Arsenal: Arsene Wenger Further Alienates Gunners Supporters

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has managed to further alienate the Gunners supporters with his recent comments.

With yet another exit in the Champions League round of 16 looming for Arsenal and just days after being dumped unceremoniously from the FA Cup by Watford, Gunners supporters are not a happy bunch. The calls of #WengerOut have returned and the man on the hot seat has caused more anger among his critics.

Wenger spoke ahead of the second leg against Barcelona in the Camp Nou about his place at the club and his motivation. He wasted little time in patting himself on the back for making the club what it is today since he took over in 1996.

The manager said, as quoted by The Metro:

"“I built the club with hard work, without any external resources and, if you compare where we are today to when I arrived, we have moved forward and without any money from anybody, just the money we produced from the work.I am even more motivated from the first day I arrived and feel more the pressure and the responsibility to keep moving this club forward.”"

Understandably this set off quite the reaction from Arsenal fans on social media. They are already an active bunch but the claims from Wenger that he is the one that “built the club” was too much for them to take.

They began calling his sanity in to question and were offended by the fact that he could say such things about a club that has been around for more than a century. Accusations of arrogance were also thrown Wenger’s way by older supporters who could easily recall the club before Wenger arrived 20 years ago.

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To be fair to Wenger, he has done some tremendous things in the English game. He was a revolutionary figure and forced the English game to catch up to modern times. His focus on diet and nutrition was unheard of in England and was quickly copied by all the top clubs and has since become the norm.

He has achieved a great deal in his time at the club and has added several trophies, especially in his early days, but it is foolish to suggest that he built the club “without any external resources”. Arsenal was one of the most successful clubs in England before his arrival, having won dozens of trophies since it was founded in 1886.

In total, the club won 10 First Division/Premier League titles, 6 FA Cups, two League Cups, a European Cup Winners’ Cup, and several other domestic honors. Wenger added another three league titles and six FA Cups but aside from The Invincibles season it was nothing that Arsenal fans have not seen before.

Many have accused Arsene Wenger of being arrogant including his critics and supporters. They say that his unwillingness to adjust his tactics to a situation signifies that as does his unwillingness to purchase players to fit true positions of need.