Have the #WengerOut crew been silenced?

The debate over Arsene Wenger has become all consuming, relentless and more than a little tiresome over the years. I write a day before the F.A. Cup Final, so the extent to which the #Wengerout lobby has been silenced is a dangerous one to contemplate! But therein lies the truth at the heart of the debate. The #Wengerout and #ArseneKnows factions work largely through confirmation bias. If things are going well for the team, then those that want of the manager to leave tend to be quiet, only to pipe up when the next defeat arrives, as it always does eventually.

For many, I think Wenger has come to represent more in their minds than a mere football manager. Some have canonised him as a saint, some have projected all of their frustrations with the modern game and their lost youth onto this character. It’s dehumanising in a way, Wenger is no longer a person in their eyes, but a symbol for something else, something lost. Which explains the levels of vitriol you occasionally see.

I personally don’t think this debate will cease for the remainder of Wenger’s reign. If Arsenal win the Premier League, it will subside significantly, but even then there will be those that concoct reasons that it was all in spite of him. The same works both ways of course, if Arsenal were to be relegated, there would still be a faction of loyalists. That’s how extremists work. Arsenal’s form in 2015 has largely silenced the #Wengerout contingent, but they will surface again with the next defeat. That’s the way the debate has come to work, it’s a yaa boo affair for the internet age.

The issue, to my mind, is one of expectation. Not to exonerate Wenger of all faults and errors (that would be silly), but too many dismiss the financial reality of modern football. To expect Arsenal to challenge for the Premier League title is not an unrealistic expectation. To expect the occasional Champions League quarter or semi-final is, again, not entirely unrealistic. To expect Arsenal to win the Premier League is, whether you like it or not, not realistic. Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United would have to simultaneously underperform for this to be able to happen. That’s just the truth of the matter.

So for many, the measure of Wenger’s success is out of whack. (That’s again, not to dismiss all complaints made against him). The issue is one of familiarity, Wenger has been at Arsenal for a long time and therefore, his strengths and weaknesses are very clear to us. Once this happens, the human brain is naturally geared to focus on the negatives and take the positives as a given. For instance, Wenger is a trusting coach that puts confidence into his players. On the occasions when his trust is violated or not repaid, complaints abound that he is too soft on his players.

This of course ignores the fact that Wenger wins much more often than he loses and rarely ever performs under par, so that course of action works many, many more times than it fails. But we learn to filter that out and focus on the negatives. Basically, Wenger has been Arsenal’s manager for so long that many are bored of him. His early feats are scarcely achievable in the contemporary game as the landscape has changed so much. So basically, the #Wengerout faction will never be entirely silenced and in turn, the loyalists won’t be either.