Wenger can’t get away with more failure
ARSENAL reached a tipping point last Wednesday with their 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich.
As the Gunners collapsed in that second-half debacle, even the most die-hard of Arsene Wenger loyalists must have realised that it’s time for change.
The manager has since said he’ll decide his future for himself before the end of the season, but he must now surely bow to the inevitable.
The Gunners have been slowly on the slide under Wenger’s watch since 2004.
Arsenal have become “luxury losers”. They play in a great stadium in one of the world’s best cities, pay big wages and always finish in the top four.
These days, they never win the Premier League or the Champions League. Yet their fans are forced to shell out huge sums of money to watch a team that always comes up short.
Think of all the other European giants. Imagine if they had not won either a domestic league or Champions League in the same period.
You can guarantee that they would not have had the same man in charge to preside over constant failure.
Arsenal look like a big club, but they’ve as much chance of landing the big prize as Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kiev or Olympiacos.
Wenger was not the only manager to see his side suffer a four-goal defeat in Europe last week.
Luis Enrique watched on helplessly as Barcelona were torn apart in losing 4-0 away to Paris St Germain.
After a defeat like that, you know there will be consequences at a club like Barca.
In this case, it will almost certainly be a change of manager in the summer. That is despite Enrique winning five trophies in his two seasons in charge.
He won’t have much of a say in how the club wish to proceed.
Wenger, on the other hand, appears the master of his own destiny, even though his ability to make Arsenal serious contenders for honours is becoming ever more questionable.
There is a new contract on the table, but with that unsigned, the club is in limbo.
New contracts have not yet been resolved for star players Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, and the season is threatening to fall apart.
Successive defeats to Watford and Chelsea killed off any title hopes and the Gunners are as good as out of the Champions League after that hammering by Bayern.
All that leaves is the FA Cup and a trip to nonleague Sutton United’s artificial pitch tomorrow night. Surely they cannot suffer the ultimate banana skin? But if the unthinkable did happen, there would be no way back for Wenger – once and for all.