Arsene Wenger an Arsenal legend, perhaps nearing the end of the road at this club. How to solve a dilemma like the Arsenal boss? 

12/12/12 

Arsene Wenger is club legend, who has collected 11 major trophies over his tenure. He has re-shaped this club from top to top, overseen a period of unparalleled success and change at this club, and in my opinion has well and truly "built" Arsenal, into the club and the brand that it is today. Without Arsene Wenger I don't believe we would have the stadium we have, play the brand of football that we have enjoyed since his arrival, as an apparent unknown, and we definitely would not have seen players such as Patrick Viera, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas e.t.c. grace the pitch at Highbury and latterly The Emirates. He is also of course revered for masterminding arguably the greatest league season in English league history, 2003/4, where of course we went the entire season without loosing a game in the Championship, an incredible achievement, to win the Premier League with an astonishing 90 points, 11 points clear of 2nd place Chelsea. Besides that he has led us to a number of other league titles, FA cups, a champions league final, which we unfortunate not to win, in 2006 and a number of other cup finals. Furthermore he has led us to the knockout stage of the Champions League for 13 seasons on the bounce, and incredible record.

It is therefore astonishing, when you read it like that, that this great chap could be under severe pressure from many fans to step aside from his job, a position which has seemed completely safe for all these years. However we are now on a run of 7 years without a trophy, for our great club to celebrate and pressure is at an all time high really on him to rectify this.

Many people feel that he has lost his winning "touch", something which was so revolutionary when he first arrived. Some say he has become "stale and complacent" however the impact that he had upon his arrival will go down in history. It is well known how he changed the club in terms of training methods, dietary programes and of course style of play. But in the present many people feel that he has failed to develop this philosophy further since his arrival  and therefore is too easy to "second guess" for opposition managers and coaches alike.

It is an incredibly difficult topic I believe for Arsenal fans to discuss because this is the man, as I said, who has in many ways, built the Arsenal that we know, watch and love today. As I said without him our club would have a completely different complexion, and therefore the club is a credit to him. He really is a Mr Arsenal, he has said on many occasions that this is the "club of my life". This is why it is extremely difficult and emotional really for me to be writing this because this man has just been incredible for this football club, and to be honest I do still believe in him. I do think he has been let down by a combination of players, board members e.t.c. over the last few years in that players have been allowed to manipulate him and basically stick two fingers up and him and leave. Whilst the board have perhaps not allowed him the freedom to bring in the quality of personell that he acquired when he first joined (e.g. Viera and The King), and the quality of player that was already at the club to work with on his arrival.

However I do believe he has it in him to re-create the success and trophy winning ethos that has brought him so much success during his Arsenal career, and we must not forget this, but questions are certainly being asked now, stronger than they have ever been asked before, and until a trophy is brought back to the home of football and placed in the cabinet, or until a proper and prolonged challenge for the Premier League and Champion League titles especially is brought about, these questions will continue to get larger and larger, and more and more fans will jump on the "Wenger out" band-wagon. This is the sad fact of football!

I would like to make one thing very very clear before I continue in this piece, and that is that I am absolutely NOT a "Wenger-outist" (as I like to put it), I do not believe that Arsene Wenger should be sacked at this moment in time because as I said I do believe that he has it in him to re-create such success. He definitely needs to add some more quality to the team, and he also perhaps needs to consider tweaking his philosophy and his tactics here and there. For now, in my opinion he is definitely the right man for the job, for what he has achieved in his career at this fantastic club, and also for what he is capable of. There is certainly no one out there who is available NOW (and that is a key word), to come in, who is more capable that Mr Wenger himself. Besides changing a manager mid-season is rarely a success and never really achieves anything other than a short-term response or revival. This has been clear at Sunderland for example.

However in the more medium-term looking forward to the summer, I am beginning to feel (and this is something which seriously saddens me), that perhaps it is time for a change, and new impetus to be fed in to the club, I believe we need some new ideas into the club, a fresh start, to really move the club forward again. Wenger is very capable of doing this, however a slightly honed philosophy and new impetus would be beneficial in order to achieve this. In my opinion there is only one man that can deliver this, and that is Mr Josep Guardiola or as he is more commonly known, Pep!

