It seems almost unthinkable that Arsene Wenger, at the helm of the Gunners for 20 years this year, could come under the sort of pressure that he is currently experiencing from Arsenal fans.
Most of that resentment comes down to Wenger’s refusal to buy in the transfer market coupled with some pretty sub-standard form and the lack of major trophies over the last few seasons.
15 major trophies should endear him to the Gunners’ faithful and, indeed he is just that, but there is a growing sense for change now at the Emirates by some fans who feel that the club is starting to go backwards under Wenger.
With Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea all set for their first full seasons under a new boss, many are wondering whether Wenger has enough in his tank to see off a new round of opposing managers.
The Gunners struggles to take hold of the Premier League title race suggests he may not be able to- and a change in approach could prove useful.
Hit the man below to see FIVE reasons Arsenal must axe Wenger!
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Game has changed, Wenger hasn’t
Wenger’s philosophy during his early days at the club appeared to be pure genius as he achieved almost immediate success, securing a Premier League and FA Cup double in only his second season in charge.
Regular successes followed but between the Invisibles season of 2004 and the comeback FA Cup final success over Hull City a decade later the Gunners failed to win a single thing.
The game has come on leaps and bounds since then and the Premier League is almost unrecognisable from when Wenger arrived, the amounts of money on offer, and teams willing to take advantage of that, mean that Arsenal have fallen behind and are struggling to catch up again.
Transfer stubbornness
The modern English game is awash with money, some say far too much money that has ruined the beautiful game.
Maybe even Wenger is in that category and fair play to him for sticking to his principles but he has been far too stubborn in the transfer market in recent years.
Despite not really challenging for the title last year the only bit of business the Gunners did was to secure the signing of Petr Cech from Chelsea.
Rivals such as Man City and Man Utd blew the Gunners out of the water in terms of transfer fees and Arsenal really have paid the price in terms of that in recent seasons.
Struggles to win the league this year
Many people have said that this is Wenger’s final, and best, chance to secure the league title. Other big guns such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have been way off the pace this season.
The other pre-season favourites Manchester City are still in contention but they are also lagging behind somewhat and, at the minute, the Gunners’ main challengers are Leicester and Tottenham!
Fair play to those sides, they have been brilliant and fully deserve to be in the position they are but it will be extremely disappointing for all Arsenal fans if they cannot get the better of teams such as those at the end of the campaign.
Record in recent seasons
As previously mentioned, after the ‘Invincibles’ blew the Premier League out of the water in 2003-04 it was another decade before Wenger was lifting silverware again. Even that looked dodgy for a while as they trailed Hull City by two goals inside the opening eight minutes of the 2014 FA Cup final but a spirited comeback ended that particular trophy drought.
For any manager in the top-flight of football in this day and age, to go ten years without a single trophy and to still be in the job would be highly unlikely and had it not been for Wenger’s reputation and legacy that he built up in his early years then he could have been out on his ear long before now.
End of an era
The last remaining ‘era’ in English football is Wenger at Arsenal. It seemed almost unthinkable of the Premier League without Sir Alex Ferguson but when he walked away from Old Trafford in 2013 it left Wenger as the longest serving manager in English football.
Unlike Ferguson, Wenger’s powers seem to have faded slightly in the last few years but like Ferguson, Wenger should be given the opportunity to walk away himself rather than face the indignity of being sacked so maybe that could see the Frenchman make his own move at the end of the season.
