades. But for the Emirates faithful, much of the protest has been in fear of this what’s about to happen. The moment that Arsène – a man who built the club but has now come to lean on it – will be forced out of the job. It’s become clear that he isn’t driven by a need for vindication at all, but a fear of whatever happens next.
The club is shifting around him, slowly relieving him of his daily duties and preparing for the next step. The squad is gathering for secret, sobbing meetings, and former players are sticking the knife in at every opportunity.
Before the 2017 FA Cup Final against Chelsea, the 68-year-old Frenchman addressed the #WengerOut campaign head-on for the first time. “I believe there's a difference between being criticised and being treated in a way that human beings don't deserve. The lack of respect from some has been a disgrace and I will never accept that. I will never forget it.”
Wenger’s legacy will be fine, flaws and all. He’ll always be remembered as the man who revolutionised Arsenal and the whole of English football. But as his tenure crawls towards this toxic and undignified end, you just hope that this won’t be Wenger's lasting memory of Arsenal.
