Arsenal and Arsene Wenger: So, what’s going on now?

The mechanics of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal departure is increasingly muddled with every development. And today, two contrasting statements only dirty the water further. So, what’s actually going on?

Perhaps it doesn’t really matter how it happened. Perhaps it does. But, for now, the furore surrounding Arsene Wenger and the nature of pending Arsenal departure, the authors of the decision, the timing of the announcement, and the motivations of each of the key characters, is a topic of great conversation.

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The initial statement certainly sounded as if this was Wenger’s decision. It was laced with #MerciArsene’s and requests to the fans of continuing the values of the club once he was gone. But that did not really fit the narrative of the past season. It didn’t really seem logical.

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Arsenal, as a club, have been gearing up to this moment for some time. The hirings of Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat as head of football relations and head of recruitment began to take the omniscience away from Wenger. The decision to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a consequence of that. Ivan Gazidis has grown more and more powerful behind the scenes, while Wenger has diminished in his influence.

And now the waters have only been muddied further. This is Wenger speaking in his pre-match press conference at Wednesday lunchtime when asked about the announcement:

"“The timing was not really my decision and, for the rest, I have spoken about it.”"

That certainly sounds like he reluctantly jumped before he was pushed. But then, hours later, in an official statement from the club, Wenger said this:

"“After reaching agreement about my departure, I was happy for the club to decide when to announce. I wish to make it clear the timing of the announcement was right.”"

So what’s going on? Well, here’s my theory, and this is just me reading between the lines a little and speculating a tad.

I believe that Arsenal said to Wenger that they were going to sack him at the end of the season. I believe that Wenger wanted to see out the remaining year of his contract. I also believe that Arsenal did not want to look as though they had sacked Wenger and Wenger did not want to look as though he had been sacked, so the two parties agreed, a little reluctantly, on a resignation statement.

Wenger, though, I believe, was the more reluctant of the two and wanted to hint to the media at his unhappiness at the decision that was taken by the board, and so the comments on Wednesday in his press conference. When the board said that, I believe that they wanted Wenger to retract such comments to save face, as evidenced by the later statement.

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Now, is this true? I have absolutely no idea. It is just a theory. But what it does tell us is that nobody from the outside really knows how this happened. Nobody really knows the mechanics of this decision. Nevertheless, I do not think that this was as harmonious a split as some may want you to believe.