From SweetScienceN5
Are any of us going to get much work done today?
A phone call this morning from my brother at 10.01.
“Have you heard the news?”
One of those “Where were you when?” moments.
Have been “Wenger out” since the League Cup loss to Birmingham in 2011.
Yet it feels surreal to me that Wenger is leaving this way. Sad too, as last summer he could have gone after that underdog FA Cup win over Chelsea. A huge winners parade, a farewell ball with proceeds to charity, a TV special interview/documentary and book etc.
Easy to forget, but for all the malaise of the second half of his tenure, he deserves congratulations for the achievements of the first half.
That he stayed on for this season would have been done with the full mutual intention of him completing his two year contract.
So him leaving now suggests he has been sacked, but in as polite a way as possible.
The change handled in a way that has allowed the club to find a new manager without the immediate pressure of being managerless.
The decision likely taken in early January. A friend who works for the club has just told me that Wenger has seemed unusually calm around the stadium after recent games.
So in hindsight I think he knew his fate was sealed sometime prior to this week.
Reasons he is leaving now?
1. Arsenal not close to winning the league.
2. Empty seats and apathetic fans, even in the Europa League against CSKA Moscow.
3. Problems selling executive boxes.
4. Second season out of the top four whilst Spurs get into the Champions League.
5. Perception of Spurs as being more exciting and having a new lucrative stadium to move into.
It would not surprise me if some senior players had met Ivan Gazidis and explained that the squad was just not connecting with Wenger anymore, not responding to his initiatives, that his training methods were no longer up-to-date.
Also too, an element of a split club – on one side, Gazidis and the new appointments in scouting and player development, on the other, Wenger and Primorac.
There must have been tension.