Wenger to take England to 2014 World Cup
Written by Joel Che on Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Wenger will not stay Arsenal manager forever and there are many reasons why I cannot see more than 3 more years of Wenger. The boss is not getting any younger but he age is not yet a problem for football management. However, his age is a problem for the intense job he has. Wenger has bigger responsibility than any other manager in world football.
Wenger has responsibility for keeping a team competitive with financial restrictions. Teams with Arsenal's resources don't have as high expectations as people have for Arsenal. Nobody expects Villareal or Fiorentina to win their leagues and Champions League, yet they are playing in roughly the same financial league as Arsenal – in terms of money available to spend rather than revenue.
The responsibility is higher also because the team is Wenger; the fortunes of the team are associated with him directly. Many big club managers routinely complain that they were not allowed to buy this or that player. Benitez and many Real Madrid coaches have done so. Wenger doesn't. He takes it all on himself.
At his advancing age, this is not sustainable for another 3 years, especially for a workaholic.
Wenger has described this season as decisive. Many people interpret that as being that if Arsenal don't win trophies then we're in trouble. The underlying reasons are much deeper.
The season is decisive because with these players, Arsenal has played 4-5-1, 4-4-2 and now trying 4-3-3. There is nothing else to try if it doesn't work apart from change the squad. That's an overhaul because failure this season will mean a lot of players will leave. That's not going to be an evolution, it will be a revolution. The second reason is that if youth and home-grown players don't deliver, Arsenal will either have to change their financial view and spend money or change their ambition to aim lower until they are out of debt and can spend. That's why this season is decisive.
If a revolution happens, Arsenal will need a new manager. If an evolution comes from winning a trophy this season, Wenger should enjoy it for a year or two and let someone else start planning for the following 4 years when Andrey Arshavin, Francesc Fabregas, Gaël Clichy, William Gallas, Manuel Almunia, Robin van Persie, etc. will not there any more. So Wenger probably has only about 3 years or less left at Arsenal.
What should Wenger do when he leaves Arsenal? Well, if his prediction (below) is right, England will be full of players that Wenger trained and developed. He would be ideally placed to take them and add a world cup trophy to his name in 2014 with them. It will be an easier job with a deadline with players he knows who plays the way he wants and a country and press that he knows.
Wenger said: "Jack Wilshere has the potential to be a great player but he has it all to do. I believe he will, I believe Theo (Walcott) will be a great player and I think Kieran Gibbs will be a great player.
"We have a few coming behind as well - look at the team who won the Youth Cup convincingly last year with Jay Thomas, Sanchez Watt, Henri Lansbury and Gavin Hoyte. We have many players coming behind.
"For once England cannot reproach me for not dealing with English players. Maybe in the end we will have more players in the national team than any other club."
So there. Now we have started a rumour.
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