Eternal loser was the conclusion of L’Equipe this morning. Arsene Wenger, it seems, has become so steeped in his Englishness that the French need to borrow our words just to describe him
After his early success, for more than a decade, Wenger seems to have been simply honing his skills as a taker-part rather than a winner. Stiff upper lip! Gallant effort, what! Bravo!
Whether gallant, plucky, unfortunate or even “eternal”, the loser part has remained consistently narrow. Small margins. Close but – unless you are an Arsenal player catching a sneaky drag – no cigar.
Overall, his record is impeccable. But while lesser managers strive for the Holy Grail of consistency, Wenger seems to drown in it.
Qualify for the Champions League group stages. Reach the knockout round. Exit in the Round of 16. Focus on the league. Cement a top four finish. Qualify for the Champions League group stages.
So it continues. Consistently good; never bad and never brilliant.
17 times Arsenal have been worthy of a place in the Champions League - one of only eight teams to have competed in more than a dozen campaigns. The other seven have won the tournament at least once.
Even since the current tournament structure was introduced in 2003/4, Arsenal stand out because of their own relative mediocrity.
It is the true giants of the game who can claim to have regularly contested in the knockout stages since then, though only Real Madrid can match Arsenal’s 12 out of 12 achievement.
10 teams in total have reached more than six knockout phases. Lyon (nine appearances) are the only other in that number not to lift the trophy itself in that 12 year spell.
It seems Arsenal’s turn for that elusive trophy is long overdue. Yet the performances they produce are worthy of turning them into Champions League winners – a 2-0 victory in the Allianz Arena, humbling AC Milan 3-0 at the Emirates, scoring more goals against Monaco in their own backyard in 90 minutes than anybody had managed against them anywhere previously in the competition – are ultimately wasted on gallant failures.
A manager who can conjure these sorts of performances should be able to do it when they matter. Instead, Arsenal have become the Lee Westwood of football.
They are entertaining, people like watching them and they are consistently up there in the rankings. But when, oh when, are they going to win one of the big ones?
The “In Arsene We Trust” mantra that the stalwart supporters “trust” is something you give to banks in return the guarantee that they will always be there with perhaps just a modicum of interest thrown in.
Presuming Arsenal qualify for the Champions League again this season (they will, they always do) Arsenal fans have got an important philosophical question to ask themselves this summer – the answer to which will reverberate through to the board.
Is that still enough? Or should the club be aspiring for more, even if there may be a temporary down side?
Domestically, this will be the 11th successive season in the top four for Arsenal while never lifting the title. Manchester United managed five seasons in the top four after the war before taking their turn to win the League in 1952; Leeds under Revie twice had four seasons thereabouts before getting their opportunity at the fifth attempt.
In the early 1980s, Manchester United sacked Ron Atkinson, 76 today, after five successive finishes in the top four and an FA Cup. There was uproar from certain quarters at the time but, as memory serves, they replaced him with some bloke called Sir Alex Ferguson.
It took a few steps backward over the next six seasons – three times dropping outside the top 10 in that time – but eventually a consistently good team was turned into a brilliant one.
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