Ian Wright has described the situation at Arsenal, in which everyone answers to Arsene Wenger, as ’embarrassing’.
- Wright thinks Ivan Gazidis is leaking stories
- Believes Wenger surrounds himself with people who won’t confront him
- Claims Wenger told Keown to ‘shut up’ for challenging him
- Says he would do ‘ANYTHING’ Arsenal wanted
The ex-Arsenal and England striker claims that he would love to help out at his former club but he gets the impression Wenger wouldn’t like it as he tends to speak his mind.
“If Arsenal asked me to go there in any capacity, to do ANYTHING, I would go there,” Wrighty told the S*n.
“At the end of the day, he’s got people around him that he loves.
“Gilles Grimandi, people like Robert Pires. Those people aren’t going to front him up.
“Martin Keown is the only one that’s fronted him in the last couple of years and he got him out.
“Told Martin to shut up, that he talks too much.
“No-one around Arsene Wenger can front him up and say ‘you’re wrong.’”
Wright went on to insist that Wenger has too much power at Arsenal, even calling the situation in which he gets a say in the next manager as ’embarrassing’.
“Gazidis seems to be feeding the press with certain things,” the pundit said.
“What worries me is that when you look at the whole board, and everybody that’s involved their upstairs, there are no football people there.
“Arsene Wenger is the only football person there and it is worrying and I think that’s why he has held onto his job for as long as he has.
“There are no football people there that can pull him up and say ‘what is going on’ and why this shouldn’t be happening, and why someone like David Dean has not been brought back.
“But they needed someone like that, simply because they look petrified to get rid of him because if he goes, what the hell is going to happen?
“Who is the football person to appoint the new manager? They’re actually saying he will have a say in the next manager.
“It’s embarrassing what is going on up there at the moment.”
This isn’t the first time that Wright has spoken publicly about Wenger’s dislike for confrontation. On BT Sport back in September 2015, he revealed that the Frenchman had once told off assistant manager at the time Pat Rice for shouting at the players in the dressing room.
“Do not shout at the players” @IanWright0 recalls the day Wenger told off Pat Rice in the #AFC dressing room. #UCL http://t.co/kqppzZDV2r
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) September 16, 2015