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| Wenger |
When the English press
grab hold of an idea they are like the bulldog. They never let go.
Leicester City's success
is an incredible achievement but the press still found a way to turn their
sights on the man they love to ridicule – Arsenal's Arsene Wenger. As far as
they are concerned, this was Wenger’s last chance to win the Premier League –
and he blew it.
How can it possibly
be anyone’s last chance? The odds of Leicester City winning the league were
5000-1. Also, Claudio Ranieri has just won his first league title in his 28
years as a coach. And he had coached far more illustrious sides than Leicester.
The list includes
Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan, Roma and Atletico Madrid. No one believed he could
win anything with Leicester but today he is champion of England.
Wenger is the
architect of his own misfortune. When he first arrived England he won trophies.
His team played the most attractive football. He even ended an entire season
unbeaten in the league, an achievement that will be extremely hard to match.
Then came the
drought. As the profile of Chelsea and later Manchester City rose, Arsenal's
decreased. Suddenly, fourth position became the new trophy for Arsenal and the
professor hasn’t come close to winning the league in the last 12 years.
Each time Arsenal finish
behind the champions, the press vilify him. Now the questions have snowballed
and even some of Wenger's greatest supporters are no longer comfortable with
the Frenchman.
It is true that
Wenger has failed. However, he is not the only manager who bears the brunt of
Leicester's heart-warming success. There are 20 teams in the Premier League and
each one played the same number of games and faced the same opponents twice. So
each team had an equal chance to do what Leicester has done.
Going by Leicester's
standards, every other team has underachieved. If one of the big clubs had won
the league, not much would have changed. But now even the "smaller"
clubs know they have blown a spectacular chance of making history.
As the Foxes lift the
trophy, three other teams will be playing in the championship next season. One
team – Aston Villa – have already recorded monumental failure. Though they are one
of the biggest clubs in England, they have been relegated. Two more big clubs
will follow by the end of the season. None of them have received the stick as
much as Wenger.
The big boys will
wonder what hit them. Last season’s
champions Chelsea imploded in a bizarre fashion. Manchester City, which everyone
had tipped to succeed Chelsea after winning their first five games without
conceding a single goal, wilted like a leaf under a scorching sun. Manchester
United spent over 250 million pounds on star players, but they couldn't score
goals and had to depend on 18-year-old Marcus Rashford to salvage their season.
Liverpool flattered to deceive two seasons ago, but became so abysmal they
sacked manager Brendan Rogers before December. His replacement, Jurgen Klopp,
in spite of his impeccable credentials, couldn't rise above mid table.
And of course Spurs,
arguably the most exciting team in the league this season, gave Leicester a run
for their money, but somehow faltered at home against West Brom when it
mattered most.
None of these
perennial contenders even came close to winning the league. Leicester, whose
only ambition was to escape the drop, won it in spectacular fashion. Their
story still seems like a work of fiction. They spent just 20 million pounds in
the transfer window, and their wage bill is a third of Chelsea’s. So if
Leicester could do it, why not Everton, or West Ham, or Sunderland, or
Newcastle, or Crystal Palace? None of these teams have won the league – or any
trophy – in recent memory. Yet the media never points fingers at them.
So why Wenger? Is it
because the French tactician has been in the saddle for so long at Arsenal? No
one calls for Alan Pardew's head even though Palace have won just one Premier
League game this calendar year, after having a decent run at the first half of
the season.
Every media pundit
talks about how difficult it is to beat Stoke, the poster team of England's
physicality. Yet they always remain mid-table. No eyebrows are raised at why a
hard-to-beat team garners such few points every season.
Leicester has shown
that nothing is impossible. But such fairy tales happen once in a lifetime. It may
be decades before another unfancied team like Leicester wins the league. So it
is an opportunity that everyone has missed.
Let's just celebrate Leicester’s
success and leave the “losers” – and Wenger – to lick their wounds and wonder at
what might have been.
Photo courtesy: National Daily
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