McLaren

Huge success in the 1980s, 1990s and the millennium before a drought without major silverware and two axed top bosses, McLaren and Arsenal must see similarities in one another's fortunes.

F1 Desk_1

10 May 2018

McLaren and Arsenal have a significant amount in common. After enjoying a good deal of success in the late 1980s to early ‘90s and around the turn of the millennium, both teams have now gone a significant amount of time without any major silverware, lacking a championship in over a decade.

There is still a decent budget there to be spent when the time is right to bring in some of the sport’s biggest stars (be it Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, or Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang), but the stars are still not quite aligning for a return to the top. Keeping hold of top-drawer talent can prove challenging, particularly when more successful rivals come knocking (Lewis Hamilton; Robin van Persie, Alexis Sanchez).

Hammering home the uncanny parrallels, both McLaren and Arsenal recently deposed long-time top bosses who were given credit for laying down the legacy of each team only to be shuffled out of the picture after poor results tarnished iconic reputations. Ron Dennis and Arsene Wenger could swap some stories!