Arsenal Football Club: Why Arsene Wenger, a Victim of Circumstance, Needs to Go

After a loss at White Hart Lane on Sunday, it is officially time for Arsenal supporters to start panicking. Not because the team lost or because the squad has only seven points in as many games. No, it is time to hit the panic button because Bacary Sagna will be out injured for around three months.

This is a blow to Arsenal for obvious reasons. After the sale of Emmanuel Eboue over the summer, Carl Jenkinson, a 19-year-old, will be thrust into the starting role. Prior to signing with Arsenal, the young Englishman had played only 22 games of league football. That is what Arsenal will be reduced to for the next three months on the pitch.

However, all of this is all just the tip of the iceberg as far as what Bacary Sagna’s injury means to Arsenal. With Jenkinson starting, Arsenal will be horrendously exposed to teams attacking down the left. Arsenal’s form will fail to improve, because their already-prominent defensive frailties at the back have just worsened exponentially.

Fast forward to three months from now. The January transfer window will be open, and top-class players such as Robin Van Persie, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Thomas Vermaelen will realize that they are playing on a team that cannot even come close to competing for a European spot, let alone the Premiership title.

The Arsenal board will, of course, remain its silent self until they come out to say that they support Arsene Wenger, and his job is not under threat.

Wenger will refuse to buy the necessary players because the squad will either be healthy, too big or perhaps he’ll just have an honest moment with the supporters and say that he’s not going to buy any players, because he simply doesn't feel like it.

In any case, the Arsenal board is at a time that may turn out to be critical to the future of Arsenal Football Club. While I do not believe that Arsene Wenger’s performance as manager, of late, is deserving of a sacking, I do believe that doing so is in the best interest of the club.  If he is kept as the manger, then the board is expressing to the squad members a lack of winning mentality, and why would top-quality players play for a club with no winning ambitions?  The answer is that they wouldn’t.