Arsenal: Why I Want Arsene Wenger To Stay

Arsene Wenger is coming under intense criticism after Arsenal were demolished by Bayern Munich. Here’s why I want Le Prof. to stay at the helm.

I have been an Arsenal fan for all of the 22 years that I have lived on this Earth. For much of that time, it has been Arsene Wenger who has marshalled the touchline of the red half of North London, pervading the pitch with an incisive, steely-eyed view of the English game.

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Wenger came as a nobody. The famous headline; “Wenger Who?” still hangs over his legacy as a signpost of the impact, the influence and the change that he has enacted on modern football. However, despite enjoying much success throughout his two decades at the club, seemingly, his time is coming to an end.

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Arsenal, in eerily and worryingly similar circumstances as the past six seasons, travelled to German to face Bayern Munich with slim hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for first time since 2010. They were sent home with their tails well and truly between their legs after a 5-1 battering that, in truth, should have been far more devastating.

In his post-match interview, Wenger cut a forlorn, dejected figure. With his contract expiring at the end of the season, there have been calls for him to resign. Many in the media, large sections of supporters and now even some ex-players, including some who have played under Wenger, believe that not only he should leave, but that he will leave come the summer.

It is a statement that I agree with in part. I expect Wenger to leave but I want Wenger to stay.

That is an unpopular stance in the current climate, especially in the aftermath of yet another dismantling in the Champions League, but, in the years in which Wenger has had the money to invest in the squad, progress has been made, and rather significant progress at that.

As the 2013 season ended, Arsenal had just suffered through yet another trophyless season – their eighth on the bounce – they had to haul back Tottenham Hotspur with a miraculous late-season run to sneak into the Champions League qualification positions and ended the year a massive 16 points off the title, won by a Robin van Persie led Manchester United.

This is the fourth season since that summer. Arsenal have signed the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Shkodran Mustafi and Petr Cech. They have won two FA Cups. They have finished in the top two of the Premier League for the first time since 2005 and are, believe it or not, closer to the title than they have been since they last won it all the way back in 2004.

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Perhaps that says more about the struggles of the club under Wenger’s guidance than it does his tutelage to improve. But progress is nonetheless being made and Wenger is deserving of the time and the money to build on such progress. Whether he will accept the time and money is another question, but I hope he continues, however unlikely.