Au Revoir Arsene Wenger: How we will miss hating the Frenchman who revolutionised English football

And football’s Godot finally announced his arrival as Arsene Wenger, the perennial whipping boy of English football, announced that he’d be stepping down as Arsenal manager at the end of the season.

The man whose fate, and accompanying hoopla had become a global phenomenon – Wenger Out banners popped up everywhere from Wankhede Stadium to the White House – announced that his watch was over.

For a Manchester United fan who has always been on the other side of the footballing divide, it was a bittersweet experience.

Like watching the last episode of How I Met Your Mother, knowing the show had gone to the dogs for years, but still being best by a feeling of melancholy knowing that you'd never see Barney Stinson's shenanigans again. 

From being coveted by the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City, Wenger was finally dumped by the only club he ever truly loved. 

For long we mocked and ridiculed Wenger, stewing in schadenfreude as Arsenal went from challengers in a two-horse Premier League race to barely having the funds to challenge. They went from knocking on the door of Europe's elite to has-beens in the last decade of Wenger’s rule. Yet now that he is leaving, we realise that he was the last of his kind.

It was an anti-climatic ending for one of football’s most revolutionary managers, the Frenchman who coached in Japan and talked like Inspector Clouseau, the hilarious French detective from The Pink Panther and was greeted on his arrival by the flabbergasted English media with the heading, “Arsene Who?” 

The Professor, as he was dismissed derisively, wasn’t considered a proper football coach. Yet before Mourinho arrived in 2005, bolstered by Abhrahimovic’s millions, to sweep the English game – he was a mainstay in deciding the fate of the Premier League.  

From 1996 to 2004 – the period which saw Wenger create the first team that went the entire season unbeaten – Ferguson and Wenger waged a vicious battle to establish himself as top dog.

Viera vs Keane. The Battle of Old Trafford. That FA Cup replay with THAT Ryan Giggs extra-time goal which some still consider the greatest game in English football.

Whether he was winning or losing, crafting the Invincibles or just falling short of the 99-treble winning Manchester United team, Wenger was very much part of the fabric of the English game and its exponential growth as it became one of the most-watched leagues across the world.

This earned Arsenal a multitude of fans across the globe, but it also meant that he was creating a footballing order that would be hard to sustain.

Long before Pep Guardiola came to the English shores – backed with petrodollars – to create the most beautiful team put together, we had the quintessential Frenchman introducing foreign concepts like fitness and diet to the game. Yoga, zonal marking, turning-winger-into-forwards, broccoli instead of beer – Wenger’s revolutionary ideas were ridiculed in the beginning.

Yet, soon it became the norm across the board, as the English game metamorphosed into the modern, European cosmopolitan nature that’s the norm today. From introducing untested players, training, the physiological aspects of the sport, the science and facilities of elite athletes, the concepts Wenger brought to Arsenal are now taken for granted in every dressing room. 

His foreign players – Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Robert Pires – added flair to the steel that was already present in former manager George Graham’s team. ‘Boring Arsenal’ – the chant reserved for the team – soon led to the disgruntled acknowledgement that English football was witnessing a revolution.

Sadly, it didn’t last, and the arrival of Mourinho at Chelsea, coupled with the financial task of managing the books while moving to a new stadium, meant that Arsenal never challenged properly for the tile after 2005. Sheikh Mansour’s purchase of Manchester City – which picked many of Arsenal’s top players – was the final nail in the coffin.

The exhilarating highs of supporting Arsenal soon turned into a predictable tragi-comedy as player after top player left for greener pastures or had their heads turned by salaries that the Gunners couldn’t hope to match.

While Arsenal made it a habit of finishing fourth to at least qualify for the Champions League, they were sliced open again and again, by the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona in the knockout stages.

The voice of the disgruntled, led by high-profile fans like Piers Morgan had started gaining traction by 2008, and for rivals, Arsenal became a punchline. Like a Monty Python skit, one could always count on the Gunners to implode at the end.

Unlike Ferguson, who somehow managed to see off the petro-dollar challenge by turning talented youngsters like Rooney and Ronaldo into world beaters, Wenger failed to come-to-terms with the changing realities of football.

Deep-pocketed owners became the norm and Wenger appeared to have thrown in the towel, unable to keep pace as European and English rivals swooped for the gems he had painstakingly created on the training ground.  Adebayor, Nasri, Robin Van Persie, Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas and a host of others left, and Arsenal just couldn’t replace their like.

Humiliating defeats with cricket-like scores became the norm. 8-2 to Manchester United. 5-1 to Liverpool. 6-0 to Chelsea.

Teams started beating Arsenal with alarming regularity and Wenger seemed to be in a self-defeating spiral of trying to help find a group of talented prima donnas find some steel. They never did.

And after 22 years, it became apparent that he was no longer the man to take Arsenal forward. The board had showed unwavering support by keeping the faith through years of turmoil.

But the man who kept the club afloat and kept them financially viable, as they moved lock, stock and barrel to a new ground, had done his duty. They no longer had any need for him.

Reports suggest that Wenger was given an ultimatum, leave or be fired. As the French say, c'est la vie (such is life). But one thing is for sure, English football nor Arsenal will ever see his kind again. And no one in the world will have the gumption to ask, Arsene Who?