LAST night’s embarrassment at Bradford is enough, it is time for Arsene Wenger to step down as Arsenal manager.
Many of his supporters will point to the lack of money, no backing from the board and the debts involved in paying off the stadium.
But the truth of the matter is this, Arsenal are no longer very good. A Carling Cup final we could not lose against Birmingham was lost and we destroyed AC Milan 3-0 at the Emirates last season, just a shame we lost the away leg 4-0.
Which brings me to this season, for every excellent performance (victory at Liverpool and a draw with Man City) there are hopeless ones (drawing 3-3 with Fulham, and losing to Swansea and Norwich).
Football teams don’t succeed or fail based on the business model, look at how much money has been spent by Manchester City to be six points behind Manchester United and out of the Champions League.
It is the manager who inspires, motivates, tweaks his squad with signings and the like and truth be told Arsene Wenger has not done any of that for almost three years.
How can the players be expected to challenge for trophies when the manager one minute is dismissing the Capital One Cup at the shareholders AGM then putting out his strongest side against League Two Bradford?
Those same players have also heard Wenger say finishing fourth is the ‘fifth trophy in English football’ can anyone seriously imagine Sir Alex Ferguson or Roberto Mancini saying that.
It’s no wonder such lifeless performance occur every few weeks, the players are not being pushed and rollocked in the dressing room to deliver more.
Not of all this malaise is down to Wenger, far from it, a number of players are not good enough for Arsenal Football Club or have played far from their best all season.
But none will improve or get better under this manager, a man who seems totally confident he will never be sacked, a position no manager should ever find themselves if truth be told.
Remember just eight years ago, Arsenal Football Club wandered through the whole football season without losing a game. Can you honestly see this squad doing that? Can you see this squad challenging for big honours? I can’t.
What genuinely scares me as a Gooner for 24 of my 30 years on this Earth is the reaction of some fans when you criticise Wenger. I made some strong points after the Swansea game only to be told I was a ‘plastic fan’ and that ‘We don’t need your sort supporting the Arsenal’.
I was even told that we had to applaud Swansea for playing so well and how much they deserved the three points.
I’m sorry but the last time I checked we were winning league titles around the time Swansea nearly fell out of the league itself!
And so to last night, Arsenal Football Club was made to look very ordinary by a hard-working Bradford City side who were a credit to their fans and to their likeable manager Phil Parkinson.
The cheering and elation on Twitter when Thomas Vermaelen headed home with three minutes to go to equalise showed how bad Arsenal had played.
After going out on penalties, did Wenger attack his team, did you get the sense butts were kicked? No all he could say to Sky Sports and to the waiting press pack was: “I couldn’t fault the effort of my team.”
You can imagine the dressing room collectively sigh as they realised yet again they would not be attacked for tossing away the real chance of a trophy.
I don’t know the answers, I am simply sharing my opinion on the state of a club which I love dearly.
If my team come off the pitch having lost but given everything, then I will applaud them and look forward to getting back on the horse at the next game.
But under this leadership, it now seems that we should accept losing to Norwich, to Swansea and to Bradford and be thankful. That is not a position Arsenal Football Club should be in.
I don’t want him sacked in the dead of night and spirited out of the country, never to return. English football should pay respect to, despite the current malaise, the finest foreign manager the Premier League has ever seen.
An announcement he will depart at the end of the season, a standing ovation at his last ever home game and the gratitude of millions of Gooners around the world is richly deserved.
I will be among them because without Arsene Wenger there would not be a modern day Arsenal.
Many more nights like last night though and that wonderful legacy of which he can be so proud will be tarnished and he will remembered as the man who stayed too long.
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