goonersphere logo website logo-02

The beginning of the end for Wenger

The 'Wenger Out Brigade' has long been a club I had no desire to be a part of. Personal attacks on the manager mixed with symptomatic negativity and delusions of grandeur about the scale of change Usmanov could bring to the club make them a difficult bunch to reason with. But the 'Arsene Knows Best' clan are by far and away worse. Listening to AKBs claim that these heavy defeats against the big sides 'don't matter' has become painful at the least. The unquestioning, and often naïve, level of loyalty they place in him is akin to no other fanbase in the world. It is truly remarkable. Thus for several years now I have sat on the fence, dissociating myself with both groups.

I honestly think that over the last nine years there was no better manager in the world for what Arsenal required. With the limited resources he's had top four has of course been the priority, we would not even be thinking about a title challenge now had we fallen out of it at any point, and his experience in the job as well as his eye for talent and ability to get teams overperforming meant he fully justified his continued status as manager even through the barren spell. But this season something has changed. The stadium debts have been tamed, the loan repayments significantly reduced and he has finally had the financial capacity to compete in the transfer market - a fact showcased by the signing of Mesut Özil in the summer. But he wasted the January window. With knowledge of Ramsey and Walcott's injuries as well as the all too clear signs that Olivier Giroud was dropping off the pace he should've spent the money that was there. The money that fans have been so aggressively stripped off with price increase after price increase in recent years. The money that new TV revenues and commercial deals are gifting all big premier league sides. It was there to be spent and he failed. As a result we are now lingering on the edge of the top four and at risk of losing out on far more than the £30 million pounds it would have cost us to bring in a top quality player or two.

And this is why I, and a startling number of other fans, changed their stance after that Everton game to one of 'Wenger Out’. Why the Everton game? It was the first time his lazy January transfer window has threatened to actually impact on the long term future on the club. Up till this season, he could hardly be blamed for doing limited business in the window, with lack of competitiveness on wages especially a big stumbling block. Yet this year, with no compulsion to be making £30 million a year in profits, it was nothing other than blind stubbornness which prevented Arsenal from signing a player of the calibre of Diego Costa, Christian Benteke et al and staying well in the Premier league title charge. Just look at Liverpool’s squad! With that bench they are somehow now in the driving seat with five games to go?! It really begs the question where would we be now if Wenger hadn’t criminally and completely wasted his January. Since January we have been on the end of three soul crushing defeats. Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton. If it had happened once, that can be put down as a ‘mistake’. If it had happened twice that would be not good enough, but the responsibility would lie at least in part with the players. But three times? Something is clearly not right at the club. Ian Wright was saying it again on Sky Sports the other day; Wenger does never and has never analysed the opposition, he treats every game the same. In my opinion, with our form, we should’ve just shut up shop at Everton from the first minute and taken the draw - thus leaving us with the clear advantage going into the final five games with a four point cushion and far easier run in. Instead we were far too easily picked off again and again and again. Even more infuriating was that he bought Aaron Ramsey and Oxlade Chamberlain off the bench who proceeded to change the game! Ox hit the bar and should’ve won a penalty and for half an hour with them in the fold we were probably the better team. Yet he waited till we had gone 3-0 down before it was ‘time’ to bring them on. 

For all intents and purposes it looks to me as if Wenger has lost the dressing room. To be honest, if I were one of those players who was just told to go out at Stamford Bridge or Anfield and ‘play our usual game’, I’d be pretty sick of getting whacked as a result of it too. On top of this, his in-game tactics have been substandard for years now and he’s just about got away with it until this year where defeat after defeat after defeat against the big teams has perhaps been massaged by a lack of ability to compete spending-wise. It was an easy and relevant excuse. But what was the point of all the austerity during the stadium move if, when we finally break from the aggressive loan repayments, the money which has been safeguarded for years continues not to be spent? Looking at Wenger at Goodison he seemed dejected, he seemed to be expecting the result almost, he seemed to have given up. I don’t think there’s any coincidence that these contract talks have gone very quiet. The FA Cup provides a welcome relief from our otherwise catastrophic league season and it would be nice if one of our greatest ever managers could leave having won a trophy - the lack of which has been the source of so much unfair criticism in the last eight years. He can’t stay any longer though. He’s lost the fans, he’s going to inevitably waste another transfer window in the summer and maybe this time - with United sure to be pulling the boat out to try and return - it will finally cost us our top four place. After nine years of sacrificing all else to stay in that position - Wenger loses it at the very last with the stadium paid off? There’s some sort of cruel irony there, but one which has become a very real possibility.

Tell us what you think! If you agree, or have a different view, please leave a comment in the comments section or why not write a response or your own article on YouWrite?

Think you know Arsenal? Test your Arsenal knowledge on our trivia page and see if you can beat the top score.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook, add us to your G+ circle and follow us on Twitter.

Featured On

FFC Blog Network Arsenal News & Transfers

Arsenal PRSS Arsenal News

“as

Partners