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"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain", so goes a quote from Christopher Nolan's highly acclaimed 'The Dark Knight'. Put that into the context of modern football and one man's name will spring to mind for most.
Being an Arsenal fan in the past decade or so hasn't been easy. Years of underachievement followed by an inexplicable cycle of hope, that things might improve the next season has left many disillusioned.
While the size of the Wenger Out Brigade has been growing bigger by the year, for those hesitant to join the brigade, it has not really been a "Wenger In" as much as a "Wenger- I might be okay with him getting another chance as long he steps up and addresses the problems".
Fact of the matter is that most people wanted Wenger to have a fairytale farewell from Arsenal's top job. And for all that he has achieved for the club, the supporters were willing to accord him that opportunity, despite consistent underachievement. But things have come to a head now.
To put things into perspective, getting Arsenal to qualify for the Champions League every year for 19 consecutive seasons is no mean feat, especially when you consider the context of Arsenal's restricted financial clout during the period where the stadium debt was being paid off.
Redefining Success
Somewhere along the way though, those at the top redefined what success means to Wenger. It was no longer about winning top honors, it was about being able to 'compete' at the highest level possible and gaining Champions League qualification every year with minimal net spend.
Wenger was up for the challenge and with these new goals, he did succeed to that end. The fans were largely understanding and consoled themselves with the hope that this was going to be a temporary phase and that at least the football was still good to watch for the most part.
In the context of Arsenal now better placed to compete financially with other top clubs and with seemingly higher goals, Wenger's competence, or lack thereof, is being found out and questioned. He can no longer hide behind insufficient financial might as an excuse. For every hole that he plugs, he continues to leave one or two open.
Embracing mediocrity
Whether it's football or life in general, one cannot afford to stand still and expect things to get better or even remain the same for that matter. Teams like Liverpool and Tottenham who have in the past decade consistently finished below Arsenal, have moved forward under the reign of top quality coaches who are more in touch with what it takes to succeed in modern football.
The price of accepting mediocrity for years is that emerging out of it and suddenly expecting to challenge at the top is difficult. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit" is how Will Durant aptly put it.
From that perspective Wenger has dug himself into a hole and nobody has the patience anymore to see if he can climb out of it. The significance of a winning mentality to sport cannot be overstated - and the custodian of a club's mentality is its manager. And this is where Sir Alex Ferguson set a high benchmark, and how he stayed relevant in his position throughout, eventually choosing to retire at his own time, with the majority asking, 'why' rather than 'why not'.
It is interesting to note that Wenger, when talking about the period between 2006-14, said that if he were asked to do that again, he would probably not accept it. There's no doubting that the man loves the club.
If he didn't, he might well have chosen to seek greener pastures back then. There's even a school of thought that believes that if Wenger did not have to deal with the challenges of that period, he would arguably have naturally evolved into a better manager today. But the fans have had enough of what ifs and what might have happened.
If anything, it sounds embarrassingly similar to talk about top players that Wenger 'almost signed'. They want results and they want it now, and the overwhelming feeling is that with Wenger in charge, that is not going to happen.
A club of Arsenal's size and standing has to move forward. With the fans having been sold dreams that things will improve once the club becomes a financial force again, the results have only deteriorated.
The football is no longer beautiful to watch either. The Board has lost the 'moral right' to expect fans to be tolerant. The attendance at the recent Man City home game was a damning indication of that.
Treading to Europe on thin Ice
The Europa league, a tournament often derided by some Arsenal fans in the past, now remains the last ray of hope for Wenger to salvage his reputation. Get dumped out of it and that might just prove to be the last straw for the man.
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies", famous lines from Shawshank Redemption, and what one might think is the way Arsene Wenger chooses to look at his chances at Europa League success, and perhaps soldiering on for another year, subsequently.
But there's also a less popular line from the same movie; "Hope can drive a man insane". One suspects that this is what Arsenal fans today, will relate to more.
