Has Arsene Wenger tarnished his own legacy?

Arsene Wenger has now been in charge of Arsenal for 19 years, and its fair to say he has been very successful in his time at the club.

Winning the Premier League three times and the FA Cups six times makes him the most successful manager in the clubs history. In fact, Arsene Wenger would still have the best win ratio as Arsenal manager even if he lost the next 100 games consecutively.

Despite all of his success in his early years as Gunners boss, it is quite clear that many Arsenal fans are becoming frustrated with the lack of ability to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City in the Premier League. Many of these fans are now suggesting it is down to the manager Arsene Wenger, rather than the quality of the squad.

It has been 11 years since Arsenal last lifted the Premier League trophy, and being such a massive club is this acceptable?

Their best opportunity to win the Premier League came in the 2013/2014 season, which in the end was won by Manchester City. Arsenal spent 128 days at the top of the table, more than any other club that season. They had a fantastic start to the season with Oliver Giroud getting amongst the goals, however it was clear Arsenal desperately needed a striker. Arsene Wenger had the opportunity to sign a striker in January to help give Giroud the back up required to seal the title. Inevitably he didn’t sign a striker, instead he signed Kim Kallstrom, a 31 year old defensive midfielder. Arsenal then went on to suffer huge defeats to the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea away from home, which eventually resulted in a fourth place finish.

That season Wenger missed an unbelievably good opportunity to win the league. Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea all had managerial changes at the start of that season, so surely that was the perfect opportunity for Arsene Wenger to take advantage of all the changes that had occurred, and go all out for the league title. Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, that isn’t the Arsene Wenger way. He refuses to take gambles on big money signings that could be the difference in winning the league. For example, Arsenal had the opportunity to sign Anthony Martial from Monaco, instead title rivals Manchester United met the asking price and got their man. Of course the transfer fee was over priced, but by the looks of it, he could be worth every penny.