This is a young man (41 years of age), who in my opinion revolutionized the club of Barcelona, in a similar fashion to what Arsene did to The Arsenal back in the late 90s. He is a man who shares a similar philosophy to Wenger and to Arsenal, but who perhaps has more modern, contemporary methods, which I believe would suit us going forward. What is this? Well we all know that Arsenal and Barcelona share one thing, that is there belief in keeping the ball, attacking and playing good exciting football. However during Guardiola's reign he took this to a completely new level. It is very easy to forget that during the late years of Frank Rikkard's reign at FCB they were not massively successful. This changed when Pep arrived, and what followed was incredible period of success for their club, which was built around Guardiola's insistence of a specific defensive system. He acknowledged Barcelona were not the best defensively, but were going forward, therefore if they could find a way of holding onto the ball for longer, and winning it back whenever lost it, they would be extremely difficult to beat. This was achieved through the pressing game that Barcelona played during Pep's reign and to an extent this season since his departure. I believe that apart from a few games every now and again, Arsenal do NOT do enough off the ball, in terms of hassling and harrying to win it back, whenever they loose it, that is why we often concede on the break. Guardiola would I think change this. Of course Guardiola would also change a few things with us on the ball, however I feel where his philosophy would help us most is off the ball. Football is about defending as an entire team, this is something I believe has not been achieved at Arsenal in recent years, and is something that Pep would insist on and therefore bring into the club.

What I am trying to put across here, is that Arsene and Pep are in many ways very similar. But Guardiola would revolutionize the way we play in a very subtle way. He would perhaps also bring in more top quality players to help the club move forward, however that would be for time to tell. It has been reported today that Pep has highlighted Arsenal as the Premier League side that he would most like to manage. I feel that this is down to the philosophy that we (Arsenal) effectively share with him, the philosophy of attacking football, with an emphasis on youth development and preparation. I do feel that we are the club most suited to him and I believe he knows that.

As I said I am NOT a Wenger-outist, as I acknowledge the massive intelligence of the man, and am forever grateful for what he has achieved and what he has brought to our club. As someone of my age Arsenal with Wenger is (apart from the first 4/5 years of my life) all I know, it is therefore extremely hard to imagine anyone else sitting in his chair at the stadium on the match-days.

However I am beginning to feel that a change could, perhaps, be worthwhile. Not necessarily is this change absolutely needed, because as I said the boss isn't a bad coach all of sudden, however perhaps a new perspective a new voice, and a tweaked strategy could benefit the club, and give us a better chance of winning major honours again. That is the key for me, I am not saying that with Arsene we would never win anything again, however I feel that with a new voice or new ideas we could perhaps get there quicker, because of the change that would perhaps come about with Pep at the helm. This team, this club, perhaps could do with this change.

With Guardiola currently on sabbatical until this summer, and it is been clear that he will NOT be taking up a job until then, at least he will not start work until then, and bearing in mind the immense qualities he has as a coach, and the success he has had demonstrated so early in his career, I believe this is perhaps too good an opportunity to pass up. After this summer it will be extremely hard to get him, because he will be in work, that is for sure. Arsene has done an un-believable job at this football club, and is a man who  I will love, respect and thank, in equal measure, for the rest of my days, but with someone who could lead this club for many years to come and perhaps take the club back to success available, should we turn it up? This is the dilemma. I do hope that Wenger would stay on at the club, perhaps in a "technical director" like position as I feel his work at the club merits this and we can benefit from having him still at the club in some way. However perhaps it is time for us to have new impetus on the coaching side! Given Guardiola's age he could feasibly go on to surpass Wenger's tenure at the club too, given suitable success that he is no doubt capable off!

To summarise Wenger is an astonishing man, but Arsenal I feel could this summer take the opportunity to go in a slightly different direction with a manager that has a very similar philosophy but would make changes all the same. Whatever happens what I want is for Arsenal to be at the top of the English game once again, how this happens I am not bothered. It is sure going to be a very interesting 6 months or so!!

Thank you Arsene for all you have done, but this summer it may be time for change!!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQfsqbj0Skc&feature=plcp - my thoughts on this situation in video form!