Time is up for dinosaurs

NOW we know why the dinosaurs disappeared. On Sunday night, two of the more Jurassic managers of our age – throwbacks no doubt - once again displayed all the hallmarks of a species that failed to adapt. And once again they were on the wrong end of a couple of "meteorites".
Tyrannosaurus Arsene and Tyrannosaurus Louis once ruled the earth but neither looks likely to survive the summer. They have been struggling to cope with hungrier, cleverer and quicker rivals for a while, but strikes by Adlene Guedioura and Dimitri Payet respectively all but finished them off.
The FA Cup offered a chance for at least a degree of redemption: home ties against supposedly lesser beings. T Louis somehow clung on but West Ham will be odds on in the replay, while T Arsene fell to an all too familiar recent failing – a lack of killer instinct.
As the cameras focused upon them, we saw despairing hands scratch and cover ancient heads, still defiant but increasingly flummoxed by the failings of their respective teams.
What neither could get their ancient heads around was that both had been assembled with their tried and trusted formulae that had worked so well in the previous geological age.
But where the Frenchman had once moulded the Invincibles and the Dutchman a young and vibrant Ajax with Kluivert, Davids, Bergkamp, Overmars et al, they are now lumbered with the likes of Welbeck and Fellaini.
Clearly their recruitment has gone awry with both guilty of buying too many players not fit to wear the shirt.
Where Wenger has underspent, Van Gaal has overdone it on underwhelming players while their tactics are very different too. Wenger has never threatened his own fans with death by 1,000 sideways passes, always believing in attacking football.
Only rarely has he been convinced of the need to contain, the best example being away to Manchester City when Francis Coquelin came of age last season.
But where the two are uncannily similar is in their stubbornness. Whatever disaster or cock-up ensues, it is never their fault and this in itself has become self-defeating. Wenger has persuaded himself that the support is simply too impatient suggesting that "only God would satisfy Arsenal fans".
And we thought it was only Mourinho who was "next to God".
Invoking the almighty is dangerous ground to tread – even in jest – and perhaps a sign he is losing it. Indeed, there were shades of Steve McClaren about his exasperation even at the pre-match press conference and we know what happened to him.
Arsenal fans are split over what should happen to Wenger and there were even fights among Gooners late on about where the fault lay. It has been stated that the vitriolic reaction to defeat by Swansea swayed the board into thinking his time was up, but he still could conceivably win the league.
Assuming they bow out against Barcelona – this is a crazy season but not crazy enough to see Arsenal overturning a 2-0 lead in the Nou Camp – they will now only have the league to play for and could give it everything.
The odds may be long but not long enough to deny one of the two greatest managers in the club's history a last shot at it.
It would also give the board time to come up with a successor. With Mourinho the only super manager available, it won't be easy. There's probably more chance of Fergie taking it than the Special One but Arsenal's hierarchy have only themselves to blame for allowing it to come to this.
Successive FA Cup triumphs have fooled them into thinking all was well when it patently was not. Failure to win the title this season of all seasons would be unforgivable but the signs have been there for more than a decade.
The last trophy before the recent pair of Cup triumphs was also the FA Cup – the lucky one on penalties in 2005 – and the two baubles that really matter – the Premier League and the Champions League have not been threatened since the admittedly unlucky loss to Barcelona in the 2006 final.
Arsenal fans may have an insufferable sense of entitlement but once the stadium was paid for and the club had "financial firepower" - as CEO Ivan Gazidis put it – you can't blame them for waving ten-pound notes in Wenger's direction while advising him to: "Spend some f***ing money."
Things were not quite as acrimonious at Old Trafford but could be on Thursday if United repeat the lifeless non-performance we saw in the Europa League at Anfield. They simply did not turn up in any recognisably competitive shape and this has to be down to the manager.
Square pegs, round holes, kids doing men's jobs, lack of leadership, lack of interest – and all this in his second season after spending £250m.
And still Van Gaal blames the media. "You've sacked me three times already," he told them last week. You wonder if it is the same guy who took the Netherlands to the World Cup semifinal two years ago and who, for many Devils, couldn't come soon enough.
Both managers have had their glory days but if either one is in the dugout next August, you can only begin to imagine the despair the fans of their respective clubs would feel. While there is a case for Wenger to see out the season, if Van Gaal loses to Liverpool and then West Ham, he should go there and then.
Don't prolong the torture. Or endanger any more species.