Arsene Wenger announced on Friday that he’s leaving Arsenal at the end of the season, but who might end up leaving with him?
After 22 years at the club, Wenger finally called time on his Arsenal spell this week. It came at a surprising time for many of us, including the players, reportedly. Clearly many expected him to stick around for a while longer, and his departure might have an impact on their own situations.
There are a number of players and staff with a personal connection to the manager who may end going the same way. Here’s our list of the four people we think are most likely to follow him out of the door:
Jack Wilshere
Whilst Wilshere has been an Arsenal player since the age of nine, it’s starting to look like he might be nearing the end of that spell. The England international is in the final months of his contract with the club, and seemingly isn’t close to signing an extension.
The 26-year-old has a solid relationship with the fans, but you get the impression his connection to Arsene Wenger is even more important.
“I’ve got a great relationship with the boss here,” he admitted in January. “I’ve known him since I was 16. We have a good relationship, we talk most days.
“I’m sure if Danny was sat here and you asked that (who the teacher’s pet is), he’d say me. He always says that the boss is my dad.”
Wenger insists that Jack is “an Arsenal man” and that “nobody questions his love and commitment for the club”. The question is how much those feelings would change now the club has lost the manager who gave the midfielder his first senior opportunities, and who stood by him through all his injury problems.
We might find out the answer before long.
Steve Bould
This one seems a near certainty. As a general rule, clubs that replace one manager with another usually give the new boss the chance to appoint their own assistant. As a result, you don’t often see the former manager’s assistant stick around for long.
The only real exception is when someone needs to takeover as a caretaker manager. If Arsenal had sacked Wenger without anyone in line to take over, they might have needed Bould to step in until they could make the new appointment.
Since the manager ended up leaving on his own terms with notice given in advance, that shouldn’t be the case.
More than that, there’s a suggestion that Bould isn’t having the impact at Arsenal that he or the club want. Lee Dixon claimed recently that the former defender doesn’t get to do as much in training as he wants.
If that’s not true, the way the team defend on the pitch suggests he isn’t getting his message across anyway. Perhaps Bould could step back into a purely defensive coaching role to see if that helps. Otherwise, I’d expect him to leave with Wenger.
Aaron Ramsey
Like Wilshere, Ramsey’s contract will expire before long. In the Welshman’s case, he has a deal running until 2019. On the surface, that makes it look like Arsenal have a bit more time to work with. But considering his performances this season, the club could probably get a fair bit of money for the midfielder this summer.
Top Premier League clubs are less likely to want to gamble much money on an injury-prone Wilshere, so there was less of financial dilemma in letting him run his deal down. In Ramsey’s, this summer is more likely to be the make or break point for his Arsenal career.
The 27-year-old has always had the support of the manager, and, in return he’s always backed his boss.
Last season, even with Arsenal struggling, Ramsey said the players were “delighted” to play for Wenger. He revealed in 2016 that he only joined in the first place because the boss made him feel “a bit more wanted”.
When the 2016/17 season ended and the manager’s contract expired with it, the Welshman said: “Of course I want him to stay at club. He deserves this (the FA Cup trophy). We changed the formation and had a lot of success. Fair play to him, he changed the system. Hopefully, he’ll be there next season.”
Take the boss out of the equation, however, and it’s hard to see what Ramsey would stay for.
Mesut Özil
In January 2017, before Özil signed a new contract at Arsenal, he spoke to German magazine Kicker about his future. He told the outlet: “I want to be clear on what Wenger is doing. I feel very, very happy at Arsenal and have shown the club that I am prepared to extend my contract.
“The fans want me to stay. Now it’s just down to the club. The club knows that I am, above all, here because of Arsene Wenger – who signed me and whose trust I have. The club also knows that I just want to be clear on what the manager will do.”
To me, those quotes make it sound like if Wenger had left, Özil might have too. He didn’t commit his future immediately after the manager signed a new two year deal, but six months later he agreed a new three-and-a-half year contract, true to his word.
With the boss now leaving his contract half-way through, the German might think about doing the same. In his book, Gunning For Greatness, he made it very clear that the reason he chose Real Madrid over Barcelona was because Jose Mourinho made him feel wanted and Pep Guardiola didn’t.
If all of his major career choices so far have revolved around managers, I don’t see why the next one wouldn’t.