There will be no fairytale ending for Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday night by Atletico Madrid and their season is now all over bar the shouting.
In less than two weeks time, their manager of 22 years will be in the dugout for his final game at the club when they take on Huddersfield Town in the John Smith’s Stadium and that will be the sign off to yet another disappointing season.
In what was Wenger’s 250th game in Europe and his last for Arsenal, the Gunners didn’t raise a gallop as their flakiness was again punished by a physical side who just appeared to want it more than them.
Indeed, flakiness has been the name of the game for Arsenal for a number of seasons now and it’s no secret that the new manager’s first port of call will be to instill a hard edge into a team who’ve been called too many times for it not to have a hint of truth about it. They just don’t seem to have the characters to stand up when the tide is against them, to emerge from the periphery when other teams are rolling all over them.
The contrast could be seen between a certain Diego Costa in a Madrid shirt and one Mesut Ozil in an Arsenal shirt on Thursday night. While Ozil didn’t want to know about it, the ever tigerish Costa hounded Arsenal jerseys down like he’d never ever touched a football before and wanted to find out what it felt like.
This was as brutal an analysis as it gets https://t.co/A0kWbqFOZq #Ozil #AFC #Arsenal
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 4, 2018
That was the difference but that has too often been the case for Arsenal under Wenger. While there has never been any doubting his side’s technical abilities, Wenger’s men just don’t appear to want it enough.
A man who’s teams could never be accused of standing off was sitting in the opposition dugout on Thursday evening and in Diego Simeone, Roy Keane sees the perfect man to come in and shake things up at Arsenal.
“The manager is great to watch. He shows passion, desire and he has done a great job there…Imagine if he was manager of Arsenal. They wouldn’t be giving goals away like they were tonight,” said Keane on ITV’s coverage of the game.
“They need to get the right manager in, they need funds, new players and new characters.”
The rough and ready Argentine has long been linked with a move to the club with his solid, defensive tactics and his ability to line his player’s bellies with fire exactly what Arsenal have been lacking.
A host of names have been linked with the job, including Liverpool and Man United’s respective assistant managers Zeljko Buvac and Rui Faria, but the experienced Simeone would be a much better coo for the club.
In an all too familiar turn of events, Keane went onto question Arsenal’s character.
“I think the players deserve what they got and that is nothing,” he said.
“The Arsenal players lacked belief. I have been critical of Arsenal over the last few years for a lack of leaders and characters, but tonight it hit home that they have a real lack of quality.
“Arsenal get into good positions and they have some good players, but their players think they are going to get four or five touches in the box…The good positions they got themselves in and they have one shot on target all night?”
“They are so far behind Man City its untrue. Way behind United, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea. Some tough days ahead at Arsenal.”
They’ll be less tough if they get the right man in.
