LOYAL TO A FAULT
From the boardroom through to the players and down to the fans, the blind faith shown by everyone at Arsenal has stopped a blinkered Wenger seeing what is needed: CHANGE
ARSENE WENGER used to have a remarkable knack of spotting when players were approaching their sell-by date.
Arsenal legends Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry were ruthlessly shown the door because Wenger believed their careers were on the way down.
How ironic that he has lost his magic touch to such an extent he has failed to spot the decline in himself and is foolishly clinging on to power.
Wenger is being destroyed by loyalty, a familiar theme running through the club which is threatening to undermine his 21-year reign at Arsenal.
The Emirates hierarchy have been too loyal to Wenger. He has been too loyal to a squad of under-performing players. And if anything, the supporters have been too loyal to Wenger.
It has been 13 years since Arsenal won the Premier League title and yet only now are the fans really turning on him and trying to force him out.
Social media and Arsenal Fan TV paint a humiliating picture of fans when the reality is those who actually go to games have been incredibly loyal and supportive towards the players and Wenger.
That is why the defeat at Crystal Palace seemed such a defining moment because the away fans have turned.
Once that happens there is no way back.
Even talk of a revolution this summer, the last couple of months being a “catalyst for change”, will not be enough to appease supporters who have lost faith in the manager they used to worship.
The problem is, despite Arsenal’s abysmal run, it is unlikely to change anything as far as Wenger staying is concerned.
A two-year contract has been on the table for months and Wenger is determined to stay – his thick skin and blinkered view stopping him from seeing what is in front of his eyes: That it is time for change.
Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has the utmost respect for Wenger and understandably so because the Frenchman is the club’s greatest ever manager, has guaranteed consistency and the Emirates is run brilliantly financially.
Ultimately, Wenger has a hotline to Kroenke and everyone else on the board, including chief executive Ivan Gazidis, is effectively a paid employee of the club with the owner calling the shots. Gazidis is trying to drive change with the coaching staff, scouting department and recruiting a new Academy director. There is also going to be a huge overhaul of the squad. But we’ve been here before. Around this time last year Wenger was adamant there would be a major shake-up of the squad, warned the players had used up their final chance and he was going to ship out several of them and bring in new faces.
Arsenal then proceeded to somehow leapfrog above Tottenham, finish in second place and their run-in papered over the cracks.
Once again, Wenger’s loyalty came into play as he stuck with the players who let him down last year and have done so again. The squad looks lost, unsure of what the future holds for themselves and the manager and it shows on the pitch.
They are in limbo, a rudderless ship and Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are playing as if their minds are elsewhere.
Arsenal did spend around £100million last summer but £70m of that was on Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi, who have been disastrous signings.
But the core of the squad remains the same – and they weren’t good enough last year, let alone this.
That is what loyalty does for you.
Wenger has also been too loyal to his merry men behind the scenes: His lieutenant Boro Primorac, keeper coach Gerry Peyton and fitness coach Tony Colbert.
They have become outdated in football’s changing world.
Wenger was a revolutionary when he first arrived. Diet, training methods and tactics. But the sad truth is time has moved on – and he hasn’t.
The steamed broccoli is still on the menu but so is ketchup and bread and butter pudding. The training, according to one former player who went back recently, has largely been unchanged in 15 years.
Wenger still allows players to go out and play, to express themselves. Forget pressing and defending from the front, it’s all about pass, move and technique.
That is Wenger’s way, his style, his philosophy. That cannot change because that is who he is. So the idea you can force different coaches and a different way on a manager who is known for his stubbornness is doomed to fail.
There is still a tiny chance Wenger could go.
If the fans get much worse, if Arsenal’s season gets any worse, Wenger himself might decide enough is enough.
But the work has begun for next season... new contracts, transfer targets and preseason planning.
It all involves Wenger because sadly the one person who cannot see he needs to go is the man himself.