On Friday Pep Guardiola announced that he will be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season.
During his four year tenure at Barca, Guardiola guided the Spanish outfit to 13 major honours including three la Liga titles and two Champions League trophies.
In just a short space of time, Guardiola has undoubtedly become one of the most talented managers in world football today, and I’m sure a queue of clubs the size of Spain will be closely monitoring his whereabouts whilst he takes a break from the game.
Now the point of this blog was not to praise Pep’s work at Barcelona, but it leads on to something that I have be dwelling on since I read/heard that the 41-year-old will be leaving the current La Liga champions.
The scenario I have been thinking about over and over in my head is this – Arsene Wenger leaves Arsenal in the summer to take up the Barcelona hot-seat, with Robin van Persie following him to Catalonia!
Undoubtedly, this would be the single worst thing that could potentially happen to Arsenal FC in recent memory. Period!
When asked by reporters if he wants the Barca job, Wenger simply replied:
‘I’m happy here.’
It seems a fairly conclusive answer to me, one that I expected to hear by Le Boss. But things can change very quickly in football.
Earlier in the season, a small group of Arsenal fans were calling for the sacking of Wenger after the club’s poor start, while the media suggested that the Wiley old Frenchman has possibly done all he can for the Gunners.
He definitely won’t admit it, but after hearing a (small) section of his own fans demanding his resignation and the media criticizing his recent management style, surely Wenger has questioned whether he is indeed still the right man for the Arsenal job. Surely after nearly 16 years in charge of the north London club he must be thinking to himself, ‘perhaps it is time for me to move on and seek out new pastures’.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for the man to resign, but surely Arsene is tempted by the prospect of managing a massive club Barcelona? With all due respect, the man would be a fool not to consider the job, despite his love for our club.
IF, and this is a big IF, Wenger does (for some reason) decide to call time on his tenure at Arsenal and take the job at Barca, firstly, I think our club would go into a crazy downward spiral. Secondly, I could see Robin van Persie being his first signing, which would most definitely leave us in the sh*t!
This is of course, as the title of this piece suggests, would be ‘the worst case scenario’ which could possibly ensue during the summer. Hopefully it won’t, but you just never know in football. In addition, I’m sorry if this blog seems pessimistic in anyway, but I thought I would express my concerns to fellow Gooners and Goonerretes.
Anyway, I reckon I’ll leave it there because the thought of both our iconic manager and talisman/captain leaving in the same summer is leaving me with some sharp pains in my head!
Visit and Join our Facebook page, click HERE to do so.
Gunnersphere is currently looking for new writers to join the squad. Contact via twitter or at Gunnersphere@snack-media.com for further details.
Guardiola is a perfect fit for Barcelona , and Wenger is a perfect fit for Arsenal. His first name is just two letters short of club’s name for Christ’s sake. But seriously , Arsenal are three warld class players away from putting them over the top and judging by Wenger’s retoric he is getting them this summer. I think he has finally realized that you need great players to win trophies and judging by his mental state , I don’t think he can take another loosing season without going completely insane.
I am caught in 2 minds on this one one side tells me Arsene won’t go to Barca because at Barca if he does not win he will be sacked but Arsenal’s board will let him stay as long as he wants no matter how bad the team plays. The other side of me thinks well Wenger was once a winning manager maybe a change to Barca would revitalize his career AND also be good for Arsenal as Wenger has become complacent.