[Twitter]

So young and with so much energy. Will always remember that guy.

thanks for the memories and much respect for not making the board fire you which they probably wouldn't have.

finally.

I think they just did. This is an elegant way of saying it for all parties.

goon wrote:

It's funny. Been waiting for this day for years and yet my first reaction is sadness.

Just seeing the news now. I'm happy, for us and for him, but there are many brands of sadness as well. Melancholy, bittersweet, a sense of loss, nostalgia...how can it be that this guy is such a huge part of my life? What a strange day.

Let's win the Europa Cup for Wenger. It's time to for everyone to move on.

Just read somewhere that reportedly Arsene has been in a relationship with his ex-wife, Annie, for a while now and that she played a big part in convincing him it was time.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Just read somewhere that reportedly Arsene has been in a relationship with his ex-wife, Annie, for a while now and that she played a big part in convincing him it was time.

Buy that fuckin woman a new car!

You still that announcing his departure and letting him stay is the wrong move?

The Plug called this during Christmas, starting to believe that he knows a couple of things.

I'm filled with feelings of hope and sadness, but it all seems so surreal. So many false dawns, times when I thought it was the right time, he would go, things would move on and change, and now that it's been announced I find it all a bit strange.

It's lovely reading all the tributes and nice words about the man though.

I can understand why one would feel melancholic and sad about him finally leaving but at the same time it's not just the best for Arsenal Football Club but for himself as well. He's not up to it any longer and will spare himself a lot of grief by not being on the sidelines anymore

Funny how many inactive posters have already come in today. We should celebrate this day by doing amnesties to those who've been banned like when a new king is crowned

It's a sad day because such an influential and constant part of Arsenal and my life has is drawing to a close which is always sad it marks the end of a chapter and link to my youth, a sign that things move on and all things end. But it is the right thing for the club in order to move forward this had to happen it also removes an easy shield from the board and the players. No hiding behind Wenger there is finally some accountability coming to the club.

jones wrote:

We should celebrate this day by doing amnesties to those who've been banned like when a new king is crowned

Can you imagine how happy Biggus is. 😆

Think posts here show that straight out celebration isn't the mood across the board.

Personally I'm relieved that he made the decision as the atmosphere around the club was rotting but I'm highly sceptical about what comes next given the owner and the board.

A good decision, he deserves a massive sendoff now. Think this could only bode well for our chances in the Europa League.

i certainly dont think it will hurt our chances.. could mean that the players are more determined to win it than ever to send him off a european champion

Finally left the office. I’m off to drink. Pray I don’t poison myself from celebratory over-indulgence

Best news ever. Thanks for the early success Arsene.

No sadness from me. I've missed so many games this season, and that would only have increased next season, with AW still here. It will be strange with someone else on the touchline though, and maybe only then will it sink in.

I am confident we will win the Europa now.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Just read somewhere that reportedly Arsene has been in a relationship with his ex-wife, Annie, for a while now and that she played a big part in convincing him it was time.

I was told a few months ago that although they separated, Wenger bought the house next door for her and they would still eat dinner together every night. Would like to hear that they’re back together, would surely make retirement easier.

awooga83 wrote:

It's a sad day because such an influential and constant part of Arsenal and my life has is drawing to a close which is always sad it marks the end of a chapter and link to my youth, a sign that things move on and all things end. But it is the right thing for the club in order to move forward this had to happen it also removes an easy shield from the board and the players. No hiding behind Wenger there is finally some accountability coming to the club.

Lovely post, completely agree with all of it.

Arsene has been a constant figure in all of our lives, I’ll be sad to see the end of that. Excited to see what kind of response he gets on Sunday.

The photo bottom left of Theo’s tweet has got me.

Wenger looks jaded, and it’s a reminder of how quickly our time here goes

Sabrina the teenage witch turned 42 this week.

Feeling old

Trust Theo to remind us of the deeply personal and human side to this, and to highlight again what a decent, humane man Wenger is, in a business poisoned by disgusting amounts of money

Jeez, Sky are essentially holding a wake for the Weng just to boost their ratings

Thank you Arsene, for everything.

One thing I always thought Arsène would eventually do but ultimately won’t is to revert back to the Invincibles blueprint of physical players with real hunger

I feel like I'll have a lot of things to say about this over time, but for now—thank goodness.

I'm glad he'll get to go off with a little grace, a sacking would have been unbearable.

Big Willie wrote:

[Twitter]

So young and with so much energy. Will always remember that guy.

Wenger's not looking bad either.

Didn't really care about the Europa before this but I want us to win it so bad now. So bad.

y va marquer wrote:

Jeez, Sky are essentially holding a wake for the Weng just to boost their ratings

I know you weren't in favor of the whole 'fitting send off' idea, and you raised some salient points to that end. Does this still feel off to you now that it's a reality?

Gazza M wrote:
y va marquer wrote:

Jeez, Sky are essentially holding a wake for the Weng just to boost their ratings

I know you weren't in favor of the whole 'fitting send off' idea, and you raised some salient points to that end. Does this still feel off to you now that it's a reality?

Now that it's a reality I'll just deal with it.
Our discussions revolved around the club making the decision to essentially sack him before the end of the season , now it seems that it was Wenger who made the leap to avoid the inevitable sacking in May.

If he's ok with the "send-off" scenario and playing out the rest of our games to fans buoyed up by his certain departure then good luck to him.

It was absolutely the right decision by everyone.

