ARSENAL BEGIN THEIR NEW ERA
Arsene Wenger is forced to accept that change is coming, as the club prepare for life without their greatest manager
ARSENE WENGER has had to concede ground. Just how significant his compromises prove to be remains to be seen. But in a stand-off between the club’s greatest boss and the board of directors, it appears that it is the manager who has blinked first.
In the coming months, Arsenal are expected to begin appointing support staff such as medical personnel and sporting administrators, which will essentially form the infrastructure of the post-Wenger club.
Maybe no one will actually be called sporting director. That much Wenger has ensured. But if he wants to keep his job — and he undoubtedly does — then 67-yearold Wenger has had to accept that change is coming.
Sources within the club believe that two members of the six-man board were reluctant for Wenger to carry on, or at least were not prepared to allow him to do so unchallenged.
And under pressure from a board which is more resilient than it has been before — or perhaps less supine — Wenger has had to bend. For Wenger is leaving. It may not be this summer but the club are gearing up for life without him.
The changes which come are designed to prepare for life after him. And if a two- year deal is finalised in the next 10 days, it will be t he l ast. It would t ake an extraordinary revival for him to extend his tenure into his 70s.
What is in place is a deal to pave the way to succession, to avoid the problems Manchester United had when Sir Alex Ferguson left and infrastructure was found to be negligible because, fundamentally, the place had been run on the force of Sir Alex’s personality and many of the details were in his head.
Disquiet about the succession in the boardroom is stronger than it has ever been. It was evident back in April when chief executive Ivan Gazidis met with t he Arsenal Supporters’ Trust and told fans that the manager had to become a ‘catalyst for change’. He also told fans, which has not previously been reported, that ‘ Arsenal are not where we want us to be’. That much is obvious but it is also a significant admission of failings. Where the blame lies, is less clear.
The waters were further muddied by the news breaking on Friday evening of Alisher Usmanov’s £1.54 billion attempted takeover. Many fans would be ready to welcome any change even if it came in the form of an Uzbek oligarch, who was imprisoned from 1980-1986 during the Soviet era for fraud and e mbe zz l e men t , a conviction which was overturned by t he Uzbek courts i n 2000, meaning he would pass any ‘fit and proper person’ test.
But owner Stan Kroenke is not selling to Usmanov. The offer on the table would have doubled his money but that does not appear to be the issue.
Other individuals are also said to be eying up Kroenke’s 67 per cent stake. But sources close to the owner say he is in for the long haul, wants to win the Premier League and to establish Arsenal as a force in the Champions League. If so, the message has not been clearly communicated over the last six years. Arsenal appear to have been managed l i ke a pension fund, maximising return on investment with minimum risk.
Some of the worst aspects of Kroenke’s tenure have been moderated. The highly controversial £3m annual fee paid to ‘Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’ in 2015 was quietly dropped last year. At one Annual General Meeting, shareholders had quizzed the board on the details of the tendering process which had determined j us t how ‘ Kroenke Sport s & Entertainment’ had been selected as the best firm to provide these consultancy services. Answer came there none.
Of course what is of principal concern to Arsenal fans at present is their failure to challenge for the league title and to progress beyond the Champions League last 16. Today, for the first time in Wenger’s 21-year reign, they may well fall out of the gilded elite.
Therein lies the conundrum of the Wenger years. It is a testament to his excellence that they have a record of consecutive participation in the competition which is bettered only by Real Madrid. And it is an indication of his limitations that they have reached only two semifinals and one final in that time.
Yet even this season could still end relatively satisfactorily. Should Liverpool slip up, Arsenal finish fourth and they win the FA Cup, it would be hard to say it had been awful. But finish fifth — as it is expected they will — and end up with a 3-0 defeat by Chelsea, then the atmosphere at Wembley next Saturday is likely to turn poisonous among Arsenal fans.
Already this season almost the entire away end were chanting, ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ and ‘ We want Wenger Out!’ during the particularly ca l a mi to u s performance at Crystal Palace.
This season there have been plenty of moments which seemed to qualify as a nadir. When Arsenal capitulated at West Brom in March — shortly before Gazidis briefed fans on the ‘catalyst for change’ — Wenger announced t hat a decision on his future was coming ‘very soon’. That was news to club officials and was certainly not part of a joined- up communications strategy in sync with the board.
It now seems like it was a classic deflection from an awful performance because, in reality, it was not Wenger’s decision to make. Chairman Chips Keswick had emphasised just a week before the West Brom defeat that the decision would be ’mutual’.
Many interpreted that as the board bending to Wenger. However, insiders at Arsenal believe that the delay in making an announcement over the last two months has been caused by the board and Wenger disagreeing over the structural changes required to take the club forward. For if Wenger is staying there has been no good strategic reason to delay the announcement. In fact quite the reverse.
The indecision is causing turmoil within the club. Transfer targets being lined up cannot be secured because agents wish to know who the manager will be and no one can give a definitive answer. Staff are unsure of their own future, many of them being tied to the Wenger
regime. It seems inconceivable now, but if the board meeting after the FA Cup final were to decide that Wenger’s time were up, Arsenal would go i nto June without a manager and no major signings in place. It would make David Moyes’ takeover from Ferguson look like an orderly succession.
The week ahead is fundamental to determining how one of the great figures of English football does eventually depart the stage. Wembley is a stadium which has many happy memories. He has secured three of his record-breaking six FA Cup victories there, including that first memorable double in 1998.
But it also the place where Arsenal fans came closest to an outright revolution. It was April 2014, the last time Wenger’s contract was up for renewal. Eight minutes were left in a semi-final against Championship Wigan and Arsenal were losing 1-0. The mood was extraordinarily ugly among Arsenal fans. Then Per Mert es a c k e r sc o r e d , Ar se n a l scraped through on penalties and eventually beat Hull in the final, after trailing 2-0.
Had he lost either game, those close to Wenger concede it would have been hard to carry on. The stakes seem just as high now.