I was trying to make this point with Dumbledore the other day. Even if we win the Caffiene cup I don't think that is automatically going to equate to a new contract for Wenger. There is a sufficient amount of time between this weekend and the end of the season that Wenger can virtually render the goodwill earned from any unlikely cup win as virtually void with poor results.

Having an FA cup final at the end of the season is in that respect very well timed as winning it sits at the forefront of the memory and it has the gravitas and history that the Cara doesn't. I think people are also tending to forget and underestimate how much strong fan criticism from Arsenal fans has begun to affect Wenger. Much as we think he is teflon to it, he wants to be wanted by Arsenal fans and the club. The Public Wenger out shows has simmered for a year or so because we won the FA cup last season but if he doesn't win anything and stays out the top 4 and even if he does win the Cara cup, that fan disdain is going to bubble back up to the surface, the banners will return and Wenger will be increasingly vexed by the public shows of disapproval. This will be at its crescendo by the season end and I don't think that is going to convince even Kroenke that the contract shouldn't just meet its natural respectable end and be left to play out without any further extension. All parties would keep whatever little respect they have salvaged then.

It also shouldn't be forgotten that in avoiding the same merry go around of will Wenger sign on or won't he we saw last season.....he could have been offered a 3/4/5 year contract in the summer instead of the 2 year but he wasn't. I think the 2 year extension was partly a means of safeguarding / insurance however timid a gesture it may seem to us fans who desperately want him out.

I don't expect him to walk or be sacked this summer but I am not expecting an extension unless something significant happens...ie he wins the Europa and or finishes top 4....and then he has to do something significant next season too.