Wenger's 18-year reign might be over, Giggs and Scholes could be United's dream double act... and Liverpool want West Ham's Reid

• Arsene Wenger has yet to sign a new contract at Arsenal and could leave
  
• Franco Baldini is set to be sacked by Tottenham this summer
• Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers wants to sign West Ham's Winston Reid
• David Moyes' future still on the rocks at Old Trafford
• Ryan Giggs could take over from Moyes with Paul Scholes as his assistant

By Rob Shepherd

PUBLISHED: 19:03 EST, 22 March 2014 | UPDATED: 03:27 EST, 23 March 2014

Arsene Wenger’s future as Arsenal manager is clouded in mystery.

Wenger’s 1,000th game as Gunners boss ended in disaster as Arsenal were thrashed 6-0 by Chelsea.

The result would have seemed to have ended Arsenal’s hopes of winning the Barclays Premier League title - which they last won 10 years ago.

Disaster: Wenger watches on as Arsenal are thumped 6-0 by Chelsea on Sunday

Even though the Gunners are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, the lack of silverware is beginning to weigh heavy on Wenger.

And the shock defeat prompted suggestions from well-informed sources that the Frenchman is now considering his future at the club.

Prior to the match Wenger suggested that it could be a defining game for him.

And that while he wants to stay at the club, he has yet to sign a new contract.

There was even talk in well-placed north London circles that an announcement about the club’s path forward could be imminent.

in Arsene we trust: Gunners fans were decidedly more upbeat before the game at Stamford Bridge

Franco Baldini is set to be sacked by Tottenham at the end of the season.

Glenn Hoddle’s withering criticism of how Spurs wasted the £86million they received for the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid has focused attention on Baldini’s role as football director with the club’s real supremo Joe Lewis.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, who reports to ENIC owner Lewis, is close to finalising the appointment of a new manager for next season in Dutchman Loius van Gaal.

But Van Gaal will not tolerate working at the club with a high profile football director like Baldini having a say in transfer deals.

Looking ahead: Holland manager Louis van Gaal is set to take over at Spurs after the World Cup

On the brink: Technical director Franco Baldini (left) is on borrowed time at Spurs

I understand Van Gaal would be willing to have current boss Tim Sherwood involved at the club as an assistant manager.

But Sherwood is unlikely to want to operate as a No 2, and should he part company with Spurs will want a job in his own right.

Norwich, the club where he started out as a player, is a possibility.

So is Crystal Palace if they part company with Tony Pulis, who would still prefer to work in the north of England.

Winston Reid, the West Ham centre half, is a summer target for Liverpool.

The New Zealander is upset that after recovering from injury he has not won his regular place back in the West Ham defence.

Arsenal have been keeping tabs on Reid’s situation but Liverpool are set to make a firm offer.

Out of favour: West Ham's New Zealand international Reid is wanted by Liverpool

Although he was Manchester United’s hat-trick hero in the win over Olympiacos, Robin van Persie’s future at the club remains problematic.

The injury he has sustained has made the situation even more complex.

If United end the season well without him then despite all the PR that all is well with RVP and United there could well be - as first predicted here - a parting of ways.

Should Arsenal not be prepared to pay RVP’s £230,000-a-week wages to take the Dutchman back then I understand AC Milan are lining up a bid.

Heading for the exit? Manchester United's injured hat-trick hero Robin van Persie

Manchester United owners the Glazer family will hold a summit meeting involving Sir Alex Ferguson as soon as the season finishes to decide whether to stick with David Moyes as manager.

The Glazers are ready to spend £200m on new players.

But despite the midweek Champions League win and the success at West Ham, there are worries about the ability of Moyes to re-build the team.

The problem is who would they bring in?

Pep Guardiola seems committed to Bayern Munich for the next few seasons.

Carlos Queiroz would be seen as a short-term measure.

And Ryan Giggs lacks managerial experience.

But there is talk around Old Trafford that Giggs - with Paul Scholes alongside him - might be the way forward for United.

Double act: Giggs (left) and Scholes (right) already have legendary status at Old Trafford

He's behind you: Giggs (right) could take over at United if Moyes (left) is sacked

I am hearing

Manchester City are set to gazump Chelsea and Liverpool in the pursuit of 15-year-old wonderkid Lee Seung-woo.

Lee is currently with Barcelona.

But the South Korean has so far refused the professional terms offered by the Catalan club.

Many figures have been mentioned.

City are prepared to pay over the odds for a player who could become naturalised and thus qualify as home grown.

I am also hearing

Nike are set in the next few days to reveal England’s kit for the World Cup finals this summer.

