It has now got to the point where Wenger is starting to become footballs version of Lassie. They will both go down as a legends, but unfortunately neither have really done of note since their respective FA cup win and movie in 2005. This begs the question of whether this dog has had his day and Wenger should leave before his glorious tenure ends at the humiliating low of being sacked. It would certainly present a pretty dramatic fall of grace for the man considered by near enough everyone as the greatest manager for Arsenal since Herbert Chapman (a man who revolutionized Arsenal and pioneered numerous changes in the game) in the 1920-30's. But are combination of frustrated Arsenal fans and sensationalist media blowing it all out of proportion?  
 
The fans view
Arsenal's faithful have more extremists than the average Al-qaeda meeting, with the majority split into two camps -pro and anti Wenger. I will briefly give an overview of both sets of fans views.
Firstly, let me bring a little perspective with a paragraph which is pretty much standard among the "pro-Wenger" half of the club. Wenger is not a bad manager. Infact, quiet the opposite. Since their last trophy in 2005, Arsenal have been forced to juggle mammoth stadium depths with competing with oil backed teams consistently dwarfing Arsenal's spendings. It is no minor miracle that a club have remained competitive in an environment where every team around Arsenal have all invested over £35m into new players at least once over the past 6 seasons, more than double Arsenals biggest venture. Also, its not as if Arsenal haven't been close to ending their drought. In the seasons since, Arsenal have competed in title races along with Champions League and Carling Cup finals. The difference today is that Arsenal have to compete with so many clubs for domestic trophies while in the past it was more or less shared by only Arsenal and Man.Utd. All in all the self sufficient business model that Wenger so strictly adheres to, although frustrating to supporters, has been a huge success given the clubs target to stay at the top while paying off the debts. With Arsenal's world renowned scouting system and Wenger's rare ability to polish a rough Diamond into a world class talent perfectly complementing each other to form both a competitive team and a healthy bank balance, some would ask why anyone would be mad enough to alter such a perfect combination. 
 
"Some teams run on sweat, others on oil" -- Arsene Wenger. 
 
 
 
Gross spend of all premier league clubs over the last decade.Cut down from the last 10 years to last 7. 
 
The answer for others is simple. Dress it up however you like, Arsenal have not one a trophy in 6 years. Bear in mind Arsenal used to be a by-word for success and trophies before the drought, under no circumstances should such an occurrence be acceptable regardless of the managers past glories. Wenger has had chance after chance to rectify huge weaknesses in the team. Who -other than a complete mad man- would of started the 10/11 season with Almunia in goal? Every fan, pundit and child in the country could see Almunia was never up to the job and could of easily mentioned a list of realistic targets that would of added huge quality to the team while being old enough not to hinder the development of Szczesny. Yet he still persevered and cost the club dearly. Unfortunately, cases like this arise all to often Wenger's blind faith in his youngsters and sub-standard players holding back the club, stopping it from reaching that next level and until Wenger is removed from his post, success will become a word of the past in North London. 
 
A manager out of touch with the modern game - or simply years ahead of it?
It has been argued that Wenger is slightly out of touch with what the game has become. That his dream of buying young talent and developing them into a trophy winning side at minimal cost is nothing more than that - a dream. This is because, as we have witnessed first hand,players become impatient want to leave before the team peaks. In a league as competitive as the Premiership it is near impossible to nurture a team to their peak while satisfying their trophy ambitions with the odd F.A cup or even Premier League as they could do in the past. The difference now is that, in the season where Manchester United have an off-year and perhaps suffer early elimination from a cup competition, there's still Man.City and Chelsea to fight with for that silverware. In the past, it was usually a case of Arsenal win one of the FA cup/ Premiership, United the other. Now it's like four dogs fighting over 2 bones- and Arsenal are the weakest of the four. Needless to say our chances of being top dog are slim. 
However, this policy may yet prove to fruitful as the introduction of Fifa financial fair play begins to kick in with its principal objectives being: 
 • to introduce more discipline and rationality in club football finances; 
 • to decrease pressure on salaries and transfer fees and limit inflationary effect; 
 • to encourage clubs to compete with(in) their revenues; 
 • to encourage long-term investments in the youth sector and infrastructure; 
 • to protect the long-term viability of European club football; 
 • to ensure clubs settle their liabilities on a timely basis. 
 
