Arsenal: “Arsene Wenger’s war” a fight long overdue

According to Arsenal legend Ian Wright, there is a “war” going on behind the scenes. It’s probably not that serious, but isn’t it long overdue?

Arsenal have done something no one ever expected them to do – they changed. They took the transfer mantle away from Arsene Wenger and gave it to a slew of new geniuses, and one old one in Ivan Gazidis.

The team is growing up right before our eyes, but now we have Ian Wright saying that this is causing problems behind the scenes.

"You know that there is things going on in the background with [Sven] Mislintat and [Raul] Sanllehi and [Ivan] Gazidis and you know that there’s a war going on."

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He also commented on how the players weren’t “responding” to the manager. I have no idea where this came from, as we’ve only just now completed the transfer window, but I highly doubt it is as serious as Wright is indicating.

That said, this “war behind the scenes” involving Arsene Wenger is long overdue.

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I speak a lot about accountability. When a talking head (Garth Crooks) says something stupid on TV, who holds them accountable? No one. So the next time they are staring into the tube, they can say something stupid all over again because no one is pressuring them.

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When an Arsenal player makes a mistake (Granit Xhaka), who holds him accountable? Clearly no one. He is still starting every game.

When Arsene Wenger made poor transfer choices or bad tactical decisions, who was holding him accountable? Up until recently, no one. And that led to the same problems over and over again.

It was a club full of comfort. They always hung comfortably in the top four, never really pushing for the title because no one was holding anyone accountable.

I have to invoke the name of Alexis Sanchez here, because I believe that he fired the first shot of the war. He was the first player that really pitched a fit over the club not living up to their full potential. But it was like shouting in a void. One player makes no difference.

Now that Wenger has other powerful people around him making important decisions, and now that he has more elite players than at any point in the last decade, he has people holding him accountable. It’s not going to be easy to go from the comforts of invulnerability to having people breathing down your neck, but it’s going to benefit everyone.

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Accountability has been lacking at this club for too long and it finally feels like there are forces at work so that each and every party is being held accountable by someone. Now let’s see how it turns out.