Rocky the King
The 10-2 humiliation by Bayern Munich has sealed Wenger's fate. It's not just the magnitude of the humiliation, but the fact that Wenger looked lost and paralysed like a rabbit in the headlights. It is only a question now of when not if Arsène Wenger will announce his decision not to renew his contract at Arsenal.
Even when this happens the main club's problem will not be solved for Gooners. The club will remain a billionaire's plaything whether we like it or not until a true fan becomes the owner. If we are not to decline into a mid-table has been, then Wenger's successor must have proven pedigree. Despite his failings during his tenure at Arsenal, Arsène Wenger has enabled us to enjoy the fruits of Champions League football upon a regular basis. His achievement was a mixture of effort and luck, often through the lack of our rivals’ consistency in the final run in.
I think that this season however will see Tottenham finish above us which will add to the howls for him to go. The successor to Wenger will have to make genuine progress by winning trophies and attracting sound marketing investments which will pay the bills. Yes we need cash and whether we like it or not as money is the root of all evil in professional football.
Whilst the world economy lurches from boom to bust, the finances of football still buck the trend. The Chinese super league now think that they can buy their way to credibility by buying legends. Broadcasting deals from BT and BSkyB have ensured that the greed of players will not be satisfied anytime soon. The Arsenal wages structure is in dire need of reform. Wenger's left wing ideological system based upon low differentials between players has not worked and has only served to reward ineptitude and lack of desire.
The Leicester success last season demonstrates that you don't need a team of highly paid world class stars to win the league if the team spirit and effort is right. Equally, young potential stars need to understand that fame does not come just through earning £90k a week aged 20 years old. Claudio Ranieri arguably lost his players because of money rather than the lack of it. One could argue that the alleged Leicester player conspiracy to oust this great man was fuelled by greed, but when all is said and done, true team spirit is motivated by ambition, and if you are showered with riches, then the ambition to work hard for the club and the fans is simply diminished.
Gooners have marched to show their disgust, they are left this season with the likelihood of a FA cup semi-final berth by beating Lincoln City (assuming no giant killing performance). This will only delay the pain and when we finally face Manchester City, the outcome of that game might leave us well outside the top five if Manchester United makes up the points deficit.
The Sanchez row has only highlighted the failure of this squad to build team spirit and cement a pride of what it means to play for your club. Arsenal has often been described as punching above its weight, and the AKB's would have you believe that the club only came to prominence after Arsène Wenger's appointment. This is a cruel lie and airbrushes out the real historical facts of Arsenal's dominance in top flight English football in past decades which was "The Arsenal Way" and it's subsequent success was borne out of the family ownership of Arsenal football club by true fans for fans, and having visionaries like Herbert Chapman.
It takes shrewd investment decisions to buy or develop players that will not break the bank, mixed with a number of established veterans who will give a hundred percent on the field. Sounds familiar? Arsène Wenger once did this. However he could not have achieved this without the defensive back four courtesy of George Graham. Arsène Wenger has to be thanked for his innovation during the first ten years of his tenure. However he now has to be condemned for his dictatorial arrogance that has blighted the club over the last five seasons. He has destroyed part of his own legacy, aided and abetted by Stan Kroenke. If Kroenke remains as the club's owner then I believe that we may not appoint the calibre of new manager that will give us the real Champions League success that we crave.
The new manager will need to spend the club's money, as this would require Kroenke having to invest in The Arsenal. I can't see Kroenke putting in that kind of money. The chatter about Massimiliano Allegri's prospective appointment when Wenger leaves seems hopeful. He is a protégé of Antonio Conte and having an Italian mindset will be crucial to aid our defensive frailties. However it seems that it will be a short tenure as in 2012, Allegri stated that he intends to coach for only 10 more years and plans to retire at the age of 55 due to the fact that coaching contains a high level of stress and anxiety. He also said that he hopes to coach the Italian national side before he retires. This clearly would not leave much time to manage The Arsenal. Media reports suggest that he has already entered into a pre-contractual agreement with the club.
If you look at the history of our great club, Arsenal FC knew the importance of buying the best players who would improve the chances of collecting honours. Arsenal used to regularly break transfer records, but now we can only stand on the sidelines as billionaires change the face of football for the worse. Recall that Chelsea had no history until Abramovich arrived. Manchester City similarly bought success with the same philosophy. So forget about Wenger, and even if Allegri arrives at the club in the summer, there is no prospect of Arsenal sitting at the top table of football clubs, whose eligibility is measured by the number of Champions League successes. If Arsenal is not to decline and suffer a period in the wilderness, then we have to turn up the heat on Stan Kroenke. He has shown no desire to intervene, so he is not fit to be our owner.
Twitter@RTKafc_insider
