Arsenal embark on a more flexible era with Arsene Wenger finally gone… but Unai Emery will never match his 22-year feat

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Arsenal embark on a more flexible era with Arsene Wenger finally gone… but Unai Emery will never match his 22-year feat

NO more fly-pasts, no more banners, no more protests.

Arsene Wenger has finally left the building and Arsenal will kick off the season with a new manager for the first time since 1996.

Arsenal go into a season without Arsene Wenger for the first time in 22 yearsEPA

Manchester City had just been relegated to the second tier and Aston Villa were looking forward to European football when Wenger arrived at Highbury.

Wimbledon, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and Derby were among the Frenchman’s first Premier League opponents as he set about transforming English football.

For 22 years Wenger was granted total authority by Arsenal’s hierarchy, running the club from top to bottom and refusing to relinquish any control, even when his team were no longer vying for the elite honours.

But now he has reluctantly been manoeuvred through the exit by Ivan Gazidis’ infamous ‘catalyst for change’.

Unai Emery is the man to replace Arsene Wenger at the Arsenal helmGetty

No manager will match the achievements of Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson by surviving more than two decades in the same job.

What is also becoming apparent is that Europe’s top clubs will never again concede so much power to one man.

Wenger, 68, became so set in his ways he found it almost impossible to share responsibilities with a head of recruitment or a head of football relations.

He couldn’t get his head round the idea that it would be Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi calling the shots outside the training ground.

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And it was this inability to adapt to the new Emirates order which ultimately led to his departure at the end of last season.

This summer’s deals for Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Bernd Leno were all in place before Unai Emery was appointed as manager.

And the Spaniard has already shown a much more flexible attitude to his duties than his predecessor.

Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Chelsea have all appointed new bosses since Wenger announced in April that he would be leaving.

Not long ago, all four of those European superpowers would have been desperate to have Wenger in charge.

Arsene Wenger must realise it is time to call it a day for managementREUTERS

But he is no longer seen as an option by the clubs with serious Euro ambitions.

And the possibility of a move into international management ended when Didier Deschamps led France to World Cup glory.

The closest Wenger got to his country’s triumph was a VIP seat for the final in Moscow.

The previous week a ‘Wenger Out’ banner was spotted in the crowd at England’s quarter-final win against Sweden in Samara.

It seems some people are still not ready to let it go.

But after three months waiting for his phone to ring, maybe Wenger must accept that it’s time to call it a day.

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