Arsenal: Arsene Wenger’s Problem With Supporters His Own Creation

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have become synonymous over the past two decades, but as that winds to a close, Wenger has no one to blame but himself.

Arsenal had quite a history before Arsene Wenger came to town. They had never been relegated and ranked as one of the most successful teams in English history from the glory years with Herbert Chapman to successes in the 90s, there was plenty to brag about.

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But there is no denying what Arsene Wenger was able to do. He made trophies commonplace. He completely reshaped so many aspects of football in the Premier League and the Gunners benefited immensely.

So much so, that you could say that the fans got spoiled. They saw their team reaching new heights and always in contention for a trophy or two in any given season. It all came to a beautiful climax in the Invincible season, something that will never be matched.

Nowadays, despite the assumed spot in the Champions League every single year, supporters aren’t happy. It’s been over a decade since our last Premier League trophy and the consecutive FA Cups did not do enough to satiate the supporters for long.

It’s gotten so bad that Wenger has recently lashed out and said that he wishes Gooners were more like Spurs supporters. He sees these supporters as impossible to please, which might or might not be true. The point is, Wenger did this to himself.

When he first arrived, he revolutionized things, won trophies, made huge signings and was always in the race to win the title.

Then, when the building of the Emirates began, everything went on pause. He deserves immense credit for keeping us in the Champions League through it all, but in the end, that initial success that he provided is plaguing him now. The fans expect everything, because he gave them everything, and now he can only give them some things.

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He also stopped innovating. Innovations can rock the establishment and set you ahead of the pile. But people catch onto your innovations and you become just one of the bunch.

That is what Wenger did. He stopped changing. He got complacent with his original breakthroughs and here we are so many years later, worrying about whether or not Wenger will actually change his striker choice from our last loss.

That should go without saying, yet it doesn’t. Not with Wenger’s recent track record. He went from changing the very game England played to not making any changes at all.

That being said, things are changing. Slowly. New signings are coming in, new expensive signings and it shows that Wenger isn’t immune to change. Or, at the very least, he is learning to adapt all over again.

But it may be too late. He is at the end of his tenure at Arsenal, it seems, and these changes may be all for the next guy to assess and do what he wishes with.

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I can totally understand Wenger’s frustrations. But when he says things about how the criticism of supporters doesn’t get to him, it’s clear that he doesn’t get our frustrations. And that is where the problem lies.