Kevin Whitcher
The BBC sports reporter David Ornstein, one of the channels by which the club choose to leak information that they do not want to make via official statements (journalists like Jeremy Wilson and ex-player pundits like Martin Keown are others) tweeted yesterday, “Arsene Wenger's future will be decided at end of season. New deal offered earlier still on table but will be mutual decision in summer”.
In the press conference today, the manager was asked whether he had said to anyone this week that he would decide his future in March or April. He visibly gulped as he admitted he had (which he did in an interview with German television station ZDF).
Yet later on, in response to another question, he did not want to comment on the view that Stan Kroenke or Ivan Gazidis have on his future. Why not if it is going to be his decision to make in March or April as to whether he will sign the two year deal apparently on the table? Surely the appropriate response in that case would be something along the lines of him having their full backing.
But the manager was a bit like a rabbit in the headlights. Defensively, he made a point that when he arrived at the club, he had notched up more Champions League games than Arsenal had managed in their history, and reminded us that the club had taken part in 19 successive years of the competition since his arrival. This conveniently ignores the fact that if he were operating under the qualification rules as they were before his arrival, the club would have only taken part in 1998-99, 2002-03 and 2004-05. An interesting presentation of the facts right up there with association football beginning in 1992 with the formation of the Premier League.
Ornstein was also tweeted yesterday that “Contract was offered, won't be withdrawn now, but told it'll be decision between both sides on whether it's signed”.
The club are getting this so wrong if they want the manager to have the dignified exit they were presumably trying to engineer. Here’s some advice for head of the club’s PR Mark Gonella, as what came out via Ornstein (presumably briefed by Gonella) yesterday looked like panic – a finger in the dam as the tide of fan and media opinion is about to flood over the top of the barrier. Say nothing to Ornstein. Stick with the original version of events. Arsene has a two year contract waiting to be signed (even if he doesn’t, which might be the reality). Allow the manager to say he has decided to move onto a fresh challenge and give someone else a go next year, and the sooner the better.
This would create a feeling of relief amongst a fanbase that wishes for change, many of whom do not want to see any more personal criticism of the manager and are fearful of things getting even uglier. Most of the fans that have remained supportive of the manager do so because they do not want to see him humiliated. But the repeated humiliations of his Arsenal team (and worryingly, they might not be over) have made them realize that the time for change is this summer, they just want to see it handled the best way.
Such clarification of the future would also mean that those who are openly critical of the manager can focus their energies on backing the team, instead of fretting about the long term future of the club in terms of its ability to challenge for the big prizes. Everyone would get behind the team for Wenger’s final matches, and he would be able to leave with a lot more support than if the decision on his future was left hanging until the summer (with the terrifying prospect of his hanging on for two more years and more embarrassing disappointments like Wednesday night in Munich).
As it is, a bit of me wonders, if it has been decided to make the change (remember the club have been actively sounding out candidates for the job), whether Arsene will be too proud to effectively admit he can take the club no further. And that he will disappear off on his holidays in June and the club release a statement to the effect that the manager has decided not to renew, thanking him for his efforts, with an accompanying statement from the man himself. This way, he won’t have to face the media to tell them it’s over.
This might suit the manager’s sense of ego best, but if it is Arsenal’s best interests he has at heart, he would be better stating he is moving on now (and state that it is his decision if need be). Because I can’t see things getting any better with the situation as it is now, and with matches against Liverpool (away), Manchester City, Spurs (away), Manchester United, Southampton (away) and Stoke (away) for the Gunners in their Premier League run-in, they need all the support they can get. The current state of affairs leads to divisiveness, not unity. Wouldn’t it be good to see a banner simply saying “Arsène - Thanks for the Memories” at the season’s end… with no further words needed?
