A look at Arsenal’s week in quotes.
It’s been another strange week for Arsenal with losses against Liverpool and Bayern Munich coming in short succession, followed by a 5-0 win over Lincoln in the FA Cup.
No matter what Wenger seems to do, the speculation regarding his future continues to mount.
Former Gunner, Jens Lehmann, reckons the boss should stay.
“I think he has to stay now — he’s done so much for the club,” Lehmann told Talksport. “People are talking about his age and they want a new manager to bring fresh air but it’s very difficult to replace intelligence.
“He’s still got the fire and for what he’s done he deserves not to go out on such a bad result. Next season it could be a completely different situation.”
While Paul Merson, also an ex-Arsenal man, thinks Ronald Koeman should step in.
“Arsenal need someone much more ruthless. Someone like Koeman. He’s got a mean streak and he doesn’t let his players get away with anything,” Merson said in his column for the Daily Star.
“I think he’d be a good fit and would take the job if they offered it to him.”
While Martin Keown is just worried about a man he deeply respects.
“Seeing him on the touchline, it is like a watch that has stopped,” Keown wrote. “When Laurent Koscielny was sent off, he didn’t come flying out of his dug- out. It was as if it hadn’t dawned on him. I am becoming concerned for his health, it is painful to see. This club is his life.
“I don’t want this great man — I have called him my footballing father — to be like a boxer on the ropes taking more and more punishment until badly hurt. Nobody with Arsenal in their heart will want that.”
And Patrick Vieira, like Samir Nasri, is questioning the players, saying, “In some of the situation the players have been letting Arsene down a lot. Of course coaches have responsibility but players have responsibility as well.
Sex Pistols singer, John Lydon, also came forward to claim that he would rather drop down a League than have Wenger as Arsenal manager any longer.
“He’s been there so long now that there seems to be no way of getting rid of him. He’s so deeply embedded and entrenched in the bureaucracy of the club that it seems impossible to pull him out of there,” Lydon said.
“I’d rather drop a league than continue with him. It’s mediocre and it’s unfair to us fans. I’m Arsenal for life and as far as I’m concerned managers can come and go, just like them superstar players who demand too much money. F**k ‘em all! Remember: it’s a game but it’s a game to be enjoyed and that’s been missing for a few years over there.”
As a result of all the noise surrounding the club at the moment, chairman Sir Chips Keswick made a statement via the club’s website.
“We are fully aware of the attention currently focused on the club and understand the debate,” the statement reads. “We respect that fans are entitled to their different individual opinions but we will always run this great football club with its best long-term interests at heart.
“Arsène has a contract until the end of the season. Any decisions will be made by us mutually and communicated at the right time in the right way.”
After Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Lincoln, perhaps unsurprisingly, the boss was asked just about every question unrelated to the match itself.
Oh, except Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s.
https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/840653943973793793
This is how it’s going to be until the end of the season.