This will be music to Wengers ears considering Arsenal, unlike many other major clubs, already compete within their revenues. They also have the advantage of a scouting system second to none and a successful youth system which, with recent gems such as Wilshere, Frimpong, Gibbs and to an extent Lansbury along with countless others still a few years off the first team still looks to be improving as it looks to reach the levels of Barcelona and Ajax's. Put simply, Arsenal are years ahead of most other major European clubs in these respects. 
And it shows. While Arsenal have an exciting young squad, Clubs such as Chelsea have been forced to spend big on young prospects to replace aging squad members as they prepare for a future where numerous marquee signings would be a thing of the past. They aren't the only big club doing with Inter Milan also attempting to build for the future.
Arsenal's brilliant scouting system was again highlighted this summer when Manchester United, void of a suitable internal replacement, splashed £18.9m on 20 year old De Gea. Arsenal, however, started the season with the season with the impressive Wojciech Szczęsny in between the sticks who had been plucked from Legia Warsaw at 16 for a fraction of De Gea's price. This is not an anomaly though, the list of players that have been bought cheaply and then developed into proven Premier League players includes Cesc Fabregas, Kolo Toure, Patrick Vieira, Alex Song, Ljungberg, Anelka and Petit to name a few. Although some were less obscure than others, it does not hide away from the fact Wenger has molded some of the Premier Leagues finest players out of nothing and, hand in hand with the scouting system in place, is the perfect man for the job when it comes to taking the club forward through the FFP era. 
 
The importance of the board
As much as Wenger is villainized as footballs version of Ebenezer Scrooge and chief culprit for Arsenal's slump from a title winning team into one that hasn't finished in the top 2 since 2004/2005, I feel the board is just as much to blame. Arsenal's board members are, by and large, all about profit. Correct me if I am wrong, but not once in the previous 10 years has one board member invested significant money into improving the team. Put simply, they don't see a need to. With the value of a share in Arsenal still increasing despite their on off the field woes and record profits resulting in huge dividends filling their pockets why not let just let the disgruntled supporters suffer?  
 
"If the role of a board member is to oversee a trophy less period while making significant personal profits and asking fans to pay inflation-busting ticket price increases then, no, I would not want to be on the board." -- Alisher Usmanov 
 
Sure this may be a tad exaggerated but its a view that many people share. David Dein, one of the boards most influential members, left the board over an argument said to have been over the lack of investment in the team. While Dein favored foreign investment, the majority of the board voted against it, using buzz words such as "history", "tradition" and "sustainable" to their advantage. While all of these are something to be proud of, surely a premier league title would be more so? Clearly the board think otherwise.
I read an interesting article the other day (http://www.thefootballnetwork.net/main/s378/st170548.htm) that said that an unnamed source within the club had revealed Arsene Wenger is at loggerheads with the Board over how the transfer budget should be spent. It stated that Wenger is infact in favor of spending big, although the boards wage cap means that he can not attract the caliber of player he would like. Although all other major European clubs that receive similar revenue to Arsenal can offer star players wages in the region of 150-200k a week, the board are reluctant to even go above the 100k mark and that is where the problem has arisen. Although the club can afford a £30 million player, they simply can not afford his wages - or choose not to I should say. Although the probable reality of it is it isn't entirely true, if it is valid shows that Wenger is not the problem infact he is far from it and sacking him is not going to change our fortunes in the slightest 
 
Replacements?
 One of the main problems in sacking Wenger would be finding a suitable replacement. Firstly, there are next to no world class managers out of work at the moment (and could you honestly see the board paying a 5-15m for a manager under contract?). Secondly, when substituting in what will be required of the manager given the clubs policy and players currently at his disposal (Many wingers and centre mids along with a lack of strikers suggests a formation along the lines of 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 will have to initially used and the self sustainable policy will mean the replacement will have to be a shrewd spender in the transfer market while a team that consists mostly small, technical players suggests the manager will have to initially implement a similar continental style) greatly reduces the pool of suitable candidates. Here is some potential ones though. They are by no means the definitive short list, just a few off the top of my head. 
 
Dragan Stojkovic 
In many ways Wenger II, the Nagoya Grampus Eight manager is relatively unknown outside of Japan for his managerial exploits. Seen by Wenger as his natural successor, Dragan turned down the chance to succeed Pat Rice as his assistant this year.  As I also know little about him, I'll hand you over to Mr. Wenger who had this to say: 
 
"I would love Stojkovic to be my successor, there are a hundred reasons for that. Our ideas are the same and we both strive for perfect football. I knew he was going to have teams playing attacking football with many passes." 
"Dragan comes to London at least once a year. We meet up, chat and try to outsmart each other. It's a great achievement for him to have won a championship. I was a coach in Japan for two years and didn't manage it even though I had Piksi, who was the best player in the league, in my team." 
 
