It’s a disaster if Arsene Wenger quits as Arsenal manager… there’s no one ready to step in and fill his shoes
A decision is expected imminently whether the legendary 67-year-old manager will stay on in North London after winning his seventh FA Cup on Saturday against Chelsea
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I’VE GOT a nasty feeling Arsene Wenger will walk away from the Arsenal job today – and leave the club totally in the lurch.
And you would have to say it would serve them right, because there has been absolutely no forward planning for the day when Wenger finally left the Emirates.
The only way the board should have allowed him to run down his contract yet again is if they had private assurances from him that he was staying.
Otherwise, it is total incompetence from the board to get to this stage.
When Pep Guardiola went to Manchester City, we all knew it was going to happen months before he walked in through the door. And it was the same with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and Antonio Conte at Chelsea.
But if Wenger goes there will be a mad scramble for a replacement, and until Arsenal find someone there is no one there to take charge of pre-season organising and targeting the players the club need to bring in this summer.
And where are they going to go for his successor?
We’ve all heard the same names bandied about. Diego Simeone, but he’s just signed a new contract with Atletico Madrid. Massimiliano Allegri, but he’s not going to leave Juventus, especially if they win the Champions League.
Then there’s Patrick Vieira, but that ship has sailed. I went ballistic over the way he was lost to Manchester City, and I’m still angry over it now.
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He’s coaching New York as part of the learning process to become the next City boss. Don’t expect him to throw it all away and come rushing to Arsenal’s rescue.
We have let other legends drift away when Wenger should have taken them under his wing and groomed them as potential successors.
The stories about Arsene possibly not getting on with some guys once their playing days were coming to an end shouldn’t matter one bit.
He should have been ordered to start planning for the day he decided enough was enough. But since David Dein left the club nine years ago, Arsene has pretty much run things from top to bottom.
There has been no one strong enough to tell him: "Look, you’re not going to go on forever. Let’s make sure there’s an easy transition when it’s time for a change."
David Dein was also someone Arsene felt he could always turn to, a friend and an ideal sounding board.
These days he is totally isolated – and I don’t think Ivan Gazidis, the CEO, or anyone else at the club is qualified to sort out the massive mess they will find themselves in if I’m right, and Arsene does not sign yet another new contract.
Let me make one thing totally clear here – I have absolutely no inside information on whether Wenger will go or stay. I could be way off the mark here, and he could shock us all by staying for another three or four years.
My suspicion that he will walk away is pure gut instinct. But watching and listening to him over the past few months makes me believe he’s reached the end of his patience.
In the last few weeks we have witnessed an emotional side of Wenger that we have never seen before.
I’ve never seen him as worked up or as animated as he was when he was interviewed before the Cup final, when he talked about how disappointed he was with the fans for being so disrespectful towards him.
You look at that, and the way he walked around Wembley after Arsenal beat Chelsea, and reading between the lines it made me feel like he was enjoying himself one last time, before saying he’d had enough of it.
I spoke to him at a dinner a couple of months ago, and he was fed up then of the way the fans had turned on him. But there was nothing like the level of hurt and anger he showed in his pre-Cup final interview.
Arsenal fans have been on at me for ages to denounce Arsene for the way things went in the Premier League, but I won’t do that. Because while he has to take some of the blame, the players have let him down badly at times.
That performance against Chelsea showed why Arsene has shown so much faith in his squad. He knows what they are capable of. But they have fallen way below that level far too often.
Arsene has to take a lot of the flak for letting that happen.
But when you’ve got supporters chanting ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ – like they did against Crystal Palace – plus shocking performances against West Brom, Watford, and one or two others, you can see why they’re having a go at the players as well.
And while we’re doling out the blame, the board deserve their share for allowing the uncertainty over the manger to snowball, by allowing him to make up his mind over a new contract at the very last minute.
That is no way to run a football club. The next manager should have been identified ages ago, and shepherded by Arsene for a season or two, even if he didn’t like the idea.
With no one to step in, I think it will be a disaster if Arsene goes.
That’s why I often tell the fans be careful what you wish for. We already face a season in the Europa League – and things could get a lot worse before they start to get better.