Arsenal should be as ruthless as Arsene Wenger once was and bring in ‘new blood’, says former player Glenn Hoddle

Time to go | Arsenal need to move on from Wenger, says Hoddle
PA Wire/PA Images
James Benge4 March 2018

Glenn Hoddle has challenged the Arsenal board to show the ruthlessness that Arsene Wenger has operated with during his managerial career, and move on from the Gunners boss.

After more than 21 years at Arsenal, Wenger’s future is coming under scrutiny like never before with his side 30 points off the pace at the top of the Premier League.

Arsenal look highly unlikely to claim a top-four finish and winning the Europa League is their last remaining hope of both silverware and qualification for the Champions League.

Wenger has said he wants to see out a contract that expires at the end of next season but admitted the decision may be out of his hands when he termed himself an “employee” earlier this week.

​Hoddle played under Wenger at Monaco between 1987 and 1991, when the then-33-year-old’s contract was allowed to expire despite an excellent first two seasons in France.

And the former Tottenham and England manager believes Arsenal should see that Wenger’s powers have peaked and do just what the Frenchman did with the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira: moving them on and reinvigorating the club with new blood.

"I hope someone can deliver the message he himself has had to give to so many wonderful players down the years,” Hoddle wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

He added: “The only way I think you could put it to Arsene is to remind him how he treated great players like Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.

“When the time came, he wasn’t afraid to drop them or sell them. Think what they had achieved for the club and what wonderful players they were. Yet when it came to it, Arsene was willing to sell Patrick to Juventus because he thought his time was up.

“He used Dennis sparingly, keeping him hanging on yearly deals on the basis that he wasn’t a long-term prospect. Nor is Arsene now. Like a player in the winter of his career, he looks a shadow of himself.”

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Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, the second time the Gunners had lost by that scoreline to that opponent in the space of a week, only added to the sense of crisis engulfing the Emirates Stadium ahead of Sunday’s trip to Brighton.

Wenger cut a frustrated figure on the touchline, a far cry from the energetic young coach Hoddle knew at Monaco.

“He looked tired and defeated, a long way from the young man I remember at Monaco, full of energy, ideas and passion,” he wrote. “It was like watching a slow death of a reputation.

“He was only 38 when I joined Monaco, just 10 years older than me. And as I was one of the senior players, on the long coach journeys or plane trips we would end up in long conversations over every aspect of life, not just football.”

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