From the looks of it, Dragan looks an ideal successor to Wenger. The main problems are that, like Wenger 15 years ago, hiring him would present a huge leap of faith given his lack of experience on the big stage. 
 
Tony Adams
Up next, Tony Adams. Before his spells at Wycome and Portsmouth, Adams was many fans choice to eventually succeed Wenger, figuring that Adams presence and brilliant reading of the game on the pitch would also show off it. But, in a similar way to Roy Keane, this wasn't the case. Although fighting an uphill battle in both cases, Adams retreated to Azerbaijan with his reputation tarnished. Although the chances of Adams being chosen are slim, he would present a return to the Arsenal of the George Graham era were the team is built from the back and the primary aim is to keep the opposition out. An example of this is when Adams' team went 11 matches unbeaten last season and didn't concede in 10 of them. Personally I feel this would be the wrong move for both Arsenal and Adams at this point in time. 
 

Pep Guardiola
Should Pep decide not to renew his one year contract at the end of the season, a move to "Barca Lite" could be an ideal move for both parties. With the current Arsenal side and Guardiola playing near enough the same system and formation, Pep will be able to slot straight into managing the side without the need for a complete overhaul of the side. He also has experience with nurturing talent through his time managing the Barcelona reserve team. The only real adjustment Guardiola will need to make is operating on a much smaller budget. If the situation where he does not sign on arises, Guardiola would be an excellent choice to take over at Arsenal should Wenger be removed or resign. 
 
“I think my time here at Barcelona is coming to an end,” said Guardiola in an interview with Italian television station Rai. “I’m happy here but when you are at a club like this for a long time it’s not possible to stay long-term."  
 

Louis Van Gaal/ Dennis Bergkamp
This one is a little outside of the box. As much as fans would love to see DB10 at the helm, he simply isn't ready to manage a major club yet is more likely to succeed as an assistant manager. Due to the fact that Pat Rice also looks to be in his final years at the club a vacant assistant manager slot may also have to be filled. This could mean that the possibility of Van Gaal managing the club while Bergkamp learns his trade as his right hand man is not totally unrealistic. The two also have the advantage of working together before at Ajax in the early 90's (albiet the fact Bergkamp being a footballer not a member of the backroom staff). 
 
"You can link him with Ajax, the philosophy, the way they both like to bring up players. When I was at Ajax there was only one team in the whole of Europe similar to us, and that was Monaco. That was always how he wanted to play football, and that was my idea too. Our philosophy just clicked. We were on the same wavelength.” -- Dennis Bergkamp on Wenger 
 
The idea of hiring a manager familiar with the current system is not compromised with Bergkamp and Van Gaal. Wenger and Van Gaal played almost identical systems in the early 90's which is similar to the one implemented by Arsenal today. Bergkamp is also "on the same wavelength" as Van Gaal and Wenger so a sooth transition can be achieved without the need for major investment into new players to suit the managers system could be achieved.  

 
 
Conclusion
Put simply, my personal take on it is that Wenger should at least be given more time. He has proven time and time again that he is a great manager whose uncanny ability to mould young talents into superstars goes hand in hand with the clubs excellent youth system and scouting range. Wenger has transformed the clubs image with his brand of football so that it is still today one of the most widely supported clubs in the world even though the club have been trophy less for 6 seasons. Despite having his hands tied by a board that operates strictly as a business in a world where football clubs are nothing more than a billionaires play-thing, he has continued to reassemble competitive teams in the aftermath of losing world class players to other clubs. Yet instead of receiving due praise for being one of the few sane people in an increasingly insane sport, he is slaughtered by the media and fans alike. Why is that? As much as he is mocked and criticised for his lack of signings, Ivan Gazidis has been at fault for the collapse in most cases. Ricky Alvarez, Chris Samba and countless others did not fall through because Wenger suddenly thought, "Oh wait a minute I didn't really want him.", they fell through because Gazidis couldn't negotiate a deal with a car salesmen yet alone a football club. I honestly think Arsenal fans will only truly realize how good a thing they had in Wenger when he is gone. His vision may be poor, he may may have a vocabulary that rarely stretches past "offensive" and "mental strength", but I say long live Wenger and, to quote a once popular saying, in Arsene we trust.