Wenger Must Go? Why Arsenal and Others Need to Stick with Successful Managers.

Two weeks can feel like minutes in the football world.  

Four trophies down to one in the space of two weeks can feel like utter catastrophe in the football world.

No one will debate that there is massive disappointment to see a team go from four potential trophies to one, but credit must be given that, at this stage of the season a team was even in this position.

On the face of it Wenger may be the victim of his own undoing.  Having brought such success in the early years of his tenancy as Arsenal manager, the last six years do give the appearance of being barren.

That barren nature though can only be described as relative.  To keep within Arsenal's recent losses, Birmingham won their first major trophy almost 50 years after their last and Barcelona went from 1999 to 2005 in a similar quest.  

In their defeat to Manchester United they are facing a manager of 25-years and team with near yearly success.

This is the perhaps the point that many are missing in their calls for Wenger to step down. 

In the big and successful leagues (those that enjoy worldwide syndication) of the game of today, players come and go.  Now managers appear to also.  

For an outsider, the model for a successful club is to pay the highest transfer fees and the highest wages to ensure success.  There is no doubt that this model works in the short term (see Chelsea 2003), but it does have limits and will do, to a greater extent with the new FIFA Fair Play regulations.

There is no doubt it fails as well (see Liverpool 2008).

Currently Barcelona and Manchester United may be able to circumvent this new legislation because their fan base and subsequent revenue is enough to buffer their expenditure.  To aid that the true fan in today's football is the one who invests money in the club (buying shirts and other merchandise), not the one who really cares and attends games.

This is a worrying trend and one that long time fans of a club and indeed of the game hope won't survive.  

To return to Arsene Wenger, we find a manager who has been mindful of these regulations long before they will be put in place.  Couple that with a manager who has brought success and moreover success in spectator enjoyment and player development since arriving at his club.

Arsene may not be on his own in many of these accomplishments and indeed many of today's football fans might no care about them, but aside from reactionary feelings, there can be little justification to call for his head as Arsenal manager.

Football, and perhaps every modern sport, roots itself in the entertainment of it's spectators not so much in the outcome.  

Calling for a head when success isn't delivered is a worrying development in world sports and one that is likely to a self-fulfilling prophecy.