The Mail on Sunday

BOTCHED Wenger succession has lef t a TAINTED LEGACY

Arsenal paying the price for bitter departure as Arteta tries to pick up the pieces

- By Rob Draper CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

ARSENAL need to prepare for the long haul in their bid to restore former glories and are paying the price for mishandlin­g Arsene Wenger’s departure in 2018. That’s the verdict of former executives at the club, colleagues and friends of Wenger, who say that Arsenal’s current difficulti­es stem from the decision to end the legendary manager’s time at the club and the failure to include him in succession planning.

A series of interviews conducted by The Mail on Sunday, with those who worked closely with Wenger and observed his departure firsthand, give a clearer picture of the deep hurt felt by Wenger at his exit, his frustratio­n at the Arsenal board and the anguish he endured because of the bitterness of fan protests in his final years.

Some say that he felt so badly let down that he will never go back, even to watch a game, under the current owners, though others believe he will eventually return as a guest and it is revealed that the club are attempting to persuade him to come back for a tribute they are planning.

All the interviewe­es spoken to say the club should have made use of his knowledge by bringing him on to the board of directors and the majority felt that his departure was handled badly. All those spoken to have a deep knowledge of Arsenal and are fearful as to how long it will take the club, who face Tottenham today, to recover from the shock of losing Wenger. And even those within the club acknowledg­e that the path back to the top four, considered merely tolerable under Wenger, will take time and that patience will now be required after Mikel Arteta’s extraordin­ary start to his managerial career, which saw him win the FA Cup and the Community Shield.

The club could lose £158 million this season, according to figures calculated by the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, a sum thought to be broadly in line with club estimates. And though all clubs are suffering financiall­y due to t he pandemic, i t wil l be difficult for Arteta to rebuild unless owner Stan Kroenke continues to release funds.

Although Wenger himself and executives all acknowledg­ed that there needed to be a period of time after his exit when the Frenchman distanced himself from the club, initially to allow his successor Unai Emery space to establish himself, many assumed that he would come back into the fold.

An Arsenal employee, who worked closely with Wenger said: ‘He’ll never go back. That’s how badly let down he feels he was by the board.’

Another former colleague of the manager said: ‘ Contrary to what people may t hink, it didn’t end well. And he didn’t feel it ended well. He felt he deserved bett er. And he di d deserve better. When Peter Hill-Wood died, he should have been made chairman. They had to keep him. You don’t lose someone who has his ability, expertise, intelligen­ce and honesty.’ The Mail on Sunday understand­s that club executives, including chief executive Vinai Venkatesha­m, visited Wenger recently to reiterate that there is an open invitation to come back as a guest of the club. Next year it is expected a significan­t tribute will be unveiled. Most likely a statue will be commission­ed to acknowledg­e his role at a club he joined in 1996 and at which he won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups as well as overseeing the financiall­y draining building of the Emirates Stadium. It is clear executives are aware that the breach needs to be repaired between the club and a manager who, alongside the great Herbert Chapman, is arguably the club’ s mostrevere­d employee in its history. ‘We want to make sure that someone who is such an integral part of our history is honoured in the right way,’ said one club source. Dick Law,

Wenger’s transfer negotiator from 2009 until 2018, leaving just before Wenger’s contract was terminated, said: ‘My feeling is that the ownership and management at the time missed a real opportunit­y to craft a positive outcome as opposed to a negative outcome. Walking into Arsene’s office and saying: “We’re going to end your contract a year early…” … irrespecti­ve of whatever financial benefit anyone received as a pay-off, it was small compensati­on for what Arsenal was in 1996 [compared with 2018].

‘I think an opportunit­y was missed in May of 2018 and I think the club is still suffering the effects of that. Knowing him like I know him and knowing the level of commitment he had made through the years, he had a vision for the club that was cut short and that pained him.’

Wenger avoided criticism of the club in his recent autobiogra­phy but said that he has not yet felt it right to return to the Emirates, writing: ‘The stadium I built and whose every little secret I know is somewhere I can no longer go: it’s

He feels a bit raw because the club could have treated him better

still too emotional.’ Another former colleague, who still speaks with Wenger, said: ‘I don’t think he’d say he’d never go back. He’s not like that. He probably feels it’s still a bit raw because he feels the club could have treated him better.’

It is now four years since Arsenal managed a top-four finish and it is debatable at present whether last season’s eighth place will be improved on. Their proud unbroken run of qualifying for European football, which stretches back to 1996 and is only s urpassed by Real Madrid, could come to an end.

Clearly defeat in today’s north London derby will sharpen the debate over the direction of t ravel under Arteta, with five defeats in the past seven Premier League games. His tactical skill in winning cup matches has arguably papered over longer-term cracks.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust also point to an ‘incredible increase in wage costs’ which is ‘hard to rationalis­e’ after Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s new deal was agreed, understood to be worth more than £300,000 a week and new signings Willian and Thomas Partey signed deals understood to be worth more than £200,000 a week.

Losing the £18m annual wages of Mesut Ozil next year will help, but it underscore­s just how important even Europa League qualificat­ion will be for Arteta if he wishes to continue to rebuild the team. The full extent of tension behind the scenes in Wenger’s final two seasons has also been revealed. The nadir was when a fan hired a plane to fly over Stoke’s Bet365 Stadium in May 2017, reading: ‘Wenger — Out means out.’ It hit Wenger hard.

‘What happened at Stoke, he still has nightmares about that with the plane going overhead with Wenger Out,’ said the source. ‘That hurt.’

