Wenger sitting there doing nothing as the squad he assembled got taken apart in the biggest humiliation ever inflicted on a EPL team pretty much ended all pretence regarding his tactical capabilities, or at least his willingness to admit his ideas are not always valid in every circumstance. If we were eight players light (which is an exaggeration given the quality of some of the "stars" we have missing, e.g. Diaby) he should have at least put what we had behind the ball and tried to keep the scoreline semi-respectable. Instead he played the mad general sending his kids over the top and into a hail of bullets. We wait to see if the consequences of such stubbornness or naivety will have a longer term effect on players like Coquelin and Jenkinson who he threw to the wolves in order to preserve his inappropriate demand for how football should be played regardless of the opposition.

I don't think many defend his tactical record over the last few seasons. We can argue about who is most responsible for leaving the squad short of quality but it's not the board's fault Wenger doesn't pay due respect to the opposition by incorporating them into his game plan accordingly. I believe most managers would handle on pitch matters more effectively than Wenger, and that includes your Redknapps, Keans and O'Neils - average managers but far more realistic than Wenger it seems. Whether they could manage the other aspects that Wenger is responsible for is another matter and highly doubtful.

That's our problem. Wenger is so interwoven into the fabric of the club it's hard to imagine anyone standing in his place. But it's really not too difficult to imagine another manager handling things better on the pitch and the training ground.