It's Time for Arsene Wenger to Go, but His Exit Won't Solve Arsenal's Problems

Arsenal fans will have awoken on Thursday morning feeling decidedly hungover. However, their 5-1 drubbing at Bayern Munich was not simply a recurring nightmare—it was all too real.

Another European humiliation means the calls for change at Arsenal are reverberating louder than ever. Manager Arsene Wenger has long said he will know when the time is right to leave Arsenal. If so, today must be a difficult day for him; this result feels like the beginning of the end of his managerial career.

It will be a long goodbye. Arsenal and Wenger are unlikely to shift the status quo before the end of the season, but surely we are into the endgame. 

Few Gunners fans realistically expected Arsenal to beat Bayern in Munich. Even over the course of two legs, overcoming the German giants looked like a stretch. What the Arsenal supporters wanted to see was some semblance of progress—an indication that the team are headed in the right direction under Wenger. 

Instead, the Gunners lost by the same humiliating margin that they did in November 2015. In the intervening period, Wenger has spent nearly £100 million on transfers. Excuses are running dry, and Wenger is running quickly out of time.

In his post-match press conference, he was despondent. Wenger had the demeanour of a man who knows his chances of winning the Champions League—the one major trophy that has evaded him in his career—may be gone for good.

It looks impossible for him to stay. With no great appetite among the board for change, his future was always likely to be determined by the mood of the fans. However, that has disintegrated as quickly as Arsenal's defence did in Munich.

In the past few weeks, high-profile defeats against Chelsea and Bayern have left the Gunners all but out of the race for the Premier League and Champions League. Their hopes of winning the FA Cup are still alive, but that's unlikely to be enough to sway Wenger's detractors. Back in 2014, the FA Cup arguably saved Wenger. This time, triumph and a trophy would surely only serve as a parting gift. 

It has felt as if the Frenchman has been clinging to the idea of a glorious finale—holding on to the possibility of ending a 12-year wait for a Premier League title and reinstating Arsenal at the top of the English football pyramid. The cup wins in 2014 and 2015 stirred hopes that he might be rediscovering the winning habit, but those have since been well and truly extinguished.

Wenger is a fiercely intelligent man and must surely acknowledge that he is not getting the best from his players. They're no longer responding to him as they did a decade ago. Talent is not the issue—the squad is packed with quality. The problem is they seem to lack organisation and commitment. 

When we speak about commitment, that relates to more than merely ploughing into tackles and challenging for aerial balls. That kind of physicality is troublingly absent from this Arsenal side, but more problematic is that lack of commitment to a strategic vision.

Wenger's team have no clear identity. Watching them, it's impossible to decipher any clear plan. It's impossible that Wenger sends his team out devoid of instructions, so the inescapable conclusion is that they're simply not listening.

The team don't look as if they believe in the manager. After the latest humbling in Munich, surely the fans can't, either.

However, dissatisfaction cannot be allowed to disrupt Arsenal's campaign too much. The supporters and players must rally round their embattled manager. It would be terrible for one of the club's greatest servants to leave after his worst campaign.

There is still much to play for: Aside from their FA Cup campaign, Arsenal have a fight for the top four to consider. Wenger has also never finished beneath Tottenham Hotspur—it would be a terrible shame for the balance of power in north London to shift in the Frenchman's final season. Beside that, it would be good for the new man to inherit a club that will be playing Champions League football.

There will surely be a new man. However, anyone anticipating a panacea might well be disappointed. Wenger has his flaws, but he is enormously consistent. While he might not bring Arsenal fans the success they crave, he has never allowed the team to slide into mid-table. The Gunners are headed into the unknown—a new world with few guarantees.

The first onerous task will be appointing a successor. The Arsenal board have made their continued faith in Wenger clear, and it's difficult to discern any alternative plans for the future. What's more, there is a worrying lack of football expertise among the board. Is there anyone qualified to appoint a new coach?

Arsenal will need to undergo a dramatic restructuring to cope with life after Wenger. A sporting director is the most obvious requirement—someone to provide a link between board and coaching staff and to help oversee recruitment. Wenger was intimately involved with all of these tasks, but he is one of the last true managers. We're firmly into the era of the head coach, and it will take a fleet of new faces to replace Wenger's enormous contribution. 

Julian Finney/Getty Images

It might well get worse before it gets better. Majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and CEO Ivan Gazidis will be casting nervous glances at Manchester United's struggles in the post-Alex Ferguson era. Wenger's departure will leave a vacuum that could rock the club to its core.

However, it has to happen sooner rather than later. There was an Arsenal before Wenger, and there will be one after him. The point remains that with Wenger's contract expiring at the end of the season, it's almost impossible to justify an extension.

The Bayern result shows that Arsenal are going nowhere quickly. Moving on from Wenger will bring about an era of uncertainty, but with that the possibility of change. It's a gamble, but time would have forced Arsenal's hand before long. 

The separation of Wenger from Arsenal is going to be a huge wrench for both parties. However, for the first time, it feels as if a consensus has been reached that it would also be the best thing for all involved.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17.