Paul Merson lambasts Arsenal for not replacing Arsene Wenger with Jose Mourinho

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Sky Sports pundit Merson has questioned whether Wenger prioritises end-of-year prof­its at Arsenal ahead of trophy success, after insisting he should have stepped down as manager long ago.

Wenger will take charge of his 199th Champions League game as his side take on FC Basel in Swit­zerland tonight, with a familiar scenario set to be played out when the final whistle sounds on their Group A campaign.

Arsenal have finished second in their opening group of Europe five times in the last six seasons, with their weakened seeding contrib­uting to a half a dozen successive exits at the last-16 stage of the competition.

Now Merson fears a repeat story will be played out, as he claims the lack of investment in star players is the primary reason for their annual failure.

While Wenger has splashed the cash on stars including Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in recent years, Merson believes big names like Antoine Griezmann and Karim Benzema will not come to Arsenal while Wenger is controlling the purse strings.

“What is success at Arsenal at this stage?” questions Merson, who won five major trophies during his time with the Gunners.

“It seems to me that finishing fourth in the Premier League is considered to be success and that has been the story for far too long now.

“Success in the eyes of Wenger and the Arsenal board is putting another £30m in the bank by qualifying for the Champions League every year.

“They don’t think they are going to win the competition, they just want to be in it to make sure the cash rolls in.

“I don’t know what they are trying to do. They have all this money in the bank and we go through every transfer window being told by the manager that there is no one to buy.

“They could have bought Antoine Griezmann last summer. After all, everyone has a price.

“Okay, Atletico Madrid might say publicly that he is not for sale but Ar­senal have more than £100m in reserves in the bank, so go and put an offer in that will make them sell him.

“If they started signing top players, proper world-class stars, people would take Arsenal seriously again but that respect is not there at the moment.

“They play nice pretty football and are great to watch, but they are not a threat to the top teams in England, so it’s easy to for every football fan to turn around and say; ‘Arsenal play some great stuff, they are lovely to watch’.

“It’s not good enough. There are 60,000 people paying big money to watch that team play at Emirates Stadium every other week and most of them are paying around £70 to be there.

“Taking everything into account, they should be bringing in better quality players than they are but it’s just not happening.”

Merson’s frustration seeps through with his every word and his annoyance is shared by an increasing number of Arsenal fans, who remain unconvinced that Wenger’s current team is ready join win major trophies.

Merson is in no doubt who should be blamed for their continual failure to reach the top plinth – Wenger.

“His contract is up at the end of the season and I thought the idea was that it might be time for him to step aside,” says Merson, as he opened up on the Arsenal boss he worked under in his final year at the club.

“Then I saw him on TV the other day saying he wanted to give Jack Wilshere a new contract next summer when his loan at Bournemouth ends.

“Well, if he is talking about giving players new contracts, it is pretty clear that he is intending to hang around. In my opinion, Wenger will still be at Arsenal when the DFS furniture sale ends – and that has been going on for as long as I can remember!

“I think they will give him a new contract and I see him being there for many more years. He will decide when he wants to go and, let’s be honest, who is there to go for now?

“For me, he should have turned around many years ago and said the time was right to step aside. Maybe when he won one of the two FA Cups in 2014 or 2015.

“That was especially the case last year with all these top managers that were available at the time.

“Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Anto­nio Conte, Ronald Koeman, even Jose Mourinho…they were all available.

“He should have gone to the board and said: ‘I’ve had my time, you have to go and get one of these managers’.

“Those guys could have taken Ar­senal to another step as they are all world-class managers, and the fact that they have not been sacked too often between all of them confirms that.

“If Wenger was to go now, who could they go for? There are not too many top managers about any more.

“That means he will probably stay on and sign another contract and this same story will go on and on and on.”

Arsenal may be faced with anoth­er battle against Barcelona’s pass masters if they finish second behind Paris Saint-Germain in their latest Champions League group, with the French champions needing to beat Ludogorets to ensure that scenario.

With a clutch of less-threat­ening teams in the mix to finish in top spot in this year’s group stages, Arsenal may yet get a chance to end their annual last-16 demise, but can anyone visualise Wenger lifting the famous old trophy above his head after the final next May?

Wenger’s formula in the Cham­pions League is tried and tested and while gallant failures against Europe’s genuine contenders litter his history, the prize all Arsenal fans have craved for so long looks destined to remain absent from his record.

Don’t expect that story to change in 2017.