Diego Forlan: Arsene Wenger should change – or quit – for the good of Arsenal’s future

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Tony O'Brien / Reuters

Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.

I understand the frustrations of Arsenal fans. No league title since 2004 is not good for a club of their stature. They’re a huge club who play in front of 60,000 every week in a brilliant city, London. They have a rich history and when I played in England there were times when they were the best team. Even some of the other Manchester United players admitted that Arsenal had a better side. Arsenal were one of the few teams against which United had to revert to more defensive tactics because we knew they had players who could seriously punish us. We had to play to our strengths and limit theirs.

Arsenal had Thierry Henry, who was probably the best striker in the world. They had Patrick Vieira, who was almost as good as Roy Keane. They had David Seaman, Emmanuel Petit, Robert Pires, Arsene Wenger — and trophies. They won the double in 2002 and didn’t lose a single league game when they won the league in 2004. They were a winning machine.

Wenger is still there. History will remember him well — as one of the greatest. Yet year after year Arsenal fail to win the title. They’ve become a club which wins FA Cups, one which reaches the last 16 in Europe every year but goes no further because Bayern Munich or Barcelona look comfortable as they knock them out.

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The one year when Arsenal did do well in Europe was 2006. I remember it well because they knocked my Villarreal team out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage.

I still shake my head at the memory, and many Arsenal fans also shake their heads when asked if Wenger is the right man to take the club forward.

Opinions are divided on him. It’s quite sad because he’s a brilliant football manger and I admire the longevity which he has enjoyed at Arsenal, but something is not working there. They can’t carry on without being serious title contenders until Wenger decides to quit.

There has to be a change in mentality at the club which must come from the manager. If not, a new manager. Change wasn’t good for Manchester United after so many years when Alex Ferguson stepped down, but it could be good for Arsenal. A new dynamic, fresh ideas, new coaches and players. Or do Arsenal stick with what they have?

When Arsenal are talked about as title contenders, people actually laugh because they can’t see it happening. They have top players who cost a lot of money. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are comfortable at the highest level. They play beautiful football. Arsenal even go top of the league until March when something happens. That something is a lack of top experience. Not enough players who’ve been there before.

Arsenal’s squad is packed with fantastic footballers, but they have a policy of buying younger players which can work against them because older players can bring the experience they’re missing. They don’t need better players, they need more experienced players. The signing of Petr Cech was excellent, but they need more like him. More leaders, more characters, more men who know how to win the league, to get their side over the line when the pressure is at its greatest because they are so driven in their obsession to win it at all costs.

I do have some sympathy for Arsenal. When they last won the league Chelsea and Manchester City were yet to become major powers. Those two blew rivals out of the water with the transfer fees they paid. That didn’t help Arsenal. They lost good players like Bacary Sagna to City. This was the club which once tempted Sol Campbell from Tottenham Hotspurs. Would that happen now? Unlikely.

Arsenal have to change. They lost Robin van Persie, exactly the type of experienced player who could have helped them win the league, because he wanted to win the league. He joined Manchester United in order to do that. He made the correct decision. He didn’t want more years of finishing third and fourth. Arsenal fans were annoyed, but that was their club’s fault for not bringing the players in around Van Persie.

Arsenal also have more local competition than before. Spurs are stronger than they have been for years and are about to move to a new stadium which will have a capacity slightly larger than Arsenal’s. West Ham are playing in a bigger stadium. Chelsea are rebuilding Stamford Bridge. They’re getting stronger, but Arsenal – a club known all around the world – are standing still.

I’m not getting carried away. Arsenal are second in a very tough league. They finished second last season, too, yet their home defeat to Watford this week really didn’t surprise me. It’s a typical Arsenal result at the point when they were the closest team to Chelsea.

Football is about glory and dreams. No fan of a big club starts the season hoping that they will finish third, but Arsenal remain a team who regularly do so, a team which climbs the mountain well but struggles to reach the peak. They should be better than that.