There’s a divide between fans that think either Wenger should be sacked due to his lack of success and his very stubborn ways or a change in board procedures who seem to be more concerned about finances than the happiness of fans. However, there almost seems to be an unbreakable bond between the board and Wenger because Wenger is the only manager that can carry out the board’s plans and the current board are the only group of people that would not have sacked Wenger by now for a lack of silverware.

Fans’ ‘success’ vs. Board ‘success’

Fans and pundits alike criticise Wenger because he doesn’t spend extravagant amounts of money but let’s not forget about inflation and the investments made in Man City and Chelsea. Comparisons are unrealistic. Wenger has brought in Arteta, Benayoun, Santos and Mertesacker which may have underwhelmed some people but it also means that out of the 60 mil we received from Cesc and Nasri we have spent around half of that, but only time will tell whether the additions bring what fans believe is success (the signings are already a financial success in the board room). Other managers would no doubt have over-spent on a replacement for Cesc from which the board would have made no profit. Wenger is smarter than that and knew that there is not a like-for-like replacement for Cesc and brought in Arteta who has plenty of Premier League experience at a reasonable price.

Wenger the coach vs Wenger the accountant

Wenger is a great manager on the pitch and training ground, but to the board he seems more like an accountant – a degree in economics no doubt got Hill-Wood excited. Fans gets a mixed view because we play great football but sometimes don’t buy the players that could take us to that next level and we’ll never know whether Wenger is putting on a brave face in press conferences saying that he has faith in the players he has or whether he’s sugar coating the fact that the board will not let him spend as much to bring in the ready-made world class stars, or whether it’s even a case that we cannot afford them.

Are we becoming a glorified feeder club?

Wenger always uses the excuse of team’s shortcomings on the team’s potential but it seems that without investment in the squad and/or trophies, the players see their ambitions better fulfilled elsewhere. Whether this is part of the plan from the board to buy players cheap and sell them for profit or whether it is the board or Wenger’s refusal to spend money on more expensive players will never be known as Arsenal are notorious for keeping this kind of information behind the scenes. Sometimes it could be a case of wages as suggested in the media, or sometimes it’s the promise of success that a billionaire funded club can offer e.g. the likes of Adebayor, Clichy, Nasri, Toure etc looking at the team Man City have now, you could have easily looked at the team a few years ago without a name and thought ‘that’s arsenal with some top quality signings’, most of the man city players that haven’t played for Arsenal are players that we’ve been linked with but could never afford e.g. Yaya Toure, Kompany, Silva

Hill-Wood

Recently hill-wood spoke up regarding the speculation of Arsene’s future stating that the rumours are "complete and utter rubbish and absolute nonsense. I think he is happy enough and we are happy enough,"

The key word for me here is that the fans’ account of what is ‘enough’ and Wenger/the board’s definition of ‘enough’ is very different. It’s frustrating going from an invincible team to an FA cup to 6 years of nothing. From a board point of view we have moved stadium and stayed ‘competitive’ with Wenger’s management both in the transfer market and his coaching style. Wenger is happy because he seems to have full control over what’s going on and isn’t being haggled by the board to make signings under fan pressure. But this upsets the fans and puts the club in a situation where they value a business plan over the 60,000 supporters, who have recently suffered a price increase, who turn up every week and want to see success on the pitch and not the balance books.

Wenger is the only manager in my opinion who can work with the current board. Sacking him would be a mistake unless there is a different board in place to facilitate a ‘modern’ style of club management (impatient, irrational, debt ridden), however this style would conflict with the financial fair play rules being brought in by UEFA which means that there may some light at the end of the tunnel for Arsenal.

Latest: