The board met at the end of November.
The directors were told that Wenger had agreed a new two-year contract.
And the great spin-doctor was waiting for the right moment to announce it.
This was terrible news.
But it confirmed what I had feared and written.
My first reaction was : keep this scoop to yourself. Don’t tell friends, don’t blog this, it’s a few days before Christmas. Why spoil the holiday for millions of Gooners?
But later on that day I realised that fans would want to know.
So I wrote an exclusive story that I knew was 100% true.
But I don’t know what the reaction to my story was, apart from the views of close friends.
Five weeks down the line we’re in a New Year and I now think Lord Wenger has to win the FA Cup before he can announce his continued rule over us.
He has to go to Southampton and beat them in the 4th Round and then win four more games to lift the FA Cup at Wembley.
Then, in the euphoria of that moment, he can announce his willingness to continue as “manager”.
NOTE: For most of the last decade, Arsenal could have won the FA Cup any year Wenger wanted to win it. Because the FA Cup is only six matches.
But the big money from Champions League qualification was more important.
The Champions League is the Frenchman’s lifelong dream and he once said he can’t imagine retiring without winning it.
In the past I’ve quoted F. Scott Fitzgerald writing that that his protagonist Jay Gatsby “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”
Today James Lawton picks up that theme: