A song for Arsene Wenger

This is how it should have ended

I haven't written in a couple of weeks. I explained this on the Facebook page late last week on the grounds that there was nothing new to say. I'm fed up of writing about the failings of the Manager. There are no tactics, there is no organisation, we are short of defenders, those we have got don't know how to do their jobs, we get caught in the same way time and again, we have a second-rate goalkeeper (beaten from 35 yards out yesterday because he took up the wrong position on a free-kick yet again), Wenger makes bad substitutions, there is no leadership, nobody does any talking on the pitch (except for Flamini who ought to concentrate on his own job first). The list goes on and on and on and nothing about it ever changes.

It's not meant to be like this. Arsene Wenger oversaw the best football team England has ever witnessed. Nobody before, and nobody since, has played football here in the way Wenger's Arsenal did. But even the Invincibles didn't dominate for years as they should have done - even in 2003-04 we threw away both domestic cups and the Champions League through Wenger's mistakes. But how have we fallen so far? How is it that more and more of us now see there is no future while he is in charge?

I wish he'd gone in May. To have retired with the FA Cup in the bag would have been the ideal ending. Instead he is slowly destroying his Arsenal legacy. He is increasingly tetchy in the way he behaves. I don't have a lot of time for Paul Merson, but only Wenger can't see Merse was right with his comments last week. The way Wenger is carrying on is not the behaviour of the wonderfully intelligent and erudite man we know he is. The simple fact is that he has lost it and, deep down, he probably knows that himself. Meanwhile the Arsenal supporters are suffering.

Wenger's comments about Alexis are also increasingly puzzling. Instead of saying how the others need to learn from the way he plays (yes, he gives the ball away at times, but nobody works harder to retrieve it, and we'd be relegation fodder without him this season) he has had another pop at him after yesterday. I am convinced that Wenger didn't sign Alexis. He doesn't want Alexis. If Ozil wasn't injured then I think Alexis wouldn't be playing every week. Meanwhile he fails to acknowledge that the basic defensive flaws even exist.

I can't believe his excuse yesterday for not getting Calum Chambers out of harms way. He said "we had no experience on the bench". Well, whose fault is that? And did we not have a real right-back on the bench? A right-back who, before we played at Dortmund, Wenger himself told us was "ready"? What exactly does such a comment say to Hector Bellerin? And is it not Wenger who has loaned out Carl Jenkinson and Francis Coquelin? Every time he opens his mouth I find myself wanting to break something as it's just utter nonsense whenever he speaks.

Wenger isn't the only one, however. What about the Arsenal Captain yesterday? Per Mertesacker told us after the game that we don't do the basics, and how we need to keep the ball. Why, then, my dear skipper, were you not organising people? Why, when Swansea broke forward to get the free-kick for the equaliser, were both full-backs and Flamini in their half of the pitch? As bad as Wenger and his tactics are, can the Captain not think for himself on the pitch after 100+ caps for Germany? It was the same on Tuesday once Mikel Arteta had gone off injured. This is the same Mertesacker who told us a couple of weeks ago about the need to attack the ball in the air - what happened on Tuesday? And it wasn't the first time. I'm sick of hearing empty words. 

As I said above, it wasn't meant to end this way for Arsene Wenger. But he has been the architect of his own demise and the tide now seems well and truly turned. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who still want him to be Manager, but not many of them go to games. It makes me sad to see that most people now seem to realise it's over for him. Don't be afraid of change. I can only illustrate my feelings really, by use of song - so here are The Moody Blues - it's a sad day.

Wenger out.