It may have been a day after Valentine’s Day, but the love was clearly gone. Arsenal succumbed to defeat in the Champions League first knockout round once again on Wednesday night. For the third time in recent years, their opponents were Bayern Munich and just a year after losing 5-1 to the German giants in the group phase, they were humiliated by the same scoreline again.
But that wasn’t where the familiarity ended. The manner of the loss was so predictable and the rate in which they collapsed in the second half at the Allianz Arena, conceding three goals in just ten minutes, brought the already questionable character of the squad under the microscope.
There was a difference in similarity, though. The Gunners had been there before, proven emphatically to be well off the pace of the elite, but this time it felt like it really could be the end for their stalwart manager, Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004 and failed to get past the last 16 of the Champions League since 2010, but Wenger, a legendary figure in North London for his early exploits, has at least split opinion among fans when the going has got tough.
Now, though, the general consensus seems to be it makes sense for him to depart with his contract expiring in the summer.
Wenger deserves to be lauded, rather than abused, by Arsenal fans. When he arrived in 1996, he was ahead of his time. From tactics to nutrition and dieting, he revolutionised the club and brought great success in his first decade at the club. Since 2005, progress has been slow, with only two FA Cup triumphs adding to his trophy haul.
Overseeing the move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 was done with his typical class, maintaining a level of competition despite not having funds to strengthen his squad, never once falling out of the top four. But the club and Wenger himself have since stood still, often too stubborn for their own good, and it all came to a head in Munich.
If he does leave, attention would soon turn to finding a replacement. Speculation is already in full swing, with Sevilla’s Jorge Sampaoli and Borussia Dortmund’s Thomas Tuchel both mentioned. Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri is an interesting name, too.
Watching what Allegri’s predecessor in Turin, Antonio Conte, is doing at Chelsea, Arsenal fans would be forgiven for being excited about the prospect of him swapping Serie A for the Premier League. Between them, Conte and Allegri have re-established the Bianconeri as the kings of Italy after the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal of 2006 stripped them of two league titles and relegated them to Serie B with a 17-point deduction.
Juve have won every Serie A since Conte’s first season, 2011/12. Allegri has been in charge since 2014, replacing the now Chelsea boss who resigned on the first day of pre-season that summer.
His reputation is now worthy of a job such as Arsenal, having managed the situation, since Conte left, perfectly. The timing of his departure could have resulted in disaster, but the swift appointment of Allegri and his initial continuation of Conte’s methods helped the transition go quickly.
By the end of his first season, he’d led the Old Lady to a domestic double and a Champions League final.
Since then, he has stamped his authority on the club slowly but surely and, make no mistake, this Juventus side is most definitely his. Whether he is the man to step into Wenger’s shoes is up for debate; because although the likes of Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal and Paulo Dybala have all grown and developed as players under his tutelage in Turin, his career hasn’t always been plain sailing.
His previous role at Milan, while yielding their 18th Scudetto six years ago, ended in disaster midway through the 2013/14 season with the club languishing in 11th place – 30 points off the pace set by his current employers.
It was he, too, who was the driving force behind letting Andrea Pirlo leave Milan to join Juve on a free transfer. Although they reconnected with much better results with the Italian champions, Allegri’s judgement was called into question. Juve’s decision to replace Conte with him seems like a stroke of genius now, but at the time there were serious doubts from fans and, perhaps, Pirlo as well.
Replacing a man like Arsene Wenger will be tough for anyone, but his lack of prolonged success would soften the entry for the new man somewhat, unlike when Sir Alex Ferguson departed Manchester United as a champion in 2013. But whoever comes in will not have the same level of control of the club as Wenger does and will probably have to put an imprint on the team as quickly as possible.
For all the positivity surrounding Allegri at Juventus right now, the foundations for success were in place when he stepped through the door there, and indeed at Milan. Criticism of Arsenal generally surrounds how stale they have become. They would need a fresh voice to change things immediately, and trusting Allegri undoubtedly constitutes a gamble.
Massimiliano Allegri is a top coach; he has proven that in his own right in Italy. Perhaps, from his point of view, departing Serie A is the next step on the road to convincing the footballing world, just like Conte has. Both have similar ideas about football, but Allegri is nowhere near as intense, instead portraying a calm and quietly confident demeanour.
In that way, and in many others, Allegri is similar to Wenger, but that is why a move to Arsenal would not suit either party.
