LONDON: In 1968, the Portuguese leader Antonio Salazar collapsed in his bath and suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. He was not expected to survive and so the president of the country, Americo Tomas, replaced him with Marcelo Caetano. But Salazar did not die. Nobody felt able to tell him he was no longer in power, and so for the final two years of his life Salazar believed he was ruling Portugal when, in fact, his instructions were being destroyed by civil servants as soon as they received them.
It was a weird end for one of Europe’s weirder dictatorships, but you wonder whether it may offer a potential solution for Arsenal. As Arsene Wenger clings desperately to power, openly dismissive of his new head of scouting Sven Mislintat, and the internal politicking ramps up, perhaps the best way out is for the club to let Wenger believe he is still in charge — perhaps inventing some spurious FA charge and stadium ban to explain why he is no longer welcome on the touchline — while actually appointing Carlo Ancelotti, Brendan Rodgers, Thomas Tuchel, Jogi Low or whoever.
Yet even to write that seems unfair. It shouldn’t have come to this. Wenger should not be a man despised by a vocal minority of fans. He should not have become a joke figure. The subject of Wenger’s future should not have become a staple of phone-ins and panel debates. But the truth is there is no debate any longer. Arsenal are sinking. Their performance in the League Cup final was inexcusably limp — a not uncommon occurrence in big games.
They find themselves in the quarterfinal of the Europa League after an impressive 5-1 aggregate victory over AC Milan, but even if they go on to win that competition, there have been too many false dawns to believe this is the start of serious regeneration. If Wenger does, at last, lead Arsenal to a European trophy, all the victory is likely to do is provide a high on which to exit.
Wenger stands alongside Herbert Chapman as one of the two greatest Arsenal managers in history, a figure who delivered three league titles and seven FA Cups. His angry response to questions about his future suggests he thinks his record alone should be enough to keep him in the job. But Arsenal have not won the league since 2004 and there is little prospect of them winning it again in the near future. Sadly, that possibility recedes with each passing season. Wenger is unraveling everything he knitted and that is desperately sad.
Wenger’s contract runs until summer 2019. Even the manager acknowledged that discussions about his future undermined the 2017 season as he entered the final months of his contract. To avoid a similar problem this year, serious decisions need to be made. Changes in the background, with the appointment of Mislintat and the sporting director Raul Sanllehi, suggest the club is beginning to prepare for a post-Wenger future, but there is no sign of him being prepared to go willingly.
And behind it all is the bigger worry, something that goes far deeper than Wenger. And that is the question of what the club’s leadership want. After the past few seasons of drift, logic would suggest the club would benefit from a jolt of modernization. Perhaps that demands a young, unproven manager such as Thierry Henry. Perhaps it demands somebody experienced, single-minded and unafraid of confrontation, such as Louis van Gaal.
But revolution carries risk. It might go wrong. There might need to be another evolution in a year or two. There might be a protracted period in which Arsenal fail to even challenge for Champions League qualification. Nothing Stan Kroenke has ever done suggests he would be willing to countenance that. He seems to be an owner who is not much interested in glory.
Kroenke just wants his asset to keep ticking over, to gather in the revenues from ticket sales and broadcast deals — and the Premier League yields so much these days that missing out on the Champions League is no longer such a problem — and that means he will not rock the boat. If there is a new manager, it is likely to be a safe choice, somebody who will not rock a boat that desperately needs rocking.