Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal success deserves respect and a statue

I attended my first Arsenal game in December 1998. It was an away match against Charlton at The Valley and Marc Overmars scored the only goal to seal a victory for the Gunners. Since then I’ve been a diehard fan.

Throughout the next 20 years, the only constant at Arsenal was manager Arsene Wenger. He was so entrenched at the club, that the joke used to be that the team was named after him.

Back then Arsenal and Manchester United, led by Sir Alex Ferguson, were the top two teams in the country, facing off in some epic encounters. Over the six seasons from 1998-2004, the two clubs finished either first or second in the table.

Things started to change when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea for £140m in the summer of 2003. At that time, the Blues hadn’t won a league title for half a century. After the new infusion of cash, Chelsea went on to win the title in 2004/05 and 2005/06. They have been a dominant force in the league ever since.

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Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal success deserves respect and a statue – even more so when seeing the current plight of the club

Then in 2008, Sheikh Mansour bought the woeful Manchester City for £210m. There are a lot of newer Premier League fans that don’t realize that City used to be a yo-yo club bouncing from the top flight to Division One to Division Two and back up again. Yes, they were lousy before the infusion of money. Of course, those days are in the past and today’s Manchester City is one of the top sides.

Despite the changing landscape in the league, Arsenal continued to finish in the top four and qualify for the lucrative Champions League. Worthy of a trophy, in many eyes. Under the stewardship of manager Arsene Wenger, the Gunners qualified for Europe’s most prestigious club competition for 20 straight years.

Then Arsenal finished 5th in 2016/17 and 6th in 2017/18. The fans were getting restless and the calls for Wenger to leave the club grew louder. Perhaps a change in manager was what was needed, but the way Wenger’s reign ended was handled poorly. The man that had brought so much success and stability to the club felt the wrath of the fans and a lack of support from the board. Wenger walked away from the club he loves after 22 years.

It brings me no joy in saying that maybe the fans and the club didn’t appreciate what they had, because Arsenal has gone backward since Wenger left. Maybe it would be the same had he remained, but the improvements that fans were demanding have not materialized.

Unai Emery lasted 18 months in charge and was dismissed for a lack of results or team identity. Mikel Arteta was then appointed in December 2019.

Despite an FA Cup win last season, the team has continued to go backward and underperform. To be fair to Arteta this is just his first full season in charge, and he needs to be given time to put together his own squad. He’s also had to navigate through the COVID crisis which led to a pause last season, empty stadiums during the campaign and just about everything else.

When it was announced that Arsenal planned on being a part of the European Super League, the reaction from fans was telling. Do we still deserve to be called a top side?

As a longtime fan, it’s painful to see this type of deserved criticism leveled at my club. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the current state of Arsenal. It makes me realize that Wenger deserved more respect and appreciation from fans when he left. Under his tutelage, Arsenal was a constant threat and one of the top clubs in the league.

We are all familiar with the saying be careful what you wish for and I believe it applies to the current situation at Arsenal. Fans are being asked to be patient as Arteta works on bringing glory back to the club. Finishing within the top four would be the start of that, yet at this point keeping a clean sheet would be a miracle. Meanwhile, under Wenger, a top-four finish was often mocked.

Supporters are all hopeful that Arteta will bring future success to the club. Unfortunately, the club’s current problems make it clear that Wenger’s achievements over 22 seasons were amazing. He deserves the respect he was denied at the end of his tenure in North London. Hopefully, he’ll be the next statue to be unveiled outside the Emirates.