The monarchy aside, Britain doesn’t really do longevity these days. The nation of “keep calm and carry on” and of “until death do us part” has often, it appears, given way to a land of attention deficit and the seductive thrill of quick fixes. No part of public life exemplifies this more clearly than professional football management. The average lifespan of a Premier League boss now stands at just over a year. At the beginning of this season, Crystal Palace’s Frank de Boer set a new record by losing his job after five matches. All of which makes Arsène Wenger’s 22 seasons and 1,229 games in charge of Arsenal a modern miracle of persistence (in the same span, Chelsea have...
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