Arsene Wenger to leave Arsenal?

Arsene Wenger to leave Arsenal?

Arsene Wenger will leave Arsenal. Of that there is no doubt. The issue is simply when. And how. And what Arsenal will do when he says he is off.

I write that last sentence because I am convinced that there will be no reason for Wenger leaving Arsenal, other than his own decision. Which means the real question is, what will make him go?


We know from his public statements that football is his life. After Sir Alex Ferguson left Man U, Arsene Wenger pointed out that he doesn’t have a hobby that is akin to Ferguson’s love of horses and horse racing. Football is everything.

We also know that sadly Mr Wenger’s marriage has been dissolved. Of course I am not privy to his private life, but Mr Wenger has admitted that it was the fact that he has never pulled back from full-time involvement in football that was the cause of the split.

Indeed I recall Arsene Wenger saying that the reason that he refrained from sharing a glass of wine with other managers after the game was because it wasted time when he could be viewing football videos, analysing new potential players, looking at what went right and what went wrong in the match just played…

So what could take Mr Wenger away from Arsenal?

Firstly, there is the issue of old age and possible later-life illnesses. He is 66, at which age many men in Britain start to slow down physically and mentally. But we know he is a moderate drinker and eater, he keeps himself fit by appearing on the training field, and he keeps himself mentally fit by his constant work.

Besides which, many men in England today continue working long after the age of 66, so there seems little chance of this being a reason for leaving in the next few years, unless he does succumb to a sudden unexpected illness – which of course can strike us all, irrespective of age.

Second, there could be the feeling that he simply can’t go any further. That given the unlimited finances of Chelsea and Man City, there is no way that he can build a team that will dominate as his sides did in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Against this though is the fact that he clearly enjoyed becoming the joint most successful manager ever in terms of the FA Cup, and there’s no doubt he would love to have that title outright.

My guess here is that even if he did conclude that the Champions League and Premier League were out of his grasp, he’d keep going to get that one more FA Cup win to give him FA Cup immortality.

Third, he could get a better offer from elsewhere. Not a better offer in terms of control (he has total control at Arsenal) but in terms of a club with more money. Would he go to PSG, for example, a club that is as much involved in financial doping as Chelsea and Man City? I think it unlikely.

Fourth, he could move on to consultancy work and punditry. He has done a lot of this on French TV, and his work covering the last world cup which was used as a cover for the signing of Alexis, showed his ability to do the job and have fun (remember the foot volleyball game on the beach?)

But here again, I am not sure he would be satisfied, although it might just work if he really did decide to write the book that exposed the duplicity and atrociousness of football.

You have to remember that in 2000/1 Mr Wenger was accused of violent and threatening behaviour against a referee, was found guilty and given a 12 match ban. The whole case was extraordinarily odd, and many of the details behind it have never been publicly revealed.

However Arsène Wenger successfully appealed against the 12 match ban but still had to pay costs on the grounds that he should have presented all the evidence at the first hearing.

From that moment the issue arose as to what had the referee done and said to encourage the FA to act so quickly to put Wenger on trial? Who was telling stories?

This is just one of many incidents in which Arsene Wenger has clearly come out on top in the end, but of which he has never spoken. There is a lot to tell, and a lot of people and organisations that will be embarrassed by the telling.

But looking at what Mr Wenger might do upon leaving Arsenal, it is hard to find a role in life that we can imagine him taking up and enjoying full-time.

My own view is that he will continue with the club for a few more years, during which time he will try and deliver a third successive FA Cup, thus not only becoming the most successful FA Cup manager of all time, but also, the manager of the first team since 1886 (before Arsenal played their first ever game) to do the treble.

And I think he’d like something else – another cup and league double, or the Champions League.

One of those, and I think he might leave on top, and then write a book that will blow football apart. But until then, assuming no one at Arsenal changes their minds, and no sudden awful illness lays him low, I’ll think he’ll go on for a few more years yet.

But let me end with my opening notion, that he will leave rather than Arsenal pushing him out. The reason for that is simple. While there are lots of people who say that Arsenal’s performances just are not good enough, most of the board members at Arsenal know that just changing managers, like buying new players, is absolutely no guarantee of improvement.

Besides, since Arsenal moved to north London it has never been a club renowned for sacking managers, and the board love that tradition. Here is the list of Arsenal managers since the end of the first world war, leaving aside the temporary managers.

● Leslie Knighton – dismissed
● Herbert Chapman – died in office
● George Allison – retired
● Tom Whittaker – died in office
● Jack Crayston – resigned
● George Swindin – resigned
● Billy Wright – dismissed
● Bertie Mee – retired
● Terry Neill – dismissed
● Don Howe – resigned
● George Graham – dismissed
● Bruce Rioch – dismissed
● Arsène Wenger
13 managers covering 97 years, with just five dismissed, in a industry in which most managers are sacked within 18 months-
No, Arsenal don’t sack managers in general, and most certainly won’t sack their most successful manager of all time.