Message to Arsenal Supporters: In Wenger You Should Trust

Over the last 3 months there has been a growing discontent amongst Arsenal supporters in relation to their manager Arsene Wenger. The voices calling for his dismissal or doubting his ability to manage the club have gradually become louder. Robbie Savage although not the most reliable or respected voice in football personifies the current anti-Wenger sentiment by saying:

“So if Arsenal fail to win the poorest Premier League title battle in history, there must be a call for Arsene Wenger to see the board. No other manager would get away with it.

“He’s unearthed gems, financed some of their magnificent new ground and played the prettiest football in the division. And do you know what? That means absolutely nothing when you win nothing.

“In Arsene We Trust? Not any more. Fan after fan told me [on his 606 phone-in] that just qualifying for there Champions League every year wasn’t enough and I agree with them. For a team that is in the top 10 in the world and is probably the equivalent of a Juventus or Inter, it is not enough.”

This in my eyes is a disgrace and an insult to the man who turned a "nearly club" into one of the most successful and financially secure clubs in the Premier League era.

When Wenger joined Arsenal they were still looking for their first Premier League title and were comparable to clubs the size of Everton or Tottenham in terms of recent achievement and stadium capacity. Now they are up there with Europe's elite consistently playing in the Champions League. To compare Arsenal to Inter Milan and Juventus is an unfair comparison. These  two clubs are long established institutions in dominating Italian Football and have been forces in European football long before Arsenal reached their first Champions League Final which was incidentally during Wengers tenure as manager.

This season has been deemed a failure by many after their defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League, finishing 4th in the league and an unfortunate League Cup Final defeat to Birmingham City. What most fans don't realise is that top clubs are more than about winning trophies immediately. I understand that they haven't won a trophy in six years but what Arsene Wenger is building is an institution following a specific philosophy similar to Manchester United, Barcelona, Ajax and Bayern Munich. Wenger is trying to do what Busby and Ferguson have done for Manchester United and what Johan Cryuff did for Ajax and Barcelona. This kind of success doesn't come overnight and without setbacks.

Barcelona steeped in tradition and "more than a club"

If you look at the history of some of the best clubs in the world, the foundations are what make them great. An example is the length of time it took Manchester United to start winning major trophies again after the end of the Busby era. The same for Liverpool who hadn't won a European Cup in over 20 years until their defeat of Milan in Istanbul. It isn't a coincidence that when it comes to winning trophies its always the same clubs that keep popping up. In Spain it's Real Madrid and Barcelona, in Italy until Calciopoli it was Juventus and AC Milan and in England up until relatively recently it was Manchester United and Liverpool. Obviously there are brief exceptions to the rule, these are usually due to what Wenger would call financial doping or an exceptionally good manager who is inevitably signed up by one of the big boys.   

Wenger made the idea of a new stadium a reality for Arsenal

This is what Wenger is trying to build, a club that can sustain itself by following a specific philosophy long after he is gone. Fair enough they aren't currently winning anything but the discord regarding his future at the club is due to a culture of short termism amongst modern football fans. We all know what happened to Leeds United, Portsmouth and West Ham, clubs who have all spent huge amounts of money for short term success with long term financial viability as an afterthought. When teams become successful fans start to suffer from tunnel vision. For example if you told a Leeds supporter after their run to the Champions League Semi Finals that they would be lurching in the depths of the Championship in 2012 you would've been laughed out of the stadium. Wenger doesn't suffer from this, he has tasted success and feels that it should be obtained in unison with guaranteeing the long term future of the club.