Where it all began
On December 10, 1996, after a disastrous 3 wins and 15 losses start to the season, then San Antonio Spurs General Manager Gregg Popovich fired head coach Bob Hill and named himself as a replacement.
Popovic had previously served as an Assistant Coach of the Spurs under Larry Brown between 1988 and 1992 but his (self) appointment as head coach was still somewhat unexpected.
Popovic’s announcement was greeted with a fair degree of skepticism at the time, and very little changed in his first season in charge where injuries to key players, including franchise centre David Robinson, meant the former Air Force Academy assistant could only lead the Spurs to a 20 and 62 record.
Twenty years on, Popovich is celebrated as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, has former assistant coaches dotted around the league in various capacities and just led the Spurs to a 67 and 15 season, in which his team lost only one home game.
Since 1998, the Spurs have never failed to make the NBA playoffs and have won five NBA titles, the most recent in 2014.
Far from facing calls to step down, Popovich has shown an ability to continuously reinvent his teams, albeit around a few totems of consistency, and will become the head coach of the U.S. men’s national team after the 2016 Olympics.
Just three months before Popovich handed himself the reins in San Antonio, another coach now revered for his longevity was also assuming his post.
On 22 September 1996, Arsenal announced that Frenchman Arsene Wenger, previously of Nagoya Grampus in Japan, would replace Bruce Rioch as manager.
Again, the move was granted with a degree of skepticism, with the much better known Johan Cruyff - then of Barcelona - considered the favourite to take over at Highbury.
Wenger guided Arsenal to third in his first season in charge, but the club failed to qualify for the Champions League on goal difference.
From underwhelming first seasons in charge, the parallels that have developed between ‘the Professor’ of north London and ‘Pop’ in Texas are hard to ignore.
Early Success
The upside of the Spurs dismal first season under Popovich was them landing the number one pick in the 1997 draft, with which they selected Tim Duncan.
Duncan not only immediately complemented Robinson, but would go on to become one of the greatest power forwards of all time, and remains a franchise cornerstone to this day.
Wenger inherited a squad already containing a famously robust back four and Dutch ace Dennis Bergkamp, who had arrived the previous June from Inter Milan.
French midfield powerhouses Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit followed within 12 months of Wenger taking over and Ducth winger Marc Overmars was also added from Ajax during the summer of 1997.
Wenger’s side would go on to do the double that season, lifting both the Premier League title and the FA Cup at the end of the 1997/98 season.
Back in San Antonio, it took Popovich one year longer to achieve similar success with the first of San Antonio’s NBA titles not coming until June 1999.
Both titles were merely the harbinger of what was to come however.
The rebuild
Wenger’s efforts to build on his initial success got an unexpected shot in the arm when French teenager Nicolas Anelka threatened to go on strike unless he got a move and was shipped off to join Real Madrid.
While painted as something of a crisis at the time, the move paved the way for Thierry Henry - who had previously played under Wenger at Monaco - to join the Gunners for approximately £11m in August.
Henry - a bit like Duncan - would go on to become one of the most revered players internationally - a striker graceful and ruthless in equal measure - and is now somewhat synonymous with both Arsenal and Wenger.
Popovich was going through a similar transition with the Spurs - with Robinson approaching the end of his career but Duncan entering his prime - San Antonio struck it rich with two draft picks from outside the traditional American college system.
The Argentine shooting guard Manu Ginobili was drafted 57th overall in 1999 - but would not move to America from Italy until 2002 - while French point guard Tony Parker was selected 28th overall in the 2001 draft.
Ginobili and Parker - along with Duncan - would come to be known as San Antonio’s ‘Big Three’ and led the franchise to their second NBA title in 2003 after finishing the regular season with a 60 and 22 record.
Wenger was once again a year ahead of Popovich, guiding Arsenal to their second Premier League title in 2002, largely thanks to 24 goals from Henry.
The Gunners saw the title go to fierce rivals Manchester United the following season, but Wenger put together the crowning achievement of his career to date in 2003-2004.
Not only was did the Frenchman return the title to Highbury, he did it by going all season undefeated - a quite incredible achievement - earning his side the nickname ‘the Invincibles’.
As great as the accomplishment was, however, the title would prove to be Wenger’s last.
Two roads diverge
The supposed reasons for Wenger's Premier League drought are now well-documented.
