So what a journey it has been for this gawky, pioneering, driven, stubborn Strasbourg-born son of a bistro owner. 20 years as a Premier League manager: surely we shall not see his like again, and all that. The next longest-serving are Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche, neither has been at his club for four years yet.

Part of Arsenal’s story has unquestionably been social media: when Wenger started the job, this didn’t exist. He has suffered the indignities of online campaigns for his removal, of being the subject of street-shouty shared You Tube videos made by men who should probably get out less, of being barracked on Twitter by Piers Morgan.

In a stadium whose splendour and football is only sporadically matched by the atmosphere, he is jeered at by the fans to whom he has delivered two Doubles, the Invincible Season, three Premier League Titles in all and six FA Cups. He has also helped bring financial stability, consistent Champions League football and a European Cup Final. To say nothing of some of the most brilliant and exciting footballers ever to play in these isles.

Arsenal fans, one could argue, don’t know how good they’ve got it. You could be a fan of Leeds, Villa, Coventry. You could be Chester City. Even if he had won nothing, the football has almost always been excellent, the Champions League a fixture, the future secured. But for the most expensive tickets in the land, for the huge wage bill and, even if smaller than some other clubs, the vast transfer fees spent, the fact remains that Arsenal have not won the League since 2004, and went from 2005 to 2014 without silverware. The elusive European success has rarely, to be harsh, looked likely. “Fourth place is a trophy” is an unworthy epitaph. Perhaps Mourinho was right. Perhaps he has been a “specialist in failure”.