I have a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger. It's no exaggeration to say he revolutionized the English game when he arrived at Arsenal in the mid 90s. His teams, especially the Invincibles of 03-04, could utterly dominate matches, and mixed silky-smooth skills with iron will and strength. The likes of Henry, Bergkamp, and Vieira will be remembered in footballing history as titans. What's more, Wenger had a knack for finding relatively unknown young talent, and developing them into world-class players.
But the rest of the league caught up. Arsenal's style of play was unique in the early 2000s, but by the turn of the decade most other teams were playing that way too. Plus, Arsenal weren't spending as much as the other rich teams in the league, which meant they weren't bringing in the best players, and had to bank on Wenger's ability to develop young talent. Sure, that worked fine a few years ago, but again, the rest of the league caught up. Arsene Wenger's ability to find and develop young players was no longer unique, other teams had great youth setups too, and were also churning out great young talent.
So now we come to Arsenal today. Their squad has few world-class players, because Arsenal have been out-bought and out-developed by other teams. Wenger's tactics and playstyle, seen as so innovative 15 years ago, are now commonplace and easily countered, and Wenger doesn't seem to have any tricks up his sleeve to fix the slump. The players appear demoralized and unmotivated, the fans are split about what should be done, and the team's owners seem content to have the club languish where they are now.
We are almost certainly seeing the end of Wenger's reign at Arsenal. Maybe this season will be his last, maybe next season, it's hard to be sure, but it's increasingly clear that he just doesn't have it any more. And that's hard for me to say, because I remember the awesome Arsenal of decades past, and I don't want him to go out on a low note like this.
Plus, I can't think of any managers who would be obviously better than Arsene Wenger and who would be willing to take over at Arsenal.