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Will Arsene Wenger ever be sacked?

By on September 5, 2014

Between Arsenal’s FA Cup win in 2005, and their FA Cup title last last May, more than nine years, eleven months, and twenty-five days passed. Throughout all those years, Arsene Wenger remained manager of Arsenal. Wenger eventually brought success back to The Emirates, with two titles in just two months, but was the wait worth it? Was almost a decade of wait, even for a manager like Wenger who got Arsenal so close throughout those years and had done so many wonders before the drought, too much time to afford?

Under the philosophy of nearly ever other club in the top four divisions of English football, the answer is a resounding yes. It isn’t ideal to cycle managers out as quickly as most modern clubs do, but considered a necessary step if the manager isn’t brining relative success to the club. Currently, Wenger has served more than twice as long at Arsenal than any other manager in the top four tiers of English football, followed by Paul Tisdale at Exeter City, who has managed there for over eight years. But that, compared to the period of more than eighteen years Wenger has spent at Arsenal, is nothing. Wenger has spent just as much of his Arsenal career managing at the old Highbury than at the Emirates Stadium. That eight year span, which is currently twice as long as the second longest manager currently serving in the Premier League, Alan Pardew, seems, and is, an incredibly long time to go without winning a title, and not doing anything drastic by sacking Wenger, about it. If they ever were to, that was the time.

Yet simply, they didn’t have the gaul, and not the least because of Wenger’s mild-mannered appearance. There has never been a scandal in the slightest which Arsenal could have blamed on his sacking. And he got so close to a title every few years, every time, Arsenal felt as if they were close to success and that they shouldn’t sack Wenger. Eventually, that success came. Now, Arsenal are a rejuvenated side. Eight years is a long time to wait but Arsenal finally seem to be entering another golden age with two titles, and the signings of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck, two modern footballers. Welbeck, a forward who does everything, bar occasionally scoring goals. But Wenger expects goals to be spread out throughout his teams. And Sanchez, an outlet of not only pace, but plenty of brains having played at Barcelona, something Wenger was specifically lacking in Theo Walcott. Arsenal won’t sack Wenger now.

In the next few years, it is also looking unlikely he will be sacked, not off the back of his recent success. Yet what if that success just… stops coming, like it did in 2005? Will Arsenal have the gaul to sack Wenger, especially if he keeps getting close? If he still brings stability to the club but not success? Arsenal have more than proven they won’t wield the ax on Wenger, largely due to such strong ties to the fluid, attacking, very Spanish way of playing that the Frenchman has spearheaded at Arsenal which very few other managers use. So would Wenger wear his days out at Arsenal? He still has at least another ten years or so left in him. Sir Alex Ferguson went until he was past the age of seventy, a birthday a further eight years away for Wenger. It looks so. When Wenger leaves the club it will almost certainly be on his own terms. To sack Wenger now would be seen as a massive lack of confidence and frustration from Arsenal, and something that they proved they don’t want to do.

It seems increasingly like Wenger will leave the club on his own terms – and that could end in two ways; the current success could stop and Wenger would whittle out the rest of his days much like the latter years of their eight year drought were – remember, he could have retired himself then. He would willingly step down because Arsenal won’t sack him. Or, he could go out on success. If he manages to keep up the pace at which Arsenal are accelerating, he could bow out just beyond the peak of that. Yet it is more than unlikely Arsenal will never sack him unless something goes incredibly wrong.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.