Arsenal: Arsene Wenger The Glue Of Modern Gunners

Arsenal are currently in a limbo situation with Arsene Wenger as his contract situation is up in the air. But could the team fall apart without him?

It’s a dicey topic to bring up, what with the Wenger-In and Wenger-Out crowds constantly at each other’s throats. Arsenal has been under the watchful eye of Arsene Wenger for over two decades and that stability and consistency is what brings a lot of players to the club.

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It’s what helped the club stay afloat during the debt days that would have driven any other Premier League side out of Champions League spots. I say that because every other Premier League team can’t say that they have been in the top four as consistently as Arsenal has.

The major trophies haven’t come, and that is obviously the main ‘outer’ point that the naysayers point to. Wenger can keep us consistent, but he can’t win it all.

But I digress. That’s not what I’m here to discuss. I’m here to discuss the sheer number of current Gunners that have made it perfectly clear how important Wenger is to them. With his future massively up in the air, we have recently heard from Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi about why they are with Arsenal.

Ozil says that his future is tied to Wenger’s and Mustafi said that after the coaching carousels at Sampdoria and Valencia, he came to Arsenal for the consistency.

We have also heard from Alexis Sanchez and Granit Xhaka, both of whom admit that Wenger was a major drawing force that convinced them to come to North London. Which can can infer means that if he were to leave, perhaps they wouldn’t be as drawn as they once were.

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There is a point to be made about playing for the club, not the manager, and that makes sense, but when the manager has become such a big part of the club, the distinction might not be as clear as we think.

Not many clubs out there boast the consistency and the philosophy of this club and that is 100% down to Arsene Wenger, who has made those two things his mantra.

I don’t think that we’d see a massive exodus all at once if Wenger calls it quits, but it is definitely possible that the elite players that the Gunners have start to filter off if the team can’t continue what Arsene Wenger did. And that is a reality we have to consider.

Wenger is known and respected as one of the most brilliant minds in the footballing world. Say what you want about him, but that isn’t something you just replace without sustaining some casualties. His philosophy has become the philosophy of Arsenal and there is no guarantee that another manager could seamlessly carry on that tradition.

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It’s weird, to think about another manager in that puffy coat, and it has to be a bit intimidating. But everything comes to an end eventually.