Arsene Wenger should have gone long ago, but Arsenal board are true specialists in failure

ByDesmond Kane

Updated 16/02/2017 at 11:58 GMT

Arsenal's embarrassing 5-1 annihilation by Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie should signal the end of Arsene Wenger's 21-year spell as manager. But don't be surprised if it doesn't, writes Desmond Kane.

Hamstrung on the pitch, hamstrung off it.

It is fair to say the loss of the Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny to a hamstring strain early in the second half at the teeming Allianz Arena was a right rotten piece of bad luck at exactly the wrong time.

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But it is wholly flawed to suggest the departure of one man should have such a profound effect on the outcome of a football match. When Koscielny disappeared up the tunnel, little did he know that Arsenal's prospects were also departing with him.

How Arsenal managed to go from appearing comfortable at 1-1 on around 50 minutes to suffering a bigger sense of depression and anti-climax than the haggard array of geezers on the self-loathing ArsenalFan TV, nobody quite knows.

Arsenal's Francis Coquelin walks past manager Arsene Wenger as he is substituted

Image credit: Reuters

Not even Arsene Wenger. If the French coach did, they would not have haemorrhaged three goals in ten farcical minutes, four in the final 41 minutes, of what should be the final gruesome verdict on his 21 years as Arsenal manager.

If Wenger escapes for another season, it would be the equivalent of Andy Dufresne tunnelling out of Shawshank. Or Big Sam tunnelling out of Bolton pre-pint-of-winegate. Such chastening evenings should offer no redemption.

Yet there remains a chance the meltdown in Munich may not be his obituary in the role.

Not when the club's board have obviously given up on winning the game's elite titles. As long as American owner Stan Kroenke is happy with the balance sheet, that is all that appears to matter.

“If you want to win championships then you would never get involved," said Kroenke last year.

I think the best owners in sports are the guys that sort of watch both sides a bit. If you don't have a good business then you can't really afford to go out and get the best players unless you just want to rely on other sources of income.

It was Jose Mourinho who infamously claimed Wenger was a specialist in failure, but the club's board are the true specialists.

Arsenal are the seventh richest club in the world with revenue of £350m behind only the Manchester clubs, Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern.

Yet they are a football club who have forgotten they are a football club, a blistering example of an era where failure is accepted, where finishing fourth is saluted and rewarded with millions and millions from TV's largesse. Little wonder there is no desire to dispense with the coach when the figures are so healthy.

Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth, Wenger won't be hounded out. He will decide when he walks. Which could be this summer if he concludes enough is enough.

"We were mentally jaded, and vulnerable after the third goal," said Wenger cutting a ghostly figure as he tried to make sense of it all. "The last 25 minutes was a nightmare because we had no response.

“We collapsed. Well done Bayern, they are a better team than us. I don’t look for excuses. It is a shock, of course."

Contrast the mentality of Bayern's Dutch winger Arjen Robben, who pierced the visiting net with a glorious opening goal from distance on 11 minutes.

While Arsenal are facing tumbling out of this tournament at this stage for a seventh straight season, Carlo Ancelotti's team have every reason to believe a sixth European Cup is a serious prospect.

Arsene Wenger said his Arsenal side "collapsed" at Bayern Munich

Image credit: PA Sport

"Mentality, character...desire is always there," said Robben. "You want to win, and reach the final. We have made a big step to the quarter-finals."

Alexis Sanchez had given Arsenal false hope by scoring at the third attempt after Manuel Neuer had halted a penalty as Arsenal restored parity on 30 minutes.

But losing Koscielny prompted all sorts of curious happenings.

Wherever Sanchez is next season, it probably won't be Arsenal. Unless there is a change of direction under fresh management, why would you want to stick around when you can earn more money and ambition for your lot elsewhere?

He is becoming more of a performer after full-time these days when he tends to head for the tunnel crestfallen, scurrying away from his team-mates appearing to wonder how he ended up in this deflating Groundhog Day.

