It would be a nice tribute to him, he brought your club to another level with those title wins, and gave you a footballing identity. I can't ever see Arsenal playing in a different style, although that could happen depending on who you get.
I do think what happens in the Champion's League could be key to his future. Bayern are not quite the force they were, although they're still good obvioulsy. But should you win that, maybe it will re-energise you, but if you go out then the writing could be on the wall.
Either way it will be interesting to see how the season goes. I'm envious of your being in the CL though, I have missed this more than anything. I think when you're in it year in year out you take it for granted. Once you no longer qualify for it on a regular basis, there is something missing. Which is why we need to get back into it, as soon as possible.
At the moment we've had the exact same season five years in a row, with the outlier being the FA Cups, something I don't think Wenger gets enough credit for - beating some good sides on the way. The frustration is that the team seems to contrive to throw it away, despite getting in a good position for the new year. Wenger's a great man and manager, however it's hard to understand how his record is so poor against top sides at the moment. For the Chelsea game I predicted 3-1 and that's exactly what happened. The Watford game was exactly when pressure needs to be maintained, and unfortunately the club has plenty of difficult fixtures coming up in February with a side which has been misfiring for months. The frustrating thing is that there are so many good players in the side.
There is some truth to the fact that it is the unpredictability which is the opiate of many fans, and the fact you may come first or crash in to 7th leads to all these different permeations of where the side may end up. Perhaps Arsenal fans have become so jaded as many don't believe in this unpredictability, the side will flatter to deceive in many games but seemingly not produce when it matters. I don't see being a fan of the club as being militantly behind everything the club, manager, or players do; but fans are kidding themselves if they think Wenger's departure will suddenly change the success on the pitch overnight.
They once asked Wenger what he'd do after retirement.
"I'll buy a season, get a red and white scarf, and go to the game on Saturday hoping arsenal win".
If he didn't love Arsenal he would have walked when all the big teams in Europe wanted him, when the bank refused to give us a loan until they see his contract extension, when he sacrificed trophies elsewhere to stay with us, sell our best players and keep us in the top 4.
Only those who really know how he changed arsenal and the odds he always worked against will appreciate what he's done. For the rest, he's holding us back.
He has to leave though, only then will fans start asking the right questions.
I remember that quote, he loves the club, utterly. Unfortunately he is on a precipice at this point, he did the un-glamorous stuff for the club, took part in the stadium project and had to be the "face" of the club, when we were losing our best player every summer, saying it will be all right in the end. Sadly few people understand the problems Wenger has had since he first agreed to shepherding that project forward, two sugar-daddy clubs arriving in the league who dominated after spending a billion each, and it became a fight for third or better. The "promised land" fans were building towards ended up as uncertainty, and a need to buck the odds.
I believe he'll go by the end of the season, he needs to leave as the statesman, with top 4 secured, potentially a cup and a decent run in the CL (he did qualify top of the group, after all). He needs to leave as a statesman of the club after 20 years, of which 10 of them must have been like jogging uphill, costing him his marriage, and many of the fans. I absolutely don't want the groundswell to turn on him until he's hounded out next season, or the season after.
