Arsenal went through a mini-crisis last season, with the contract uncertainty of Arsene Wenger, as well as all the players that were running down their contracts while ostensibly waiting to see whether Le Prof was still going to be manager after the summer. Wenger managed to pick the team up with a consistent run to the end of the campaign, and although we won the FA Cup we failed to reach the Champions League for the first time under Arsene.
The Arsenal majority shareholder Stan Kroenke is still happy that he went against the protests from Arsenal fans to remove Wenger, and instead offered him a new two-year contract, and the Silent One is still of the opinion it was the right decision although it was difficult to decide at the time. “Arsene is strong, he’s focused and I think he showed through all that,” Kroenke told the Daily Mirror. “We always evaluate, and it’s fair to look at all the factors involved.
“But when you make decisions like that, you are weighing lots of different factors, but you hope that you weigh them correctly and come out with the right decision. I think we did.
“It’s easy to change coaches and people do it all the time. But the hardest thing is to replicate success and remain competitive.
“You have to approach it with clear-headedness, calmness, thinking for the long term rather than the short-term.
“An easy answer is it’s easy to do something. It’s harder not to do something.”
After 21 years, we all know about Wenger’s long term thinking, but ultimately a lot of Gooners believe that we need a breath of fresh air breathed into the club as we don’t seem to be progressing season on season.
But now we are back up on the heels of the Top Four, with Ozil, Alexis and Lacazette clicking, was it the right decision by Mr Kroenke after all?
Sam P