What was the straw that broke the camels back for you?

[Kano]

I heard rumours over the weekend that he will be offered a new 3 year contract.

I agree re: having a coach working alongside him, a recipe for disaster IMO. When he goes the slate should be wiped clean.

There is no clean slate. Wenger will not be leaving the club completely. He’ll move upstairs in some capacity, that has to be realised by fans. There are no ‘football’ men in the club apart from Wenger in the higher levels of management and they rely on him for everything. He’s also engineered himself into that position, as anyone would after 20 years in their job. They need his guidance on the next manager and beyond, so new contract or not, he’ll be tied very closely to the club for quite some time yet.

[Power n Glory]

There is no clean slate. Wenger will not be leaving the club completely. He’ll move upstairs in some capacity, that has to be realised by fans. There are no ‘football’ men in the club apart from Wenger in the higher levels of management and they rely on him for everything. He’s also engineered himself into that position, as anyone would after 20 years in their job. They need his guidance on the next manager and beyond, so new contract or not, he’ll be tied very closely to the club for quite some time yet.

You can't be so sure. Has Wenger ever hinted or expressed any desire to move upstairs? From what I remember he's always expressed the the opposite.

[selassie]

This is where I judge the Board. We really don't know what's going on behind the scenes but if he's rewarded with another contract nothing more needs to be said. I think that's when it's time to change the channel. No more football for me.

Yeah the board are just as bad if not worse, not one member on it has any idea about football and they are quite open and honest about that.

I've been losing interest for a while, I'm not a glory hunter, of course I want Arsenal to win trophies but if we're not I'd at least like to see us in the mix competing, you know doing our absolute upmost to be a competitive giant, I see none of that, just the same things repeated season after season. It's actually quite depressing because we all know what is going to happen this summer and next season with Wenger in charge.

[selassie]

There is no clean slate. Wenger will not be leaving the club completely. He’ll move upstairs in some capacity, that has to be realised by fans. There are no ‘football’ men in the club apart from Wenger in the higher levels of management and they rely on him for everything. He’s also engineered himself into that position, as anyone would after 20 years in their job. They need his guidance on the next manager and beyond, so new contract or not, he’ll be tied very closely to the club for quite some time yet.

Sure, like Fergie I'm sure he'll be behind the scenes in some advisory role of sorts but I hope he isn't appointed as some kind of Director Of Football, the new manager will need a blank canvas to work from and the last thing he'll need is Wenger watching over him indirectly influencing any decisions he makes.

I do agree with what you are saying in as much as Wenger has got so much influence in the club that a handover of sorts will be needed but he doesn't need to stick around full time and shouldn't need to. This is Arsenal FC, we have the power to put the correct infrastructure in place to survive without Wenger, if we don't know then the likes of Gazidis should be doing what is required to put it in place.

[Niall_Quinn]

We're going to have to accept the passion and tribalism and history and unique culture is being/ has been stripped from the game, the English game at least. If we want to continue with football then you have to approach it like any other corporate brand if you want to get enjoyment from it. Coca Cola. Do you drink it? Do you like it as an instant consumer product minus any particular affiliation or connection with the manufacturer? Coca Cola wants you to consume their product but they don't much care for your opinion on how they go about delivering that product to you. And what you see is what you get. Coca Cola won't give you anything beyond that instant sugar gratification and it isn't designed to do any more than that. This will be/ is modern football. Go to the fancy stadium, get a football hit, leave, get on with your life, accept there is no longer any real association between yourself and the club and understand the club doesn't want your further input beyond the turnstiles. The product is there for consumption, it is clear what you are getting, if you want it then pay, if not then move aside and let the guy behind you pay. That's it. The modern football corporation, Arsenal FC with the C being paramount.

Fans have to decide if they want that or not. Can you leave this synthetic football behind as a consumer product you don't really want or need? Or are you hooked enough to accept this substitute? Of course a Leicester fan isn't going to see things this way at the moment. This will look like a glorious new age of possibilities and I don't begrudge them that temporary moment in the spotlight. But it's temporary one way or the other. Either they drop back down the league or, worse, consolidate and attract the wrong sorts and slowly become the same bland consumer product as Arsenal FC.

Football as we knew it will finally die when it doesn't even cross the minds of fathers to introduce their sons to the game. Unfortunately I have already taught my son to be a consumer of Arsenal FC and I suspect many others hanging on to the memory of a game long gone have done the same. So there's a whole new generation ready to spend, indoctrinated and addicted by their own. From £1 packs of football cards through £80 kits bearing a badge that means less and less through £200 "treats" to watch mediocre millionaires not fit to lace the boots of players past there's a whole army of fresh consumers growing up with a club that has no personal interest in growing with them but every incentive to market them.