You can't blame the Chilean. Robert Lewandowski jumped above Shkodran Mustafi to head home Bayern's second on 53 minutes before the terrific Thiago Alcantara helped himself to two more on 56 and 63 minutes as the rapid nature of the rise to 4-1 highlighted the visiting side's plight.

Thomas Muller replaced Lewandowski to add a fifth on 88 minutes with Arsenal already done for before they host the dead rubber return on March 7.

It is never right to change for change’s sake, but it is surely time for Wenger and Arsenal to divorce as their marriage of convenience becomes increasingly pointless. Even by their own sliding standards, the nature of this collapse was as brittle as their own weak mentality.

Fragile, feeble and full of excuses. These are all accusations levelled at Arsenal under Wenger, also barbs aimed at the manager, and all were on show as a compliant visiting side collapsed almost at Bayern's request.

Bayern were good, but not great. That will hurt Wenger when he reflects on the listless return of men in yellow who appeared cowardly in comparison to Bayern's blazing red.

Wenger's first trophy-laden decade at Arsenal was arranged and orchestrated by stoic leaders such as Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Lee Dixon, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell and Nigel Winterburn. The list goes on. Even Ian Wright, Thierry Henry and Denis Bergkamp led from up front.

These were characters who knew what it meant to wear such a celebrated shirt.

Wright described the team as a "f****** shambles". Difficult to argue otherwise.

A decade on and nobody has really come close to succeeding such figures as Wenger has allowed mentally fragile footballers to occupy jerseys without knowing what it really means to inspire leadership.

He looks more like a school teacher at times than a manager. When Gabriel limbered up on the touchline to replace Koscielny, the groans were almost palpable because this is a defender who can’t defend properly.

Yet it was Wenger who paid £11.3m to land the Brazilian player from Villarreal last year. Gabriel is following in a great tradition of men such as Pascal Cygan and Philippe Senderos, who seem to be tailed by calamity.

Mustafi had started the match, but a Germany centre-half who apparently cost £35m from Valencia ended up proving so costly to Arsenal.

Laurent Koscielny goes down injured during Arsenal's Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich

Image credit: AFP

How Mustafi has won 15 caps for Germany is one of football’s great mysteries, up there with Francis Coquelin's reputation as a defensive midfielder.

A fortnight after he was ragdolled by Eden Hazard in Chelsea, Coquelin turned into the incredibly shrinking man in Munich.

He is in the Arsenal side to break up attacks, but he hardly appeared to tackle a Bayern player with Mesut Ozil doing more tracking back despite being chosen to trouble Munich.

Ozil worked hard, but did not affect the game with his evening summed up with Neuer making as many passes as him in the Bayern goal.

If not for the much-discussed David Ospina at the other end, Arsenal's suffering would have been greater.

The whole thing is a mess. Not for poorer clubs, but Arsenal are rich in resource and size. Yet you tend to get what you deserve in football.

Arsenal’s failure to enhance their squad in the January transfer window has prompted a planned regression, and we are not even out of the second month of 2017. Money is in the bank, but money has not been spent.

Should a club like Arsenal continue to get the bunting out to celebrate the top four and the last 16 of the Champions League?

This has become a dismally soulless project under Wenger, whose last English title was 13 years ago and counting.

Defeats to Watford and Chelsea has burned their hopes of a Premier League challenge, and being buried alive in Munich ends all notions of going beyond their annual ceiling of the first knock-out stage.

Back to the FA Cup then as the last refuge, Wenger lifted the old pot in 2014 and 2015 after a barren nine-year spell, but a plastic pitch at non-league Sutton United in the last 16 on Monday is hardly a place to seek solace.

Still, when the dust settles, will the board really bother? Arsenal have a pleasant manager, and a magnificent stadium. They finish in the top four every season to qualify for the last 16 of a tournament they can't win and are laughing all the way to the bank. Who are fans to complain?

Unlike the manager, they can always find some new ones in London.

Desmond Kane

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