Arsenal FC: Why Wenger Must Bring in Fresh Faces to Help the Club Progress

It would be completely unfair to suggest Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal is up.

We are talking about a man who has, in a way, sacrificed the club’s short-term success by guaranteeing years of titles in the future and in turn made the club huge profits amongst the free spending of Real Madrid and Manchester City.

It might also come as a shock to many neutrals that Arsenal fans are complaining about a lack of direction and ambition from the club, seeing as they are second in the Premiership, three points behind Manchester United and with a game in hand.

But there is an argument for Wenger’s tactics and general philosophy on the running of the club.

It seems that many times over the past few years, Arsenal have come undone by the same old mistakes—defenders unable to deal with a barrage of incoming high balls or a goalkeeper with no ability to command his area.

The reasons have become quite clear as of late: Arsenal are full of yes-men, servants to Wenger and people so loyal that they wouldn’t dare question his methods. There has often been stories about the day to day of Arsenal’s training sessions and that they lack any real defending practice. Wenger, rather, opts to have all his players play in one fluid motion rather than designated roles on the pitch.

The performances on the pitch surely say enough to support these stories.

It's time Wenger did himself a favour and brought in people who are going to help push this team across the finish line. Its been evident since the departure of Patrick Vieira that Arsenal have lacked any real leadership on and off the pitch.

Cesc Fabregas gave a post match interview recently following a defeat, stating that the dressing room was silent, everyone was disappointed and they just wanted to try and move on. The problem is, no one is there to shout at players when they make amateur mistakes. There isn’t a Sol Campbell figure who is going to organise the back four or a Tony Adams to rally a squad ahead of a big Champions League tie.

Unfortunately, Wenger has created this culture of silence.

A phrase Wenger has often used in the past when talking about potential transfers is that he doesn't want to bring in players who will “disrupt the harmony in the dressing room.”

I never truly knew what he meant by that until recently.

He doesn’t want a Roy Keane who will scream at players on the pitch. He doesn’t want a Tony Adams who will go out of their way to organise team meetings in the face of failure. Wenger seems so cornered with protecting the fragility of his players’ minds and confidence that he has been willing to sacrifice a real leader with expressive, but ultimately ineffective football.

These players will never know the importance of leadership or fighting for a club and eventually become lazy with the idea that they can just go through the motions until the season ends.

If Arsenal do not go on to win the Premiership this season, especially in the wake of their disastrous past two weeks, the number of those asking for Wenger’s head will undoubtedly increase.

Like I’ve said, Arsenal are not far away. Wenger must take it upon himself to bring in staff and players who will challenge his ideas, ones which even he claims are sometimes wrong.

Again, it would be wrong to sensationalize this as a club in crisis, because they are clearly not. But it is so important that extra bodies are brought in over the summer to help the club progress and turn a potential title-winning side into a side everyone will fear again.