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After a season that promised so much looks set to end without a trophy, the manager’s position has never been more at threat with many Gooners frustrated with the team’s poor form, his frugality in the transfer market and his decision making. Some fans and pundits have turned on him and questioned whether or not he should stay on this season after we effectively handed the title elsewhere with a disastrous start to 2016.
Arsene Wenger’s time at the club is coming to end, there’s no question of that. At 67, the stress of management in the Premier League will take its toll and even the legendary Professor ages like the rest of us. As he creeps towards 70, his inevitable retirement and handing the reigns of the club he has been instrumental in building over the past nineteen years will come soon. Not quite yet though – and certainly not at the end of this season.
Wenger has a contract until 2017 and he deserves one more season to fulfill it. In reality, the club also needs at least another season to prepare for his departure. The world of football sees managers come and go, especially in elite modern football where even top class managers are usually shown the door after a few years. Arsenal has taken a different approach and stood by Arsene through nine trophyless years due to the bigger picture of a stadium move and the creation of a super club. He has been at the club so long, and is involved and dominant in so much of how it runs from the academy to the first team, that it would be a dangerous and irresponsible for him to leave or be sacked without a plan as to how to replace him and pass on his knowledge.
Man United have been a lesson in how a club with a long serving manager can fall apart under new leadership and how difficult it can be for a new man in charge. David Moyes, a hand-picked replacement, couldn’t match the success of his predecessor instantly and for that he was a scapegoat and swiftly sacked. Van Gaal threw out most of Fergie’s squad and spent £300m to replace them, overseeing a woeful brand defensive football and essentially killing Man United’s proud brand of attacking football. He has little chance of keeping his job at the end of the season.
The Gunners board has to be careful that the same doesn’t happen at Arsenal. Those who are calling for Arsene Wenger’s head are asking for a short-sightedness that the club have been sensible enough not to act on in recent years. With the top four virtually achieved and young players like Bellerin and Iwobi emerging into the spotlight, the season isn’t a complete write off. Realistically despite a strong start to the title push, we haven’t truly challenged for a title in years and we now a platform next season where with some luck with injuries and some good signings we can challenge again and learn from the mistakes of this push.
With Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola off the table, there is nobody better than Arsene available to take us forward next season. The likes of Manuel Pellegrini, Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Mancini are uninspiring choices and Diego Simeone – arguably the most talented young manager in football – plays a completely different brand of football to the one that the Gunners have built over the past two decades. It’s a tough decision who will come in at the end of 2017 – whether it will be a Patrick Viera or Thierry Henry working under the guidance of Arsene or a completely new man. But it’s in the interest of everyone for Arsene to stay until then.
I sympathise with both sides of the argument over him. Those who want him gone feel he is stubborn, has too much power and want new ideas and more investment in the first team. Those who want him to stay place a huge amount in what he has done in the past and wish that he will bring some success to cap his legacy.
Regardless of opinion on the current title push, nobody doubts his status as a legend for what he’s achieved over the past nineteen years. He has to be careful though not to overstay his tenure and push the fans and the board to turn on him in the event of another season of failure. 2017 has to be Arsene Wenger’s final season. Hopefully it will be a succesful one.