The Gunners were financially disadvantaged by the cost of building a new stadium, and were met with renewed competition in the form of Chelsea - now backed by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich - and later Manchester City - similarly beneficiaries of Abu Dhabi oil money.
Wenger has been given credit for ensuring that Arsenal finished in the top four - and thus qualified for the lucrative Champions League - every season since the turn of the century - but two FA Cups in 2014 and 2015 has done little to quench the Gunners’ fans thirst for silverware.
Meanwhile, back in Texas Popovich was also entering the most successful phase of his career to date in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s.
After the 2003 championship, the Spurs went on to win the title in 2005 and 2007 - a remarkable record in a league designed to make continued excellence difficult to achieve by ensuring new talent entering the NBA goes to the teams with the worst records from the previous year.
The Spurs once again made the Conference Finals in 2008 - one step short of contesting the NBA Finals but with the ‘Big Three’ now growing older and a new generation of stars emerging, it seemed the Spurs’ era of dominance had come to an end.
Except that Popovich found a way to keep the Spurs relevant, even after LeBron James teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami to form a new super-team, dubbed ‘the Heatles’.
In 2013 Popovich had his Spurs back in the NBA Finals, losing in seven games to James’ Heat team, but 12 months later Pop got his revenge, overcoming Miami in five games to secure his fifth title, 15 years after his first.
Two years later, the Spurs - buoyed by the free agent signing of LaMarcus Aldridge and the emergence of defensive stopper and all-round star Kawhi Leonard, again proved the doubters wrong by going 67 and 15 in the regular season - a record only bettered by the history-making Golden State Warriors who won 73 games - the most ever in a regular season - eclipsing Michael Jordan’s 1996 Chicago Bulls.
[Note: A deep playoff run is still expected - although whether they can overcome the juggernaut that is the Warriors remains to be seen]
The missed opportunity
Wenger on the other hand has failed to grasp what many see as his best opportunity to win the title in 12 years.
Defending champions Chelsea faltered out of the gate and sacked Jose Mourinho in December with any chance of winning back-to-back titles already in tatters.
Manchester United were themselves still trying to get back on their feet after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, this season under Dutch boss Louis van Gaal.
Manchester City also seemingly shot themselves in the foot after announcing that Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini would be replaced by Spaniard Pep Guardiola - an announcement that coincided with some indifferent form and bad injury luck to put the Citizens title ambitions on ice.
But in a season when the big clubs that have previously stood in Arsenal’s way were struggling, Wenger has not been able to capitalise.
The financial issues associated with the new Emirates Stadium are behind him and he has spent big money on the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in recent summers.
Even so, Wenger has sometimes seemed reluctant to buy the one extra player or make the one tactical tweak that would turn his side from good into realistic title challengers.
The Gunners continue to play some of the most intricate and eye-catching football of any side in the Premier League.
But much like some of their finishing on the pitch, they seem to have missed an open goal when it comes to winning the title this season.
Instead, either fairytale Leicester - who deserve no end of credit for the run they have put together after almost being relegated last season - or the rising Tottenham will be crowned Premier League champions this term.
Arsenal will once again settle for a place in the Champions League. Wenger will probably keep his job, although the cries for change from the Gunners faithful are growing ever louder.
Popovich, meanwhile, continues to defy all conventional wisdom and looks like a man who in any given season could lead the Spurs to yet another title - even if he does finally lose Duncan to retirement this summer.
A graceful exit?
Wenger turns 67 in October, Popovich turned the same age in January. Neither can keep going forever.
But while Popovich seems to keep getting better with age, Wenger appears to have lost the competitive spirit that made Arsenal such a force in the early part of this century.
He seems to have sacrificed winning in order that his footballing principles are encapsulated by the way Arsenal play and, in doing so, settled into complacency. In that sense Wenger’s own ambitions have become bigger than a club.
Already some would argue that he has tarnished his legacy by sticking around too long and it would be a great shame if he wasn’t allowed to go out on his own terms.
One feels that Popovich will sense when his time is up and gracefully step back with a succession plan firmly in place. He has only ever been about winning.
It remains to be seen whether Wenger’s time at Arsenal will end in the spirit his early success deserves, and whether the Gunners can ever be a Premier League force again with him at the helm.
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