Originally Posted by
Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
I wrote this a year ago
Arsene Wenger AKA The never ending story
On the day I write this (if tapping at my screen on my iPhone can be called as such) the nation is celebrating the longevity of another long reigning figurehead.
However the figurehead to whom I refer is certainly not quite so widely celebrated.
Arsene Wenger is limping towards his 20th year in charge at Arsenal football club, or at least he would be if there was any sense that his job was under pressure and indeed there is no great overriding consensus on whether he should be under any.
One might argue that he is the victim of his own success, and frustration at his inability to challenge for a league title even after the club has passed through the period of financial uncertainty could be just boredom of perpetual stability.
It's true we are not suffering the reversal of fortunes being endured by Manchester United in the wake of Alex Ferguson's departure, let alone the living nightmare that Aston Villa fans are being subjected to.
It's also true that when Arsene Wenger does step down he will have left the club in a far greater position than how he found it, a club that has consistently reaped the financial benefits of qualifying for the top tier European completion every season. A club that has financed its own move into a modern 60,000 capacity stadium and a club that can only be surpassed in spending power by The European super clubs and those financed by a billionaire benefactor.
However that departure is quite probably at this moment in time something the majority of fans wish to expedite, we are currently third in the table quite some distance away from the two teams battling it out for the title.
But with the rather luck lustre form shown by the traditional competing clubs of Chelsea, Man United and Man City the two teams competing for the title are North London rivals Tottenham and a team considered eight months ago more likely to be battling against relegation than for the championship in Leicester City.
There is no doubt looking at it impartially that both Tottenham and Leicester deserve to be in their respective positions, they have both shown the most character, the most consistency and more often than not the best quality of football.
Arsenal fans feel betrayed that what was for a short time a three way battle, has seen Arsenal decline to challenge for the title until the bitter end and drop off into the more familiar area of battling to finish in third or fourth.
This is considered unacceptable by fans who have they believe shown great patience when the club has in the past sold off its best players and not given itself the tools to compete in order to allow the stadium to be paid for in a timely manner.
With a renegotiated sponsorship deal for the stadium naming rights as well as a lucrative deal for kit manufacture , the money is there to be spent on transfers and this was evidenced by an outlay of almost 100million by Arsene Wenger between July 2014 and January 2015.
However despite finishing some distance behind the eventual champions Chelsea, he decided not to make not one single outfield addition to the squad during the summer.
His solitary purchase being that of Petr Cech from Chelsea which taken on its own was greeted as an excellent piece of business.
In the fans view the failure to bring in at the very least a consistent goalscorer has brought about what is viewed as an all too predictable collapse after being top at the beginning of the calendar year.
This discontent is becoming ever more apparent, and has grown from rumblings of discontent on fan forums and social media over the last few years to banners and Anti Wenger chants in the crowd at the Emirates stadium.
However despite a mixture of apathy and apoplexy from the Arsenal supporters, the long serving manager seems stubbornly unmoved and reasserts that he is the best man for the job.
With absenteeism at tonight's game vs West Brom likely to be at all time high, the question has to be asked how will all this end?.
My own view is that Wenger did himself no favours by signing a contract extension in 2014. A contract signed in the aftermath of our FA cup win over Hull which was the first trophy won by the club in nine years (which was incidentally also the FA cup).
Had he chosen to end his tenure at the club on a high with one final piece of silverware, his send off would have been the mawkish but resplendent goodbye ceremony that would have been no less than he deserved.
However perhaps understandably now that he had the opportunity to work with a less restrictive budget he wanted to take a punt at the bigger trophies he must have felt that years of the clubs self imposed austerity had denied him.
It has been at best a mixed time for him since. There have been excellent one off results, from the wins against Manchester City, Manchester United and Bayern Munich (especially welcome as our performances and results against the big sides were too often predictably disappointing) to the FA cup final annihilation of Aston Villa to the cautious optimism at the beginning of this year that a first title for 12 years was within reach.
Wenger also does himself no favours with his prosaic way of answering questions in press conferences, where almost on autopilot he praises the team for its hunger, desire and spirit where it's abundantly clear that none of these qualities have been on display. Which makes it appear that he doesn't seem to grasp that there is something amiss with how he is setting his team out to play, and how his players don't seem to be functioning as individuals or a unit.
I say makes it appear because it's unlikely he is suffering impaired mental acuity and more likely taking his usual poker face mentality into press conferences.
However it can be infuriating when in the midst of a title collapse he extols the virtues of consistency in finishing third or fourth.
Frankly finishing third or fourth were useful bolt holes when playing with a team shorn of its brightest talents due to financial constraints.
You have to think that someone who is aiming for Gold does not boast about how many Bronzes they have.
Whether he is aware of what has gone wrong or not, as he admits himself the responsibility falls squarely on his shoulders.
He chose not to spend relying on players to stay fit when empirical evidence suggested that wouldn't be the case.
Throughout the course of the season he has often made baffling substitutions some of which have arguably gone on to lose us points.
And frankly whatever side he has put out week in week out has often lacked the drive and intensity seen in Leicester and Tottenham.
If this was a younger man you would think this would be a cause for reflection before going back to the drawing board and starting again.
For a man of 66 you have to question whether the willing is there to change his methods and begin afresh next season.
And for many fans staying away tonight is recognition that their team is being managed by a man treading water who is still there either because he doesn't know when to quit or out of some stubborn resolve to honour his contract.
There is no question of the board intervening on the fans behalf. Stan Kroenke holds Arsene Wenger in very high esteem and as he owns two thirds of the club his opinion trumps the thousands of discontented fans.
Which means of course that there is literally no chance Wenger isn't in charge at the beginning of next season.
The question is though if Wenger does not address the flaws in the squad or his coaching methods which many believe he won't, will fan boycotts become par for the course. Will people renew their season tickets in the same number in the interim between the end of this season and the start of next.
Will the majority shareholder be hit where it hurts him the most in his wallet, either by people not buying tickets or season ticket holders not turning up for several games when they do.
An empty stadium for several matches would surely have a detrimental effect on the clubs share value, which could force Kroenke to intervene.
The likelihood when all said and done is that Wenger will still be master of his own destiny, and if the relationship between himself and the fans which despite rocky patches has been generally fantastic continues to sour might he decide that his current contract will be his last.
My personal feeling is that his exit should not be up to him to determine. Even those who declare themselves President for life in impoverished states with abundant natural resources are subject to coups.
Wenger has achieved immense things with Arsenal, in his time he has proven to be a visionary who has provided so many Arsenal fans with so many treasured memories that his legacy is almost unassailable. He has achieved immortality within Arsenal football club and hopefully he will be spoken about long after he and we have ceased to be.
And Yet no one in my mind should go on forever, and no one has the right to believe that only they can determine the manner and timing of their departure.
This was exactly the kind of hubris that saw Margaret Thatcher removed from office by her own colleagues.
If Wengers 1990 moment is not here already, it surely can't be far away and I hope for his own sake that he has the good sense to see the writing on the wall.
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