Arsenal Boss Arsene Wenger just couldn’t resist sticking his oar in and having a go at the top brass at Spurs, saying that they should have hung on to him for longer – not a totally surprising statement from the Frenchman, considering that, on current form if Tottenham had stuck with their friendly ogre, they’d be down by Christmas.
During Arsene Wenger’s 11 year reign at Arsenal – Tottenham have been through a staggering 10 managerial switcheroos, and Arsene thinks that Spurs would have dragged themselves out of the mire, especially when “Ledders” comes back. Wenger said:
“It’s sad because he had no real chance to be successful. He was not given the chance to turn the crisis around. He had two very good seasons and in his third he had a bad start. “He had two fifth-placed finishes in the Premiership, which isn’t easy because there are other big clubs. It looked, right from the start, that he didn’t get the complete confidence from inside the club and then it becomes difficult. Tottenham would have come back, no matter what they had done — they would not have stayed in the bottom three for the whole season. When they get Ledley King and one or two others back, they will come back.”
Wenger then continued, voicing his concern over the crazed Premier League merry-go-round. Wenger added:
“Let’s put the safety belt on. The demands are getting greater and it is a concern to me. Nobody’s found a machine yet to measure how safe you are in the job. I’ve been at Arsenal for 11 years, but I’m already the second-longest serving manager in the League behind (Sir Alex) Ferguson — and nobody will beat his record.”
So were the Spurs board right to blame Jol, or is the managerial spot at Tottenham about as stable as a shack built on Vesuvius, and so any newcomer is always on a losing wicket anyway…