Arsene Wenger - Time to go?

Arsene Wenger - Time to go?

In 1996 Arsene Wenger came in to Arsenal Football Club and changed the landscape of how football was played in the Premier League, he bought a style of attacking flair that was not only attractive but also effective, Wenger challenged the dominance of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United during the 90’s and early 00’s and during the period between 1998 and 2005 won 11 major trophies including 3 Premier Leagues and 4 FA Cups and led the famous 2003-2004 “Invincibles” team.

So where did it go wrong?

The first reason is the emergence of Chelsea and Manchester City, in 2003 and 2008 respectively these two teams were purchased by Roman Abramovich and Sheik Mansour, two of the richest individuals in the world, these teams successes relied on teams bankrolled by high transfer fees and wages, these two clubs have also increased there stature during the time without worrying about financial problems.

Secondly during his time at Arsenal, Arsene has overseen the opening of a new training ground in Shenley and the opening of the Emirates Stadium in 2006 led to Wenger having to frugal for several years and being smart with how much to spend on transfers with the club paying off debts, but now that is not a problem anymore and It annoys Arsenal fans like me why this money is not being spent in if it is readily available.

A point that is less constructively talked about is Arsene Wenger’s tactical ability defensively and his ability to develop young defenders, When Arsene Wenger entered Highbury he inherited an already stalwart defence, which was assembled by George Graham containing Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and Martin Keown, this defensive unit contributed to a run of eight consecutive clean sheets in the double winning season of 1997-1998. Even during the Invincibles season in which Keown was only sparingly used, Arsenal used their attacking prowess with Pires, Ljungberg, Vieira, Bergkamp and Henry to blow teams away in the Premier League but the defence even containing Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole could not lead arguably Arsenal’s greatest ever team to Champions League glory.

“Defence wins Championships” Is a quote that’s used very commonly in Basketball and it can be applied to football as well, there has been many a time where Arsenal have failed to close out a game be it a 4-4 at home to Spurs, a 2-2 draw against Birmingham which was a game that was a pivotal turning point in the 2007-2008 League season. I for one feel that Arsene Wenger has got to take a hard look at his tactics and philosophies and figure out what is the problem behind the recent series of thrashings an 8-2 vs United, 6-3 against City, 5-1 against Liverpool , 6-0 against Chelsea and even a 3-0 loss against Everton was seen as embarrassing, I really feel it is a valid point to question what Wenger has actually done defensively over the years at Arsenal, what world class defender has he brought through the youth system minus Ashley Cole, has Arsene Wenger  failed to evolve to a changing landscape?

So to conclude, if we do have this reported £100 million to spend on new players, do you think that Wenger is the guy who should be trusted to spend it? If not, who will be the guy to take the hot seat at the Emirates? Simeone, Klopp, Van Gaal and Conte are all options  to take over so there is a nice set of quality managers, people I feel are worried by change and there is some risks, take David Moyes for example but people fail to understand he has inherited an ageing squad and was not backed adequately in the transfer market in August, as seen with the acquisition of Juan Mata, Manchester United’s form has improved, Moyes real test will come next year when United look to buy to replace some of their older players. At the end of the day, change is inevitable, it is a part of life and some people need to get used to Arsene Wenger not being at Arsenal anymore, I feel that people feel  they have their rose tinted glasses on and have to understand at the end of the day it is Arsenal FC not Arsene FC.