FROZEN OUT
Arsenal stars are losing their faith in Wenger as Emirates board discuss the manager’s future
ARSENAL players and the board are turning against underpressure Arsene Wenger.
The manager is facing a desperate battle to win back their confidence and it looks increasingly likely he will leave the Emirates this summer.
Mirror Sport revealed Wenger’s position will be reviewed at the end of the season and the club held a board meeting on Monday with
ARSENE WENGER admits he feels like he has been hit by an earthquake.
And, in these unprecedented times, the ground is shifting beneath his feet. The Arsenal manager was as stubborn and defiant as ever as he talked about never breaking a contract. Yet, for the first time in his 21-year reign, the Frenchman is not master of his own destiny. The walls are closing in with the club struggling to reach the top four, leaving the Europa League as his last chance of silverware and a passport into the Champions League.
A second year out of European football’s top competition is not something the Arsenal hierarchy are prepared to tolerate in terms of finance and prestige. Even if it means sacking a living legend.
Wenger was in denial, of course, happier to talk about the days when other clubs wanted him – Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. He claimed, too, that he was surprised by the level of criticism after losing the League Cup final.
“I am quite amazed that it is such an earthquake that we have lost a final – that means that we have got our fans used to going to Wembley and winning it. But nobody can guarantee that,” said Wenger.
Mirror Sport revealed on Monday that his position would be reviewed this summer, and the notion that anyone could question him certainly pricked the Arsenal manager’s ego.
“I don’t want to speak about that (end-of-season review),” snapped Wenger.
“I have been here for 21 years and I always respected my contract so I am quite amazed that you ask me the question.
“My position is my position. Honestly, that’s the last worry I have at the moment.
“In life, I look at what people do, not at what they say.
“If you want me not to be here, that’s a different problem.
“You ask me my commitment, and my attitude is dictated by what I did in my life, not by what I say in a press
conference. In life you focus on the quality of your job. How well you commit, how hard you work.
“And you try to master what you can master.
“What is above you… you will not decide your future in your newspapers, and I am exactly like you.
“I am an employee and I give my best for my club that I love.
“My worry is to focus, to get the team ready for the game.
“I just told you, I just gave you the answer of what my way of thinking is. It’s the next game.
“I don’t ask you if your position is reviewed at the end of the season.”
Wenger can keep trotting out his usual line of never breaking a contract but this time he knows that it is not just up to him. Wenger, 68, signed a new two-year deal last summer when majority shareholder Stan Kroenke had the final say on keeping him while other, old school members of the board felt it was time to change.
Now Arsenal have begun succession planning.
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis is weighing up the future, Kroenke’s son Josh has been at the club’s offices and training ground and head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has the connections to make the right appointment. The mood from within is that Arsenal will make a change this summer. Wenger can hark back to old times when he stayed loyal as some sort of reminder to the club that they should now stand by him. But that has gone now. It is too late. It is all back to last year, when the agenda was dominated by questions on Wenger’s future. The fact this season is in danger of going wrong and those doubts have resurfaced is the club’s worst nightmare.
They also face a rematch with Manchester City, the best team in the country.
The Emirates could quickly turn toxic and make the atmosphere poisonous for Wenger, who has been buried under an avalanche of criticism from former players this week.
“People who comment, their job is to comment, so you have to live with that,” added Wenger.
“What is important is how we respond, how we analyse the game and how we respond in a united way.”