Arsene Wenger’s departure cuts last links with Premier League’s origins

So after more than twenty years as Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger has announced his departure from the club at the end of this season.

The timing took everyone by surprise given that he still had another year on the new contract he signed only last summer with Arsenal.

But the writing has been on the wall for a while as discontent with Arsenal’s failure to compete for the league title has grown season by season.

Wenger has intimated that the timing of the announcement was not his choice and that effectively he has been forced out early.

Whatever the truth of this, he should have left last summer after he had won a record seventh FA Cup as a manager. At least then he would have gone on his terms and with his reputation relatively intact.

To sign another new deal seemed almost perverse as it was obvious that a growing number of Arsenal fans wanted change.

His going effectively cuts the last links with the origins of the Premier League and ends the reign of the longest-serving manager in the game.

Also it seems to close the book on those types of manager like Wenger and his long-time rival Sir Alex Ferguson.

Men like Wenger and Ferguson represented the traditional hands-on boss who overseas everything at their clubs from the first-team to reserves and youth academies and of course transfers, in every detail.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: Arsene Wenger, Manager of Arsenal looks on during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford on April 29, 2018 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

They knew everything that was going on and if they didn’t actually control it all, they certainly had a lot of influence of all that their clubs were doing.

The embodiment of traditional managers

Although Wenger was regarded as a revolutionary new type of coach when he arrived in England in 1996, in some ways he was actually rather like the traditional football boss who still held sway in the then newly formed Premier League.

Yes he did transform the training methods and wider football culture at Arsenal, but he was very much a traditional manager in other respects. He had a no-nonsense English defence at Highbury onto which he grafted cultured continental attacking flair.

That was actually very similar to what Sir Alex Ferguson did at Manchester United. He too had a defence based on the British talent of players like Alex Bruce and Gary Pallister and added some imported overseas talent like Eric Cantona and Andre Kanchelskis.

The downfall

As the game moved on into the first few years on the millennium, these two managers re-built their sides effectively while they rigorously competed with each other for the top prizes in England.

Both managers were committed to playing positive, attacking football. United’s fast raiding style contrasted with Arsenal’s more measured passing.

But the trophies kept coming for both until after the tremendous success of their unbeaten season in 2003-04, Arsenal began to decline. At first it was almost imperceptible.

But with the arrival of two much more defensive-minded coaches in Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez, at Chelsea and Liverpool respectively, Wengers’ sides started to lose ground.

These two men had a ruthlessly pragmatic approach to the game; winning matches with tactically astute but at times very functional football. Their success also seemed to usher in a new era of more defensive football.

At first neither Wenger nor Ferguson could respond to the challenge. With Chelsea’s title triumphs in ‘05 and ‘06 and Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2005, there seemed to have been a real shift in the balance of power.

It was Ferguson who proved most able to answer the challenge and without sacrificing his principles.

With another re-built side, Ferguson and United triumphantly re-gained the Premier League title in 2006-07 and then went on to win it twice more in succession. They also claimed another Champions League in 2008.

And while winning again, Ferguson’s teams were also evidence of his capacity to adapt and change.

He had dispensed with his stalwart players like David Beckham and Roy Keane, and brought in two immensely talented young forwards in Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney – but how to fit them into the same team?

In the end, Ferguson made Ronaldo his main man, relegating Rooney to a support role out on the left. This seemed to be completely at odds with their respective strengths at the time.

It was Rooney who was the striker and Ronaldo the wide player. But Ferguson seemed to sense Ronaldo was going to become a deadly goal scorer. Whether that was the case or not, it proved an inspired decision.

While United were back at the top of the game, Arsenal were now becoming regular also-rans. Although they reached the Champions League final in 2006, losing to Barcelona, there was little concrete success, despite the move to the new Emirates Stadium.

Wenger now seemed wedded to playing a purest kind of football and had dispensed with the more robust virtues of his early years in English football. Despite the arrival of new talents like Robin Van Persie, the league title continued to elude him.

United claimed another two Premier League’s in this time, while Arsenal it seemed were increasingly focussed on simply qualifying for the Champions League each year.

Even after Ferguson’s retirement things didn’t improve and Arsenal continued to lose ground on their rivals. Even in Europe, there was little success and only increasingly heavy defeats.

Although the Gunners have won three FA Cups in the past four seasons, it’s not enough for a club grown used to be one of the top sides in the country.

And now there is another two new managerial arrivals preaching a possession and pressing game that has again it seems changed the nature of English football, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

The challenge for whoever follows Wenger (and for others in the Premier League) is how to respond to this new footballing philosophy.

• Published on 05/01/2018 at 7:49 AM EST
• Last updated on 05/01/2018 at 7:49 AM EST