Arsene Wenger: Club Legend Or Fraud?

It’s Tuesday 7th March 2017 and Arsene Wenger casts a dejected figure as he solemnly heads towards the Emirates tunnel after yet another questionable humiliation in front of the 60,000 faithful Arsenal supporters who flocked to see the match. Although the tie always appeared to be out of reach after their first leg 5-1 humbling at the Allianz Arena in Munich, the Arsenal supporters came nonetheless hoping for a performance that at least carried a bit of back bone about it. A performance that would allow the fans to leave the stadium with hope, leading into the upcoming games and a performance that could at least have the Arsenal players leave that stadium with their heads held high.

Unfortunately, for The Gunners that won’t be the case. After a positive start taking the lead within 20 minutes, a 53rd minute red card for captain on the day Laurent Koscielny lead to Bayern pulling a goal back through a Robert Lewandowski penalty. From that point onwards, Arsenal’s underlying issues as a club became far more noticeable as they conceded four more times through goals from Arjen Robben, Douglas Costa and finally Arturo Vidal signing off Arsenal’s capitulation by bagging himself a late brace.

Where does this result leave Arsenal looking forward? After being knocked out of the Champions League Round of 16 stages for the 7th consecutive year, Arsenal have only two things left on their agenda… Finish top 4 and compete for the FA Cup trophy where they’ll be facing Manchester City in the semi finals. Sound familiar at all? This situation is exactly what has left the man in question, Arsene Wenger, under so much scrutiny in recent years, with it only getting worse and worse with every result Arsenal manage to throw away.

With Arsenal not having been in contention for the title since their invincible season in 2003/2004, large portions of the Arsenal faithful are growing incredibly restless watching their club gracefully accept Champions League qualification year in year out, accompanied by the occasional domestic title. What alternatives, does this leave for Arsenal Football Club in order for their club to start getting the results a club of Arsenal’s status requires?

1. Wenger Out

Under what circumstances could we potentially see Arsene Wenger departing The Emirates? Either Arsene Wenger electively calls time on his illustrious spell in charge of Arsenal and most likely his coaching career as well, otherwise, the board will have to force his hand and force him out of the club. If Wenger were to persist in maintaining his current position against the board’s will, having him sacked would tarnish his reputation and legacy he left at Arsenal forever.

Whenever his name were to come up, those listening would not necessarily remember him for the invincible squad of 2003/2004 but more likely for the shambolic way in which the club spelled his departure. Which means if Wenger were to part ways with Arsenal, the best way for the dignity of both manager and club would be to go on his own accord and opening a more positive environment for a potential new candidate to come in and spark some new life into a lethargic looking Arsenal side.

A change at the helm of The Arsenal Football Club could potentially lead to a positive shift in mentality amongst the squad. But as we have also seen before, the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. We saw this with Liverpool, after parting ways with cult figure Rafael Benitez after a mediocre showing in the 2009/2010 season, even though he previously won them the Champions League in 2005, as well as the 2006 FA Cup, not to mention regularly being in title winning contention in the league. They replaced him with Roy Hodgson who had Liverpool sitting 18th after 6 games, before they replaced Hodgson 6 months into his tenure with former Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, whom also suffered a quite disastrous display from his Liverpool side. One year later Dalglish was sacked, before Liverpool managed to finally find their stride again under Brendan Rodgers in June 2012.

Although with that being said, we have also often seen controversial changes at the top leading to improved performances, as is so clearly evident in Chelsea’s performances this year under Antonio Conte. With legendary manager Jose Mourinho being sacked nine months after winning the title, due to a highly unexpected drop in form from his players in the 2015/2016 season, Conte had a job to get this team of established Premier League stars firing on all cylinders again. With Chelsea now 10 points clear atop the Premier League with 10 games remaining, it now looks as though they will be crowned runaway champions as a result of a cut throat but effective change in management.

