Can Arsenal Put Bayern Munich Misery Behind Them?

The way people perceive football clubs and their fortunes is primarily down to results. Win games and everything in the garden is rosy; lose them and it’s easy to see problems in any direction you look.

At the moment Arsenal are in a situation where the garden looks far from rosy, and if there was a single word to describe what’s going on, you might plump for “uncertainty.”

There’s the issue of Arsene Wenger and his future. His contract expires in June. The club have offered a two-year extension, but as of yet it hasn’t been signed. Never before has he been quite so under the microscope as he is right now.

Every defeat or poor performance adds fuel to the fire of those who wish to see change, and the Frenchman is smart enough to know that his desire to stay can only be achieved with good results between now and the end of the season.

There’s still the FA Cup to play for, but unless his team can pull off big results in upcoming games against Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham, as well maintaining a top-four finish at least, then the pressure may be too great and his time might come to an end.

The consequences of a manager of that stature and influence leaving a club are wide-reaching. Arsenal will have to do a lot more than simply find a new head coach; there are structures that need to be put in place to future proof the football club.

Add to that the contractual situations of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, the two star players. They’re both heading toward the final year of their current deals, and with 12 months to go there’s usually a big decision to be made.

If a player won’t commit, then they have consider selling them. Sanchez, even with just a year left on his contract, is a player worth tens of millions of pounds — money that could be used to find a replacement. Ozil, too, would command a substantial fee, money that should be invested back into the team.

Even with the increased television revenues, Arsenal couldn’t afford to let two assets of that value leave for free if they held onto them for the duration of their contracts.

They’re not alone, however, as decisions also have to be made about the futures of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Wojciech Szczesny and Kieran Gibbs, who are in the same position of having just 12 months left on their contracts come June. Is the uncertainty over Wenger’s future playing a part here?

Then, on Monday, it was revealed that the academy manager, Dutchman Andries Jonker, had quit the club to become the new manager of Bundesliga side Wolfsburg. As well as that, he was bringing Freddie Ljungberg, coach of the Arsenal U15s, with him as one of his assistant coaches.

That leaves a significant gap at youth level to be filled. There have been stories linking the Gunners with Barcelona’s Pep Segura, or they may look to make an appointment from within, but these latest developments simply add to the feelings of precariousness about the future.

From the very top with Wenger, through to the star players and now the youth system, there are major questions that need to be addressed, and it’s hard to know exactly where these answers are going to come from.

So much depends what happens on the pitch. If Arsenal win games, it seems inevitable that Wenger will stay on and decisions that have to be made can be addressed relatively easily.

If they perform badly and the pressure on him grows too great, then some of that will be left to the new man — as and when he’s appointed — and issues may go unaddressed for longer than they should.

Whether this transmits itself to the team remains to be seen, but with their next two games away at Anfield and then at home to Bayern Munich, there’s some hard work ahead to regain a perception of stability.