It will be an white ensemble given FIFA’s bizarre regulations that all countries shall be dressed top-to-toe in the same colour.

Just Do It: Nike are set to unveil England's kit for the World Cup next week

So that should make the change strip all red.

Unless there is a diversion, like the decision at the the 1970 World Cup to go for all sky blue, as worn when England beat Czechoslovakia that summer in Mexico thanks to an Alan Clarke penalty.

Insiders suggest it is likely that there will be a retro feel about the kits.

For further info in the next few days, it might be worth looking at www.BobbyFC.com.

iSay

Monday: He really must have the best agent and PR machine in world football. After failure at Chelsea and Spurs Andre Villas-Boas lands another mega-money job; this time in Russia with Zenit St Petersburg.

Back in business: Villas-Boas (left) takes his Zenit players for training on Friday

Tuesday: Allegations emerge that FIFA official Jack Warner took a bung to deliver the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Isn’t it time the big national federations - led by the FA - threatened to boycott the 2018 World Cup, unless FIFA’s current regime, led by Sepp Blatter, is desposed?

Wednesday: United's best European fightback in 30 years was greeted with a huge sense of relief, but I suspect it has only papered over the cracks. It’s hardly a re-incarnation. If Ryan Giggs is seen as the future then the fear that United could be heading the way of Liverpool in 1990 could well be justified.

Thursday: George Boyd of Hull gets a three-match ban for spitting at Joe Hart following video evidence. Further proof that a weekly review panel should be set up for all off the ball incidents or mistakes. It would not undermine referees, but reduce pressure on them.

Friday: A relatively quiet week from Jose Mourinho, then he complains that the FA are always picking on him. And then he has a pop at Arsene Wenger. He should conduct his press conferences on a soap box.

Holding court: Jose Mourinho at his pre-match press conference earlier this week

Backpass

I was sifting through some old football programmes the other day and was immediately reminded that the thin pocket sized pamphlets back in the Seventies packed far more punch than the oversized, overpriced brochures that most clubs offer these days.

One programme in particular emphasised the point.

It was Hammer from November 1973 when West Ham hosted Arsenal, and two articles resonated with the sort of blunt Gene Hunt-style rhetoric from Life of Mars, set in that year when David Bowie toured as Ziggy Stardust.

Hammering it home: Gene Hunt (right) would have been proud of Charlie George's words in 1973

One short article tucked away on a page on the “visitors” was a gem:

'Pressure' by Charlie.

'Of course there is pressure. But does anyone think we will quit the game because of it; you bet your life not.

'Why? Because despite all this pressure, we know on what side our bread is buttered. We're lucky!

'I’m lucky. I’m doing what I really want to do. How many people can say that? Can the millions who get up, go to work, go to bed...? Do we really expect THEM to believe playing the game is so difficult?

'Because we have the skill to kick a ball we enjoy a standard of living better than thousands of less fortunate people.

'One day somebody is going to tumble they are being had over by this pressure business.'

Great stuff that from Charlie George, but he got the last bit wrong.

No nonsense: Former Arsenal forward Charlie George (right) back in 1973

Even though pro rata players are vastly better rewarded now than then, they still manage to persuade punters about pressure.

Then in a column entitled “Viewpoint” Bill Shankly was quoted thus: 'Football these days is riddled with theory men.

'They seem to be everywhere... All those fancy phrase merchants and TV commentators confusing everybody with a lot of complicated jargon.

'Football is the simplest game in the world; you do not need blackboards to show people how the game should be played.

'Basically there is nothing new in football.'

Funny how some things don’t seem to change - and of course Bowie is still going strong.

Libero

It seems that having parted company with Joe Kinnear Newcastle will not engage a new director of football.

The decision begs the obvious question: is there really such a role?

In England the only top club that seems think so is Tottenham - although come the summer the club could get rid of Franco Baldini - then it remains to be seen whether the club maintain the post.

After all, Baldini’s predecessor Damien Comolli didn’t last long when he moved on to Liverpool, who have since dispensed with the job.

Short-lived: Damien Comolli (right) did not long spend long at Tottenham or Liverpool

The fact is the majority of managers or head coaches - whether they are from home or abroad - don’t like working in tandem with someone who is given too much control over transfers.

Or worse is seen to work behind their back.

There was immediate friction between Kinnear and Alan Pardew.

Pardew won that battle not least because there was scant evidence that Kinnear did much to justify his role.

Failed experiment: Joe Kinnear (right) left Newcastle just a few months into his job as director of football

In contrast Andre Villas-Boas was overruled on several transfers last summer.

And whatever AVB’s shortcomings, the situation highlighted how ludicrous it is when a manager can’t construct a squad with the personnel he wants.

