Call me an idiot, but the Wenger Out brigade will regret it when he’s gone

Some of Arsenal’s fans have got so bored of being well, they appear to want to make themselves ill

IF IT really is all coming to an end, if this really is the season when Arsene Wenger says there will be no more and turns down the offer of a new contract, then, in the moment of their rejoicing, the Arsenal supporters who have made it their mission to drive him out of the modern, forward-thinking club he has built will finally have time to contemplate what they have done.

I hope they have a while to savour their achievement in ridding themselves of the greatest manager in their history, but I bet they don’t. My guess is that they will realise very soon that instead of turning the Emirates toxic for much of the last five years or more, they should have understood just how lucky they were to be Arsenal fans in the Wenger era.

Gary Neville called the supporter who pitched up at Stamford Bridge with a sign demanding Wenger’s exit last weekend ‘an idiot’ and, on this one, I’m with him. The passion of the fans is the lifeblood of the game and a supporter has the right to say and do what he or she wants, within the bounds of the law, but that does not mean we all have to agree with them.

I admire supporters who take direct action. I admired the Hull City fans for their recent boycott. I admire supporters who don’t just lie down. But the cause has to be just and I don’t think this one is. The Wenger Out brigade will win in the end but it will be a sad day for the club when they do. Call me an idiot for thinking that if you want. I’m sure you will.

Yes, the fans of a lot of our football clubs have good reason to protest. The supporters of Hull, Leyton Orient, Morecambe, Coventry City, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest are among them. The supporters of Arsenal are not. Some of them have got so bored of being well, they appear to have decided they want to make themselves ill.

Much of the splenetic fury they direct towards Wenger falls distinctly into the category of being careful what you wish for. Many Arsenal supporters have identified him as the sole obstacle to a wonderland where they win the league every season and move on inexorably to establish themselves as the new rulers of Europe.

The irony, of course, is that it was Wenger who changed Arsenal fans’ perception of what constitutes success. After they won the Double in 1971, they didn’t win the league again for 18 years and in eight of those years, they were not even in the top six. In the Nineties, before the arrival of Wenger at Highbury, they had seasons where they finished 10th and 12th.

Wenger made Arsenal fans forget about that. The three titles he won in six years, straddling the turn of the century, were interspersed with four runners-up spots. Expectations among the club’s fans changed. And then the billions of Roman Abramovich moved the goalposts. And then the billions of Sheik Mansour moved them again. Manchester United’s spending outstripped Arsenal’s too and suddenly Wenger was swimming against the tide.

In many ways, it is hard to blame them for this but Arsenal fans have never readjusted their expectations. They have never pushed reset. Wenger is competing against clubs whose owners spend more freely than Stan Kroenke. It is not a level playing field. Wenger has kept Arsenal in the mix year after year after year but it is not good enough for most Arsenal fans.

It has got to the point where they see every highly rated manager who joins another club as an opportunity missed. Many Arsenal supporters grieved their lost chance of salvation when Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool and the German manager has indeed charmed us with his charisma and the energy he has infused in his side.

But Klopp does not have a magic wand to wave. Liverpool are currently fourth in the Premier League, one point behind Wenger’s Arsenal. Jose Mourinho, another rescuer who would have been welcomed to the Emirates with open arms, is in charge of a Manchester United team who lie sixth, two points behind Wenger’s Arsenal.

Wenger has faults. Of course he does. He has become indecisive — sometimes to the point of nearparalysis — in his transfer dealings. He is so stubbornly loyal to some players that he refuses to fix shortcomings in his side that everyone else can readily identify. His team lack midfield bite and mental toughness, as they have done for many years.

But look at what it brings, too. It brings Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, two of the best players in the Premier League. It brings a player of the beauty and cleverness of Santi Cazorla, it brings Hector Bellerin, a right back coveted throughout Europe, it brings Aaron Ramsey, one of the best players of Euro 2016, and it brings a style of play that is consistently pleasing on the eye.

That doesn’t seem to matter to Arsenal fans any more. For a while now, Arsenal have only ever been one defeat away from a chorus of bile assailing Wenger. If Arsenal lose to Bayern Munich in the Champions League this week, there will be another burst of apoplexy.

Frustration and disappointment is understandable but sometimes, the abuse aimed at Wenger by his own supporters is sickening. And it is starting to look as if they have finally beaten him into submission. The fans want change and they will get change.

And then one day in the not-toodistant future, people will ask why the Arsenal fans treated their greatest manager with such disdain. They will ask why he was not adored. They will ask why he was not revered. And the supporters will have to find an answer. It may not be easy.

MANCHESTER kings United’s corporate their new chose to announce Tag Heuer partnership with to by asking their players in half slice a giant cheese pitch at by the side of the money-men Old Trafford. The to always know how stay classy.