Where’s the audacity, Arsene? 

Apologies. I may have been out of line here. After all, calling a person 45 years older than me by using his first name is a tad too audacious, but that’s the point – isn’t it? That’s what I am trying to convey here, that’s what I wish to convey here.

Let’s go back, way back. Not too far, but quite far. 2002. There. Stop. Look at that, what do you see? Open your ears, what do you hear? Close your eyes, what do you feel? There’s a bunch of players in red and white, there’s a pandemonium in the stands worshipping them, and there’s an aura of invincibility in the air.

That’s Arsenal – the mighty Gunners. And that’s Arsene Wenger – their architect.

Ah, he knew. Wenger knew. Everyone felt it, but none had the audacity to make the claim – Wenger did. “It’s not impossible,” Wenger quipped in 2002 when asked whether his Arsenal could go unbeaten in the league in a season. “AC Milan once did it but I can’t see why it’s so shocking to say it.

“Do you think Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea don’t dream that as well? They’re exactly the same. They just don’t say it because they’re scared to look ridiculous, but nobody is ridiculous in this job as we know anything can happen.”

About two years down the line, when Arsenal completed the 2003-2004 season without losing a single game in the league, Wenger’s audacity stood victorious. Forget Thierry Henry dancing in from the left to score other-worldly goals every week, forget Patrick Vieira’s surging runs from midfield, forget Tony Adams’s fiery leadership…

The lost audacity

Wenger has lost the audacity that made him the man that he is today

Forget everything. For none of it really mattered, not as much as what did: Wenger’s sheer audacity. It is what kept the Gunners marching forward; the logs that kept the fire burning, the hope that kept the faithful praying, the tune that kept the nightingale signing…

But where’s that audacity now, Arsene? Where are you, Arsene Wenger?

Right now, it feels as though Wenger and Arsenal share a relationship of a father and a son where the former doesn’t want to allow his son to move out. Wenger is convinced that it is the best move because the atrocities of the dark and cruel world might consume his child, but little does he realise that it is he who is holding the child back.

And as for the child, the club is indebted to the Frenchman for how he moulded him into the entity that it is today. Arsenal, despite not winning the league since God knows when, still have the tag of a big club – and that is all down to the former Monaco boss.

Under him, they have won every trophy bar the ones in Europe, they have a new stadium to call their own, and have one of the biggest fanbases in the world. And the only thing that brought this all for the Gunners: Wenger’s audacity.

The outgrown child with a stubborn father

Arsenal don’t have a good enough squad to compete for the top-four spots this season

But it seems as though Wenger’s child has far outgrown him. Both of them know that, but none of them wants to admit it. What’s worse, the child is suffering, Wenger’s legacy is tainting, but things are still the same.

Like every other transfer window, Wenger has once again failed to go all the way. He needed four top-quality signings to become genuine title-contenders: a goal-scoring striker, a creative midfielder, a top-class central defender and a proper left-back.

He got two of them in the form of Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac, but that’s about it. In the summer of 2013, he signed Mesut Ozil, but couldn’t come up with a forward that would do justice to the German’s talent.

By the time Alexis Sanchez came next year, the defence was depleting and Wenger, as usual, chose to ignore the issue.

This summer was supposed to be the one where the Gunners would reinforce in order to stay in the race against the other raging maniacs of the Premier League, but by the time the window slammed shut, Spurs were the North London outfit that had a better window.

And that was despite Spurs not signing a single player for the first 6 weeks of the transfer window.

So what now? Well, nothing but more misery. Arsenal don’t have a good enough squad to compete for the top-four spots and are now perhaps the 7th best team in England, behind even the much-strengthened Everton lead by the charismatic Ronald Koeman.

But Wenger refuses to let go. No. He can’t just go. How can he? How can he leave his baby on such bad terms? No, he is going to make amends. He promises to make things right. This can’t finish like this, there has to be a fairytale end to this one. There just has to.

‘Things are going to get better, son, I promise. When the dust settles and the roads are clear and victory is in sight, we shall walk up to it with hands held together. There, son, is where I am going to leave you. Not here, not in this haunted place under a moonless cloak of ebony with wolves waiting to harm you – they are the evil that want to hurt you, son…’

‘Father, father, it is not them, no, it is you, O father, it is you…’