In order to ensure a positive reaction to change, Arsenal would need to bring in someone who has proven themselves at the highest level and has no tolerance for mediocrity, in order to bring back the winning mentality that Arsenal had established for themselves over a decade ago, when they were one of the most feared clubs across Europe. Otherwise a change may evoke the same reactions and performances from the players who appear to have given up on winning the Premier League Title.

2. Change in ownership

As the saying goes ‘cut the head off a snake and the body dies’ or in Arsenal’s case, find new ownership and see if it leads to greener pastures. One may ask what role could the owners have in Arsenal’s current downfall? And the answer can be placed on two simple factors. Whether the owners are providing enough funds in order to bolster the squad, or whether they are putting enough pressure on Arsene Wenger and his management team to really compete for titles rather than complacently accepting 4th place year after year.

The question remains as to whether Arsenal’s owners Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov are willing to put forth their complete financial support and allow Wenger to raid the transfer market, purchasing the players he thinks will have the capabilities to turn Arsenal from participants to contenders for the Premier League title. With Wenger being highly criticised throughout the past 10 years for not purchasing enough players for a club of Arsenal’s stature, he made it public in January 2015 when he came out and said “I won’t buy players for the sake of it”. With this being said though this isn’t to say he has the board’s full backing in the transfer market as they have spent less in the past 10 years than Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham who are their main competitors for the league title. If this is not the case, then it may be in the club’s best interest for the owners to encourage Wenger to come out and silence critics with some high profile signing, who could help bring both the confidence and ability into Arsenal’s line-up that they have been lacking in recent years.

Although the consistent Champions League qualification and qualification to the Champions League knockout stage is no longer sitting well with numerous Arsenal supporters, that isn’t to say the board feel the same way. For the owners of the club, their first priority will always be the profitability of the club. With Arsenal having made top four every year under Arsene Wenger, along with making it to the Champions League knockout stage, the owners will receive their multi million-dollar bonuses as a result of those efforts. From a financial perspective the owners may just see this; as a case of if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. As long as the Emirates continues to fill capacity and Arsenal maintain the results they’ve seen for the previous seven years then the board will not wish to make any drastic changes.

If Arsenal is to start competing for titles in their own right, then a change regarding the owners is a necessity. If not make a change in ownership in order to bring in somebody more ambitious, then the current owners will be required to either force Wenger’s hand in purchasing some more experienced and capable players for big games, or start putting more pressure on Wenger in order to instil a winning mentality than can drive them on towards competing for titles. Otherwise Arsenal will be in for more of the same.

3. The players receive a much needed reality check

Time and time again as the season winds to a close we find ourselves looking at Arsenal’s results and see recurring trends. More often than not, if they’re even in the title race by the time April comes around, come mid-May they’ll be well off the benchmark. Like we saw in 2015/2016 when Arsenal were in with a real shot and going all the way, come April they suffered draws at the hand of West Ham and relegation threatened Crystal Palace and Sunderland, allowing for Leicester and Tottenham to pull clear at the front of the pack.

With results like these growing all too familiar for the Arsenal faithful that leaves the question ‘What can be done to prevent this from happening again?’ The answer, a much needed reality check for the entire Arsenal squad. Although Arsene Wenger may not be renowned for ever dishing out the infamous ‘hairdryer treatment’ which Alex Ferguson so often used, he needs whip his team into line.

With each game that passes it becomes more and more evident that his players don’t want to play for him; with it more clear as ever in their 3-1 loss to West Brom over the weekend. With players like Giroud coming out and telling the media the players fully support Wenger, their performances do very little to convey such a message. So how does Wenger get the players to play for him like their lives depend on it? He has to give those players a reason to believe. Those players need to have the confidence to prove the critics wrong and break down their own personal barriers they’ve been unable to overcome for the last decade. He needs to clearly display his intent to win the league and call on the leadership of his most significant players who have the experience like Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. From there, they can push the team forward week by week and start making a dint in the gap that continues to distance them from the top. Until they can do that, this Arsenal squad will continue to finish countless seasons empty handed and at the rate they’re going, they may have to say goodbye to their beloved top four sooner rather than later.