Piers Morgan has seen enough.
The television journalist and famous Arsenal fan wants Arsene Wenger to immediately step down as Arsenal manager in order to salvage something from the 2012-13 season.
Morgan told BBC Radio 5 Live that the club is headed in the wrong direction and he called on fans to help pressure Wenger into leaving.
“Arsene Wenger was for eight years the greatest manager that Arsenal’s had,” Morgan said. “He brought an unbelievable array of trophies, he played magnificent football. But for the last eight years he’s won nothing, and the club is going backwards.
“I’m afraid that the Arsenal fans, who persist in looking at Wenger through these old rose-tinted spectacles as if somehow he’s the manager of eight years ago, are living in cloud cuckoo land.”
Arsenal currently sits fifth in the Premier League, trailing leader Manchester United by 21 points with 12 games remaining. Winning the league is a near impossibility, and the Gunners have been knocked out of both the FA Cup and League Cup. Barring a miracle comeback against Bayern Munich, Arsenal will exit the UEFA Champions League in the Round of 16, which will make for an eighth consecutive trophy-less season.
Like most Arsenal fans, Morgan’s most pressing concern is where the Gunners will finish in the Premier League. They currently trail fourth-place Tottenham by four points and third-place Chelsea by five. Yet, Morgan believes Arsenal will finish outside of the top four and miss out on next season’s Champions League — something he thinks would have grave implications for the club’s future.
“My opinion is Arsene Wenger should resign, and he should do it now so that we have a chance at reinvigorating the team and we could come fourth and qualify for the Champions League,” he continued. “Because if we don’t, then we are not going to be able to sign any top-class players over the summer, it is as simple as that.
“This is the reality moment for Arsenal fans. Do they have confidence that Arsene Wenger is going to get us that last Champions League place with this team playing the way they are, or do they share my view that he’s run his course?”
Wenger has managed Arsenal since 1996, making him the longest-serving manager in the club’s 127-year history. He’s thought of as an omnipotent figure at the club who will only leave when he decides that it’s time to do so. Â He reportedly has the full backing of the club’s board of directors, so Morgan concluded his with a plea for Arsenal fans to rise up and demand a change.
“So we’re in a situation which has to have dramatic change. We have a number of options in terms of potential managers or ownership, but it will have to be driven by Arsenal fans, and I appeal to them: Stop looking at Wenger through these romantic nostalgic glasses.”
The host of CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight is a frustrated fan who has reached a tipping point. It’s clear that there are deep divisions within the club’s fan base over Wenger, but it remains to be seen how many will heed Morgan’s rallying cry and join the anti-Wenger brigade.
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Photo via Facebook/Piers Morgan Tonight
