Wenger is finally out! Arsenal can be reborn as a football club again by Konstantin
It has finally happened! When a friend sent me the news, I thought he was joking. I opened up all the sports sites I follow to double-check if I read this correctly and I was. Arsene Wenger will leave Arsenal at the end of the season!
I am over the moon! It’s a day to celebrate the independence of this football club as it will once again put it’s own priorities over one employee. Ivan Gazidis for me is the big player who managed this. Wenger was always a person who “respects” his contracts, so ending this one an year early doesn’t seen the Arsene way.
Was he forced out? One hundred percent. The empty seats did the job. It was the most powerful of message that could be sent and Gazidis did a masterful job of using it as a leverage to strip the powers off of Wenger. The new people that were added to the board also helped by gradually taking over some of the work Wenger did, starting with the scouting.
Would’ve Wenger gotten Auba and Mikhi? With those salaries especially? Gazidis, Mislintat and Huss Fahmy did all the negotiations. Signing players at the age of 28-29 isn’t really the Wenger way and there’s little point to waste their few remaining good years under Arsene.
The addition of Raul Sanllehi as a director of football, a role which Arsene fiercely questioned last season was also an indication that Wenger’s control is being limited to his ability to coach the team and that’s where the results kicked it. At the end of the day a manager is judged by his results on the football pitch and when they are not good enough, your head falls.
It’s part of the job and we should be excited! It’s an excellent move from the club in an attempt to ride the emotional wave right before a massive game against Atletico Madrid. We have to unite in support of Arsenal for this game. We have to do all we can to win this competition as the starting point for next season we would get if we are a Champions league club would be massive, compared to the case where we aren’t.
The announcement puts pressure on players who always get away with sloppy performances, because under a new manager, they could easily be out! I’m looking at Xhaka, Cech and Mustafi who’s number of errors leading to goals in our net are ridiculously high. Then the likes of Wilshere who aren’t good enough for this club and then you can even look at Ozil’s attitude throughout some games.
A new manager will have no sentiment for those players and that’s why reports say most of them are shocked. They have no idea what the future will be, but it can’t be much worse than what it is now. All the teams who have the infrastructure to surpass, have done it and we have a lot of catching up to do, but hey; getting rid of Wenger is an excellent start!
Now we need to hire a man who can take us back to the top 4 first, then make us challenge again, and it’s not a process that will happen in a day. It took Klopp 3 years to transform Liverpool to what they are now, and even Pep didn’t win anything in his first season here.
We are a massive football club. We have a ton of fans all over the world and we need a person who will handle the pressure and will have the ambition to go forward. My personal preferences are Allegri, Simeone and Ancelotti in that order. We cannot repeat what United did with Moyes although our situation is different.
Fergie left at the top and it’s very hard to stay there for too long, while we start from 6th at best. But still, I want a manager who will know success, demand it and has the necessary experience. This rules out former players, and while you can point out at Zidane as a good example, we don’t have the quality Real Madrid does. And then you can look at Milan and all the ex players who managed there achieving pretty much nothing for a club that used to be a giant of european football.
This is a long topic though and for now I’m just happy. Congratulations to Ivan Gazidis who was the driving force in changing the Board’s view on Wenger and a big cheer for all the fans, who chose to vote with their feet and can now reap the rewards! I am excited, and I firmly believe the future is bright.
Konstantin