Not least because most of the club’s summer signings were Baldini’s choices, yet the poor early season form cost AVB his job.

Yes most managers in the modern game welcome someone who can handle the financial negotiations and/or oversee development at all levels below the first team as well as help in the scouting.

But they don’t like someone who is above them.

It’s often said how well the system works abroad.

Fall guy: Villas-Boas paid the price for Baldini's transfer shortcomings at Spurs in the summer

But in most cases these directors of football tend to work in the background. And have no designs to be a manager in their own right. In the exceptional cases of Real Madrid and Barcelona the big money statement signings are decided in the boardroom then executed by the director of football because the head coach is seen as disposable.

Even then it’s hardly done in harmony even if there is success on the pitch, which led to Jose Mourinho leaving Real Madrid and Pep Guardiola deciding he had had enough at Barcelona.

In England there is no way Mourinho would work under a director of football and neither would Guardiola.

The fact is, as in all aspects of life, some things work in some countries and don’t work in others. The post of director of football is one of them.

No 1: Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola wouldn't put up with working under a director in England

BTW

Congratulations to Arsene Wenger for passing his 1,000th game in charge.

Who would have thought that when he was plucked from relative obscurity to replace Brue Rioch in 1996?

When it was revealed that then Arsenal power broker David Dein had opted for the man in charge of Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan there was general sense of bemusement given the thin CV of the bespectacled Frenchman.

There was doubt too in the dressing room, not least from then skipper Tony Adams.

The Evening Standard even ran the headline: 'Arsene Who?'

Prior to his appointment the overwhelming speculation was that the Gunners were going to appoint either Johan Cruyff or Bobby Robson.

Given Wenger’s indications that he wants to stay on - although has yet to sign a contract - the question could be posed: 'Who But Arsene?'

Eighteen years on: Arsene Wenger is unveiled at Highbury back in 1996

But one of the many statistics that have been trotted out this week here is one of the most telling.

In Wenger’s first 500 games Arsenal won three league titles and four FA Cups.

In his last 500 games Arsenal have won NO trophies.

And the thrashing at the hands of Chelsea suggests the barren run will go into a 10th year.

So perhaps the most pertinent question is: 'How Much Longer Wenger?'

To Check precisely how long it since Arsenal last won a trophy - it is now 503 games - in days months and minutes go to:

www.sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk.

FOTB

In the afterglow of their romping 3-0 win over Olympiacos, Wayne Rooney boasted that Manchester United could take Europe by storm and go on and win the Champions League.

Indeed the general reaction to United’s victory was rather knee-jerk.

The relief was understandable but after the torrid season the club have suffered then it was all a bit early to be talking in terms of a re-birth or renaissance.

And as if to emphasise the need for a reality check United were then drawn against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

Foot on the ball, Wayne.

Wishful thinking: Rooney (left) said United could win the Champions League after they beat Olympiacos

Y Factor

Why didn’t referee Andre Marriner show a bit more common sense and reverse his wrong decision to send off Kieran Gibbs when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain admitted he was the player who had handled Eden Hazard’s effort off the line?

iBet

There has never been an El Clasico Champions League final.

What a mouth-watering prospect a shoot-out between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in Lisbon would be.

I'm hoping for it and you can get odds of 11-2 of it happening. You can get 100-1 for the more unlikely outcome of an all English final, while Chelsea are 11-1 to win and Man Utd 33-1.  

The world's greatest: Ronaldo (left) and Messi (right) could meet in the Champions League final

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Pat57, Exeter, United Kingdom, 7 hours ago

"Carlos Queiroz would be seen as a short-term measure" - Queiroz, as his spells in charge of Real Madrid and Portugal, showed is one of those great coaches who just doesn`t have what it takes to be a good, let alone great manager and I doubt very much if he`s even on the longest of long lists to take over even briefly at United.

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Stargazer, On the silver mountain, Switzerland, 7 hours ago

I trust you Arséne, we still have the FA cup and please next season buy world class players with the PUMA contract.

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JïmbóJámésRóbsón, New York City, United States, 7 hours ago

Giggs as manager would be a disaster. Being a great player in no way indicates potential as a great manager (Pele, Bobby Charlton, Maradona, etc.). I'd have serious doubts Giggs could even cut it at Conference level, he's simply not management material. I'm quite close to a few people very high up at Old Trafford and the feeling for now is they're probably sticking with Moyes. If things change in the remainder of the season then the three names they're looking at are Mourinho, Klopp and Guardiola. They've also got one eye on seeing how Rodgers progresses at Liverpool, and have been given encouraging signs that he'd be willing to listen to what United have to say.

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