Why Wenger's Time May Have Come, and Two Suitable Successors

Following recent poor displays and defeats this season to Norwich, and Manchester United; and Arsenal’s eight year trophy drought – many Arsenal fans do really believe it is time for Wenger to leave the club with his head held high.
Arsene Wenger is Arsenal’s longest serving manager from 1996 to the present day, but there is reason to believe that his reign should end this season. This is believed by some Arsenal fans for two main reasons.

Firstly, Wenger’s transfer policy is outdated spending wise; although Wenger is undoubtably one of the best in the world, if not the best, at buying players young and developing them into fine players, he’s not renowned for his big money signings, and this was OK until recent years when the outgoings of world class players began to outweigh the influx of world class players. The Chelsea’s and the Manchester City’s of this world have changed football as we know it – all through the transfer market. Spending big and paying out on high wages thanks to rich businessmen owners has made a path for an ‘easier’ way to gain silverware than developing younger players. Although top clubs do produce good players, and buy young players and develop them; buying big players at their peak is a part of every great football club, even Barcelona. (Who are famous for their fantastic youth system: La Masia.) Most very top clubs have found a balance between buying big, and developing young – and other great managers, such as Sir Alex Ferguson have wised up to the change in football.
Sadly, Wenger does not appear to be one of these managers – he continues to produce outstanding players, and buys good players, but Arsenal fans yearn for a big money star signing like Falcao! In this aspect, Arsenal need change. I’m not saying to scrap the youth system, and pump oil money into the club – as youth is the way forward, but I am saying that to really compete in modern day football, Arsenal need to buy bigger, more expensive players, on higher wages. Because of this, the calls of a new manager for Arsenal are being heard and appreciated by more.

A second reason for change in the Emirates dugout is Wenger’s tactical stubbornness. This links together with his purist football beliefs – that clubs should mainly build their own success, Wenger always sets out his team to play the Arsenal way and win the game as the better team. However, Arsenal don’t have the quality as they did with teams like the Invincibles to go out and win by being the better team sometimes, this showed against teams like Norwich, and QPR, who Arsenal narrowly beat.
Wenger tends to concentrate on his own team, and doesn’t pay attention to the opposite line up. The game against Man Utd is a prime example of this, Ferguson looked at the weaknesses Arsenal had – namely a certain brasilian left-back, and he exploited this by playing Valencia and Rafael on the right. On the contrary, Wenger did nothing to help Andre Santos’ lack of defensive skills, he could’ve merely made Podolski get back more often. Ferguson also saw that the starting point of every Arsenal move was through Arteta,  so he put one of the Premier League’s best players man marking Arteta; Wenger did nothing to stop this either.
Also, the front three Wenger has been playing recently has been unbalanced, playing a centre-forward on the left, and a midfielder on the right, and this also points to tactical stubbornness on Wenger’s part.
Arsene Wenger has been, over the last 16 years, the best thing to happen to Arsenal Football Club. However, 16 years is a long time, and maybe the time has come where he has done all he can do. Whatever happens, Wenger will go down in the history books as being one of the greatest managers of all time, but I think Arsenal need a change in the Managerial department.
The Two Suitable Successors to ‘Le Professeur.’

The Borussia Dortmund manager has an almost identical philosophy to Arsene Wenger, as he is confident in the youth system, and plays the beautiful game how it should be played. Klopp also tends to play a 4-2-3-1 formation with Dortmund, but not a strict formation. This would bring something new to Arsenal’s team compared to the 4-3-3 used now.
Arsenal now have a few German players in the squad as well, including Mertesacker, Podolski, and Eisfield – a promising young player who came through the ranks at Dortmund. Klopp would be the perfect fit for Arsenal, but he may be a bit too similar to Wenger, and not spend big on players either.
The downside, it is unlikely Klopp would leave Dortmund, who won the German League and Cup last year, and are doing well again this year, for Arsenal. Klopp has also won individual titles with Dortmund, winning German manager of the year in 2011 and 2012, so he may be hard to persuade.

Pep also has a similar philosophy to Wenger and Klopp, but is willing to spend big if need be – see Alexis Sanchez, and although he played a similar formation to what Arsenal play when he managed Barca, it was a free flow formation, and he saw the pitch as relationships between players, rather than a set formation.
Guardiola really would be Arsenal’s ideal partner, but as he’s on most clubs most wanted list, don’t expect him to be in the Arsenal dugout any time soon.
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