da bwin： Whether you are Bayern Munich or Barnet, there is no disgrace in losing at the Nou Camp. During Luis Enrique’s 111 games in charge, Barcelona have failed to win on their home patch just three times.
da betway： Nonetheless, as Arsenal crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of the Catalans yesterday evening, providing the closing chapter in a seven-game story that has left the Gunners with nothing to play for this season except another top four finish, the 3-1 defeat epitomised the club’s increasing limitations under Arsene Wenger.
Since the two sides met in the 2006 Champions League final, they have moved in polarised directions. Barcelona have become the dominant force in world football, going on to win a further three European titles, whilst the Gunners have spent a decade in dormancy, settling simply for sustained inclusion in the tournament by ever-filling the role of also-rans in the Premier League title race.
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Perhaps a comparison with Barcelona isn’t so beneficial, considering they have now constructed two sides that will be remembered as amongst the greatest ever produced. But even when lined up against more realistic contemporaries, Arsenal simply aren’t delivering.
They haven’t reached the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup in three years, have been eliminated from the Champions League at the Round of 16 for six consecutive seasons and haven’t finished higher than third in the Premier League for over a decade.
The only respite has come in the FA Cup – but even that has proved beyond them this season.
The club that once produced the ‘Invincibles’ looked little more than plucky relegation candidates amid Barcelona’s 5-1 destruction over two legs and that steady decline from amongst the best to best of the rest has happened under Le Professeur’s watch.
In some ways, that is perhaps unfortunate; Wenger’s twenty-year tenure is unique in its longevity throughout football’s increasingly short-termist era, as is his control over all sectors of the club. Other managers can blame predecessors, technical directors and so on but every Arsenal shortcoming inevitably traces back to Wenger. Whether justified or not, however, the club has been moulded completely around his own ideals and the fact of the matter is that those ideals are no longer providing adequate results.
Similarly, there is no doubt the financial constraints of moving to the Emirates stadium have suffocated Arsenal’s potential for success. But the weight of that argument has disintegrated more with every season and in the context of the current campaign has no relevance at all; if Leicester City can lead the title charge with a squad that took just £21million to assemble, why are Arsenal lagging behind with talents like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez – who cost a combined £77million – at Wenger’s disposal?
Some might argue Arsenal’s title bid isn’t over just yet – they’re currently eleven points behind the Foxes with a game in hand – but if their recent form is anything to go by, winning just one of their last eight games, the Gunners are almost certain to miss out again this year. It’s been said countless times already yet remains impossible to dispute; if Wenger can’t guide the Gunners to the title with Chelsea stuck in the bottom half, Manchester United shifting from crisis to crisis, Liverpool lost in soul searching and Manchester City twiddling their thumbs, then he never, ever will.
Indeed, the case for Wenger to resign is a progressively damning one. Nobody can dispute his prior achievements, his willingness to play open football, his love for Arsenal and his tremendous service over the last twenty years, but loyalty and the successes of yesteryear are the only arguments still in his corner. Unfortunately, football is a results-based business that has increasingly less time for its nostalgic past – and Arsenal have been living in theirs for far too long already.
Many pejorative adjectives can be attributed to Wenger – particularly arrogance and stubbornness, which are essentially two ends of the same horse shoe – but the Arsenal boss is clearly not a stupid man. He knows the Gunners are stagnating, he knows this side should be achieving more, and he knows the fans are the most restless they’ve ever been under his leadership. Deep in his heart of hearts, he probably knows it’s time to resign.
It’s the only logical outcome of the current campaign, another which has somehow passed the north Londoners by, if Wenger wants the club he loves to ever return to their prior glories. Likewise, as Alan Curbishley of my beloved Charlton Athletic once graciously said, “it’s better to be clapped out of the front door than booed out the back.” Wenger has a real legacy to leave behind at Arsenal; a new stadium, an incredible academy, a distinctive philosophy and an incredibly talented side; but the longer he resists the inevitable, the more that will be forgotten.
For his own sake, for Arsenal’s sake, for the fans’ sake and for his legacy’s sake, Wenger must do the honourable thing at the end of this season – resign.
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