talkingOfArsenal.com

Ok, a tabloid headline if you ever saw one, but close your eyes, suspend your belief and imagine for a minute life after Wenger. Imagine, Wenger left Arsenal five years ago.

Three years ago, after a period of time out of the game, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger accepted a job at French league two club Montpellier, and standing alongside the club president, announced that turning this club into a European powerhouse will be his primary project for the foreseeable future.

This year, the Frenchman has delivered on his promise, after having taken the club to top of French league one (2nd position), and are now vying for a Champions League position.

The fate of his former club Arsenal, has not been rosy. Since Mr Wenger left the North London Club, and after an initial buying spate, virtually all the existing players have left, and the squad is no longer recognisable from just a few years ago.

In five short years, Arsenal have become a buying club, in spite of the fact that just a few years ago, they were the amongst the least spenders in the premiership.

After six trophy-less seasons, the North London Club is now more exposed to a hostile take-over, and finishing outside the Champions League berths in 5th position is a realistic outcome at the end of this 2013-2014 season.

What's worse, the clubs debt has increased by approximately 49% since Wenger left with all the player purchases and salary increases, and with the change in footballing style (less entertaining, but no more successful), the numbers of season ticket holders has been steadily dwindling.

To add insult to injury, tickets to games are routinely advertised in the newspapers, and prices of season tickets have increased in an attempt to make up the numbers.

The world renowned scouting network of the now departed Frenchman has disbanded, and sources of new and young talent have dried up, as the new Arsenal managers policy of mainly buying experienced players has depleted the youth academy, with young stars moving onto other clubs to improve their chances of a professional football career.

After many successful years at the top of the Premier League, Arsenal fans have been left wondering where it all went wrong.

Alright then, you can open your eyes now, the nightmare is over.

In the last few days, there have been a few who have suggested that Wenger should go - thankfully, they are in the minority, however there are enough of them to warrant consideration. Make no mistake, were Wenger to leave, the above nightmarish outcome could quite possibly become reality.

As far as I am concerned, those who think Wenger has lost it don't know what they are talking about.

Here is a manager who has delivered 12 consecutive years of Champions League football (unprecedented), who has fashioned teams that have come 4th or better in 12 consecutive years (also unprecedented), coming top 2 in 8 of those years (even more unprecedented), won the league in 3 of those years, and included 1 whole season in which they were unbeaten - all the while playing the most entertaining football in the country.

And that's not counting the FA Cup achievements.

Here is a manager who risks the wrath of supporters and the potential loss of his job (albeit far-fetched and unlikely) because he wants to ensure the future of Arsenal Football Club is financially secure by not spending irresponsibly. Contrast that with other managers who will spend whatever is made available to the maximum, in order to win championships with little or no regard for the financial or future wellbeing of their respective clubs.

The truth is were Wenger to leave Arsenal, he would walk into any of the top 5 clubs in Europe if not the World, so why should we let him go in the first place?

The grass is always greener on the other side to quote an old saying, and everyone, including supporters and managers alike from other rival clubs accept that Le Boss has fashioned a silk-purse complete with velvet on the inside, from nothing more than old cardboard and a cows ear.

David Dein, once famously when required to fill out a form on behalf of Wenger and was asked what the Frenchmans official title was wrote "Miracle Worker". Nothing could be closer to the truth.

In the 12 years that Wenger has been at Arsenal, no other manager on this entire planet, could have delivered what Wenger has delivered with the resources (or lack of them) that he has had.

Our club is in solid hands and we already have, arguably, the best manager in the world.

Our current financial situation is not permanent and is one which will improve season by season, as our long-term debt is reduced and more finances are released to the most economically efficient manager on the planet.

Those who say that our pretty football will never win any trophies and continuously say that Arsenal should learn to win ugly, always forget to mention that playing scrappy, physical football doesn't guarantee you anything either - just look at Blackburn and Bolton to name but two.

To dispel two much vaunted myths, playing beautiful does bring results, and playing ugly doesn't guarantee you anything.

This season, without fundamentally changing our style much, this young squad of footballers who supposedly just play "pretty football" were still realistically in the title race with 5 games to go to the end of the season - were this squad larger by just 2 to 3 players with the right type of skills/attributes, who knows what might have happened?

When was the last time a physical, "let's win ugly" team managed to achieve that?

All it takes will be some tweaks to the team (certainly not root and branch surgery), which I am sure Le Boss is aware of, and tweak he will, this summer.

At the beginning of this season, I fully believed that this Arsenal squad would surprise everyone, and no-one believed me - notwithstanding the lows of the past week or so, this squad has truly surprised everyone. Next season, they will come back more mature, more wisened, and much much more capable, and Wenger will have strengthened to ensure continuity come the tough spring months of 2009.

Whatever anyone says, Wenger staying with us gives us a real and tangible chance of securing our financial future, whilst at the same time delivering on the trophies front - anything else, and it will be us, you and I, who will revert back to the dark days in the dim and distant past, possibly even to the years of real drought, and absolutely no chance of winning anything substantial.

So to those Arsenal fans pandering to the wishes of the likes of the tabloids in general and the Daily Mail in particular, who would love nothing more than Wenger leaving Arsenal, followed by an exodus of the so-called "foreign legion", be careful what you wish for.

If your wish were to be granted, I guarantee that it will not take very long for you to realise how short-sighted you have been for having had the wool pulled over your eyes.

Short-sighted it would be indeed.