Arsenal news: Gunners legend blames mismanagement and bad decisions for the 'mess' within the club 

What's the story?

Arsenal icon Ian Wright has blamed mismanagement and bad decision-making for the 'mess' that exists within the club at the moment.

In case you didn't know

The Gunners have been far from their best selves for over a decade and finished their first season without Arsene Wenger with a lack of any significant improvement. The Frenchman left the club when widespread discontentment among fans grew after seasons of unconvincing and ambition-less football.

Unai Emery took charge of the north London outfit last summer and brought to the Emirates a whole new set of tactics that were being experimented on the players. Despite the emergence of key partnerships, Arsenal were still not opportunistic enough to steal a fourth-place finish from their London rivals.

The Spanish manager, who has proven himself to be a serial winner in the Europa League, failed to guide the Gunners to a victory over Chelsea in the finals, squandering their last hopes of playing Champions League football next season.

Much of the blame for Arsenal's decade-long slump has also gone to the decisions, or lack of, made by billionaire owner Stan Kroenke and the likes of Ivan Gazidis, who has since moved away from the club.

The heart of the matter

Wright has suggested that the decisions made by management in the course of the decade have led Arsenal to the dire situation they are in at the moment. Speaking on talkSPORT, he said, "Decisions were being made, in respect of Aaron Ramsey’s contract, before it was starting to run down and were being made by people who were no longer there."

"They’ve gone on to pastures new and left Arsenal in a little bit of a mess. In the contracts they’ve given people, it was very top heavy in the squad and we can see that in the way the guys are performing."

"As much as Arsenal have to take a massive amount of blame for that, there was a stage where they must have known he was not going to sign."

The Gunners legend referred to the recent decisions regarding players as examples. The likes of Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey were allowed to leave the club while Mesut Ozil was given an expensive contract extension at the club.

"So we are talking about a £60 million player that should have been a case of ‘OK, we will have to sell you now’ and not let it get to a stage where it has got to."

"You have to look at Aaron Ramsey as well. He’s getting to a situation in his career where he can run down a contract and Arsenal made him an offer that was a good offer but when you consider what he has been able to get and has been documented he has got, then there’s no way are you going to be able to match that."

"If he knew he was going to get that there was no way he was going to sign."

He concluded, "Right now Arsenal are in a position where it is interesting what is going to happen in the summer without the money to spend or qualifying for the Champions League and going back into the Europa League. Have the players improved? Has the mentality improved? What system is he going to play now? There’s a lot of questions to be asked and you just have to hope something happens."

What's next?

Arsenal are currently not in the best position for a reshuffle either as a lack of Champions League football has reduced their transfer budget to a reported £40 million.