"Fourth place is priority";We, Arsenal fans are so accustomed to these words. Once again Arsenal have slumped and are again fighting with Spurs for the "coveted" fourth place.
The start to the season seemed to good to be true; top of the table, into the round of 16 after progressing from the round of 16, and up and running on the FA Cup. The slump started with the annihilation at Anfield, and it has been downhill since, the only exception being the victory over Tottenham at WHL, with a Rosicky stunner.
We are just not good enough to compete with the big teams in the league, who play at a level above the Gunners. The opposition seems stronger mentally and it soon becomes a case of men vs boys and. Mr. Wenger needs to realize that qualifying for the Champions League is not by any means a successful season. Every year we qualify in dramatic fashion, pipping Spurs on the last day and making it seem like a euphoric achievement and making the fans believe that it has been a good season. The fear factor associated with the Gunners is slowly but surely disappearing, Arsenal is not seen as a tough game on the fixture list by the big clubs and if immediate action is not taken, they stand at the risk of getting left behind. Everton and Spurs are Arsenal's league rivals these days.
Wenger has always considered the Premier League and Champions League of the utmost importance and for this, has many times played weakened squads in the Cups, resulting in an early exit from these competitions and increasing the trophy drought. At least he has changed a bit, and plays first team members in FA Cup rounds, and that has resulted in the team reaching the semi finals, for the first time since 2010. I was looking back at my previous article , where I strongly believed that we would win the title;how naive!! In the present situation, even fourth place is not guaranteed.
By no means are Arsenal a poor club, we have enough money to attract the world's biggest stars, but Wenger refuses to spend the money, with Ozil being the only one who Wenger seemed ready to splash the cash on. Every transfer window, an unknown French player is signed, and not even from the big French teams, like Marseilles or Lyon, Auxerre, Nantes and Lorient seem the preferred markets. Some of them turn out to be good signings such as Sagna and Koscielny, but most of them fail to make the cut and are soon moved on to the other clubs; Squillaci, Chamakh to name a few. To me Wenger has high self confidence, bordering arrogance, it is in his opinion that he can make achieve success with limited resources and doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes.
A friend of mine, who is a Chelsea fan, pointed out that if they had such a drought, they would have had 15 managers by now! Now, I am not saying that the Chelsea manager system is preferable, but to a certain extent I think it needs to be applied at Arsenal. Let us take the example of Liverpool, by the end of the 2011-2012 season, they had won the League Cup, their first piece of silverware since 2006, reached the FA Cup final but had finished a lowly eight in the league, behind arch rivals Everton. By no means, was this a bad season, but the Board of Directors didn't feel the club was moving upwards and Dalglish was sacked, he wasn't asked to resign but was Sacked!, simple as that. That is where I admire Liverpool, they replaced club legend and fan favourite, who was in charge for less than 2 years with a young fresh minded manager, who I think will go down as one of Liverpool's greatest managers. The Arsenal board is blinded by Wenger's past achievements and give him contract extensions, hoping he will come good, a bit like the Pakistan Board selecting Afridi for every series. In my personal opinion, Wenger needs to leave, and this is the perfect time to step down; Arsenal have a realistic hope of winning a trophy this year and he can step down with the satisfaction that the trophy drought has ended, and he will be remembered for something more than that. With rumours surfacing that he has already told the team he will be stepping down, it just might be the end of Wenger. I think he needs to reflect back on the past few years, and himself realize that it is time to leave. Arsenal need a young and dynamic manager, who is willing to take risks, and build a new team, with a winning philosophy, maybe someone like a Diego Simeone
No one can take away what the Frenchman has done for Arsenal; building a new stadium from scratch and still remaining financially strong, going a whole season unbeaten and producing some of the greatest players the world has ever seen, arguably the greatest manager the club has seen. You can take away Arsene from Arsenal, but not Arsenal from Arsene. But first, the former needs to be done.
