Last month, the Arsenal board were keen to get Arsene Wenger around the negotiating table to discuss a new contract, in fear that the Frenchman would swap a stagnating club for the wealth, forward-moving PSG, who were very interested in the 63-year-old’s services.
The Gunners’ fear of losing their philosophical figurehead is well known – even amid last season’s woeful start, during which outsiders of the Emirates including myself called for Wenger’s head, the boardroom, the players and the vast majority of the Arsenal fan base have ferociously stood by him. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t, but the club’s overall hesitancy for change is quite clear.
Perhaps that is why, despite potential Wenger suitors PSG offering Madrid-bound Carlo Ancelotti’s job to former France gaffer Laurent Blanc, the Arsenal board are still very keen for the Gunners boss to extend his stay past next summer, when his current deal at the Emirates expires, with negotiations starting yesterday according to the Daily Mirror, in spite of the fact it has overall been a concerning year in North London.
Should Arsenal be so keenly offering Wenger a new deal at this moment in time? Is it a rather short-sighted, typically unambitious and pessimistic decision from the Gunners board? Or am I doing the Premier League’s longest-serving manager a great disservice by suggesting there are more qualified replacements out there?
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The cold hard truth is that at any other major Premier League club, or even at those of lesser stature, Wenger would have been given his marching orders by now. The North Londoners are amid a near decade-long absence from the title-race, despite being once labelled as ‘The Invincibles’ following an undefeated domestic campaign in 2004, whilst there haven’t been any additions to the Emirates trophy cabinet in any form since their FA Cup final win in 2005.
Perhaps Arsenal’s undying loyalty is commendable, and justifications of moving to a new stadium, in addition to every Gunners star being lured away by the European elite, are often made to excuse the Gunnners’ rapid decline, but the fact is, Wenger has overseen and administered almost every aspect of the club over the last ten years, from youth signings to the wage bill, from transfer policy to the training pitch, from the move to the Emirates to the North Londoner’s philosophical direction, and under the Frenchman’s watch, his beloved Arsenal have continually progressed backwards since their last domestic title in 2004.
But last season was undoubtedly the most alarming in its symbolism of how the club have been moving nowhere fast for the best part of a decade. Whether you regard the campaign as Wenger’s greatest feat yet considering the squad of overpaid has-beens and Champions League rejects was the worst roster he’s ever possessed, or view it as a shocking condemnation of the North Londoners decline, the season demonstrated the Gunners’ overall lack of ambition, starting with Wenger’s declaration of fourth spot being the club’s minimum requirement at Arsenal’s AGM, and ending with the euphoria of fulfilling the self-determined benchmark at the expense of local rivals Tottenham on the final day of the domestic season.
Wenger has vowed for considerable change; he’s now fully prepared to utilise the reported £70million at his disposal this summer, with his first port of call being Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain. But we are yet to see the Argentine international arrive in North London, despite constant rumours that the deal is in its final stages for the last few weeks, and even if the striker became Arsenal’s front man next season, does that necessarily equate to enough progress at the Emirates, to the point where Wenger should be readily rewarded with a new contract, that undoubtedly includes a complimentary raise?
In many ways the situation is a complete paradox, and it has been for some time. The club moves backwards in almost every department, a process in which Wenger has played an intrinsic hand in, yet whenever there is the suggestion that things aren’t as gloomy as they could be, or superficial triumphs occur, such as Arsenal maintaining their Champions League status or making their first signing that can be described as overzealous and decadent since the £11million purchase of Sylvain Wiltord, the Frenchman is praised, lauded and rewarded, as if he’s overcome impossible milestones and obstacles of and outside force’s creation, rather than simply balancing out his own failures as a manager over the last decade.
So why would the Arsenal board be so desperate to keep a manager who has dwindled to say the least in recent years out of the clutches of other European clubs? To borrow a rather crude term from cabinet politics, it’s better to have Wenger ‘directing his urine out of the tent rather than directing it in’. For all of my criticisms, he is an incredibly talented manager, currently the most experienced and longest-serving in the English top flight, with three Premier League titles and four FA Cups on his CV. This season more than ever, his familiarity at the division’s summit will prove vital, whilst in the hands of a continental superpower, unburdened by the stigmatism of decline or the restrictions in transfer budget and wage bill, the Gunners boss would provide a much better showcase of his abilities than he has for the last nine years.
Similarly, although Arsenal fans will disagree with me, there is a perpetual fear of change in North London. Old adages of ‘he got us into this mess, he can get us out of it’, ‘better the devil you know’ and ‘we’ve stuck together this far already, why go back now’ are constantly bandied around, but the bottom line is the Emirates could become a very scary place without Wenger heading the first team.
The French coach is most likely the best qualified, most experienced and most decorated manager the Gunners can attract at this moment in time, whilst the club’s immediate future, in terms of returning to the title race or forever battling it out with Spurs, Everton and Liverpool over European qualification, is in delicate balance, and axing a manager that has served at Arsenal for 17 years could seriously debase the club in all departments.
Perhaps this article has given the wrong impression thus far. By insinuating that the Gunners shouldn’t be so readily offering Arsene Wenger a new contract, I am not suggesting that the Arsenal board should be effectively handing their manager his P45. But with next season marking the most important at the Emirates for some time, with the fans unable to stomach another year of stagnation and the club unable to survive another step backwards without seriously compromising their continental prestige, the North London outfit should not be putting themselves in such an inflexible position, especially considering they still have a whole year to decide on the Frenchman’s future.
At the moment, the jury is still out on Wenger, with some arguing he’s underperformed as a manager, and others counteracting with claims that there are other negative forces at work within the club, such as a rather stale boardroom environment and rigid wage structure, suggesting the Frenchman has been making the best out of a difficult situation for some time.
But either way, should the Gunners fail to gain ground on their divisional rivals next season, the verdict that his last decade in management has been a failure will be unanimous and obvious, but at that point it will be too late for change, whilst eliminating Wenger’s permanent job security and taking him out of his comfort zone for the next twelve months might be the stimulus he needs to begin taking the situation of Arsenal’s steady decline more seriously.
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It may be Machiavellian, disloyal and cold-heartedly shrewd in a manner which we have not associated with the Gunners over the past twenty years, but the board owe it to the fans to protect them from further complacency. Offering Wenger a contract now disallows the club to even consider an alternative path, whilst also further alleviating pressure on a manager who has sat rather cosily in the same job since 1997, with little pressure on his shoulders to keep Arsenal moving forward at a constant rate.
Biding their time until the summer, or at least the turn of year, where some notion of success was secured would have been the better option, but it appears the Gunners board have once again opted for a short-sighted, safe and unambitious decision, out of fear of change and experimentation more than anything else.
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