Arsenal

Sacking Arsene Wenger may not be Arsenal’s wisest decision

Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons at www.wikipedia.org

But for Arsene Wenger and his sacrifices, it’s hard to imagine where Arsenal would have been today.

The stature, the reputation or even the identity Arsenal have as a club today among all other European giants, it’s all down to the Frenchman’s contributions – compare the club’s state prior to Wenger’s appointment and the state thereafter and you’ll get an idea.

The most one can say of what Wenger has done to Arsenal is that he has transformed a relative unknown commodity into one of the Football world’s biggest, most richest brands which has an identity not powered merely by the trophies they’ve won but the kind of Football they play. It’s been quite a journey from a compact, a rather tiny Highbury to The brobdingnagian Emirates Stadium that speaks a lot of what the club is at present – powerful, rich, and big. It is “The Arsenal”.

But there’s more that The Emirates speaks of. For anyone who has ever been privileged enough to pay a visit to the home of the Arsenal, the deafening silence there tells the truth about a club that has constantly underachieved for more than a decade, partly because of their impecuniousness and partly because of their own shortcomings. And among that silence, particularly over the past two-three years, are the shrill voices pleading for Arsene Wenger to be kicked out of the club. “Arsene, thanks for the memories, but it’s time to say goodbye” is a famous line in North London these days among the Arsenal faithful, and rightly so to some extent because of the repetitive character of Wenger’s failures at the club.

To some extent, the fans are right in demanding for Arsene Wenger to be sacked. They have every right to raise their voices regardless of whom are they being raised against, but, it may well be that the fairyland they keep dreaming of post Wenger’s departure could be hell in disguise. Just take a look at what has happened at Manchester United with a change of manager. When Alex Ferguson left, there wasn’t one person who could see the Reds finishing at seventh position the next season. David Moyes didn’t do much wrong, it was just that the pressure of the expectations of the world’s biggest club back then got to him and he simply crumbled under that pressure. He never got to terms with what Manchester United as a club was all about and miserably failed. Louis Van Gaal’s case is no different.

Any person aware enough of the roots of the modern Arsenal knows the consequences that could follow if Arsene Wenger’s philosophies and ideals – the foundation stones of Arsenal as it is today – are tampered with. Mind, not anyone and everyone can realise what Arsenal Football Club is about. Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola were both of the Wenger league, but them being appointed somewhere else means not one candidate is suitable enough for Wenger to be replaced with. Truth be told, any manager in the world is an apparent ersatz when tried to replace the Frenchman with because of the promise of sustenance, long-term planning, and growth that Wenger has shown and kept. Also, the fact that Arsenal have never finished below the top four regardless of how poor a side they’ve played goes on to apprise us a lot about how tough it is to replace Wenger.

Just imagine what if Diego Simeone’s defensive tactics render Arsenal ineffective resulting in an 8th position finish? Not only will that harm the club on the financial front but it could also mean that the identity of the club is lost. It’s this identity that makes Arsenal one of Europe’s top guns, how else do you think does a club without a league title in more than ten years become a gargantuan name across Europe?

The bottom line here is that Arsenal need to stick with Wenger for the time being, not until they find someone exactly of his ilk (maybe Joachim Low). Yes, the Arsenal manager is past his best, but even an Arsene Wenger past that competitive edge is better than most of his friends across Europe – that’s how good he is.

The choice is Arsenal’s.

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Malaysian gunner

    Mar 21, 2016 at 9:16 am

    Why not?His repeated failures at choking when the finishing line was in sight was/is
    criminal. Once or twice,its acceptable. More than that it becomes criminal.
    That’s why I agree with sif tag.
    No manager is immune if you have shown consistently being unable to win the epl
    with alead of 5 points or more and less than 8 games to go.This will be unacceptable at big clubs.
    Fans have lost faith in him.Is there any guarantee the same wont happen again. Arsenal will better off with a new gut. Its a gamble worth taking.

  2. atomicgeneral

    Mar 21, 2016 at 9:42 am

    oh please, he cant live off his 1st ten years for ever. his last 10 years have sucked.

    • Harneet Singh Sethi

      Mar 21, 2016 at 9:49 am

      His last ten years are the reason why Arsenal have the highest cash reserves in the world, are the 7th richest club in the world (€435.5M), have the highest matchday revenue, one of the best academies in the world and arguably the best stadium in Europe. Agreed, the trophy cabinet hasn’t grown, but at least, Arsenal have grown on the financial front which is good news for the future.

  3. AJ

    Mar 21, 2016 at 10:23 am

    I could go through each point but suffice to say you have no idea what your talking about.

  4. Kim

    Mar 21, 2016 at 10:58 am

    Why do you write such nonsense ,people in all professions have to move on because they can’t motivate there staff, change is good and will be good for Arsenal. So instead of writing about why he should stay and become the the oldest manager in history.lets be positive and get Ronald Keoman and win a few trophys.

    • Harneet Singh Sethi

      Mar 25, 2016 at 12:32 pm

      “Let’s be positive and get Ronald Koeman and win a few trophies.” If it was that simple winning a trophy by a mere managerial change, I wonder why replacing Moyes with someone as great as Van Gaal never worked.

  5. MikeSA

    Mar 21, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    stagnation through fear, what is that other than shear cowardice?

    There is no point in coveting the CL money at this stage, we simply don’t compete to try and win, nor do we spend the money we earn from it, so from a fan’s perspective, it’s pointless.

    Wenger has been presenting the fans with a team far less than the sum of its parts for several seasons now, and deceives the fans about strengthening the team every transfer window.

    This is not Ferguson who made a substandard team win the league being replaced. This is a manager who cannot even get par performances out of what he currently has, never mind getting more.

    There are several managers who I wouldn’t like to see at Arsenal who could do better, and if we wouldn’t want the likes of Allardyce at the club (who would easily get more out of this squad), then why would one wish to continue with someone who is a worse manager?

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