Arsenal: This might be the final word on Arsène Wenger

Arsene Wenger spent over two decades with Arsenal. Now that it is all in the past, how will he be viewed going into the future and looking back?

Arsenal fans have split themselves into many sub-groups in recent times.  Pro-Wenger, anti-Wenger, impatient for success but can’t see life without Wenger, and so on.  There has never been such a divisive debate, or even Civil War, within the Club as that of Wenger’s future.

We’ve now had time to distance ourselves from the Wenger era.  Now we can start to analyse it as a past event, instead of a raw current one.  I assume this will not be the final word. Once we have finished analysing, the comparisons with Emery will begin.

Fans who wanted Wenger to leave then joined the chorus of praise when he left have been labelled hypercritical.  I have spent the last couple of years certain that it would be right for him to leave.

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But I was always able to appreciate and acknowledge the success he achieved.  It’s simply about analysing how the performance changed during the two distinct halves of his tenure.

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The difference was so marked that it could have been two different managers in charge.  That’s certainly the way it should be treated if that’s what makes it reasonable.

It certainly wasn’t a snap decision for me.  It took me years to switch from pro to anti Wenger purely because of his record at the Club.  Ultimately, I had to look at the present situation and accept that things weren’t being done in the right way.

No one would argue that The Unbeatables achievement is one of the greatest feats in the history of English football.  Or that 2005/2006 was our greatest European season.  But surely no one can fail to acknowledge that most of the league performances in this decade have failed to provide what was expected.

It’s not even purely about the results.  Had it been clear that we had always gone about things in the same way, but achieved different results, it would have been a lot easier to stomach, by just putting it down to it being sport.  I certainly would have remained convinced that Wenger was still the right man for the job.  Just like I will be if I perceive emery’s way of doing things to be correct but without the results to back it up.

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Ultimately then, I do not worry about the conflicting emotions of appreciating his achievements but wishing he had left as long as four years ago.