No matter how desperately Arsenal fans want to hear about the future of their club, it’s looking increasingly likely that an announcement regarding Arsene Wenger’s future won’t be made either way until the end of the season and here’s why.

Respect

Firstly, Arsenal have too much respect for Wenger to just sack him mid-season and there’s no way the Frenchman would quit mid-season either.

The 68-year-old would probably see it as leaving Arsenal in the lurch while he escapes the mess he’s made, which simply isn’t his style. He loves Arsenal and there’s no way he would intentionally do something that he probably thinks is out of line.

Wenger has been at Arsenal for 22 years and won the Premier League three times, the FA Cup seven (!) times, and gone an entire season unbeaten. He brought a new style and finesse to a club to ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ and implemented his philosophy from top to bottom.

He kept Arsenal competitive with hardly any funding from the club, since they were paying off their new stadium, and shouldered the blame for mediocrity, which the board were quite happy to let him do.

It’s so easy to forget what Wenger’s done for Arsenal not just as a team, but as a club.

The board haven’t forgotten and that’s why they offered him a two-year extension after he won the FA Cup for a seventh time last season. Wenger said he was still the right man for the job and they believed him.

Plus, it’s probably easier for them than actually having to appoint someone new.

Out of respect for him, I don’t see them asking him to leave right now, with only a couple of months of the season left, especially seeing as Arsenal are still in the Europa League.

Allow him to finish his job first. No matter what that might entail.

Wenger won’t allow it

Although Wenger isn’t more powerful than the Arsenal board, they trust his judgement. Therefore, if the boss says he wants them to wait until the summer to decide his future, I imagine they’ll do so (see point 1).

Of course, a line has to be drawn somewhere. Wenger’s contract runs out in 2019 and I don’t think anyone in their right mind thinks that the Frenchman honouring his contract is a good idea this time. Apart from him winning the FA Cup, no one’s really sure why he was handed a new deal in the first place.

I would like to think that Wenger knows when to say when but considering he willingly signed that extension last May suggests he doesn’t.

“I am 21 years at the club and I want to feel that I do well, and see what the board thinks of my performance,” Wenger said back in October.

“After that we decide where we go from there. But of course my desire has always been to respect my contracts.

“I must tell you, my hunger, my commitment is bigger than ever. But I will accept that of course when you have been at the club a long time, everybody questions that.

“I question myself a lot, don’t worry, to be better every single day.”

Mid-season upheaval

Logically, sacking a manager at this stage in the season doesn’t really make sense. Arsenal aren’t getting relegated and they still have a chance at the Europa League.

With so little time left of the 2017/18 season, it just doesn’t make sense to suddenly ask Wenger to step down, especially off the back of a couple of really positive results. It doesn’t send a great message to the players, since morale is probably comparatively high at the moment, and considering how flighty they are these days, that wouldn’t be good.

Beating Milan 2-0 and then having your manager get sacked would probably be a little confusing.

Plus, who would take over? Steve Bould? Can we honestly say that Bould would do a better job during the rest of the season than Wenger?

Arsenal can’t suddenly bring in a new manager who already has their own club, since they would be disrupting two teams.

The Arsenal players would be disrupted because Arsene Wenger leaving the club after 22 years would be a massive change accompanied by media circus. And they would have to suddenly change the way they play in order to fit in with a new coach.

While you can understand teams that are fighting relegation suddenly bringing in someone new at this stage, they’re desperately trying to stay in the Premier League – it can only get better if they recruit a new manager. Even if they still get relegated, the board have made a change.

But Arsenal aren’t in that position. We do need change but we’re not fighting for our lives.

If Arsenal were out of the Europa League, perhaps I would understand sacking him now, since there’s nothing left for Wenger to fight for, but we’re still very much in that competition.

Genuinely haven’t decided

The reason Arsenal may not have announced what’s happening with Wenger’s future is that they genuinely don’t know yet.

They might have known a couple of weeks ago but if Wenger wins the Europa League, that could be a game changer, which means they’re once again undecided over whether he’s staying or going.

Obviously, the idea of keeping Wenger for another year is ridiculous and hopefully the board know that, but announcing that they’re sacking the man while there’s still a trophy to be won would seem like poor timing.

Also, they may not actually know who’s going to succeed the 68-year-old. Perhaps they’re yet to really narrow down their short-list. Maybe they’re going to throw in a curveball. Maybe they’ve not even really started looking yet… which is a scary thought I’ll admit.

Or, even if they do know who’s coming in, they can’t announce it because the chances are that manager has their own club to worry about.

As I mentioned before, Arsenal wouldn’t completely disrupt another club by announcing their manager is taking over from Wenger next season unless they had permission from the club in question, which I don’t see another club granting at this stage in the season.

For example, Diego Simeone. How would it go down if Arsenal were to announce that the Atletico Madrid boss is succeeding Wenger at this stage in the season, given that the La Liga side are challenging Barcelona for the title and still in the Europa League themselves?

As it stands, Arsenal fans are once again left waiting to hear what the future holds for their club. And it looks like we will be until the summer.