Arsenal: Arsene Wenger’s ‘values’ were never the problem

Arsene Wenger recently said that he hopes the next manager will respect Arsenal’s values as a club, but that has never been the problem at all, nor will it be.

Arsene Wenger has almost entirely excused himself from the process of finding his successor at Arsenal. He said he wants no part of it and will leave the club entirely when his final game is played. But he did offer some words regarding what he hopes his successor will do, and one of his parameters was that they respect the values of the club.

Maybe I’m being naïve here, but that goes without saying, doesn’t it? Arsenal’s values were fortified by Wenger, but they certainly won’t crumble and die without him. There are still too many Wenger-ites in the brain trust to let that happen.

Guys like Sven Mistintat were perfect because they seemed to fit so well with what those values were – namely the persistence in giving youth a chance, as Mislintat had one of the greatest eyes for young talents in the world.

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No, these values aren’t going anywhere. Mostly because it was never Wenger’s values that were the problem. Wenger stuck to his values admirably, but it was what he did outside of those values that caused the stalemate.

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First and foremost, he was so slow on the uptake. He was not able to accommodate the modern game into his tactics and that stubbornness (call it another name if you want) stalled the club. You may remember that the first time Wenger “bent” was in switching to a back three. It found tremendous success, but at the first sign of trouble, he abandoned it.

Don’t even get me started on why we never gave a two-striker system a chance, because with that, we may still have been able to hold onto Olivier Giroud and our strike force would be even deadlier than it presently is.

Nobody is perfect, and that includes Wenger. But while his ability to live and uphold his values was a magnificent show over two decades, the problems he encountered outside of these values- namely in the competitive department, were what drove him out, and what the next manager will be called in to fix.

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It has nothing to do with values. Those aren’t going anywhere.