The Young Gunners mail out arrived last week. Page after page of adverts. Cheap puzzles probably pinched from the kids' menu at Pizza Hut. There was hardly anything from the current players in there, a few decorative photos to force the association. Nothing about the history of the club. I also found a dusty old book from the 80s featuring all the top players of the time including a young Bergkamp. The Arsenal marketing pack got 5 minutes attention with no comment. The dusty old book has been scoured night after night for the past week. Even the kids can figure it out. They want to know, "Did you see this play?", "Was Maldini better than Adams?", "Isn't Simeone a manager now?" Questions, questions, trying to link the past with the present. These money bastards don't get anything, except the money.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Would you link this rise of corporate football with the diminishing identification of football as a working class sport?

[Kano]

Sure, like Fergie I'm sure he'll be behind the scenes in some advisory role of sorts but I hope he isn't appointed as some kind of Director Of Football, the new manager will need a blank canvas to work from and the last thing he'll need is Wenger watching over him indirectly influencing any decisions he makes.

I do agree with what you are saying in as much as Wenger has got so much influence in the club that a handover of sorts will be needed but he doesn't need to stick around full time and shouldn't need to. This is Arsenal FC, we have the power to put the correct infrastructure in place to survive without Wenger, if we don't know then the likes of Gazidis should be doing what is required to put it in place.

You are right in that the club should of course be bigger and able to restructure when Wenger leaves but why would they when they have him around to do so much of the work for them, even away from being the manager? Even now he is involved in far more than just managing team – if we recall, he was given power to pick Dein’s replacement years ago!

“I am completely committed to this club and I don’t imagine managing anywhere else at the moment. Will I stop working once I stop managing on a competitive level? No. I will always try to work if I have hands and try to be useful at some stage and some level. Maybe it will be a different level but I will always work.

“I don’t know [if that would be as a Director of Football]. I could be managing kids, developing young players, it can be all kinds of roles but I will not run for FIFA, you can count on that!”

These comments are from a couple of months back, so it’s obvious he is going to stick around for quite some time yet. The hierarchy depend too much on him and if they can build in another manager that can agree to work on the same principles set out by Wenger, it keeps the cash cow running for even longer than the next few years. Possibly onto the European League that will no doubt come after the changes to the CL are implemented.

Wenger and the board are too integrated for him just to leave the club and they all of sudden start making the right decisions. We know the owners are only here for one reason and they will not give up the one man that can help guarantee that for them.

[Power n Glory]

If that's the case, Wenger has changed his tune.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...es-out-3330889

Wenger also dismissed any suggestion that he could move upstairs to become director of *football in the wake of Stan Kroenke’s proposed takeover of Arsenal.

“I am a football man, not an office man,” he said.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...rector-2241245

“I would not work with a *director of football because they buy the players and when it does not work you are guilty for not using them well,” said Wenger.

“I am not against having *people to help me buy, sell and negotiate because I cannot do it all. But I think the final *decision always has to belong to the manager to decide who comes in and who goes out because he is *responsible for the style of play and *results.”

Speaking to *newspaper *journalists, Wenger added: “It is like you write an article and someone says I will change that and that, and that.

“You should not accept that. Stand up for what you write!

“I stand up for the results of a team I have chosen. The *manager should be responsible for the players who come in.”

But when Wenger was asked whether the workload of trying to prepare his team and deal with transfers was too much, the 63-year-old conceded it can be difficult.

“I cannot deny the transfer window is a problem for me because it conflicts with a *period where the competition has started already and I need big focus on the competition.

“It’s not as easy any more because the market has become more open and international. There are more contenders, but not more players. I always want to be in a position where I do not have to buy.

“That is why I have people around me to help, but the final decision has to be down to the manager.”

It would be hypocritical and selfish if he took on a Director of Football role with us.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

That article is from 2013 but I would also be sceptical of him wanting to take up such a role for numerous reasons. I think when he does leave he is more likely to be consulted on a private basis......basically like Fergie now is. Nothing too official or on record.

[Niall_Quinn]

Would you link this rise of corporate football with the diminishing identification of football as a working class sport?

More like the decline of the working class in line with the rise of the debt culture. Debt put most of us somewhere along the middle class scale.