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What now for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal?

The debate is now raging, as Arsenal close in on a sixth successive season without silverware, as to whether Arsene Wenger should continue in his job. There are some however who think that this is an insult to a manger who, I acknowledge,  has achieved a great deal in his time at the club, and who believe that he should have a ‘job for life’.

But hang on a minute. Why should it be so disrespectful for the clubs directors to take stock at the end of a season and consider the strategic direction in which the club is heading? I am not saying that Wenger should be sacked in the morning. I am part of the large group of fans that think that football owners these days are far too quick to call time on a managers tenure, and was shocked and appalled by Blackburn’s and Newcastle’s decisions to replace Sam Allardyce and Chris Hughton respectively. However, this does not mean that, at the other end of the spectrum, managers should be un-sackable.

The question that the Arsenal board need to consider is whether Arsene’s and their plans and visions for the club are still aligned. Discussions will need to held at the end of the season as to what is needed to turn Arsenal’s nearly men into winners once again. For Arsene to come out this week and state categorically that he doesn’t intend to strengthen in the summer shows a remarkable stubbornness from a manager who appears to be becoming increasingly erratic and irrational with every passing match (especially if the result doesn’t go their way).

Why not come out and say something innocuous such as ‘we will see what happens’? Why state, categorically, with still some of the current season remaining, that you will not buy any players in the summer, when it is so easy to not commit to anything at this stage? This is not a message that needs to be conveyed at this point in time and will not appease the fans in the slightest.

Again, I am not saying Wenger should be sacked immediately, what I am saying is that there is nothing wrong with the board sitting down and having discussions with the manager as to where to club goes from here, and those that say that this notion should be automatically dismissed as disrespectful have swung too far to the side of defending managers following previous acts of impatience shown by certain owners.

If the board hand Arsene a pot of money in the summer and tell him that he needs to go and spend it and he refuses, what then? This is the reason why Wenger’s continuation as Arsenal manager is not automatic, but is, like most of us in our jobs, subject to periodic and sensible review.

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