Football Arsenal need to sack Arsene Wenger and bring in Roy Keane. Yes, Roy Keane. And heres why. Published on 06/12/2014 at 21:02 Pitchside Europe Arsenal need an aggressive manager who is willing to pick fights and win games in a bloody-minded way rather than a morally superior one, says Alex Netherton. There are certain universal truths in this world. One is that Twitter is an irredeemable waste of time. The second is that people who make a point of disliking Wes Anderson films are actually worse than even the most irritating Wes Anderson films. The last is that there will always, always be an Arsenal fan somewhere defending Arsene Wenger, despite the mounting evidence that suggests he is a washed up hack of a manager, in need of being put out of his misery. If he were a cat - and there is no suggestion he is, he is almost certainly a human - parents would be informing their children that Chairman Miaow is going to live on a farm where he will chase mice to his heart’s content. With an award-winning introduction out of the way, let’s get down to brass tacks: Arsene Wenger should be sacked by Arsenal. And thats not all. Arsenal also need to be clear that they should not kid themselves that the man in Germany with the fringe - Jurgen Klopp - would either be interested in the job, or the man to turn things around if he got it. As good as Borussia Dortmund have been in the past, and as good as they will probably be again in about four months - when their injuries have subsided - he remains too close to the Wenger philosophy (italics to indicate contempt for that word in this context) to effect a meaningful change. Arsenal do not need more of the same, technical excellence and physical brittleness. They need a bastard as a manager. It wouldn’t be a success, and it would in fact probably make the situation in the short term a great deal worse. But in the long term, appointing Roy Keane as a manager for the club would be a masterstroke. Lets call it the Moyes Effect. David Moyes was a disaster for United, yet at the same time precisely the right kind of disaster - giving the Glazers no option to employ an experienced manager, and then back him with the kind of funds that every other established super club needs to maintain their pre-eminence. Keane, of course, is not the kind of man to back with serious funds. He would be the kind of man to identify those who bullsh*t, those who don’t; and those who dont, but whom he thinks do anyway. He would excommunicate most of the side and half of the club at a stroke, forcing a serious reconsideration when he was removed. If Wenger was replaced with a manager like Rudi Garcia - impressing at Roma with an energetic and largely youthful side, able to play on the counter and at pace - then Arsenal would simply evolve slowly, if at all. And Arsenal dont evolution. They need a mass extinction event. It makes sense that, like United, they endure a period of scorched earth - deliberately or not - and then embrace the most effective way of building a winning side. Given that Arsenal have already priced-out much of their community with ludicrously high ticket prices during a decade of failure, they may as well use their increasing income streams to buy the best players available. They are no longer able to develop young players in any meaningful or impressive way. They no longer have a stadium with any historical significance, so they should accept their place in the Premier League as what they are - an almost identity-free, monolithic moneymaking institution. The best way to preserve that for their shareholders and mainly middle-class audience is to direct a great proportion of their expenditure on established players, particularly defenders, and employ a manager of similar stature to Louis van Gaal. After the Keane era is over, obviously. Klopp, Garcia, Paul Clement are all continental sophisticates, but what Arsenal need after a period of reflection is a real change in approach. Arsenal need an aggressive manager who is willing to pick fights with the opposition and the press, but also to win in a bloody-minded way, not in a morally superior one. Roy Keane would be able to identify those who are far from capable of that, as well as bringing the club to its knees for a season. After that? Why, itd be the perfect time to employ someone with a track record of achievement and give him the money to make a proper go of things again.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 21:27:40 +0000
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