Arsenal manager loses a key international ally. He really shouldn't have brought on Andrei Arsharvin against Manchester United.
TRENDING NOW #wenger #rwanda #thanksbuddy
There comes a time in every top-level sportsperson's life when the realisation hits: it's time to gracefully step aside.
For Gary Neville, to give a recent example with a bad attempt at a moustache, it came last season after being repeatedly embarrassed when playing teams from the Midlands wose named begin with a "W".
United could have drawn Walsall in the cup and Neville getting skinned by a League One winger was a prospect no-one inside Old Trafford (but everyone everywhere else) wanted to see.
For Arsène Wenger the sad moment has surely arrived today, with the news that the president of Rwanda wants him to leave the club.
"I very much support Arsenal - but to be honest Wenger needs to coach another team now and Arsenal needs another coach," said Paul Kagame on Twitter following Arsenal's defeat against Manchester United.
"When a good team (players) and a good coach fail for long to deliver, one of them has to change, or even both!!
"The real/main danger is for anyone to get used to mediocre/lacklustre performance and/or results and accepts to live with it … or keeps finding excuses for it!!!"
What makes the whole thing worse for Wenger is that him and Kagame were supposed to be pals.
The Arsenal manager wrote him a letter for his 50th birthday in 2007, speaking of his pride that an African statesmen was a dedicated Gooner. Wenger even arranged for his squad to sign a banner for the one-time rebel leader.
The thanks you get for a sending a world leader a banner signed by Jérémie Aliadière these days, eh?
That's what you get for not letting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain play for an extra 10 minutes.