Time to submit to the Dark Side?

Ivaney Vuonit writes:

Every dog has his day they say. Whether you’re talking about womanizing men, company bosses or even football managers. At some point your looks fail you, employees no longer think you are the business oracle they once believed you were or the tattooed lads running around the pitch think you’ve lost the plot.

Wenger has a formidable history in the Premier League. Since 1996 he has won 3 Premier League Trophies, 7 FA Cups and 5 Community Shields and become Arsenal’s longest serving manager and in the course of this season can overtake Alex Ferguson as the longest serving manager in the Premier League. During his tenure Arsenal have moved to a new stadium but have not amassed massive debts in the process.

For several years the Gunners’ fans accepted that financial sobriety precluded spending large sums of money on transfers in the belief that all would be well a few years down the road. Alas, although financially secure and a declared readiness from the Board to support transfer activity, Wenger seems to have become more and more Scrooge-like with the passing of time. At least that is what it looked like when he said just throwing money around wasn’t good enough, you had to get the right player to do the job you wanted and you had to get him at the right price. No, no, Arsenal were not going to be bullied into financial extravagance!

It is then all the more surprising that last weekend Lacazette - all £52.7m off him – was left on the bench at Anfield. His first appearance against Leicester with one goal was followed by 78 minutes against Stoke where he was hampered by Stoke tactics. Against Liverpool where he would have been closely marked he was on the bench for two thirds of the game. Having broken a club record to sign him, Wenger it would seem made a rash decision to not start him. I can imagine how confused he might have been to discover that he wasn’t in the starting line-up. I suggest it also confused a few of his teammates.

Whispers suggest that Wenger’s coaching methods, motivational team talks and analyses are falling on deaf ears. Players one third of his age are wondering where he’s coming from and why he is not more forward thinking. All players take an interest in how other teams train and the different methods used to develop footballers and improve their skills and fitness. With younger managers like Klopp, Guardiola, Mourinho, Koeman, Pochettino as well as homegrown like Dyche it is difficult to not get the feeling that Wenger is still stuck in the 90s.

I suspect that he’s filling the gap for one more year when the Gunners might just get Diego Simeone who finishes his Atletico Madrid contract in 2018 or a manager like him to infectiously coax the team into combative competition. A touch of the Darkside of the Force is perhaps what they need. Remember Obi-Wan Kanobi said: "It takes strength to resist the dark side. Only the weak embrace it! It is more powerful than you know." Perhaps now is the time for Arsenal to do a deal and get a Sith Lord as a coach!