ARROGANT ARSENE
Arsenal legends lay into Wenger and board, claiming the manager is ‘institutionalised’ and no one cares if the fans fight each other
ARSENAL legends Paul Merson and Alan Smith have piled the pressure on Arsene Wenger, branding the Gunners manager “arrogant” and “institutionalised”. The Emirates’ fan base is currently divided over Wenger being offered a new two-year contract – as he has not won the league title for 13 years.
But Merson and Smith (right) are among ex-Arsenal players who now openly favour
them fight, and if they don’t come back next year there is a long waiting list for season tickets’. And even if people don’t turn up, they still get their £75 a ticket.”
And Smith said: “I think Arsene’s time at the club has reached its natural ending – some players have spent a long time listening to the same voice and I think it has become stale.
“He gets up at 6am, goes home at 6pm, watches football and then comes back the next day and does it all over again. He’s almost become institutionalised in the Arsenal life – but that’s not a basis on which to make a decision.
“If the club have offered him a new deal, they must be happy with the job he’s been doing. But from afar, their relative lack of success on the pitch is different to the board’s view of things.” a change of regime in the Gunners’ dugout.
And Merson, who won two titles at Arsenal, raged over the way that Wenger has let contract business with players be conducted.
He said: “There is an arrogance about Arsenal over how this could happen.
“You’ve got eight players out of contract and the two best players by a million miles, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, could soon be out of contract.
“It drives me up the wall because you have now got fans fighting each other.
“Are the board worried about that? I don’t think there is anyone thinking, ‘We have to stop this’. They will look at that and go, ‘Let