Arsene Wenger - "ITS TIME TO GO?"

go, Arsene...

1) Loyalty to poor players“We still have a group of young players but we have to keep them all. We have Ramsey, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Gibbs. All these players, we have to make decisions and manage to keep them together. I personally think it is vital that Chamberlain stays at Arsenal.”

As we pointed out yesterday, those ‘young players’ they simply ‘have to keep’ have started a grand total of 22 Premier League appearances for Arsenal this season. That Ramsey (26), Oxlade-Chamberlain (23) and Kieran Gibbs (27) then started on the bench on the very same day said it all: Even Wenger himself knows that they’re not good enough and he still wants to ‘make decisions and manage to keep them together’. He just can’t help himself.

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Theo Walcott – limp captain for the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace – has now played more Premier League games for Wenger than Thierry Henry and has Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp in his sights. Arsenal have an English captain who is not currently in the England squad; and it’s not because Gareth Southgate is blessed with options.

Oh and Francis Coquelin has recently signed a new long-term contract.

2) The danger of ignoring the fans
“Ultimately Arsene is ultimately accountable to the fans – they ultimately make judgment. If you are seeing the relationship between the fans and the manager break down over time that is unsustainable. But I don’t think we are anywhere near that.”

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That was 2011 and Arsenal fans absolutely weren’t anywhere near the situation described by Ivan Gazidis at a stormy meeting with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust. Those demanding Wenger’s head were in a slightly ridiculous minority; Arsenal had just finished fourth in their sixth successive trophyless season and most understood the financial constraints placed on Wenger in that time.

But this is 2017 and Arsenal really are in that situation. The relationship between the fans and the manager has broken down over time and it is unsustainable. Those who want to see Wenger sign a new contract are a) in the minority and b) infected with the same admirable/infuriating loyalty as their manager.

Arsenal are now seven points from fourth place and an astonishing 14 points behind Tottenham. If Wenger is allowed to sign a new contract at the end of such a disastrous season, then the club has decided to act against the will of the majority of the fans. If you thought this season was poisonous…

3) The rise of clubs around them
There is an argument that Arsenal are only a point worse off than the same stage last season so the ‘crisis’ is fabricated, but look at the Gunners’ rivals in comparison with their performance in what was a pathetic campaign which ended with Leicester’s triumph: Chelsea (+31 points), Tottenham (+7), Liverpool (+12), Manchester City (+7), Manchester United (+7) and Everton (+14).

Four of those six clubs changed managers, three spent very heavily and one sold an awful lot of deadwood. Tottenham are the anomaly in that they changed little but improved considerably under an ambitious manager with a clear vision. Arsenal changed little and somehow contrived to get worse – only marginally worse in terms of points but significantly worse in terms of performances. They are conceding goals at a faster rate than a much-derided Liverpool defence and that is embarrassing.

Louis van Gaal lost his job after a fifth-place finish (on goal difference) and a trophy. A post-Van Gaal United may not be matching expectations but they are at least trying to effect change with a new manager and significant investment in the side. They will improve, as will Manchester City, while there is nothing to suggest that the energetic teams of White Hart Lane and Anfield will regress. Right now, Arsenal are looking backwards at Everton rather than upwards at Spurs and that can only change with, well, change.

4) Which players would join this Arsenal this summer?With Alexis Sanchez extremely likely and Mesut Ozil increasingly likely to head for the hills if Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League (and with Arsenal in worse form over their last ten Premier League games than Hull, it seems the most obvious denouement), the Gunners will need to replace the players responsible for 24 goals and 15 assists this season. But who would join a team going backwards to play in front of fans angry at the club’s stasis?

Fans have long been angry that they seemingly cannot compete with Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United in the transfer market; the new reality will be losing players to Tottenham or Liverpool, who may be offering Champions League football in front of fans happy with progress and happy with their charismatic managers.

Four years ago, Ozil left Real Madrid for Arsenal partly at least because he wanted to work with a managerial legend. Would he make the same decision now, with Wenger so tired and derided? Or would someone of his ilk be more swayed by the chance to work with Max Allegri or Diego Simeone? We all know the answer to that question, possibly even Wenger himself.

5) Failure – by Arsene’s own definition
If you re-define success as consistency rather than triumph, then you must be judged on your own definition. Should Wenger’s Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, then the central argument of the ‘be careful what you wish for’ brigade is negated. If the case for keeping Wenger rests on consistent qualification and stability, then it collapses the minute that is not achieved.

When you are a club the size of Arsenal, you might as well finish eighth as fifth. Even if it takes a new manager another season of transition, the sequence has now ended and another year outside the top four makes little difference if the mood of the club can be lifted. Would Arsenal fans prefer five years of finishing third/fourth or three years of sixth, a second and a first? I tell you what, let’s do a poll…