GET ARSENE’S BRAIN BACK UNDER LOCK AND KEY... GIVE HIM A CLUB!
PLEASE, someone give Arsene Wenger a club job. Soon.
Real Madrid, if you get rid of Zinedine Zidane any time in the near future, how about tempting Wenger back into the day-to-day routine? He might fancy a crack at that gig.
Right now, instead of pursuing that infamous obsession with running his football club, Wenger is busying himself as FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development – a role which looks rather like it was created by Gianni Infantino mainly because he wants Wenger to be his mate.
Gianni loves legends. He created a FIFA Legends team – and plays himself in it.
Nothing intoxicates quite like the power that comes with being the top man at FIFA.
President Infantino has put Wenger (right) in this vague but seemingly mighty position, and the Frenchman is dutifully coming up with ideas to develop football globally, as his job title demands.
There was something about offsides the other week that did not gain much traction, but Wenger is now suggesting an overhaul of the international calendar that would mean a World Cup or a major continental championship every single year.
He also wants a reworking of the domestic season. Every league, Wenger seems to suggest, would run from March to November.
Infantino says FIFA is open to new ideas and calls Wenger a “professor of football” and “brilliant”.
Coming from a professor or not, this latest wheeze would only look a bright idea if what you wanted most was FIFA and the national associations to make more money.
A World Cup every two years only dilutes its special appeal. If players and nations missed one World Cup, they would not have to worry – another would be along soon.
The agonies of missing out on a World Cup or flopping at one are enhanced because you only get the chance every four years. The emotions – positive or negative – are what make it great.
On average, a top player is lucky if he has three cracks at a World Cup in a
If Wenger stays in this FIFA role he’s sure to come up with some more bright ideas... career. Rarity makes something treasured. That is the way it is with the World Cup.
The long countdown, the qualifying nerves, even the bidding processes, have a tinge of excitement about them.
And from a selfish point of view, the domestic spin-off from a Wenger-style biennial World Cup would be grim.
He seems to think a Marchto-November season would be a good plan.
“I have the advantage of having worked in Japan,” explains Wenger. “We played from March to November and it was perfect. And you would not have anymore, ‘He won the Championship in season 201819’. No, the Championship was won in 2018 or 2019.”
Popping a hyphen into a sentence is hardly the biggest hardship, and Wenger should know how the British enjoy their sporting calendar.
Football over Christmas is loved, and a few weeks in the summer when cricket, golf and tennis take centre-stage are treasured.
Major tournaments are exhausting – to have one every year would be demanding on the players.
Most of all the lustre, the prestige, would fade. The mystique disappear.
If Wenger stays in his role, he is sure to come up with some fiendishly bright ideas. But this is most definitely not one of them.