I had said, and quite a few others, that Wenger leaving was completely logical at this point. You literally could not come up with a scenario with Wenger managing next season, unless you were 100% biased toward Wenger.

For Raul, Sven and Gazidis, they would have already been planning ahead, looking at the state of the club, potential targets, further back room additions etc. You cannot effective do all of this without taking into account who will,be the manager/head coach next season. We are currently fighting with Burnley for 6 and 7th spot. We have huge playing style and contractual issues. To make the decision that Wenger be allowed to stay next year, would be in effect, to simply throw away next year completely and allow the club to further drift.

That is not to say that the new style management team will do better next season, but to allow things to carry on as they were would have negligent to put it mildly, and for most people downright incompetent.

This decision should have been years ago, but was always put back. The farce of last year, when quite clearly he had lost majority of the fans was particularly disgraceful, especially when they shut down the contract talk at the end of the season, and then in virtually “darkness” when there were no games, and no fans to voice opinion, announced that an extension had been agreed.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew it was not just a bad decision, but a ridiculous one. Wenger had to extract a level performance, aided by a level of tactical nous and canny recruitment he had never previously shown before. This season has brutally shown us for what we are now. A team fighting for 6th and 7th spot. The argument of “a new manager will do worse” has almost vanished. Of course we could be even more of a car crash next season, but to find a manager who would take us below 7th spot with our level of resources would be some achievement 😆.

Wenger is an icon, he should be at the forefront of of minds when we think of good times, and the glory days. He did not just serve the club, he gave some of his life to club. He is the single most important man in the history of Arsenal football club, and to be honest, I cannot see anyone else ever replacing him.

He was pushed undoubtedly, but he made the correct call to announce that he was leaving and giving the fans a chance to show him their appreciation. We hated the defeats, the performance, but not the man, and that will be shown in full over the next few weeks.

He could have clung on to his position in an undignified manner until he was removed, or the club could have continued to show weakness and allow him to manage next year. Both parties made the right call, and I am really happy about that. Now let us and the team give him a send off that he remembers!

I’ve been waiting for this announcement for so long, that when it actually came, any joy I felt was overshadowed by relief and sadness. Looking out into the sunshine, my thoughts instantly drifted back almost 20 years ago in the sunshine when Adams rifled the ball home past Everton to confirm our first ever Premier League title as if it were yesterday. That season confirmed us as the next serial challengers to United having seen the likes of Blackburn and Newcastle falter previously. It was a contest we relished and didn’t back down for a decade. The losses hurt so much more then for me, and the absence of that pain in recent seasons was the emotional driver of wanting Wenger gone.

I expected him to walk away at the end of the season and only the possibility of qualifying for the Champions League again via the Europa cast any doubt on this belief. I was against the idea that the club itself should have made forced a mid-season announcement to state that Wenger would be leaving as for me it would be disrespectful having given him the 2-year deal and could also have been counterproductive in terms of results. We haven’t exactly played well in 2018, but there was still scope for things to be even worse and could even have led to a position where he left before the end of the season. Whether Arsene timed it now to avoid effectively being sacked at the end of the season is irrelevant to me, but I’m glad for him that it appears that he owns this moment. We can approach these last few games positively with every fan genuinely 100% behind the team to win – no more dark desires of wanting the team to lose as any wins might lead to him staying.

Over the last few years Wenger incited real anger in me, largely because I felt that he was partly responsible for the direction that fan rage took. Whenever reasonable doubts about his and the club’s approach were voiced, he distorted those questions by exaggerating their intentions to make them sound ridiculous to justify his stance. As a result, rather than being used as a platform to invite gradual change, exchanges became him against the world and this was a persona I could not identify with and meant reactions to exaggerations became more extreme. However, despite all that, I still respected him. His anger was borne from love of the club which we can all relate to. He genuinely thought he was still the best man for the job and who knows how any one of us would react in that position given his extraordinary gifts. I sometime wished he had the chance to manage elsewhere over the last decade to see whether he could still have the same transformative magic on another club and maybe whether a change of scenery could have given him that elusive European trophy that lesser managers have achieved. That said, he still won trophies in his “crisis” years here so perhaps we will look back one final decade with a little less vehemence and perhaps even with some modicum of pride once the dust has settled.

So thanks Arsene for so very much. The journey still has a few more steps to take so let’s all take them together with pride.

However, it is my understanding Wenger was actually closer to walking away towards the end of last season than we knew at the time. Confidants had urged him to leave on a high after the FA Cup win against Chelsea in May.

At that time, Arsenal did not have a firm plan in place to succeed him. They were not particularly well set up to start a recruitment process. Wenger knew as much and a part of him sensed - rightly or wrongly - that going then could have left them in the lurch, that he had something of an obligation to carry on and have one last crack a leading this team to success.

But things have deteriorated - on the pitch, in the stands and at a political level. Ask people what has changed and the response is "that is precisely the problem - nothing has changed to improve the situation from him".

From Ornstein.

Our board is so inept it is unbelievable

I mean, if that is true, it's ridiculous how much the board used Wenger as a shield. Hopefully they'll be fully accountable now for the direction of the club.

Whether or not that is true, the board has certainly been shielded by Wenger. He's born the brunt of the criticism but plenty should be directed elsewhere.

They've got to get the coaching decision right, otherwise things will remain sour as the veil is off.

They shoulda listened to Ivan but stuck to what Uncle Kronky wanted anyway.