Law said: ‘Did the sniping affect all of us? Yes. And by extension him included. But I never sensed that he was angry with fans. He wanted the same thing that the fans wanted. [ But] if you sat in the manager’s office on the night of a defeat, when Arsene and his senior staff literally sat there for 15 or 20 minutes without saying a word, you would know how deeply they took those defeats.’

Ironically, two weeks after the Stoke plane protest, Arsenal fans would be celebratin­g an FA Cup win. But, given that Wenger’s contract was up that summer, it was accompanie­d by frenzied speculatio­n. With Kroenke flying into town, private talks between hi m and t he manager s aw a two-year deal being announced on the Tuesday after the Cup win. According to a source close to those negotiatio­ns, the deal to extend had already been agreed before the FA Cup final and was not dependent on the result. ‘Stan didn’t fly in and negotiate. That was decided before. He wanted to extend and Stan wanted to extend.’

However, the relationsh­ip with the English members of the board was already fracturing. Members of Wenger’s staff perceived he had lost the support of then chairman, Sir Chips Keswick. A source with firsthand knowledge of the board discussion­s at the time insists that, once the collective decision was made to extend, the board agreed to stand behind Wenger. ‘It was a collective decision at the end.’

But Wenger’s relationsh­ip with Sir Chips at the time is variously described as ‘acrimoniou­s’, ‘patchy’ and ‘antagonist­ic’.

The Mail on Sunday approached Sir Chips through the club but he declined to comment. It is also true that as confidence ebbed in Wenger in 2017-18, The MoS have been told that Sir Chips insisted to the board that the club must not negotiate with coaches behind the manager’s back. Effectivel­y, Wenger’s future had to be resolved before the search for a new manager started.

And Law said: ‘My experience with t he board was unfailing commitment to the players Arsene wanted to sign.’ He cites the £16m deal to sign Danny Welbeck from Manchester United in 2014, when Arsenal chief executive I van Gazidis was haggling over a £14m fee plus £2m in add-ons.

‘We were insisting on £14m plus £2m,’ said Law. ‘Ivan walks out and has a phone call with the chairman. Sir Chips asks the obvious question: “Is Danny Welbeck good enough to play enough games to trigger the £2m trigger clause?”

And we said: “Yes”. And Sir Chips simply said: “Do the deal at £16m”. That was the clarity he brought.’

In that final season, 2017-18, as protests grew more vociferous, one member of Wenger’s staff said: ‘You could see the pressure he was under. He wasn’t his usual cheerful self. The crowd was constantly at him and it wasn’t pleasant. It was reflected in his demeanour. Stress lines were showing. And he felt his hold on the club was slipping. When certain decisions came up he’d say: “I don’t have that power any more”.’

The denouement to 22 years came when Gazidis and Kroenke’s son, Josh, then 37 years old, told Wenger in April 2018 that they wanted him to leave at the end of the season, one year before his contract was up. ‘It’s never easy to end that longterm relationsh­ip on both sides,’ said one close observer. ‘The club and the board handled the departure about as well as it could.

‘Announcing it before the end of season allowed all the air out of the pressure cooker. Everyone got behind him and were able to express their love and gratitude, even the most ardent ‘Wenger Out’ brigade. He appreciate­d that.’

That said, the team constructe­d to succeed Wenger by Gazidis has fallen apart over the last year. Gazidis himself left shortly after Wenger in 2018 to join AC Milan. Sven Mislintat, who was to have been the new head of scouting when he was appointed in December 2017, left in February 2019. Raul Sanllehi, who initially joined as head of football relations in February 2018 and was swiftly promoted to head of football, left abruptly in August 2020.

Huss Fahmy came as a contract negotiator in June 2017, was promoted to head of football operations but left last month. Darren Burgess was brought in to transform sports science as director of high performanc­e in July 2017 and left in June 2019.

Jaeson Rosenfeld, the head of Arsenal’ s analytics company StatDNA and well regarded by Kroenke, left in March this year to join Wenger, who is now chief of global football developmen­t at FIFA. A raft of scouts were also sacked in August. It hardly gives the impression of a clear plan, though the club dispute that.

Effectivel­y the financial crisis caused by the pandemic, which resulted in the players taking a 7.5

The sniping affected all of us. But I never sensed he was angry at fans

Arsene was brilliant but all the knowledge can’t be in one person’s brain

percent wage cut and 55 redundanci­es among staff, has brought their vision into focus.

Regarding the scouting department, the club will argue that they are only doing what so many have done around the world in relying for statistici­ans to do the initial trawl of players before sending football-savy observers to make the final decisions.

Both Arteta and Edu are insistent that they need eyes on a player before making decisions. But the highly successful, much- copied and, in its time, innovative global scouting network set up by former head of scouting Steve Rowley, has been disbanded.

One interviewe­e involved in the planning said: ‘In some ways we almost over prepared for t he succession. When Arsene left there was a lot of structure and really good people but there is a very big adjustment going from a oneperson model to one where Unai was the coach with lots of other department heads. The simplicity is lost when you do that.

‘Arsene was a brilliant man but the truth is that the knowledge can’t all be in one person’s brain. Modern football is not like that and you have to be able to delegate. Arsene would acknowledg­e the game has changed so much.’

Arsenal’ s big idea is to give responsibi­lity to three key executives: Venkatesha­m, Edu and Arteta, for a simpler, leaner model, a halfway house between t he dominance of one man and a multiplici­ty of department­s. On that youthful triumvirat­e rests much responsibi­lity.

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 ??  ?? UNDER PRESSURE: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
UNDER PRESSURE: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
 ??  ?? MISFIRING: Aubameyang’s form has fallen off a cliff
MISFIRING: Aubameyang’s form has fallen off a cliff
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