Wenger Out campaign reaches new low

Arsenal are at a crossroads. This season feels like staring at an unstable bridge spanning between two eras. Arsenal has a choice to stay on this side of the valley or traverse a risky path for the promise of a greater chance at a better tomorrow on the other side. For many, the risk is too great. This side of the valley is familiar, comfortable and life isn't really that bad when you look at neighbouring villages. For others, the land has become tainted and feel we are only delaying the inevitable by staying and should take the risk now before the bridge falls into further disrepair.

Some of the latter group are particularly vociferous in their demands. They hold up banners, they walk the streets like town-criers bellowing their message for all to hear and threaten self-exile until their wishes are granted. It can get pretty nasty at times and you see the odd vile remark about Wenger on social media but the latest controversy is the false equivalence of Arsenal's managerial issues to the rule of a brutal dictator.

One Arsenal "fan" has taken it upon himself to give a TV interview comparing Arsène Wenger, a football manager, to Robert Mugabe, a notorious despot who has plunged his nation into poverty. Perhaps this person was talking purely of their unwavering belief in their project but there are so many more accurate, and frankly less offensive, examples to use.

Wenger may not be perfect but he doesn't maintain his grip on "power" through oppression and violence. He is still in a job because he has earned the immortal respect of his bosses. The two situations are largely incomparable. What makes it worse is the chap making the comparison claims to have lived in Zimbabwe under Mugabe's rule. He should know better.

This is a new low for the Wenger Out movement. Many long-term supporters of a managerial change at Arsenal will be quick to distance themselves from such disgusting rhetoric but as the saying goes, a few bad apples spoil the bunch.

It is precisely because of nonsense like this, the demeanour of the banner wavers, their appearances online and behaviour at social media and during games that makes them so utterly ignorable by the board. It's also what makes a significant proportion of match-goers keen to distance themselves and sing 'One Arsène Wenger' even if they think the time has come for a change.

How we conduct ourselves is vital to how our views are received. Like it or not, pro-Wenger fans and less vocal, respectful pro-change fans largely conduct themselves with decorum and that gives the impression that the Wenger Out movement is staffed purely by a vocal minority with a brutish reputation. That's clearly not true but it is the perception.

The Wenger Out movement will never be considered seriously by the club's decision makers whilst the argument is being aggressively made in an alien vernacular and those the board would see as potential peers come out with bilge.

No matter your position on Wenger it is important to act with class. We are Arsenal after all and our class is supposed to be permanent.

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