After much debate, Arsene Wenger has finally signed the two-year extension to his contract and thus will continue on as manager of Arsenal.
The Frenchman, who has currently been at the helm for over twenty years, has faced much criticism from a great deal of the Gunners fanbase over the last few years due to frustrations over the club's dwindling and stagnating successes. With a continued failure to win the Premier League together with successive qualifications for the Champions League only to falter in the early stages of the knockouts, a large section of supporters are at the end of their tether.
The only major success achieved over the last few years has been the FA Cup, becoming champions three times over the last four years leading to the competition being dubbed by some as "the Arsenal Cup". Though this would be seen by most fans as continued silverware, the majority of supporters believe the club should be showing more ambition than to just be pushing to win domestic cups.
Another criticism of Wenger for quite a few years now is under-investment in the squad. Arsene has always maintained he looks for quality over quantity, and while other clubs in the league can boast big transfer budgets and an almost revolving door policy regarding players being brought in and shipped out, Wenger has stuck to his guns and only bought a few players in of a certain quality rather than try to fill half a team up of new blood.
So with this season seeing Arsenal finish fifth in the league and thus only qualifying for the Europa League, many thought that this would be the summer that Arsene Wenger would finally part ways with the managerial hot seat and take his much-anticipated role as a member of the board...but alas, it was not to be!
On the subject of the board, much criticised themselves yet not as much as Wenger, what exactly are they showing themselves to be by allowing Wenger to extend his stay as manager for the next two years? Clearly not the cutthroats they possibly needed to be as now it just seems they are complacent to go along with Wenger's wishes no matter how bad the failures. The reality is they won't receive the income from the Champions League and therefore won't be able to compete financially on the level they have been, so certain players may have to be sold in order to balance the books, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to name a few.
But if you were to believe some, including Wenger himself, he practically has a war chest to work with which angers fans further as he appears either too stubborn or simply unwilling to spend it like he can. But perhaps that's the plan, spend as little as possible on the team and recuperate the rest for the club sponsors/board of directors/corporate investors...or does that sound too conspiracy-ish?
The one question that has been answered is that Arsene Wenger is staying in the Emirates hot seat, which will be a pain for most fans, the next question among the many others is will the club now sink or swim? While Arsenal worry about that, the rest of us will watch Arsenal Fan TV with undiluted glee...
Source: DSG
