Arsene Wenger’s League Cup woe: Sir Bobby Robson and Bill Shankly among great bosses who failed to win elusive trophy
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IT IS looking more and more likely this will be Arsene Wenger’s last season at Arsenal.
And if the Frenchman does leave at the end of the current campaign, he will do so without ever having won the League Cup.
Last night’s 2-0 defeat at home to Southampton ended any Gunners’ hopes of EFL Cup glory.
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Arsenal have reached two finals under Wenger, losing 2-1 to Chelsea in 2007 and to Birmingham in 2011.
However, he be alone in having a gaping hole in his trophy cabinet — here are five greats who are just missing that one final piece of glory.
Sir Matt Busby — League Cup
MANCHESTER UNITED’S first legendary manager won the top flight title on five occasions and even led the club was the ashes of despair to glory.
Just ten years on from the devastating Munich Air Disaster, Busby made the Red Devils England’s first European champions.
While he also won the FA Cup twice.
However, in his time as United boss, they entered the League Cup twice — losing out to Bradford and Blackpool.
Bill Shankly — European Cup
TOOK Liverpool from the second tier to the pinnacle of English football and built a dynasty.
Shankly won the top flight twice, two FA Cups and a Uefa Cup in 1973.
Yet, the big prize eluded him. In 1967 and 1974 Liverpool lost to Ajax and Red Star Belgrade respectively — but it was their first which sticks in the throat.
Liverpool went to the San Siro for their semi-final second leg with a healthy 3-1 lead over Inter Milan.
However, they were beaten 3-0 in Italy amid strong suspicions of referee bribery from the tricky hosts.
Brian Clough — FA Cup
CHARISMATIC, controversial, unique and a winner — the Middlesbrough-born boss is everything an English football manager shouldn’t be.
The enigmatic Clough is one of only three men to win the top flight with two different teams — unfashionable sides, Derby and Nottingham Forest.
And with the latter he did the unthinkable and won back-to-back European Cups.
However, he failed to win the FA Cup which, as a proud Englishman, must have hurt — his Forest lost the final in 1991 against Tottenham.
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Bob Paisley — FA Cup
THE most successful English manager of all-time and one of only two men to win the European Cup three times.
Paisley took over from Shankly at Liverpool and actually managed to progress the Scot’s sensational work.
On top of that, he won the league on six occasions, the League Cup three times, a Uefa Cup and a Uefa Super Cup.
Arch-rivals United stopped Liverpool become England’s first Treble winners with victory at Wembley in Paisely’s only-ever FA Cup final appearance in 1977.
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Sir Bobby Robson — league title
LIKEABLE Englishman won league titles in Holland with PSV Eindhoven and in Portugal with Porto — but never in his homeland.
The Three Lions’ second-most successful manager, Robson led his country to the World Cup semi-finals in 1990
His best spell in English club management came with Ipswich, where he remarkably won an FA Cup and a Uefa Cup.
But, the league title eluded him — in 1981, he led the unfashionable Suffolk side to second-place behind Aston Villa and 22 years on, Newcastle finished third in the Premier League.