Wenger’s last chance to end stint on a high
Arsenal have little time to digest Arsene Wenger’s longawaited decision to end his 22-year reign as a Europa League semi-final with Atletico Madrid offers the outgoing manager a chance to salvage some of his lost credit with the club’s fans.
Wenger admitted he stepped aside to unite a fanbase fed up with years of mediocre results having been spoiled by success and silky football in the first decade of the Frenchman’s reign.
Fourteen years on from Arsenal’s last Premier League title, for so long Wenger could defend his record by consistent qualification for the Champions League.
EUROPA LEAGUE However, a 19-year run in Europe’s premier club competition came to an end this season and Arsenal’s only chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League is by winning the Europa League.
To do so, though, Wenger will need to achieve something that he couldn’t even manage in his peak years in charge -- win a European trophy.
His two final losses in the 2000 UEFA Cup to Galatasaray and against Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League, allied to a Cup Winners’ Cup final defeat by Werder Bremen when manager of Monaco in 1992, handed him the ignominy of being the only manager ever to reach the finals of all three European club competitions and lose every one.
Winning three FA Cups in the last four years did little to appease Arsenal fans’ demand for change. However, Wenger’s legacy will be looked on far more kindly if be could bow out in his homeland next month in Lyon by guaranteeing Champions League football for his successor.
“I’m happy now we can all talk about his legacy and let’s not forget that we still have to win the Europa League,” said Arsenal’s all-time top goalscorer Thierry Henry.
“Let’s not get lost in celebrating the end of his era. The team has to win the Europa League. It would be an amazing achievement and Arsene never won in Europe before so it would be a great way to give him a good exit.”
LONDON: The team has to win the Europa League. It would be an amazing achievement and Arsene never won in Europe before so it would be a great way to give him a good exit. THIERRY HENRY, Arsenal player
MARSEILLE EYEING CONTINENTAL GLORY
-Quarter of a century on from giving French football its crowning moment in Europe, Marseille are dreaming of continental glory once again.
But the club that won the inaugural Champions League in 1993 -- still the only time the European Cup has been won by a French side -- must first come through a semi-final against Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg, with the first leg at the Velodrome on Thursday. If Marseille can win before a sell-out crowd of more than 60,000 on Thursday night, it will set them up to finish the job in next week’s return and keep them on course to make a final that will be played in France.
MARSEILLE: